Announcing @steemcleaners!

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    Steemcleaners are a group of Steemians concerned with the plague of plagiarism, copy paste, spam, scams, and other forms of abuse that keeps cropping up on our site. Since fighting individually seemed fruitless -- resulting in retaliation flagging, harassment, or other issues, we have created a group account, to stand as a united front in the defence of steemit!

    The @steemcleaners group will be a more formal approach to the fight that has already been occurring for months. Our group will produce weekly public logs of cases, and follow strict guidelines: our members will be subject to peer review and scrutiny by each other, and important decisions will be made by consensus voting. Members who do not follow the consensus-agreed guidelines risk being removed from the group.

    Finally, we offer a subjective reward system for members and reputable abuse hunters in the community -- rewards given from donors, and upvotes on the weekly logs or announcement posts, will be grouped into a “pie”, and group members will vote on a distribution of the reward. Steem power in the account will remain, to improve our ability to flag clear abuse. Even as a non-member, you can receive part of the reward if you consistently help us fight abuse!

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[Special thanks to @cass for the awesome logo!]

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Intro FAQ:

Why is a group account necessary?

    Many abuse fighters have a personal view on whether or not a particular post constitutes as abuse. By having a group account with clear rules and agreed guidelines, and with a reward incentive for members to obey the guidelines, we thus incentivize good behaviour.

Who are the @steemcleaners?

    Members may elect to disclose they are steemcleaners to the public, but are allowed to try and maintain anonymity (e.g. out of fear of retaliation flagging). The group leader is @anyx, however decisions and changing of any members require a majority consensus of current members. You likely know some of the founding members already, as they have been fighting to keep steemit clean for months, without any reward.

How can I support @steemcleaners?

    You can support us by helping fight abuse! If you appreciate our work in the week, you can also upvote the weekly report or our comments to increase the reward pool to distribute to abuse fighters. If you want to directly donate help, although we are not asking for this, any STEEM sent to @steemcleaners will be used to power up the account (this power will be used to FLAG abuse), and any SBD sent to the account will be added to the reward pool.

Can I become a member of the @steemcleaners?

    Yes! Simply participate with us in the steemitabuse-classic chat channel, and if you are an active helper, the group can vote you in to be a full member with the ability to post with the account. Keep in mind that being a steemcleaner full member means extra responsibilities, including voting and precise logging, while under peer review from other members.

Do I need to be a member to receive rewards?

    No! Anyone who participates in abuse fighting will be noted to our log. This means if you summon (by @ mentioning) @steemcleaners on a post and we confirm abuse, or help by participating in the steemitabuse-classic channel, there is a good chance you will be included in the weeks’ reward distribution. Users who comment must mention @steemcleaners in their comment and must follow our guidelines to be eligible. Witch-hunters, and those who summon @steemcleaners willy-nilly will not be eligible for any reward. Anyone caught attempting to game our rewards will be @cheetah banned and flagged, as appropriate.

I am scared of retaliation, I don’t want to call out abuse. What can I do?

    If this is the case, mention the abuse in the steemitabuse-classic channel in steemit.chat, and we will investigate. There is no reward difference in the way you bring abuse to our attention. Abuse finders on the weekly report remain anonymous.

What is the weekly report?

    The weekly report will include all cases of abuse investigated by @steemcleaners, including those brought to attention by non-members. Although finders and investigators will be privately logged, the public report will not contain this knowledge to prevent retaliation. We will allow reputable members of the community to audit the private version of the log if they would like.

Why should abuse fighters be rewarded?

    These steemians use their time, that they could be spending making blog posts or comments, in the fight to keep steemit clean instead. They sacrifice their voting power to flag down abuse, instead of using it for curation rewards. They frequently get their posts and comments flagged in retaliation. Finally, they ensure that clear abuse gets hidden, allowing YOUR original and amazing posts to be better viewed. I think these people are unsung heroes, and deserve a reward, don’t you?

How are rewards distributed?

    Currently, the decision for reward payouts will be variable -- at the end of the week, steemcleaner members can propose a reward distribution, and once a majority consensus is reached, the reward will be distributed. A variable decision is useful to decide if part of the reward pool should carry over to the next week, or if particular cases deserve extra reward. To prevent conflict of interest with the group leader, @anyx will not participate in the decision.

So what are the abuse guidelines, and chat channels?

    Our second post, covers this. Check it out!