Bozzlife: Refusing to yield

in #steempeak4 years ago

Let me tell you a story... Once upon a time there was a service on Steem called @steembasicincome (SBI). The purpose of this project was to give users a way to donate shares of SBI to other users. In return the person who donated would also get a share of SBI.

These shares that were given and received entitled you to an upvote from the SBI group on every single one of your posts. The more shares you have, the bigger an upvote you get. There are also some other factors that influence your upvote, but those aren't important right now.

SBI was a boon to many smaller accounts who were severely impacted by the mild exodus from Steem that people made over the past year or so. Suddenly posts that used to get $10 in upvotes were receiving significantly less. However, if they had SBI shares, they were still at least receiving something. All of that hard work, effort, and loving care put into each meticulously crafted post was not being unrewarded.

In fact, those SBI votes are probably one of the only things that kept me afloat during these "down times". If not for a couple of loyal followers and my SBI shares, my posts would hardly ever clear the $1 range. Perhaps it is just my pride, but I think my posts are worth more than that.

I am sure there are those who disagree. People who don't give a flying kite about what Splinterlands cards I pulled or what restaurant I ate at last weekend. That's fine, everyone has their own tastes.

Getting to the point

The point of my story is, SBI is still very much alive and kicking. Unfortunately, what appears to be a former bid bot operator is not happy about the way things went with the most recent hardfork. As retaliation they have singled out SBI and are now downvoting everyone who has shares associated with them.

This is a big problem for users who were merely gifted shares and are struggling to make their way on the platform.

I have been getting downvotes for the past couple of momths and for the most part, they have been pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Like I said, I have some loyal followers that do their best to take care of me.

This past week I got my first significant downvote. It was pretty stunning to see almost a $1 worth of rewards wiped out. I will admit in a moment of weekends I threw out some retaliatory downvotes. Pretty insignificant for two reasons. At almost 9K, my account is still pretty lame given the current price of Steem. Secondly, the person who is blessing people with their downvotes hardly ever posts anything, so how can you retaliate when there is nothing to downvote.

Moment of truth

This has been going on for a while and the fine people at SBI have introduced the ability to tag your post in a way that they don't receive the autovote from SBI. Thus in return the "crusader" will not downvote your post.

So I spent the weekend mulling it over. Do I try to rid myself of my SBI shares that I spent my hard earned Steem gifting to other users so that I might have some myself? Do I use the special tag to avoid being upvoted by SBI in hopes that the person leaves me alone?

Ultimately, I decided no, I will not yield to this behavior. I hesitate to call it bullying, working in a school district I know there are criteria to bullying and many times what people label as bullying isn't really bullying at all. I do think this person (whom I will not mention) is reacting harshly and unfairly to those who are simply trying to make their way on the platform.

As of now, the motivation of this individual is still pretty unclear. I don't know if they are just (excuse the term) butt hurt over the recent hard fork changes? Perhaps their mom didn't hold them enough as a child? I can't say. I do know that recently they downloaded and edited a persons video in a pretty crude and offensive way.

This moves beyond simply auto downvoting someone because you don't agree with the rewards they are getting and into a much more personal attack. I don't think that should be stood for and thankfully, the better part of the community agrees. The outrage has been well expressed and the support has been flowing in with many users throwing some extra upvotes here or there to those who have been on the receiving end of downvotes.

In Conclusion

I will state it again. I refuse to yield. Do I think @steembasicincome is a pay for votes scheme? Absolutely not. Do I see how it can be construed as that? Maybe, if you are looking through some pretty dirty glasses. It is so much more than that though and I believe in the end the thought and intent of the project plus all the good it has done for users on the platform far outweighs the perceived offense it is committing.

Check out SBI if you want to learn more. Head over to their Discord server and take the time to find out what they are really about.


Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports



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So crazy.

Sending liquid steem permanently to sbi to have it locked into the blockchain and help a small account in perpetuity is such a great concept. Throwing a tantrum because some plankton makes .02$ a day and that is what ultimately keeps them here and growing is nuts.

I try and ignore the flaming bags of crap In the form of unjustified downvotes tossed near my house. They are not a public service and good people like you will end up running them into obscurity or off the platform.

Let’s just keep doing what we do and let it be a funny memory when it has run it’s course.

Posted using Partiko iOS

Yeah, it is pretty sad. I guess at this point if they are spending their downvotes on me they can't use them on someone else who is smaller, so that is a good thing.

True.

It is more of a right of passage. I am a small small fish but happy that I can take shots like those f it means it doesn't fall on a smaller person who may be knocked out.

We will support eachother, it will strengthen the real bonds that make this blockchain special, and it will run its course while we prevail.

Good for you for standing your ground. SBI is not a perfect system, but there are bigger problems to be dealt with on Steem. At least SBI will blacklist people who just post junk to get the votes. I have helped with that.

That is awesome. Like I said in the other comment, I guess if I can absorb some of the blows that might otherwise go to a smaller account then that is a good thing.

Proof of Twitter share #POSH

Never yield. Eventually Steem Inc will see that upvote bots and downvote bots are equally terrible. I save my downvotes for bad actors. I've been downvoted on my most recent quality post by someone who posted some actifit rubbish. How is that fair? Their content wouldn't get anything at all if it wasn't for bidbots.

I think the real secret is to continue to comment and interact and engage with people. That's where the most enjoyment is, and in return people will follow and see your content and upvote it.

That's how I found your account.

Thanks, I appreciate it! It will be interesting to see how things evolve over time for sure. Especially when communities are out in full force!

I have got a few of the downvotes from that person, it seems he is attacking more those who send to SBI to get shares, so I did yield and stop doing that but wish I hadn't as I do like the concept of it

That is probably why I got the bigger downvote the other day. I was looking to boost my share count a little and I sent a couple out.

Yeah thats what happened to me, I have had hardly any downvotes of any consequence since i stopped sending for shares

and now i have just tempted fate saying that LOL

interesting..

!sbi status

Hi @sinlg!

  • you have 58 units and 0 bonus units
  • your rshares balance is 289196330877 or 0.108 $
  • you need to wait until your upvote value (current value: 0.036 $) is above 0.046 $

Structure of your total SBI vote value:

  • 78.96 % has come from your subscription level
  • 0.00 % has come from your bonus units
  • 12.84 % has come from upvoting rewards
  • 8.20 % has come from new account bonus or extra value from pre-automation rewards


    Take Control! Include #sbi-skip in your text or tags to have us skip any post or comment.

Hi, @bozz!

You just got a 3.16% upvote from SteemPlus!
To get higher upvotes, earn more SteemPlus Points (SPP). On your Steemit wallet, check your SPP balance and click on "How to earn SPP?" to find out all the ways to earn.
If you're not using SteemPlus yet, please check our last posts in here to see the many ways in which SteemPlus can improve your Steem experience on Steemit and Busy.

Good job! I wrote a similar post earlier in the week... We need to stand up for a good project that helps others and at its heart a gifting programme.

The more of us that continue to sponsor people, we stand and say that it it isn't short term ROI that drives us... But the support and guiding idea.

I support this decision. Thank you for vocalizing your opposition. Although you do have a higher than ordinary SBI, it is nothing to go crazy about. Only a communist would try to equalize everyone down to the same lowest standard. It is good allow people to work harder/longer to earn greater ongoing rewards.

I’ve had a long history with sbi. I love the service. It has helped so much in what I have done. Good luck.

Posted using Partiko iOS

Thank you! To you as well!

I'm six years old and I get a lot of flags, because I run a contest that give 1 SBI as a prize.
I'm not afraid of this bully.
My friend a bully is the one that always came back to hurt you everyday, not just one day.:)
Bullies love to hurt. Sad story.

 4 years ago  Reveal Comment