Online Bullying

in ecoTrain3 years ago

How do we all feel about this? On this cyber space platform I thought it was an important topic to bring up. I disagreed with this guy over the hive / steemit blockchain so he came along and voted all my posts right down to ‘punish’ me for not hating steemit too, since he lost some tokens there it seems.

I guess it’s a really different world here, in the real world bullying is generally displayed with physical abuse and on the blcokchain their power is ‘taking your money’ or making you live in fear of having it being taken away.

This throws up an interesting question which may become more and more necessary as these platforms grow. How do you all deal with online blockchain bullies and what do you think is the best way?

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It reminds me of when I first joined steemit in 2017 and I somehow got invited to a private chat room with the bigger whales and they used to laugh at newbies and decide who to take down and take to rep one. If they didn’t like someone, for whatever reason it could just be they were jealous someone they liked gave them attention they would swarm in and reduce them to a reputation one and take away all the posts value. The others generally stood by and watched in the fear if they spoke up they woudl be next, and everyone just wanted to build their platform. Eventually at some point they began arguIng amongst themselves and fell out so it diluted.

I find when it comes to bullying a lot of people just turn away and think I just hope this doesn’t happen to me so I’m going to stay silent or suck up to the powerful bully, rather than stand behind the person I really want to. But then is ignoring them and simply pretending they don’t exist the best policy? Or should we open the doors and discuss it?

I think it’s very interesting as these platforms have opened the doors to a whole new way of people using their power over others.

What are your thoughts on how to deal with this new form of bullying in the best way?

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 3 years ago  

hey sarah.. i have been following, listening, and feeling into all of this.. i have read MANY of your and others comments on other posts..

id like to share a couple of things. that i think are quite important..

Id really love to share some NVC wisdom with you.. NVC, none violent communication is not often understood well, but can really help to resolve an issue.. and to understand an issue so much better.. without any need to blame, judge or think about who is right or wrong. it is about understanding needs and feelings..
in that vein id like to share some NVC wisdom here:

We say what actually happened rather than put an interpretation or judgement.. so the word 'bully', for example is quite unacceptable as an NVC statement... and very likely not really accurate in this particular example.. i.e it is a perception.. The word bully could have been replaced with a word like.. downvoting .. since that is what happened ..
The same can be said for using the word ROBBED. and indeed a few accusations about certain peoples integrity, and reasons for doing things.

i realise that you have seen behaviour that is really childish and purile in chats years ago.. I have of course seen it all too.. that is part and parcel of life really,,. how we choose to react to it is very important.. and if i might say that when i read many of your comments i also felt the same away about what you said. Im not sure that judging anyone is really the right way here.. this place means different things to different people.. For you it is a blogging platform for you and your friends.. For me it is a new paradigm technology that is in its infancy.

I have posted for years on topics that many people dont really value.. i have also watched some techie posts get amazing rewards.., whereas my most 'wonderful' posts often have been totally missed.. this place works by consensus.. that is so important.. that is what this anarchic blockchain is all about. we are all free to do as we wish.. and downvoting is there for a reason.. if there are people who dont think a post is that valuable then that's their prerogative to downvote it.. sometimes they do it for reasons way beyond what we can see or know about.. im not even going to get in to that because it gets very complicated regarding curation rewards and long standing conflicts.. and more..

at the end of the day Hive is still a Great experiment.. still in its infancy.. im still amazed it has kept going so long now.. and in my opinion is improving so much in many ways.. The entire platform that we are most familiar with is this blogging side of Hive. Its good to remember that this is just one small part of what the blockchain is about.. blogging and rewards are also the most controversial .. when we look at things like Splinterlands we discover other uses that are extremely successful and dont really have any controversy. When you win the game you win the money,.,. so people can deal with that.. it is of course MUCH harder to do this with valuing a post as an whole community..

One day it may be that this blogging side of Hive takes a back seat to other incredible use cases.. we are all waiting for these developments.. for many of us we see it all from a much wider perspective.. THis is an AMAZING new paradigm experiment that goes against just about every tenant of traditional predatory capitalism. I am still thrilled to be a part of it, and i do my best to set a good example and guide it, protect it, and make it better.. yes it is still a bit centralised with just a few holding a lot of power.. but that is something that reduces over time.. this place is still decentralised in that ANYONE can show up and put in as much Hive power as they want.. no one can stop that -- there may be a 1'000 things to improve so we best do it efficiently and peacefully else it just wont work! in my opinion we need this to work!.. its SO important.

We are all like parents or guardians for this place really.. at least many of us feel like that.. and so yes.. also.. those people who have been here since the very start,. and have SO much invested in it.. not just their own time and efforts.. but also as part of a great paradigm shift.. so sometimes we get very emotional and even overprotective of things.. for many people including me.. i am more concerned with the whole system evolving as an alternative to what we have now..

i hope you take this all the right way.. most important really is NVC.. so if you are interested id be happy to share some great resources.. I mean,, You Only know how much time you have spent commenting on this topic.. and how you feel after it all.. so horrible., so bad.., but when we learn this NVC magic love.. honestly its night and day.. i think if the whole discussion could have happened in a none blaming and judgemental way... i believe you would have better understood the people you were speaking with.. and felt far less upset and intense about it all..

I appreciate your reply I agree sometimes I’m pretty blunt in communication and I thjnk I held a lot of that in from those early days in the official steemit help chat room and the things that I witnessed and just got to the point that I needed to express and share what I saw so many new members be put through in the early days. People valuing posts isn’t my issue at all. I have always seen some posts do well and others not. You see a hot dog make 130 dollars and an involved post get 1 dollar. We have all seen that we might have a little laugh but that social media. Maybe they gave to the community in other ways, made someone smile etc. My issue was and remains a group of witnesses deciding to go around and ‘re value’ posts that people chose to give to. Not just mine but other creatives and charities. I personally thinks it’s a precident I don’t wish to support and it’s completely dampened any enthusiasm I have for this platform. If it was random people fine but when it’s people in charge of the direction of the channel with huge influence and they are deciding which, posts it’s ok to do well and which not. I notice many of their friends never getting flagged as I said, it doesn’t feel like a platform I can put serious focus on. I always thought the beauty of Blockchain sites was that creatives and others could create from pure expression and eventually get compensated, or the materials funded etc so it could create a world where that could happen. Not only for ourselves but being able to support our fellow creatives also. If a handful of people are just deciding who Is able to get decent payouts or not to me it just ruins that vision. That’s just my personal opinion but I value others think differently and perhaps this just isn’t the place to put focus on until that changes. I have just gotten quite a lot of my friends in the position they were ready to sign up, or just signed up as well.

The bullying word didn’t come from downvoting though. I only called acidyo and pfunk a bully. I mean the word is just a label but to me they were bullies s they threatened to reduce people’s rewards, and come back and do more, unless I also agreed to ‘hate and talk badly about steemit’ In the case of the later and with acidyo it was the threats I saw given out to many newbies in my first years. If I called smooth a bully that’s not actually right because he didn’t actually threaten to do stuff if we didn’t comply with his thinking he just down voted. The issues were quite separate to me. Bully like any other word is a label and I guess I personally felt that acidyo and pfunk behaved in a bullying manner. Of course then we do the work and say why did I attract a bully etc. That’s very valid.

 3 years ago  

i think the real question to ask is WHY they behaved like that.. i understand what you are describing and what you speak of..

but.. the question i would ask is
Is this something they do all the time or were there other circumstances at play.. im not trying to justify anything,,. but simply to understand.. I dont like casting aside people, or indeed labelling them based on what they did when they were under duress. I have also spoken with acidyo briefly, unintentionally about this, and it was abundantly clear that he went through hell and back dealing with what happened.. We may never really understand even what he went through and lost, but with some compassion perhaps we can see the good side of these people, and make some space for being imperfect,.,.

I mean, life is imperfect isnt it!.. i dont really expect anything else Here, so i just work with what we have.. You mention that you dont think a few whales should dictate what posts have value or not.. so i would have to just say yes.. that is what this system is made to do.. If other people come and do the same, but support niche creative posts then so be it..

Let me explain it like this:
Some people here view Hive as more than just a rewards based blogging site .. much more.. and they are waiting for someone to show up and take it to the next level with new ideas.. to them that is what will make this system survive.. if the trending page is mainly creative stuff and the focus is not on development of new ideas.. long term the whole blockchain may well fail.. Its best chance for success (at least in many peoples opinion who understand this chain way better than you or i can).. its best chance is to fully support those people and projects that may take it there.. I give them space to do that, no problem.. Hive needs to survive and thrive.. and encouraging highly technical people here is probably the best way..

finally, i have to be honest that the rewards i get are more than fair for what i put in.. granted not everyone gets good rewards, but good posts seem to get noticed and supported by many others.. just look at the ecoTrain community page.. its really amazing i think how much most people get .. and as the price of Hive goes up so do these rewards of course.. which leads me back to my first point..

anyways,, i m glad you take this constructively.. i am really trying to support you, and want to share what i see.. as i say, NVC is absolutely amazing.. and from what i know of you i think you would also fall in love with it if you spent just a little time watchin a few vids..

the full monty with the man himself.. marshall rosenberg.. i cant speak highly enough about this video..,

heres a nice short one to taste :)

Much love sarah.. really hope you can find a productive way through this quandry

all the time, I wasn't the worst affected at all, as I didn't get flagged to zero but it was a behaviour happening constantly to new ppl signing up for help and going to a place to get help and getting laughed at, picked on and threatened for fun just because people could, because they had power over them. These were people they were trusting to help them get started since they were mods in an official chat room linked from the steemit page. To see these people now take away money from smaller content creators probably brings back those memories.

I do understand this happens everywhere , but when those people become witnesses who are responsible for the direction of the platform it is worrying to me. If they were just random bloggers not so much. Of course we create our reality and we all have our own experience within the whole but I do personally think it's important to acknowledge when things and behaviours are not resonant to your values and morals and try and navigate a new experience.. I probably was hard hitting and triggered, I always own when I am triggered but even after the event I feel strongly it isn't a behaviour i would appreciate from people directing a platform and everytime I see an animal shelter or contibuter get re adjusted because someone who is responsible for how the platform evolves decided they didn't deserve it, it's going to take me out of a positive energy and feeling about the platform. It doesn't feel like somewhere we are free to grow and just as i distanced from fb recently i feel the same way about hive for now I I appreciate your balanced responses though, I love the eco train communiity amongst a few others and it was one of the main groups that kept me inspired here. I just got a bunch of my spiritual and creative friends to sign up but hearing my story they chose steemit for now, I don't influence just share my experience they have free will to come here at anypoint they have the details of both places. I also hope one day there is a new platform entirely, or that blurt rly takes off as it seems sucha wonderful and supportive place and the lack of downvotes evens out the playing field somehow. Maybe one day hive will get a new direction too and new witnesses and will go back to more how it was before when we were left alone to create, , exchange value and feedback with one another and create freely.

I will check these videos later,, always up for watching these types of things but have a friend here right now :)

 3 years ago  

yay.. i really hope you share your experience with me.. NVc is my second megga passion,.. i see it as one of the most important steps for us all to take for us to shift our world into a new paradigm.. its SUCH a different way of relating to others and ourselves that most people really dont even realise what we do.. its inherent in our Patriarchic language ..

SO.. finally.. ill share a few links to a workshop i did last year on Hive.. you may not want to read every word or watch every video.. but i have explained things really concisely.. after you watch 3 hours or Marshall there are key points that are easily missed..

these workshops also have some really nice exercises.. just the kind of thing you can do with a friend.. as well as several cherry picked videos from a few different folk..

let me know if you want to clarify anything on NVC.. I always have time for this.. once you get it its a revolution!

much love
x

https://peakd.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/non-violent-communication-workshop-1-join-us
https://peakd.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/nvc-workshop-2-identifying-feelings-when-speaking-and-listening
https://peakd.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/nvc-workshop-3-identifying-needs-when-listening-and-speaking
https://peakd.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/nvc-warm-up-for-workshop-4-making-requests

Ahah no problems i start with one of them I’m drawn to an see how it feels. Always up for processes and self work. I’ve quite liked mirror work myself where you turn the pronouns round and see how you attracted things / created them. I actually don’t mind reacting sometimes, I don’t judge myself for it just then go away and do the inner work. I don’t believe it’s wrong or right to get passionate about something and react but ultimately we do have to go within and look at why. For me I know I have a big issue with people controlling... defo blame the heavy Aquarius... huge on freedom but that energy as much as it can be reactive can also create change. I do also believe that we should hAve boundaries and leave situations or create change when we do not feel they are healthy. It’s like in a relationship if it’s constantly triggering. Let’s say for example your not being made a priority you defo should do that inner work but if it’s no longer a huge trigger and someone’s not making you a priority still, then perhaps it’s time to leave an unhealthy dynamic as that’s not meant for you. I’m not sure it’s evolve to stay in a relationship with anyone or anything that’s unhealthy or mis aligned. Freedom of movement and speech is a trigger for me but even outside of the trigger it’s something I believe in. Often our weakness is also our strength and purpose simultaneously. It’s finding that balance to work on your mission from the right place for sure.

 3 years ago (edited) 

i agree of course..our needs are SO valid,, as are boundaries.. its just about how we communicate them.. what a difference it makes..

with NVC its about understanding the feeling and then realising the need we have.. such as freedom of expression.. etc.. once we can really establish our needs .. which can be tricker than we think.. we can then really speak about that.,. and bypass many other things we may focus on .. and then react to..

its all about how we frame things, and then communicate them really.. hopefully youll see very soon!..

Should I start with the video on this link or the others? I’ve had friends round so not focused on it yet.

ok starting on the short one hah

@steevc already explained to you how the upvote/downvote system works :)

@pfunk isn't bullying you. He just disagrees with the rewards. Its really that simple and thats how the ecosystem works :)

No different issue. @pfunk didn’t like I didn’t hate steemit so he came over and made me pay for thinking differently to him. I’m perfectly allowed to open up discussion about it on my page in a balanced way.

And thats 100% allowed :) Thats his stake and he can do with it whatever he wants :)

And I can discuss it as an interesting topic of conversation on dealing with online bullies.

You can 100% do that :p
It just seems like you cry about getting downvoted and not a generel topic on bullies, but thats just my take xD

Sure your entitled to your opinion.

If I hadn’t said I didn’t hate steemit he would have had no problem with rewards. The problem came because he didn’t like I didn’t hate something he hated and that’s a great topic for discussion, on how to deal with bullies.

I don't see him as a bully just because of that.

What to you consititutes a bully / bullying behaviour?

Constantly harassing something with false information, I guess.

I really really don't care what people say, so you can't really bully me xD

Interesting I would call that spamming or stalking.

The general consensus on bullying is more

‘An act of intimidating a weaker person to do something’

‘Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. ‘

Personally I would always see it as someone using a position of power to keep others in control and coherce them into following their beliefs or risk being isolated / punished / attacked or spoken to badly.

I don't believe that Hive, the network I hold some stake in, should be rewarding people for their willful ignorance and support of an illegitimate network that stole quite a lot from myself and other stakeholders. So I voted with my stake accordingly.

Will I have to put this to you five or a dozen more ways until you figure out what I'm talking about? Maybe the ignorance isn't willful after all, just a sort of default state? Is this teasing hurtful to you? The whole world doesn't have to be nice to you, princess. Especially when you defend thieves that stole from me.

I can see that if you are one who is living off of Hive in a way.

That’s great tho I think that is the point everyone has to get to where they don’t fear anyone or anything. Agreed. Then no one hasn’t power over you invisible or real.

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So us giving you advice such as not spamming 4-6 posts per day and trying to "catch up" as you put it, along with me mentioning that many dislike all caps titles was bullying and flagging random newbies? You know the steem.chat logs are saved, right?

Sure our humor and the way we chatted wasn't for everyone, but that wasn't the idea for the danger zone chat you were invited to anyway. Good riddance.

You can deny it all you like. I’m sure you will the stuff I saw in that chat room was disgraceful. You had no interest in helping newbies at all only laughing about their posts in that group and choosing who to flag that day.

People barely downvoted stuff back then, you were given advice to not be a dumbass spammer and decided to go defensive and were booted out of the private chatroom. I thought you had changed as I just a week or so ago curated a post of yours but seeing you remember things to your own benefit and trying to smear others just cause you dislike getting downvoted isn't really improvement in my opinion. Good luck on the other safespace chains with the rest of the abusers.

You Flagged and targeted multiple people down to 0. Laughing about it and sending screenshots to one another in private rooms. Many of them since moved to other places like @lost

So because I am calling out behaviour I saw that means I am a spammer?

You're calling out behavior from a private chatroom where people were joking around and using it to smear others activity and twist it in your favor. You were spamming when you first joined, I remember that much, and you instantly became defensive when you were given advice on what not to do, your own fucking problem if people in the chat decided to make fun of you and turn you into a fucking meme.

Not talking abOut me talking about what I witnessed.

Okay well it's pretty much bullshit, we added people to that chatroom we thought could have a nice experience on hive and use an early boost in their journey and if they turned out to not have the same mindset as others and borderline sociopaths we booted them out. Downvotes barely happened back then unless people did something ridiculous as they weren't free, so we wouldn't go around looking for targets to downvote to low rep as you put it, we did a lot more good for users and had lots of fun there than just joking around about some who had no concept of social media platforms. Either prove or it or shut the fuck up.

I never spammed I just posted a few times a day for a few weeks. I’m taking me out of it. The way I saw you guys upvote one another and laugh at newbies and constantly threaten to take them down to 0 is not the behaviour I would expect from people with responsibility on a platform, or people wanting to help new people grow.

Not sure why I bothered but here's proof you were spamming, dumbass.

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Some people don't deserve help and advice. Now please fuck right off.

It was down right bullying. It was actually rly horrible and uncomfortable to see.

And then there was the other prIvate room they used to keep public but mute people in whilst laughing about them.

Honestly... just leave it. Look at the massive war you have gotten yourself into, it's not worth the bother. I have been flagged by @blocktrades for over-rewarded posts. I bought him an ice-cream in Bangkok. Does that entitle me to no flags for life?

I know why he did it, it was Rancho, just like your post.. except with you it was Traf as well. You did well on it, it doesn't matter. It is what it is here.

You should know HIVE is a political animal by now, and the more noise you make the more heat will come down on you. These guys are not bad and not out to get you.

Give yourself a self-vote on your post if it makes you feel better but don't stress about it.

but is that right? that we should never be able to voice an opinion on anything to stay 'in favour' with the small handful with the most £. I mean it's a smaller eco system representation of the larger world too.... does one just let the government do whatever it wants or at times can we express we don't agree with the system. Genuine question.

If you got a thumbs on Facebook or Youtube would you be in the same mind, and kick off on your post? Probably not.. as there is no money involved. You do get something here, I just gave you a vote.. but not for this kind of content.

Just calm yourself down and forget about it. I downvote all the time, but I would not for this reason. There is plenty of real abuse that takes up my downvote power and I use it.

Blurt has no downvotes. Would you live in a world with no police force? That's not for me.. leave them to it. Their token is not doing particularly well, take a look.

'Is it right?' - As long as I have been on HIVE (STEEM before then), it has happened. Ask @meesterboom, he get's it in the gut regularly. He also ignores it. It is for the same reason as yourself.

Yes, you can upset people on here, they can have fragile ego's, and I have been guilty of that. I would not consistently badger someone though, I can't speak for others but the ones in question are not bad people, I do know that.

fb Is a great example it’s very similar in the way that if you make a post now the ‘most invested’ dislike then its censored or your banned and yeah I do talk out against that. Of course mr z and now probably the gov own fb so they have the right to do it. But that doesn’t mean we can’t and shouldn’t acknowledge a bunch of us don’t like it and create change.

There is no banning or censoring here, don't confuse this with downvotes as many others do. I cross-post my content on Facebook around 5 weeks later.. intentionally. If you want to see my stuff, then come to HIVE. They give neither you or myself nothing, but have thousands more people.

What makes me more concerned about this incident is that you may tell many others how bad it is on HIVE. Bad things are amplified 100x in our thoughts. I like the fact that you say you bring people here so it's not all bad up there.. right?

I’ve got about five friends finally on over last couple of weeks and I had so many ppl interested from my fb post of that rly well paid salad that now got downvoted. And your right it has put them off. The people I got to sign up also didn’t get any votes apart from mine and then when they heard about what happened to my post between the two things they have all given up.

Of course this is off putting for people. Who’s going to sign up to a platform that’s censored, that’s why they are leaving twitter and fb. I only share my experience when I love it and hate it. One thing you can’t take from me is I’m honest.

TBh done arguing about it all. I said my piece in it and hopefully can create space to find like minded individuals. The platform like fb is what it is we make of it what we can or collectively find new platforms. The main thing is opening discussion and finding your tribe.

I just joined blurt so far it looks so lovely and everyone’s kind I hope the currency does well down the line or a similar platform starts up and the communities I love join.

Just to comment on our experience, when the fork of steem and our @team-mexico account happened and by my own criteria I fully support steemit with Justin's new administration after seeing everything that people did so that they would not take away his power From the platform at that time, all the users started behaving in a strange way, negative votes to posts, steem theft, milking accounts and baseless projects only made just to get more money, a mess was created and they seemed very immature people , we never endorse that behavior. A great drama arose when Ned sold steemit to Justin and all the Steemit users began to show their true intentions, their true personalities (especially whales, people with a lot of power).
3 years ago as @team-mexico never agreed with the abuse of power and we always speak for users who received few votes, as a community always trying to ensure that everyone receives fair rewards in their posts. But unfortunately we never had enough support to do something, but we started talking and complaining about them, they realized it and people with a lot of power started to get angry, they started to defame us and take away our rewards, they harassed our account, they intimidated us in that moment. What you say is true, many people abuse their power and fear that people will talk about their abuses, they just want more power and money, they never stop and when they complain about them, they take it personally and get mad at you until you sink the bill.
A few months ago we decided to go back to hive and start our project @team-mexico which is a private curation initiative and we published here, then we started voting on publications and commenting, the first days everything was perfect, but a week later we received a surprise they started us to vote the publications of our curation reports in a vengeful way, arguing that we could not be here because we had decided to support steemit, something absolutely absurd and how curious that the person who voted us negatively and took all the rewards are the same person you are complaining about.
We decided to leave Hive and undertake our curation project on other platforms.
Never be silent and always speak your mind, tell the truth. The truth always comes to light. Blessings.

Post original / Original post:
https://hive.blog/hive-174683/@team-mexico/votos-negativos-y-el-mal-uso-de-ellos-or-negative-votes-and-misuse-of-them

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For me seeing all that drama was just a re - run of everything i saw in the first few weeks behind closed doors on steemit. What was said behind doors and in public was VERY different. I think the pattern is quite simple we tend to hate and get triggered by what we are till we own it. A lot of the bullying behaviour came from probably a lack of feeling powerful or in control in the 'real world'. A lot came in with a very strong I hate the government, fb, anyone rich mentality. They hated not having power/control and being controlled.... fair enough me too lol but they then quickly took control of steemit and began being the people they hate to the smaller fish, without i doubt acknowledging they had become the people they hated. Then when someone came along and did to them what they had been doing to others for years all hell broke loose. I can't really say anything about justin postive or negative. He is a business man and to me has only ever been authentic in that he wants to make money. I can respect people who i know what I am getting. The way some people behaved to him you can't blame some of his actions. So far since the main bullies no longer have power there I. have never had one interaction with anyone on the steemit blockchain that has been anything but pleasant. .I have just never personally felt controlled or treated badly there over recent months. I know some people would like me to hate steemit because they personally lost out but those ppl bullied me and others and took from smaller users to build themselves and their circle up anyways. There are amazing people on hive and steemit and all across the platform. I guess social media will always end up in drama to a degree I have really started to focus more time on NFT sites now, the communities are more focused on their art and supporting oneanother and the platform owners realise that happy contributors and helping build their contributors up makes the site better. I'll share a few bits on the blogs but to put real focus on the platforms seems like it's an energy drain as so much politics, it's become like fb and just a smaller bubble of the larger world. Some other sites just seem to stay more about the creating and supporting one another. That does happen here too but then it just gets over ran by the politics and games and power struggles. I mean what does Pfunk do or talk about? I notice a lot oof those rly heavy into the politics and bullying don't rly do anything, maybe that time could be focused really learning a skill.

Thankyou for speaking up and sharing your story <3, I got to the point I would rather be honest and speak up than have a few 20 dollar posts. There are too many platforms now, so if we are going to get attacked and taken away from for sharing our truth, so be it.

I would just like to add a lot of the whales you talk about stayed on steemit, under their own or new names and continued to blog there to get money. They only stopped when they were banned. They also self vote and post memes and share songs (things they flagged us for doing). I honestly couldnn't care less what ppl do, freedom for all but it is one rule for them and another for us lol

I also use Steem. So far I have not been punished for it.

There are two tools at our disposal to redistribute the power on Hive: support the minnows with curation and vote for witnesses outside the top 20.

Taking them on directly seems unwise. But we can, eventually, make their downvotes irrelevant.

Yeah for sure any good witness suggestions ?

@enginewitty and @thealliance are the only two I know for sure would never downvote someone for using Steem. I'm sure enginewitty has a perspective to share here; hopefully he'll respond to being tagged. :)

I have Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, ARK and a good handful of other crypto - STEEM included. I wouldn't think any less of someone if they did either. It would be like saying I like different kinds of juices. Or flowers. Not everyone likes the same flowers. You may be a fan of roses whereas I prefer daisy varieties. Anyone on Hive that doesn't own any other crypto is probably a novice to the cryptorealm. I might like Zuckerberg but hate Facebook politics. Plus, Steem is where I came from to get here - you don't just up and forget your roots. I will say I far prefer Hive and the community here!

It’s only because they lost money so they want to punish anyone who doesn’t back them even tho they bullied and downvoted us anyways before lol has nothing to do with good of the platform acidyo himself says he would have stayed in steem if they hadn’t stopped him farming etc.

The main thing I dislike right now tho is this capping posts I’ve conpletley lost any morale on this platform. What’s the point if everything hiu get a decent payout a witness swipes half. There is no ceiling and no growth. They leave alone accounts they favouritise tho, they can earn 80-100 easily for average posts and never get a down vote. The other day I saw them strip back an animal shelters post from 100 to 30 dollars. What’s wrong with an animal shelter getting 100 dollar payout? People chose to give to that post cause they wanted to support the cause and it should be their choice. That was the last straw for me. I rly can’t be bothered putting real focus here anymore. It’s just demoralising and pointless. Then we have a platform of people afraid of voicing an opinion Incase they get flagged etc.

What kind of platform is that where people are afraid to have any real discussions for fear of being targeted by people supposedly here to make the platform better.

I have seen that 'capping' on people not in the 'in' crowd. Until the regime changes hands, it'll be a thing.

Same. I honestly don’t mind if random ppl downvote but when it becomes about those setting the direction of the platform only capping specific accounts and leaving out a specific circle, how can one find passion here or feel it’s free? I rly went and had a good look if certain people had received those downvotes and no one in the circle ever has even if they have regular 80-100 dollar posts that are just average posts.

It’s deciding who’s allowed to do well here and not rly and that doesn’t feel good.

And whilst it’s not good to get triggered, which I def was after researching a bit the other day, sometimes if we want change we have to acknowledge and discuss this because if enough of us don’t like it then the consensus of the platform changes. Or we can come to a consensus to move to steemit and support each other there etc. Main thing is we speak about it.

The primary stakeholders there are no different than here. If you say something they don't like or think you 'earned too much' - because this is all about emotion, feeling and opinions - you get flagged. Part of the system. There is no way to quantify real quality as it is purely subjective. An artist may look at a painting and see the wonderful brush strokes whereas another person not inclined to paint, will just see splotches and think it's crap. A poet may recognize the intricacies of a rhyme scheme and ignore the pentameter in someone's work and love it and the bookworm will say it's not 'A,B,A,B' and say it's not a real poem. A photographer may take into consideration the subject of a photo, the lighting and even the colors and praise simply a picture and the blogger might say their post is shit because it's just a picture of a bug. Eye of the beholder and that kind of thing.

There are lots of things I do and don't like about both Hive and Steem. Speaking only gets you so far. It's the actions that matter. There are witnesses that will never get my vote simply because of the name they are using here that I feel is a huge hypocritical slap to the face of all of Hive. It's the actions. To have a voice here, you have to have a vested interest. Powering up gets you heard a little more because it says you care about what is here and want to support the people you like better. Regardless if they are a witness or your drinking buddy on the weekends. When it comes down to brass tacks - it's about two things: furthering the acceptance of cryptocurrency in the mainstream and money. Hive is not a pet project of any one person, it is a community working toward common goals. Steem has fallen into the portfolio of a spoiled billionaire who is completely ignorant of the capabilities Steem has.

I never left Steem, I did power down completely and set up shop on Hive. Hive has a vision. A vision I also share when it comes to making cryptocurrency a normal part of every day life and is why I am a witness here. Meanwhile, slowly prying ourselves out from under the proverbial thumb of centralized banking systems. People do have the power to change things, but it is the actions taken that will make the difference.

My personal feeling is if a bunch of us go to steemit for now, we can support each other there. As far as I can see it’s very free there on a day to day level and I havn’t yet experienced anyone trying to cap my growth as a creator so far, or taking anything away from those I am supporting ( all be it on a small level right now). It’s of course less than perfect as all platforms are but it doesn’t seem to directly clip my wings and allows me to support who I like. Contributing a lot to this platform whilst it’s set up like this is just feeding into that cycle and supporting it. Why would anyone have any reason to stop if people are complaining but still complying. If people enjoy and agree with it working like this then that’s different they obviously are happy and it works for them.

I like seeing your work, so I hope you don't disappear completely.

I think that this could soon become a non-issue, as Hive expands into other side projects and networks, like Leo for example. The community is going to get too big and too diffuse for any one person or group to have much impact or influence. And that could happen pretty rapidly, at the pace things are moving.

I think I’m going to put my focus over at steemit for a bit. As much as I love the community for me its a big thing that I hoped blockchain could give creatives freedom to create purely and get compensated. I loved trying to build for myself and to support other creatives. If they all just get capped at 25 /30 dollars all the time you can’t build anything. i Love Some community members and groups here but it just annoys me too much to see a small group of ppl dictate everyone’s worth. For now I’ll pribablt focus more on blurt and steem and help my friends set up there and just keep my hand in a bit here at times incase it changes in the future and to see what everyone’s up to.

Look up ACOM while you're over there. they have some interesting plans.

Resistance Is Futile. All must submit to the overlords

There needs to be some real basic 101 newbie level help, remembering these are not tech ppl they are creatives and could on board so many ppl. You don’t live in London. For 15 years and not know a plethora of creatives lol and right now their daily income is gone so even better time to get them intrigued.

 3 years ago  Reveal Comment

the problem is people have this mentality these days rather than discuss things like adults they just go on a binge to 'teach that person' and flag them or go after them on other platforms etc. No one actually communicates issues and finds some kind of middle ground it's just like .... arghhhhh punish punish flag block destroy lol

Do you have a video on rly rly easy basic ways people can get an account and post and buy blurt. I have so so so so many creative friends some quite well known too it’s just always getting them over that hurdle of the crypto elements and tokenomics. I know so many ppl say oh then forget them but this is a huge huge audience that ppl just seem to forget to tap into. At least blurt is a nice friendly space for them. God if some of my bigger art and music friends came here and saw all the politics they would be tired of it within 2 days. They just want to create / share / exchange value.

Too much drama! We don't really care about the reward pool unless we're affected no?

This post actually wasn’t about that it was a different issue though that prompted me to think it was an interesting topic of discussion to explore. It was very separate to the other post regarding downvoting on post worth. This was more about an isolated incident which, I said I didn’t hate steemit to someone with power who came and downvoted all my posts and threatened to continue to do it till I also hated steemit. It bought up an interesting topic regarding online bullying.

Keep on whining about the downvote. You'll invite more downvote in the process. The problem with you people is that you thought the potential rewards are already yours even when they're not yet on payout. Before the payout on the 7th day, the potential reward still belongs to the reward pool. As one whale can allocate that reward to you, another whale can take it away.

Addendum: It's not censorship. It's merely reward distribution mechanism.

I’m making a post sharing my opinion. I’m fully entitled to do that as everyone else is.infact this particular post had nothing to do with smooth and being downvoted for lack of ‘worth’ it was an entirely different incident.

Of course, you do you. Keep it up.

For speaking out about the behaviour I witnessed in private chat rooms in the early days. Now acidyo suddenly decides my post is over valued. It is this behaviour I am referring to. We have witnesses that silence people through threats. Of course they can do this but do we all support it?
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Terrible! The issue of cyber bullying is very relevant at the moment, and I would like to talk about it. I recently wrote a student paper about this and used the resource https://graduateway.com/essay-examples/cyber-bullying/ to better understand the topic. I was so imbued with this question that in the end I wrote the perfect essay, which my teachers really liked.