RE: 8th update of 2021 on BlockTrades work on Hive software

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RE: 8th update of 2021 on BlockTrades work on Hive software

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smooth (71)in HiveDevs • 8 days ago (edited)

I'm concerned that removing the curve is going to invite back the high-volume low-value spam comments we've had in the past but mostly gave up since it became impossible to earn a reward with most low-HP votes.

But with the curve removed, you can, in an automated manner, spin out a very large number of comments all over the place at very low cost and if even 1% of users are fooled into thinking that your bot-posted "Great post!" is sincere or just reflexively want to reward "engagement" then you can make a profit.

Downvoting can work to counter this but it relies on already overworked and under- or un-compensated abuse fighters. Most people don't bother. The balance of effort and payoff very much favors the spammer.

I guess we can see how it works out and then reassess, but IMO removing it and replacing it with nothing is a mistake.

8 days ago in HiveDevs by smooth (71)

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buggedout (69) 8 days ago

I never really understood this argument. HIVESQL is our friend here and a list could easily be maintained like the current blacklist that can slap down comment abuse of this nature in a similarly automated way.

It just means that our abuse fighters need to be tech savvy and use some automation tools of their own.

$0.62

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smooth (71) 8 days ago (edited)

They can, but it's adding more targets and workload on to an already thankless task.

Also, downvoting isn't really the ideal solution either. It adds even more spam to the chain, driving up RC costs for legitimate use. It also gets controversial in gray areas (and sometimes not even gray areas but just disagreement with the spammer who feels they should be entitled to do whatever they want with their stake) which further adds workload (and sometimes outright harassment) to what abuse fighters have to deal with.

If downvoted consistently like that, the spammer might give up (though not necessarily right away), but also may just switch to another account or accounts and keep going. It becomes a game of whack-a-mole (which it already would be to the extent that if incentives exist, and I'm pretty sure they do, it won't be one or two spammers doing it, many will).

All else being equal, not having the incentive be there in the first place is much, much better than needing to counter, which is what the curve has done. Now all else is not equal, and there are other factors, but there is definitely a cost to consider.

Adding even a relatively small real cost to post would also kill all of this spam immediately since, as with most spam, the incentive depends on posting being nearly free which justifies the return from a relatively low to tiny success rate. But of course I doubt anyone wants to do that since it would get it the way of normal social use.