Introducing @pleasestop
How many times have you seen "Nice post!" and other generic comments commonly perceived as spam and just wanted to yell, "Please stop!" Yelling isn't going to help, but fortunately you don't have to since @pleasestop is here to guide the community toward better content and ultimately stop this sort of behavior.
The idea for @pleasestop came from my work with @duplibot, who is a sibling to @pleasestop now. With @duplibot I am focusing exclusively on duplicate comments posted repeatedly, but not all spam follows this pattern and I've been considering ways to both expand my reach and continue testing new approaches to stop spam.
Success with @duplibot
My initial approach with @duplibot was to comment in an effort to raise awareness and discourage upvotes and that was met with varying degrees of success. I was hesitant to downvote but the community made it clear that downvotes are supported and I turned my attention to removing rewards.
I've been posting asking for help removing pending rewards and that has been very effective. We've even seen a couple of accounts flagged to a zero reputation which completely hides all future comments from these accounts.
While @duplibot was entirely manual at first, I began looking at ways to script some of my work. I began replying to an account posting the exact same comment every 30 seconds and offered an upvote for any downvotes on this account from the community. My reply and the voting was fully automated and the community took notice and started handing out TONS of downvotes! We moved that account down to a reputation of 5 and it stopped posting in less than a day! The other thing I learned here was that my voting power ran out far quicker than expected since the community responded so well.
I've learned so much from this work and @duplibot has evolved considerably and now I've taken these insights forward into @pleasestop.
Why is this spam?
I have a list of phrases that appear to be spam that I've built by looking at comments that @spaminator replies to. These are the "great post" and "please follow and upvote me" sort of thing that are pretty obviously not unique or meaningful content. I'm watching for new comments containing any of these phrases.
Of course, there actually are legitimate reasons to say some of these things so the use of these phrases alone is not sufficient to summon my reply. After seeing a new comment I look to your previous 100 comments to see how often you're using these sorts of phrases and I only proceed when there are many examples. There are a few other criteria that I use to filter out comments but this is part of the secret sauce I'm going to keep private for now.
Part of me would like to open source my code and share everything with the community, but that is literally a roadmap for the path that spammers could use to avoid me so for now I'm going to keep my exact algorithm private, but I do want to speak to my approach generally.
The @pleasestop approach
Today, @pleasestop is automatically replying to any comments meeting the criteria of my algorithm. I'll be carefully watching and may stop the automation if things get weird, but I've been capturing data without posting for a while now and everything is being identified correctly.
My comment today looks like this.
Please Stop
You've used 42 phrases that may be considered spam in your last 100 comments.
You've received 3 flags recently and I encourage the community to continue flagging comments like this.
In this comment you said:
phrase count nice pic 1 You made this exact same comment 11 times in your last 100 comments along with these additional phrases:
phrase count nice pic 13 nice post 6 nice content 13 great post 3 good work 7 These comments are the reason why your Steem Sincerity API classification scores are as follows:
Spam: 64.20%
Bot: 6.50%Please stop making comments like this and read the ways to avoid @pleasestop and earn the support of the community.
I was thinking of stopping after my first post, but then I decided that it's easy to avoid me and I believe my persistence will prompt most to change, while also informing the community about recent posting habits to discourage upvotes. As I have done with @duplibot, we'll see how this plays out and I will evolve as necessary.
Did you stop?
Now this is where it gets interesting.
After I've replied to an account I'll continue monitoring it to see if these comments persist. If so, I'll gather up any posts with pending payouts and ask the community to remove those rewards. If the spam continues after that, or an account is otherwise unbearably aggressive, I'll even ask for help pushing the account to a negative rep to hide everything posted going forward. Both of these approaches have already proven effective, but of course all this negativity is so negative.
What I'm really hoping proves effective is a new approach focusing on the positive aspects of dealing with comment spam. For those accounts that actually hear my message and stop posting, I want to not only support that with my own upvotes, I plan to share posts from these accounts and ask the community to consider upvoting the account to help make it clear that the community will support you far more when you stop spamming.
I plan to create a series of posts around those accounts that have abandoned comments like this and now are focused on creating unique and original content while properly engaging with the community. A lot of accounts making these comments are just new and trying to find their way around here, so my hope is that by pointing out the obvious folly in these sorts of comments that I'll raise awareness among new accounts and make it obvious this is not tolerated.
And most of all I hope that we can send a few votes to those reformed accounts to make it clear the community not only rejects spam, but supports and encourages legitimate content and wants to see your account find success!
I see an overarching opportunity for some form of curation around this idea to support and help these accounts get established, but I don't wanna reinvent the wheel as I know there are plenty of groups working in these areas. I guess I'm looking for your feedback as to ways I might coordinate with some of the curation guilds focusing on helping new accounts find their way around.
I'll focus on stopping the spam and curators can focus on showing these accounts the correct path to success.
Flags are coming!
Oh absolutely, the downvotes for this content are coming!
I actually have a larger mission here around that so I'm going to address this point separately soon. I have thoughts on a long-term, sustainable approach to deal with comments like this but I have a little more work to finish up on that first.
In the interim, I'm looking to the community to help with flags on these accounts and I'll make separate posts about that.
Please share your feedback
My work with @duplibot has evolved considerably in a relatively short period of time and I expect the same result here. I've outlined my general approach here, but all of this is likely to change in some way as I start to learn how everything unfolds.
If you've followed my work with @duplibot you know I welcome feedback from the community, humbly admit my shortcomings, and evolve into a better form of myself as I glean insights from my work and your feedback.
I have the same hesitations with posting more transactions to the blockchain so I expect to evolve even faster than @duplibot since this account will keep on replying.
Please share your thoughts. And most of all what do you dislike in my approach? I expect at least a little outrage from some accounts I reply to, but it is imperative for me to see the community validation of my work so I need to understand where I'm falling short so I can evolve to both earn and reaffirm that trust.
Lege post! ;)
the bot is really good tool to steemit
Do it 4 the steem fam
You good knight deserve an upvote even if my paltry contribution is just a spec of dust in the wind.
I mean nice post. LOL
Seriously I am glad to see someone doing this.
I humbly accept your support! And seriously thanks, I'm sure gonna see if I can make an impact.
This is a really great and useful bot. Thank you and Good Luck!
Gina told me about your mention of me and @duplibot in another comment this morning and I was truly humbled by your compliment there. Many many thanks for your support!
You deserve all the support. When I started out I was sick of seeing dumb superfluous spammers (some of them who had much higher reputation than I did) and I support any initiative that support clear abuse. As for grey areas like self voitig/circle-jerk etc. I support protocol level changes and I'm against flag wars.
Check out @miti I found him while I was getting sick of constant spam and he's been trying to educate spammers for few months. Good Luck!
Awesome, I'm thinking about ways to collaborate with others and get the community involved so I'll check out @miti and see what can be done.
Gayet başarılı yararlı bir yazı olmuş. Bu süreçten sonra ki yazı akışının sistemini başarılı bir şekilde ifade ediyor olacağız sizler sayesinde. Tebrikler
How about adding a comment at the beginning of the post. Saying this comment was upvoted. This way I can see who is getting a upvote or self upvote without having to click on every comment. It would make it easier to weed through the comments.
Awesome tip, thanks! I'll be able to catch opening self-upvotes but not much else, since I stream the blockchain and reply immediately to a post, basically seconds after it was created so there usually aren't many votes yet. I'll see what it would take to get that added to my script.
oh wow thats cool so you "stream" the steem chain , does that cost you extra server costs? Does it cost extra to get auto replies to all these short comments immediately? REALLy cool that you just mentioned that because I was wondering what it takes to create a system like this, because I have a whole list of ideas for this sort of system
foir example I just want to start mass messaging all the noobs who seem to eb doing the same soret of low effort posts. When I find a low effort postr that is under a certain word count by low rep scroe accounts I want to have an autpomatic message that just comes up when it detects a Lot of low effort posts that fighta certain strict criterion and then auto posts a message that asks them to please try harder and give s aLLISt of suiggestions from uploading Videos to @dlive to posting picture posts on @steepshot and this way I believe I can FUNNEL a lot of users who would naturally otherwise just become un knowing spammers into becoming more productive steemians. I could provide a LIST or a small lecture giving them "the talk" in an automated message. I have a nice lecture to give new users thjat recommends a list of things they can post about like taking screenshots of their own wallet or blog once they have made a little money, and showing it off to their facebook and youtube followers. This sort of strategy works and is something to keep enw users busy, promoting steem on legacy social media. I just have so many automated messages I want to bring up to all the low effort posters.
Another example for how I could find another use for your project, It would be nice to auto reply to people who post just single youtube links as steem posts, I want a auto reply comment that instructs them to please edit their post and include a sort of Review of the content, I want to remind these users that even if the youtube video is theres to PLEASE describe and explain that in the body of the text UNDER the Youtube Video link, OR to exp[lain whose video it is to cite and source the video well and to give credit to the original creator, and to explain why your posting someone elses work, it can be as a review or to point something out to us, I just want to encourage users to not post Naked youtube links alone, but to AT LEAST include a REVIEW of the video to create a more original sort of content.
So, I use steem-js for all my work and it does the job reasonably well. None of this requires any major resources so I'm running on a super basic server. There are a ton of great posts about steem-js and you can find examples of nearly anything to get started.
I definitely want to open source at least some of what I'm doing, but that's a clear roadmap to avoid me so I'm giving that some thought on how best to proceed.
Why fight comment spam by being it's biggest spammer yourself? Live the way you preach, son.
I've opened a dialog here and hope you're willing talk calmly and reduce this conflict. Please reply in the linked comment.
Well said blogbooster, lets fair game for everyone.. Let the best and most attractive content wins!
Great effort man. I completely support both this and duplibot.
Thanks so much, I appreciate it!
Thanks for your nice post. I hope this post will be helpful who work on Steemit.
Let's do something that creates value for our community and for ourselves. Thanks for this article, you too
thank you
:)
Bueno estoy de acuerdo con tigo ya que los comentarios o posts deben de ser de forma consiente y transparente para que la comunidad tenga mas valor y vuelvo a repetir estoy totalmente de acuerdo con tigo @pleasestop
Y tambien debes de crear algo para apoyar realme a una buena publicación.
all is well
It opens my eyes while i am starting here a new life.
hmmm
this is a very resourceful strategy...such post should be appreciated with so much emphasis
You've made an important post very well,
The post was very important for newcomers like us,Wish you good luck.
This is nice of you for the community!
Seems reasonable
lage post !!!
Realmente cometemos errores cuando desconocemos, pero es genial tu publicación. Gracias por eso tips
That would work pretty Fine
Great work, this would really help steemit maintain a clean and organized community for everyone!
That's amazing, thank you. Are you working for Steemit or are you more of a volunteer who is invested into building a great community? Sorry if you mentioned that and I overlook the info.
This describes me perfectly! I am independent and not associated with Steemit.
you deserve an upvote man!
Good Contant
Gracias por dejar en claro las reglas de la comunidad. Es un post muy útil !
As per ur upvote and comment I have been followed u
longlife steem and kill for us youtube, twitter, facebook
✅ @pleasestop, congratulations on making your first post! I gave you a $.05 vote!
Will you give me a follow? I'll follow you back in return!
Ironically, this is the sort of crap that I hope @pleasestop can stop!
I hate to tell you, but that one ain't going nowhere. It has a very specific purpose that will be revealed in the future.
I fully support this project and if there's any way I can assist, please feel free to reach out.
Is it an objective to get that follow from them? Because https://steemit.com/faq.html#What_is_considered_spam_or_abuse
Other than that, it's a very generous opening vote and I'm assuming next time the account tries to 'introduce themselves', that reward won't be happening!
If you really feel the account is "spam or abuse", there is only one action you should take, flagging it.
By the Steemit book, it is, in the grand scheme of things, it most certainly isn't!
@yesman1 you're on the @abusereports naughty list! Bad Steemian!
I saw the intro post for this account and there is a clear anti-abuse intent that is very much in line with my work so I fully support this account.
OK... thanks for the heads-up!
Hi @pleasestop - One problem that I've found with @introduce.bot is that it seems to encourage spam rather than deter it. I just found one instance of it upvoting obvious spam. (Just a filter on a few keywords could prevent this from happening. Maybe the bot could do a friendly anti-spam message without an upvote in such cases.)
Friendly question - Can @introduce.bot make mention of its antispam message / policy in its introductions? Does @introduce.bot remove upvotes for obvious spam? If so, you will have my thanks, appreciation, and full support! Thank you kindly in advance.
Spam: https://steemit.com/avengers/@movie2018/avengers-infinity-war-full-movie-2018-avengers-infinity-war-hdrip-dvdrip-bluray-free-download-english-hd#@introduce.bot/introduce-bot-re-movie2018avengers-infinity-war-full-movie-2018-avengers-infinity-war-hdrip-dvdrip-bluray-free-download-english-hd
That is not a bot that I run so I cannot speak to that directly. You could try politely replying with your thoughts to one it's comments.
That is what I decided to do. Thanks! :-)
Good initiative, thanks for doing the lord's work! Have a $5'er.
I'm humbled by your generous support, thank you so much!
Very good initiative! Why nobody thought of this before? Good luck.
Thanks for your support!
I would like to thank my friend @vimukthi for mentioning my name, that's the only way I've known about your good initiative!
You have my support.
Haha, just mentioned you in a comment seconds ago! I'll definitely reach out to you as I find more specific ways for the community get involved here. Thanks for your support!
You can count on me ;-)
I've added you to my fanbase for now.
This is a great idea, and I appreciate your effort. Hopefully, you'll be rewarded well for this initiative too!
I have always told people to look at an account's past comments. If it is all the same crap, you know they are a bot and should be ignored, etc.
Thanks again for your help in making Steemit a better place for us all!
I so very much appreciate this and hope to live up to this compliment!
I saw your bot at work in someone's comment page....and as I was scrolling the feed found this!
Wow...that is dedication. I feel bad for those who are verbally challenged....sure does raise the bar in reading and commenting.
Thank you for your deep sense of integrity on this platform.
All the best. I sure hope I don't get flagged....I use a lot of Wow! Lol
I really appreciate this because I do keep my integrity top of mind in this work, thanks so much!
I love how everyone does their thing to keep this ecosystem happy and thriving.
So.....what a coincidence honestly, cuz I think I have a live one for you. Just saw it after I finished browsing through the feed and leaving comments, ironically after yours I think. LOL
I didn't click on the link as I wasn't sure if it might take me to some spam site. So do be careful. Rating is already really low....so may already be on some radars.
I've already replied to this account and it is on my list. Even better, it is on the @abusereports blacklist, so it will be pushed below reputation zero fairly quickly if it doesn't stop.
I appreciate you bringing this to my attention!
Thank you for that update.
And, on a more human note, Have a good weekend. ;)
Agreed kchitrah, it will make short likes and upvote irrelevant now.. Woohoo!
The one thing I've noticed now is that they have gone from saying great post, good post,etc., to stealing people's comments from previous threads days or weeks earlier....and/or taking those comments and mixing them up into mostly senseless paragraphs. It takes a lot more of my time to read three or four sentences of a paragraph to only realize I just wasted much more time compared to if I had just seen great post and moved past it.
Look at anupomdas and nirobdas comments on this thread...has to be the same person
https://steemit.com/freedom/@adamkokesh/p54prvy7
look at hashcash comment here....I've seen that comment many times before....who could forget it....it doesn't make any sense.
https://steemit.com/freedom/@adamkokesh/j9340q69
Take a look at this comment made by funbobby51 who I follow and I know he made this comment:
https://steemit.com/politics/@adamkokesh/t7pdwcyo#@sunlit7/re-adamkokesh-t7pdwcyo-20180424t082724133z
Now look at how this guy stole that comment and reused it days later:
https://steemit.com/politics/@sobujdas/re-adamkokesh-qo3ix2fr-20180501t033813406z#@sunlit7/re-sobujdas-re-adamkokesh-qo3ix2fr-20180501t090017474z
You try to stop one thing and open a whole new can of worms.
Wow, in your first link @nirobdas says, "in such a way that they are each subjected to reciprocal controls" but if you look at the other comments the comments are normally like this:
You bring up some excellent points that some of this stuff isn't nearly as obvious unless you're looking more carefully. I'm going to keep this in mind and see if there might be some ways to identify some of this stuff.
Here's another one for you to check out....look at the Magic8ball comment. First time I've seen that.
https://steemit.com/politics/@adamkokesh/pwjvb0i0
This one looks suspicious....there was no video in the article. Rubeldas...
https://steemit.com/freedom/@adamkokesh/a-slave-to-no-one-harriet-tubman-forgotten-freedom-fighters
plus there's more on there you might want to have a glance at.
Good...
Reading and understanding an article is one of the things we should consider before dropping a comment, majority of the people who live your post with nice post didn't even get the chance to read it, they just want to comment because they want to build relationships here on steam, in building relationships we have to use the right words ,I mean giving an impact to people's works so that they can inturn visit your blog.
Don't expect to see a nice comment on your work when you go about dropping nice post etc.
This is my own contribution @pleasestop
Thanks for a perfect example of a thoughtful comment speaking directly to the content of the post! These are the sorts of comments people should be writing.
Am very happy to participate
Finally! A bot to downvote useless comments
please visit my blog @zuhrafriska
Oh I like this bot. Newbies will learn from this indeed. :) Can I suggest you add the FAQ section direct link in the comments for them to read?
Anyway good work! Who is your owner?
Thanks for the suggestion! I've been thinking about something like this, but new questions are coming up daily so I'm going to keep learning a bit longer so I can build that list even further.
And thanks for your support! I'm @blervin and I run @pleasestop as well as @duplibot.
It's good you thought of this, it's badly needed around here. Whew. Thank you too. 👍
While I appreciate the effort and thought that went into this, you damage your message with great irony by promoting an anti-spam service through spamming comments on all new accounts and intro posts. You should give serious consideration to letting your service grow organically rather than through spam comments.
The irony is not lost on me and I have spoken about this before in my work on another project. I will not continue commenting at this level indefinitely and am excited to share some new approaches soon.
Thank you for your comment
Te doy una fotografía del día que ayudé a varios pacientes de CA en Barcelona Anzoategui para que puedan recibir sus medicinas.
I definitely agree with you! This information is accurate!
Cool stuff bro!
cooll
i like your initiative and your approach, please continue :D you deserved my time ;)
Thank you so much for adding me on your list.
Really this is a really great and useful bot...
Love You :)
I don't mind. It will help me to be more creative in my expressive correspondence. Thank you for challenging me.
im agree with you all
I'm new to steemit and this post is really helpful for newcomers :)
I am in the same situation. Just trying to grab info on this is working.
thaks very much i have got something to learn throung this post
Thanks man @pleasestop This is much needed for a community like steemit to protect larger interests and keep it going. Keep up the good work mate ✌️🙂 cheers 🍻