I share your thoughts about the flagging bulls&>t. I have lost followers for things I have written about myself, such as needing to power down to help with my bills. I had about 1200SP and I just got it back to over 300. It would be more if I posted more, but, I was afraid of repercussions for telling the truth about myself.
I don't make a lot of money and I have been houseless for almost the whole time I have been on Steemit. I don't ask anyone for anything, but, I worry that people think I want something from them. I do, I want a listening ear and some empathy sometimes, that's all.
I try to make only positive posts, but, life is not always a positive thing. I have recently come to the conclusion that I just don't care anymore. I will blog my life, happy or sad and people can like it or not. If I get flagged, I will appeal to the community for fairness. If I dont get it, I will power down completely and put the money in a different social media platform, there are more than a dozen now.
I was informed when I joined that flagging was for plagiarism and spamming, not for hurting people. Some Steemians with a lot of SP think they can troll with no consequences, but if they are the only people left on the platform, then they can troll each other into oblivion for all I care.
Although I love this place for all of the good people I have met and for the fact that powering down literally saved my family, I hate the aspect of people being able to hurt you for being real.
Since there are so many policing groups on Steemit, why don't we have a flag police? If you flag someone, they look into it and if you had no good reason to flag, they flag you til it does 10x the damage you inflicted with your trolling. Checks and balances are needed.
Either way, if you get flagged for being vulnerable, I will have your back. I am sure I'm not alone in that sentiment.
As one that is highly active in anti-abuse groups, I can see how something like this could be helpful. I will caveat by stating that those that understand the purpose and utility of flags also are subject to many vindictive counter flags by scammers. It happens. Still yet, there is a place for good flags in the ecosystem, I dare say, even good flag wars.
Take what happened with Haejin. He used to be incredibly selfish with his stake and the community, led by the example of good whales like witness @fulltimegeek, engaged in prolonged campaign to address this. Now we can readily observe the change in his voting behavior. Down to 68% Self Vote CSI on Steemworld. (I haven't checked out Rancho, tho)
With the reduction of spam due to HF 20, we now are able to tackle different forms of abuse. I think our next ambition will be to take down abuse caused by irresponsible botting such is the case with @emperorofnaps I found recently. Anyways, I think the flag police is a good idea. We have our mods at @steemflagrewards review flags and another thing is we make it abundantly clear why we flag via our categorization system. It's quite novel I will say. We are also open source. I try to be a good ambassador for flagging when I can so thought I should mention it.
As for people unfollowing because you were powering down, well that's messed up. I think following a person should be about their content and showing support. Yes, it's great when our friends power up and can hook it up with some nice upvotes but sometimes folks need to eat so I understand if my friends power down.
Great and thoughtful comment!
This is so much bullshit, and even though I can't remember that it have happened to me, I've seen it elsewhere too. They usually justify that with: "You don't invest" or something like that. That's why I've been open about my power downs. I've told people about my situation and that I need to power down or whatever... And it seems like my audience have been okay with that, which I'm very thankful for.
Been there, done that. Life's a bitch sometimes, and if it makes me feel better to talk about it. I figured that my audience should support me in that decision. My audience have always treated me okay... But I've seen pretty nasty things happen for other Steemians. And that's a scary sight.
I'm honored and I appreciate the support and the kind words.
Also, I wish you great success and I hope you'll be able to solve the house-situation.
Thanks, my dream is to be a world traveler with a completely online income. I really want my kids to learn firsthand that the world isn't as scary as the government wants you to believe. I think that is why being displaced isn't a big issue for me. I was just reading an article about travel by @luzcypher that really touched on my feelings.