Are you also being downvoted by the 15 SP Steemit Doofus League accounts? Check This Out!

in #abuse6 years ago

steemitdoofusleague.jpg

The Steemit Defence Doofus League has been downvoting a lot of people with a squad of @steem delegated flag accounts. (15 SP each)


I decided to follow the trail of breadcrumbs so to speak, figure out why the hell I was being downvoted, and use a bit of Python + voting power to counter them.

The accounts involved are as follows:

Python List version

accounts = ['a-cmsidl','trollshunter','a-alphasteem','a-steemdefleague','camillesteemer','azobifly','ilikesteemit','besttopsteemer','aloader','astipmonkey','steemittopfan','mybestnews']

@a-cmsidl, @trollshunter, @a-alphasteem, @a-steemdefleague, @camillesteemer, @azobifly, @ilikesteemit, @besttopsteemer, @aloader , @astipmonkey, @steemittopfan, and @mybestnews

Let's see what one of their accounts is about:

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When you follow the link to their document

https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmahGFVycNyYzd5ZaNJBEUAQvziqHzAKBwUkGqvXrvyAau

WARNING: Everyone helping them by any way (upvoting, commenting, abuse flagging,etc...) will be blacklisted & flagged.

This group started going people that had supported @abusereports.

I tried to reason with them on their @mybestnews account here, found a spam comment by said account, flagged it for some SWEET @steemflagrewards (shameless plug, I guess), and then looks like I made the big letter list.

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Achievement Unlocked!

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I made the SDL Hall of Shame. My mother would be proud. 😛

What's the game plan? I'm glad you asked!

  • Step 1: Pull all downvotes on the associated accounts with custom function.

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  • Step 2: Filter out posts not within the 12 hour Upvote Lockout ( >12 hours to Cashout)

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  • Step 3: Execute function to match downvote weight on those posts (Kudos to @holger80 for Beem!) plus a random bonus upvote. The accounts will also resteem this post and leave one comment per user that is on the Doofus League downvote list.

Get Ready for some SDL Counter Votes!

This will be the pilot run so feel free to leave some feedback. Thanks!

Qbert Image Source

Thanks to @overkillcoin for helping spruce up my ServBot Photoshop!

Sort:  

Am grateful for your countervote. I wondered why my posts were downvoted

Thank you so much for your balancing vote! Their votes are worth so little, I concluded they must be trying to bully people off the platform, make them feel targeted so they stop posting. It seems so sad that a feature that is supposed to stop spammers and abuse is being used to be them try and hound actually content creators off the platform.

There is something very police state about saying if you step out of line, I will also target everyone you know. Your punishment will be inflicted on those around you, so even if you are too big for the flag to mean anything, the smaller users who upvote you are going to be targeted. I am so glad something is being done to balance the flags.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help! And thank you so much <3

I'm having this problem as of know where these trolls down vote my posts when I've done nothing wrong, thank Pete for these bots

Yes, yes, yes to the bullying bit! That is exactly how I've been feeling since somehow becoming a target of the spambots. I spend time writing posts which I believe are enjoyable to read, then find that the vast majority of the votes are downvotes by spambots. As a new steemit user, I've definitely considered just not using the platform.

One of the things I really enjoy about steemit is the relative lack of trolling in the comments, but the spambots are definitely on the verge of winning this round. I appreciate everything being done to counter them and truly hope there is a long term solution of some sort in the works.

Nice to see someone doing something about it. Tried getting a reply from Steemit Inc. about their SP being used for flag abuse but they either didn't see my messages on Steem and Twitter or they just didn't care at all. If your bot needs more SP, just tell me and I'll gladly delegate some, it's already mostly used on autovotes anyway due to my exams starting in less than a week.

By the way, here is a little suggestion to improve the bot. I think it should wait until something like 30 minutes before upvoting is not allowed anymore to upvote the flagged content. It's just to make sure that power isn't wasted on voting multiple times for the same content. Like let's say one of these flag bots flags a post, your bot will automatically upvote it. The problem is that if another bot later flags the same post, your bot will upvote it once again, resulting in voting power being lost. If it waits for something like 30 minutes before it can't vote, it could calculate the combined vote weight to be applied. Maybe it already does that, my bad if that's the case.

Anyway, thanks for making this, it is greatly appreciated !

Unfortunately, the posts get locked out for upvotes within the last 12 hours prior to cashout but is not the case with flags. I could try to tune it to wait and hit the posts immediately prior to lockout to at least minimize adjustments during the upvote window.

That will require more intensive accounting but I like a good challenge. For now, just going to let it run through the list of active posts I had with best effort votes.

I'll make some improvements for the next round. Think we have a good start. Camille is gonna be pissed. Lol

Thanks for the comment and thoughtful feedback!

i find it really sad that noone (who can do something about it) seems to care that this massive amount of vote manipulation, abuse and witchhunting takes place. if you cant flag an account it it hasnt posted naything but the account itself is able to flag without a limit the system is flawed.

Well to be fair, these accounts cannot flag limitlessly due to their massive amount of flags draining their voting power away (which is in part why their flags are so meaningless). I don't really see how we could have a system that allows to flag users that have no content. Maybe we could try to have some sort of flagging that effects the voting power of the flagged user but this would probably get abused easily. The big problem in the scenario we are witnessing right now comes from Steemit Inc. and nothing else. It kinda shocks me to see how easy it is to go through their account creation system with throwaway emails and phone numbers, especially when we know how long it takes to get verified. What's happening during that verification process if it's not spent verifying that the user is legit. What is even more frustrating is that this could be easily stopped by Steemit Inc. by simply undelegating the Steem Power delegated to these bot accounts, this would effectively make them useless since they couldn't interact with the blockchain. But since Steemit Inc. doesn't seem to care...

When i woke up today i was really happy when i saw your upvote on one of my posts. its really annoying when up to 10 accounts flag spam you everyday and i dont even know why i was targeted by them.

i used steemit the same way i did for months now. author a posts once a day and upvote authors i follow. nothing else. out of the blue i was flag-attacked by them and even made it to the big letter list.

im just so curious as to why i was selected....

anyway keep up the good work. if i can help you in any way let me know

I am also having this problem, I don't know what caused them to target me either

Ditto. It's very frustrating. It makes me wonder if it's like a virus. Did I get the bot's attention by commenting on something they had already downvoted?

You can add strumo and foodstreem to the list of his accounts.

Thank you for the counter vote! I think they're just doing this out of spite.

ants attacking elephants :D

Looks like their peak damage is somewhere around a couple cents on one of @abusereport's post. lol

It is annoying that they downvote our supporters, though.

yup, they are being total douches and is annoying.....let's get together with people with actual money and counter attack
a crew of us is ready to roll
squad.gif

You may notice upvotes from a couple of accounts periodically. That's what I've done so far.

To new plankton users, I would imagine those downvotes could be cery frustrating even if they are miniscule. It's just bullshit to downvote another person based on what they choose to upvote bottom line. Hope my bots will help offset that.

The bots upvote posts / comments that have been hit to counter the downvote wih a random bonus. Check it out here and also in the comments if you have a chance. Rewards will be used to power them up.

https://steemit.com/abuse/@neutralizer/sdl-botnet-downvote-neutralizer-report-2018-07-03

Yes, frustrating is a good word for it. Disheartening is another good one. As a member of the plankton class, I feel so lost in even trying to figure out why I'm being downvoted. I also don't know my way around steemit, so trying to take advantage of these awesome upvoting bots still is very perplexing. Whether I figure it out or not, thank you for doing what you are doing to negate the situation.

please keep in touch with me on discord

YOU JUST GOT UPVOTED

Congratulations,
you just received a 38.04% upvote from @steemhq - Community Bot!

Wanna join and receive free upvotes yourself?
Vote for steemhq.witness on Steemit or directly on SteemConnect and join the Community Witness.

This service was brought to you by SteemHQ.com

Has anyone asked @steem to stop their delegation to these accounts? These are mass downvotes that could be considered block-chain spam. Is @steem encouraging spam through delegations? They can remove delegations at any time they choose, why not cut the problem off at the source and make the votes only worth the vested sp in those accounts... Let's see your 0.1 SP flags

They talked about "de-delegating" accounts in their new update post, those accounts will soon get their delegations removed. With 0.1 Steem I don't believe they will even be able to interact with the blockchain, therefore they won't be able to flag ! :D

Thanks for your counter vote, I got a down vote by that troll shutter account

Anthony!
Another #teamgood member here, ready to ROLL!
LMK what I can do to help, I'm stretched pretty thin
but I keep doing what I can ;)