Immediately thought of Idubbbz.
It is quite pathetic that these people do not get their accounts revoked or powered down. Since @steem is delegating to them a certain amount of flags on those accounts surely would indicate based on age that this user is trash and they should just withdraw their delegation. I do not see this as being a difficult algo to run but @steem most likely feel it helps the platform look good with 80% active users being a bunch of inbreds with no purpose.
haha yeah, I'm a bit of a fan in case it shows!
They've had the first batch of accounts powered down to near zero, which is why they've now been abandoned. There's no doubt these new ones will have the Steem Power undelegated from them eventually, however it's becoming a never ending game of whack-a-mole now. Surely since the introduction of the terms and conditions, Steemit have the grounds to just perma-ban the user. They're abusing the system in every single way they can think of, and all it'll take is for a few more of these weirdos with too much time of their hands to come along, and they could start affecting user retention rates. If you're a new user and suddenly start getting flagged into oblivion, well you aren't gonna stick around.
There's quite a few different things they could do to try and prevent this, and it really worries me that they don't really seem to be able to do much. Why not prevent brand new users from flagging? or maybe below a certain reputation? Why not beef up the identity verification process? I can't shake the feeling that maybe those in Steemit HQ aren't that experienced in any of this. The tiny cosmetic changes that have been made to the site over the past 9 months are laughable really.
I think you've probably hit the nail on the head, I know the number of users has increased massively in recent months, but how many of them are genuine users who will then go on to use the site on a daily basis? Not many I'd be willing to wager.
Whether they are technically capable or just don't give a fuck is what comes to mind first.
They can allow every scumbag in if they want, the fact is that they are giving those people steem and in that regard, you own them, monitor the accounts efficiently and get rid of those idiots sooner. I like the no flagging from the start, as much as they wish to scream self-governance and no censorship they need to wake up and have the system protect itself.
Users are guilty until proven innocent not the other way around and by that logic, new users should run the gauntlet and there should be a mechanism in place that isolates them from the rest once any account has been found with malicious intent towards the other accounts and thereby steem itself it needs to be shut down. This is a failure of the system to protect itself and not censorship if it were to protect itself.
I don't want to think that it's that they don't give a fuck, that would just be tragic. They might as well completely hand the whole thing over to the community.
There's definitely something that can be done, I refuse to put too much thought into because at the end of the day I'm not the one sat on millions of dollars worth of Steem, Steemit Inc. are.
Unfortunately, I agree with you. It's not a pleasant situation, but I think new users should have to prove themselves before getting access to certain features like flagging like you say. I think you summed it up perfectly;
Thank for this John. I'm glad Steemit did something the first time and let's hope that they can come up with a solution. You are right about turning a negative into a positive. Most people I have reached out to have been very helpful, which make me enjoy the platform even more. I'm really glad people have helped me out with an upvote as well, but in the end I want people to up vote because they just like the post.
I also really glad to see the community has done something, creating @neutralizer. They gave me an upvote as well, but if I post again and get flagged will they automatically neutralize them?
I do have to check out your other posts about what to do and what not.
It is very frustrating and discouraging, but since there is help out there and I'm really enjoying it. I will stay around! See you on your old posts!
Yeah I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they had intervened and actually removed the delegated Steem Power. They do have a couple of accounts on here that they post updates on, someone had already shared them with me and I've only gone and forgotten... when I find them again, I'll share them with you.
Yeah, I've found that there are so many nice, friendly and interesting people on here, it's just trying to find them sometimes! I know what you mean, as nice as a helping upvote is, genuine engagement with your posts is what we're really after.
Yeah they're by @anthonyadavisii who is a great user here, he's also made the @randohealer bot too which assists @neautralizer. Yes, they should automatically come and upvote anything that's been downvoted by these scammy accounts. Luckily, even the brand new accounts can only downvote roughly $0.001 at their peak, usually around $0.000 so they really are harmless really, just mildly irritating.
Even if Steemit drag their heels with this stuff, the community here is like nothing else online and they tend to react really quickly.
Good luck with your future Steem endeavours! If you need any help or anything, don't hesitate to let me know.