The Ten Commandments State that "Thou shall not steal" And the world has a general guideline that doesn't tolerate stealing. So what makes it okay on steemit? We are being raped and robbed by spammers and spammers who make spam bots. Steemit is such a great platform, but are we really going to let spammers take this platform down? I don't think so pal.
I don't know if you know or not, but on my post I did a while ago, I was talking about how 1700+ accounts were being made to rip off the steemit rewards pool and the number of these spam accounts have been growing.
According to @sherlockholmes, his accusation is:
"Randomly scanning the blockchain for suspicious activities, a chain of votes on a seemingly innocent spam comment caught my eye. 19 votes from accounts with random-syllable usernames on a days old comment on a month old post.
Someone's clearly spamming for profit. I really did not expect this to lead to such an extend as it did, though!"
Excerpt from @sherlockholme's article: https://steemit.com/steemit-police/@sherlockholmes/case-7-raping-the-reward-pool-with-1700-accounts-things-are-getting-serious
So with that being said, now we know that there are over 1700 accounts used to drain the rewards pool, if you want further information on that, go to his article listed above. But anyways, that is just one way Steemit is being raped and robbed.
Solo spammers/groupies
What I call a solo spammer is someone who just spams without using a bunch of accounts, I also refer to solo spammers who work together as groupies. There have been more and more of these types of spammers on steemit. That's why whenever you make a post, you always see that comment "Please upvote my post and I'll do the same for yours" or something along that line. I'm getting sick and tired of it, especially when you write about a serious topic and someone just spams you with a meaningless comment when they haven't even read your post.
My personal conflict with spammers
A few weeks back, when our dog Jake suffered from a life threatening perineal hernia and needed to get an emergency surgery, I did a post on it and guess what? I got a spammer, actually no...spammers who commented relentlessly on the few serious posts I did about his surgery. What i've been doing is I have been flagging all of the spam I get on my posts.
Also one time, a spammer was spamming me relentlessly, so I gave him a flag. And I made the dude mad and he flagged all of my comments or posts and told me to "Piss off" or something along those lines. First of all, Dude, you have the nerve to spam in the first place, which is pretty aggravating, but even with that, this dude decides to start a flag war and tell me to "Piss off" or whatever he said.
Steemit, @dan @ned, y'all need to do something, for god's sake!
I really think that spam overall cannot be completely gotten rid of, but at the same time, I don't think just flagging will do much either, unless all of the whales/dolphins jump in. I think a good way to weed out spammers would be to stop making it free to join steemit or to make steemit invite only. That would weed out a lot of spammers, but still, spammers would still be a problem, but a smaller one. But it would be easier to control.
That's just my proposal or thoughts on the subject, but really, something needs to be done.
Not only spam for votes, but I actually had a comment on one of my blogs asking me to invest in a company in Belize that promised extra ordinary wealth complete with photos of a private plane, mansion and of course very attractive women. Fortunately, the comment was quickly removed but I thought it was rather disturbing. Once again Alex a very good post.
You are right.. all the brainiacs that know how to make bots to spam will continue ... is this were AI takes over? The enjoyment turns to struggle working through this, although I know it can be done.
Some people program bots to vote for them and that is cool but it is really nice when some actually reads your post, upvotes, resteems, oh yes and comments in a logical manner. This is why I follow you..the voice of reason.
Resteemed to help others at the bottom of the pool swimming to keep alive.
nice post, upvoted and resteem ..please follow me. :)
It's true. Bots and spammers are growing by moment.
@alex-icey, i completely agree with you.. In fact there was a similar article i read on steemit a week ago.. Had suggested that 2Factor Authentication to be integrated every time a post is made, upvoted or resteemed thereby keeping human intervention possible and BOTs out of business..
Upvoted & Resteemed, I guess more people gotta know about this..
@alex-icey I so totally agree with you on this!!! I even tried to help a few noobs who had gotten themselves into trouble, but just starting out. They played this "forlorn" and lost puppy game with me as I watched them crash and burn. There needs to be a clear message "Just.Dont.Do.It" a warning and then some kind of system where they get banned. I am finding it's not even possible to rehabilitate these types, even if given half a chance. They don't really care at all.....hoping a solution is found soon!
I totally agree something needs to be done but steemit should remain a free to join platform, an invite only system could work to make it more difficult for new scammers/spammers to join but how do you weed out the already established thieves. An impossible task perhaps. All we as honest steemit users can do is continue to remain positive, creating positive posts and continue to flag up any wrongdoing noticed along the way... Happy steeming people....
It's ridiculous, thanks for the info. Nice article
Awesome write up. It's a difficult balance isn't it? On one hand we want Steemit to stay free and open and on the other we don't want a**holes ruining it for everyone by trying to scam it. The strength of the platform is the freedom and lack of censorship and the weakness is that amoral wankers exploit that. Maybe we should start to put together spam hunting groups who share the names of spammers so the community can collectively go after them burying their content in red flags. I wrote a really meaningful article on my late labrador and how I trained her to find wild truffles. It was tough to write as I lost her in July and it dredged up a lot of painful but lovely memories. No sooner than had I posted some knob spammed my comments section with a huge advertisement. I was angry to say the least. Will follow, definitely up vote and resteem this great post.
Steemit could be so amazing, but right now it is broken. Quality content is not king here. I do not know exactly what the solution is but several things need to be addressed for this platform to reach its potential.
Years ago, eBay and Pay Pal verified my identity via my driver's license. Furthermore, I was/am connected with bank accounts which have even more verification/proof. It is not the same as Steemit, however, we face a greater crisis. Allow accounts to open, but freeze all transfers UNTIL the account is verified. With modern tools, it will not be an easy task to bypass.
Upvoted only because of the Beetlejuice clip
@alex-icey I might use this post for a future write-up I'm thinking of doing. But yes, those spammers bring nothing to the table, and in some cases it downright offensive, especially when you write up a serious post about something.
I agree with you, after reading a post, looking down to read the comments and getting "please vote 4 me", from memory getting close to twenty times, and by the same name.
Is it all done by Bots?, if so, make steemit human only.