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If you feel it's true that HiveWatchers downvoting crew is not good for Hive, then it's easy to end their funding. All people have to do is vote with their wallets and break up the monopoly.

3 easy steps:

Vote with your Wallet 😃

  1. Who has access to Steemcleaners?

It's used by members of the HW for personal reasons. What they can't get you via their so-called "scope", they use that instead.

I'm still looking for the confirmation that adm is part of the Hivewatchers arsenal. For the minute, you'll just have to take my word for it.

@adm belongs to @abit. He feels he could trust HW to use it however they want when it comes to downvotes.

I'm sure (about three years ago) I saw in the HW Discord channel hw-helper saying they had control of abm and it was used for arbitrary DVs.

I have no idea if Discord keeps a history, and I have no desire to return to the HW channel. It's full of bullys, wannabes and suck-ups. That's another problem. It would seem more than one person has access to the HW-Helper account. One day you'll speak to a perfectly sane and rational individual, and the next day, there will be this psychotic nutjob ranting and raving. I literally had in the course of one day in the morning, "Thanks for your help..." and then in the afternoon, "STOP TALKING TO PEOPLE! WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS DEFENDING WOMEN!!" like WTF? I'll defend anyone being bullied by a bunch of thugs.

They have the posting key.

I'm banned there, so it doesn't matter. And I wouldn't be surprised if more than one person use that Discord handle. Nor would I be surprised a psychotic person mans that account. Mental illness seems common coming out of the pandemic lockdowns.

Thank you for posting this. I am always wary of those claiming to be the policing body on "censor proof" platforms.

I refuse to downvote anyone anymore. It creates enemies I don't need. Those screaming "protect the block-chain!" were always the ones doing the most damage to it.

TBH, that was my first mental response to the two individuals who did a copycat DV. I thought, "Right! I'll have you! My account is bigger than yours. I'll put you on an auto DV", And then I realised what an utter piece of scum that would make me. Do a DV out of pure spite.

I'd have more respect if some folk were more honest. It's not about "Protecting the blockchain"; it's about money, pure and simple.

I agree.

I agree with all of what you said except for one thing. Not everyone joined for the rewards. I'm living proof of that. I joined cause I want to say what I want and not be deleted. I dont understand the rewards and could care less if I get them. There is a small group of people here that dont care about the rewards either. They may care about being seen or their ability to be heard because of down votes drowning them. But they are not here for the rewards. There is a difference.

Every statement has its floors. 🙂

Yes, a few individuals probably feel that way, but I would argue they are Very much in the minority.

See! You're a minority. You should be able to get a grant for that! 🤣

I knew it, I always knew I was a minority!
ROFL!
I could really use that grant, too.

Thank you.

Yes Hive is flawed, but it's also better than a lot of the alternatives.

Yes people do come for the money, but it can be fun too. New things are being built here as the platform makes it easy. As I have said before, most people would not earn anything elsewhere online.

Yes HW can be a pain, but they will discuss issues. You may not have been the target. See their comment saying CG is not on the blacklist. Of course others with stake may think otherwise. That's an element of freedom.

I don't know who controls Steemcleaners, but I get some upvotes, as do others. It may follow trails rather than be directly controlled by people who vote for my stuff. It is powering down and has low DV power.

I probably shouldn't bother debating Hive with you elsewhere as we get nowhere, but I may counter disinformation and bad vibes from others.

Have a !BEER

Better to keep talking and get nowhere than not to talk at all and build a wall that will be impossible to overcome.

I'm not sure what "Disinformation" you're referring to? I'm always conscience of making sure what I put in print can be verified or at least has a wide consensus of agreement, which is why I alluded to a disclaimer with regards adm.

I'm always warier of people who are concerned about "Bad Vibes" or use the phrase "Tearing it down" There's an old saying, "No smoke without fire", so to ignore rumblings, aka bad vibes, is a mistake.

I'm not sure how many more times I can't tell you:

HiveWatchers does an important job in terms of fighting plagiarism etc.


But that does not mean I or anyone else is not allowed to question, pick holes or complain. That's generally how communities ensure accountability.

My complaints are fairly simple.

    1. The so-called "Rules" should be readily available, especially for scrutiny on the HW website, profile AND at the point of signing up new members.

    Those "Rules" should be open to modification by the community. I'm a little concerned when HW says that "The general consensus is.." or "The community has decided...." because nobody asked me, and I don't know anybody else that was asked?
    2. The appeals process should be readily available, especially for scrutiny on the HW website and profile.
    3. Personally, I'm not keen on the appeals process being via Discord. I think it should be conducted on Hive so that proceedings and comments are recorded on the Blockchain, but also because a lot of people do not wish to use Discord. I see no reason why there cannot be a HiveWatchers community on Hive?
    4. The "Bounty System" should be abolished immediately. imv, it just encourages spiteful people to hunt down small accounts. I don't have a problem with reports being made to HW; it's just being rewarded for doing it that I think is wrong.
    5. Delegate and forget should also be stopped. Some sort of mechanism whereby it has to be renewed every six months. I see two reasons for that.
    One: To ensure the delegator is still in tune with HW's goals and conduct.
    Two: To ensure HW has conducted itself in a manner befitting the award of such power to dominate.

Rember boys and girls, the only way to counter an action by HW is to gain an upvote bigger than the downvote. This, of course, will never happen because:

    a. You'll be exposing yourself for countering the DV.
    b. A lot of people have the view HW can do no wrong. And that if you question or countervote, then you must be a bad person too! 🤦‍♂️

HiveWatchers does an important job in terms of fighting plagiarism etc., and I support that!

For Christ's sake, folk, think!
"quis custodiet ipsos custodes"
(who guards the guardians?)

I can agree with pretty much all of that. I wasn't necessarily referring to you when I mentioned disinformation.

I have criticised HW plenty of times, but they do an important job that nobody else seems willing to do. As Hive grows it will get harder.

But that's not strictly true, mate. Nobody else wants to do it because there is no need; we have Hivewatchers.

Personally, I would like to see say five Witnesses on a HW council where they in effect audit what has been going on. I would also like to see the accounts Steemcleaner, adm and Spaminator deleted not retired, deleted. HW should be the only 'force' that way there is no ambiguity or confusion. Clear-cut accountability.

I would also like to see a reasonably full explanation of why a DV was issued. None of this "Viloted....." explain. "This post is plagiarised from here xyz.com" I know that means extra work but that's the price you pay for being given the power to enforce.

Well the anti-abuse community I've been part of for years do some overlapping work with no proposal funding. Most people are scared of downvoting.

I can agree that HW needs to be accountable, transparent and friendlier (if possible). They obviously have the support of many of the witnesses and whales, but need more community respect. Those who are not malicious should not have to fear them. We should always aim to be better

You're starting to sound like a perfect government man. "If you've done nothing wrong, you shouldn't have any concerns about us having cameras on you 24/7" 🤣

Sigh. You're always misreading what I say. In an ideal world the public should not fear the police and regular Hivers should not fear HW. I can dream. I'm not a fan of the surveillance state.

!BEER sadness cure :)

Did you use the discord to contact HW?

Na, If the reason is as I suspect, then I'm guilty. Just chalk it up to experience.