Anti-Abuse Initiative Weekly Update [Feb 8 -14]
Introduction
This overview summarizes
- the week of Feb 8-14
- contribution statistics
- moderator statistics
- challenges
Contributions
By Author anthonyadavisii: Top 20 Flag Specialists
SteemFlagRewards brings a new twist to fighting abuse.
SFR Leaderboard showcases fellow abuse fighters with gamified ranking.
Do you want to get promoted? Power up and take away ill-gotten rewards.
If you're tired of all the abuse on the platform, join the anti-abuse community.
Jaguar.force is a new contributor to the anti-abuse category.
This post shows how an art contest could be scammed. The copyright rules are vague when it comes to copying others work.
Would you let us know where you stand in the comments?
Anti-Abuse Statistics
Total Contributions
The team reviewed and scored two contributions for this week.
Average Score
The average for the two contributions is 95.
Anthony's post scored 96 and staff picked for the category. Jaguar.force's contribution scored 94.
Moderators
enforcer48
He reviewed one contribution about art plagiarism. He asked the author if they can share how they found the plagiarism. It is beneficial for our anti-abuse contributors to detail how they find abuse.
... Plagiarism in the art world can be difficult to spot and harder to prove due to the gray lines that exist.... If you could, would you kindly lay out the process of how you spot these cases? The curators may learn a thing or two from your work.
lovenfreedom
She reviewed one contribution about an ongoing project update series. Anthony continues to broaden the scope of SteemFlagRewards giving everyone a reason to help combat abuse.
... Creating fighter leagues is one way of positive reinforcement for the anti-abuse community. You have mentioned "gamification" of fighting abuse on previous posts and this is the realization of it ... I hope this new feature encourages our fellow Steemians in joining anti-abuse efforts.
anthonyadavisii, naturicia
They have no contributions to review this week.
myself
I did not review any contribution during this period. But I read the contributions we had this week.
Summary
Pixabay
Happy valentines to everyone.
It's been a great week for the category. The anti-abuse community is never really quiet. The abuse fighters are still busy tracking and flagging abuse. Many good projects are expanding and things look optimistic for the anti-abuse category.
I had time to join FOSS Hub on Wednesday. It was a great show @jedigeiss, @buckydurddle.
If you have a suggestion, come by the Utopian Discord.
We still hope to incorporate security in this anti-abuse initiative. Any internet security, cybersecurity or data security specialists, please contact us.
This is a call to all anti-abuse fighters on the blockchain to produce anti-abuse content.
Thanks for providing the Anti-abuse category update. The report is well-written and nicely formatted. The category is looking good despite the fewer contributions. Two things I like about the category is the uniqueness and the purpose.
A community without rules and enforcement that penalizes violators is as good as dead. Therefore, I commend and appreciate your work.
It saddens that people have different experiences of flaggers. I read through the convo below, and I was amazed to see what the user was saying. Well, I never had a bad experience about wrong flags, but truth be told, some bots are messing up the BC. There was a time I saw Mcfarhart complaining about a bot that flagged actifit announcement post. A little work needs to be done on that aspect. Wrong flagging will definitely cause harm, but aside from that, abuse fighters are doing tremendous work. Double thumbs up for you guys!
Please note that while the CM hasn't changed the footer, I am not scoring #iamutopian posts based on the questionnaire. They have their own metric, and that will be the case until we go live with the new guidelines and new questionnaire, which will be comprehensive enough to reflect these types of posts.
To view those questions and the relevant answers related to your post, click here.
Chat with us on Discord.
[utopian-moderator]
Wow It was hard to find your comment before it was upvoted.
Once again awesome review.
Crap I knew it was not my best work I was feeling very sick when I posted it.
Lots of responses on this post I am glad to see some complaints come forward so we can answer them.
You know we just want this to be a good clean happy fun place for everyone. If we all pitch in it can happen.
Thank you for your review, @tykee! Keep up the good work!
When it comes to abuse, in particular, plagiarism, we should be focusing our efforts on the clear cut cases, not meddling in the grey.
It's interesting to see the posts from @jaguar.force who I am sure has the best of intentions, but considering they were banned from the most popular art community on Discord, it doesn't sound like the efforts are being well received.
Plagiarism is defined as: "the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own."
Art is highly subjective in itself, let alone the combination of art and plagiarism. Trying to spot this algorithmically is a false panacea in my view and I am not alone in this as I have seen from some of the comments to @jaguar.force by some of the top artists on steem.
So to summarise, it's great to have security at the door, but if you kill the atmosphere in the process, no body will want to come and boogie in steem wonderland. And our major issues are gaining and retaining users, so we should tread very carefully.
@kabir88
Hello @Kabir88
You know this is a community and if the community decides to do something it is done.
I do not own enforce or control anyone but myself. I can make suggestions and give my ideas. That is the extent of my ability to change anything happening in the abuse community.
Fear of the unknown will never move any one in the right direction.
The only thing that will make steem and steem apps scale is when they become scale able and now they are not! You cant blame that on the community trying to clean up criminal behavior.
I dont tread lightly anywhere I travel. I weigh over 200 pounds and my voice carries like a pa system.
I think people are drawn to organized structured things because you can know what to expect. It looks better last longer and has better value.
Here is an example of anarchy
And here is good planning and guidelines followed in the same country.
WHERE DO YOU WANT TO LIVE?
I think once we clean out the garbage and put a coat of paint on everything we can then open our doors for business. Right now its a rundown building and the products on the shelves have reached the "best to use date".
Time to remodel and restock the shelves if you want some new customers.
I totally get the point in regards to cleaning this place up and removing spammers and "shitposts". I am hoping to increase my delegations to SFR as I think it's an important and worthy cause.
However, considering we have limited resources, I personally wouldn't focus my energies on the grey areas of fan art and art concepts; specially when those in that neighborhood are not happy with the initiative. There is the danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Just like you, I cannot make anyone else do anything. This is just my humble opinion.
As for criminality, even the original author in @jaguar.force's post admitted to their being no infringement of copyright, so what laws were broken? We also had @jaguar.force throw accusations of plagiarism at another user in a discord room, but was then unable to provide any material evidence and they were promptly banned.
Anyhow, I think abuse fighting is a tough gig, so well-done for all you do. It's really appreciated.
@kabir88
At sfr we don't deal with gray stuff much. You know that lately we have been focused on bid bot abuse and people who just post any garbage
to buy upvotes for it.
We will try to help temper jaguar.force but they have to answer to the community on their own we have no power over them.
I complained about enforce (your bot, you say) appearing on my Replies page for a few seconds and then disappearing. I see it continues to do so - must I mute the account to stop it?
Well actually we lost control of that bot last year and cant seem to shut him off.
Activate cyberspace immortality!
lol
okay, I muted enforcer plus enforcer48 - let's see if that helps (I actually feel like I am inside a Science Fiction story)
:)
The anti-abuse community likely consumes more content than many Steemians who go about their business each day.
It's an ever-evolving process with limitations based around the code of the blockchain.
I do prefer quality contributions over quantity. While reports are great, but I would rather them to be teaching moments than "today, we did x, y, and z".
Flagging is curation. Get used to having people disliking or disagreeing with your work. It seems to me many people gained the "professional blockchain blogger" title when they hopped on the Steem train. Cases of flag abuse exist, but that's another topic altogether.
As for the rehabilitation side of things, they have been lacking, or not as prominent. However, they do exist and I hope those who do spend the time to educate new users and reforming them would step up to the plate and show the community their work.
So, flagging is now called "anti-abuse"? Are you now also creating competitions to see who can abuse more posters - who usually turn out to be new or poor?
The odd thing is, I've seen many of the ways you justify yourselves, but...I've also seen that many of the most decent people on Steemit (not necessarily large SP, so their opinions do not count ) are against flagging.
I'm not in a position to fight flaggers, but unless I see a clear sign of plagiarism, I do upvote those I find have been flagged to death - even if it is only a symbolic blow against flaggers.
Since you anti-abuse abusers have doctored Steemit so that you are reimbursed out of the pool, all I can hope is that many others also upvote so as to make use of all they can from the pool.
Hello @athur.grafo,
How are you doing? You enjoying the low price of steem?
We dont abuse anyone or anything. Our intention is to stop abuse err the tag #antiabuse.
The thing called curation has two sides to that coin. One side likes something and they want to reward it. The other side doesn't like it and wants to remove those rewards.
At Utopian Antiabuse we support following lawful world wide accepted regulations regarding copy rite and other laws to protect those who have intellectual property.
You are an author would you like me sharing your writings on my blog claiming it was my work and being rewarded for it?
Its pretty simple what we do to combat abuse. We do our best to stop unwarranted rewards. We want the rewards to end up in the hands of original authors.
Hope you recognize that and join us in the effort to get rewards in the hands of real original works.
EDIT: I will mention that we also remove rewards from spam, vote farms and every other type of abuse that the voting power we have allows us.
Second EDIT:
Pretty dramatic words there "flagged to death and symbolic blow" I don't think anyone feels a flag. Many take them personally and many imagine that they are violence. People also believe there are many other crazy things among us. That doesn't make it true now does it?
Actually, the low price of steem is because the last donkey we had here in our village, in Africa, died and we cannot afford to buy another for carrying manure to our steem fields, so the plants are looking very stunted.
Some of the villagers, those who have the power, think that by crapping on the plants they will make them grow, but it is only causing further damage. Since they 'know' they are right and have no interest in allowing the village to collectively make decisions, the rest of us are just waiting for the fields to die of human excrement poisoning, so that we can move on to the next village - in the hopes that they are organised in a more democratic way.
My theory is just as valid as yours is, but you people have the SP, so you do what you want...until everyone has left and then you can play with each other, pretending you have increased the value of the platform - actually, a better word would be 'flatform'.
I have already lost some very good friends and posters because they are sick of you people doing whatever you want because you have the power to do what you want, regardless of the opinions of others.
Really? When someone has started with a struggle and built him or herself up to the 40s or 50s and then he gets flagged until his posts are hidden and he has lost the Rep he worked for, because you people use bots to flag and there is no one for them to appeal your decision (if there is, it is certainly not advertised by you when you flag). These people, who I upvote, have stated in their posts that the article is a copy of a blog of their own - and they povide the link. Yet your bot is as stupid as those who created it, so it ignores that information and flags.
Chasing away posters who have blogs and have a presence elsewhere is to our advantage?
As for some of you saying, if we think the flag was wrong, we can tell you on some kind of chat program - why should we have to go to an off-site platform to demand our rights? Why is there no account where we can post as a comment an argument or proof that there is no plagiarism? An account, that is, where a real human will read it, not again some stupid bot.
It is because of people like you that I have stopped voting for witnesses, for they then think they are special and their opinion counts for more than ours does... agh, what am I arguing for, none of it is going to filter through the blocks to fairness and logic you have put in place.
So, now I am waiting for you to start flagging me - have fun
ever get the feeling you're in a digital 'lord of the flies' ?
careful - they might think you recognised them...
:)
The folks at Utopian and Steemflagrewards have no bots that flags people automatically.
Steemcleaners has many bots but I am not sure if any of them flag before a person checks them out? You could ask @patrice, @guiltyparties, @logic or one of the other steemcleaners hired by the witness @anyx to run steemcleaners for him.
I really think you are mistaken about our tactics. Maybe you have individuals who flag confused with community groups who are trying to do a good thing for steem. Most of us doing the difficult and unforgivable work of flagging have barley any sp ourselves. That is why we can not do any thing against large abusers. We would like to see more involved and more having a say but many are so disconnected from reality its an impossible task.
Im not sure why there is not an instant messaging service here so we don't have to use discord? It is more than likely a coding issue? But it is what it is.
Thanks.
Actually, last year #patrice tried to help me help a newbie who made a simple post about small plot farming in Africa - and #hae---- (you can guess who) flagged him all the way to zero, flagging all his posts. patrice told me the flagger is too big to fight a flagging war with, so I talked about it to various posters and they told me of experiences of theirs. I was not just grand-standing, there are a number of good people who left here because they did not like these bullying tactics.
If you are going to flag, then #cheetah is not a bad example, never attempting to destroy, but to handicap so that the poster learns that plagiarising and scamming, does not pay.
Two of those I have helped, afterwards admitted to me they were in the wrong, but because I helped them, they decided to try to do what is right. I only kept an eye on them for a few weeks, so I cannot confirm they kept their word. However, I prefer to use some carrot with the stick, not just the stick.
The group that unfairly flags, I cannot recall their full name, it is something with 'whale' in it and they warn people that this poster in in their black list. Them and some like them, I will always fight, for the poster has to beg to be forgiven....and I mean literally beg and humiliate themselves. I saw one person be forgiven because he had begged and begged to the point where I could not bear to read the humiliation of his pleas.
Please keep in mind that usually there are two sides to every problem and if you can, lead the idiot who broke the rules to find out that he has not arrived somewhere where he is the only clever one who sees the opportunities...for that is how most of them think. They need to learn that we will not allow them to succeed, but if they try to improve, we'll help them. It does not alway work, but when it does, it feels good.
Perhaps, as we have curators, we should also have mentors?
I keep getting two comments by enforce in my Replies section, but then they instantly disappear - the one of them is an insult about my being old and senile.
I am not that senile (I still like to learn), for I wonder and want to know, how do you do it? How can it appear everytime I first access my Reply page and then disappear?
@enforcer48 Funny, as always.
Careful though, might want to switch it up. Wouldn't want the scarecrow to go stale ;)
What a name!!! Talk about betraying your inner world!!!
Of course, just like a typical snowflake, any talking by people who do not agree with you is superfluous...as it usually is with all enforcers.
Okay, so now we know you have watched they Wizard of Oz. Was that a hint, "Look what my mental level is, so please don't continue the argument which I cannot handle?"
Okay, I'll take pity on you and end it - for now.
Your a very funny guy arthur.
If you use more ! I think enforcer will listen. You see he is a bot that only responds to the proper amount of !
Said the guy who literally barked up the wrong tree. LOL
Let me paint you an anology, @arthur.grafo. We're all on a rowboat and every man has his oar. In order for the boat to move optimally, every man must do their part. On our way we given rations for our work and the supply is limited.
Ideally, every person does their share of paddling and gets their ration. Simple idea, huh? Only thing is not everybody wants to do their paddling. If everybody does their paddling, we all benefit from the added momentum. In order to discourage the folks that don't want to do their share, there must be an incentive or, in our case, a disincentive for not wanted to help the collective.
Enter the flag.
What you and I are doing when we flag appropriately is sending a message to the individual that no, it's not cool to not carry ones weight and try to receive the same incentive. What you are doing by upvoting instead is undermining that process.
You think you are doing them a favor but really they need to learn. You are everyone else working hard a disservice. I disagree with your notion that because a user is poor or new that we should a turn blind eye to them trying to take advantage of a system that serves us all providing it's working properly.
Flag are part of that proper functioning system and hope you understand their utility. If not now, perhaps some day down the road.
I do not know how many pages I have read on this subject, argued by those pro-flagging and those against it and I do not see any of the pro flaggers willing to consider the points made by the other side as only their own point of view is valid...to them. Of course they have the advantage that the same whales who kill Steemit with their stupid posts being rewarded ($1400 for a post with one photo - sorry, not a photo, a stupid snapshot lacking any talent or beauty) are backing the flaggers, since it helps prevent new growth and new whales being created. Can you imagine how bad they would look if whales who have talent came into existence?
I do not say that a plagiarist should be rewarded, what I object to is using bots, which having found similar material elsewhere, punishes by flagging...without it being capable of reading and understanding that the poster has already mentioned that this post is a copy of an article he wrote in his own blog site - or, as I saw recently an article was copied by the poster AFTER he secured permission from the original author.
There is also a difference between flagging and Flagging-en-masse so as to take the poster all the way down to zero rep. That I will always fight against.
At least you argued your case, which is how it should be done, not like that stupid comment by #enforcer who tried to insinuate I have no brain.
Mutes someone, and expects someone to treat them as if they have a brain.
#oldandsenile.
Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 8 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.
I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 5 SBD worth and should receive 134 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.
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@iamstan hey boss,
Cant find you on Discord anymore. =[
How is life?
I survived to NY so far.. :]
https://steemit.com/landscapephotography/@gaottantacinque/life-in-new-york-photogallery