How Spam is killing steemit and what to do about it.
Most of us either in our email or blog posts has seen weird comments (or posts) that do not have anything to do with our mail. This is annoying, especially in an amazing blogging community like steemit. Some even send in links that will compromise your security in order to steal your data’s and thus steal your hard earned money. In steemit, however, this issue is prevalent because of the ability to earn money blogging here even by commenting only.
Some of them are :
Wallet spam: I do not have issue when someone sends some steem to my wallet in order to pass a message however when it starts annoying many members of our steemit community then we all should be worried. For example @thecryptofiend who is a nice and peaceful person had to send @joanaltres a message to stop spamming members wallet with a resteem offer that is valueless: ; @joanaltres - STOP SPAMMING everyone's wallet with your pointless fake follower crap. You are killing what little reputation you had; link here .
Post & Comments spams: steemit posts have been fraught with picture spams : members posting one single pictures (flower, sexy lady, sun, moon, sea, baby, cat, bee, food, juice , teeth etc) almost every 30 minutes in order to make constant money-and in response to @thecryptofiend spam warning , @stellabelle started her own amazing campaign against spam posts here : The war on spam and challenged all of us to join the fight and thus make steemit a better place to blog . My question is, are you ready to join the fight?
Most worryingly, due to the ability to earn rewards via commenting, many members are no longer reading post rather they copy and throw in phrases like Follow for follow , up vote for up vote or even good post please up vote my blog post , wow good please up vote my post too (haha without even up voting the original post).
Up voting spam: Up voting spam is the steemit killer because it robs all of us revenue from the reward pool. Moreover, some steemians have thousands of account just for the purpose of up voting their posts and comments. The good news , however, is that some steemians , examples, @stellabelle , @ats-david , @transisto , the newborn @sadkitten , @sherlockholmes , @personz , @papa-pepper , @pfunk, @patrice , @clayboyn , @fyrstikken , @ausbitbank are working hard to stop or at least reduce spams here. One example is @ausbitbank down voting a spammer whose thread had about 60 comments, all with ~3400 votes from the same voting trail that seems to be led by @ecoworld see link here (Good job indeed isn’t it?).
Why spamming is bad for steemit
Flagging: we all want flagging to stop because it is not good for community spirit. However in order to control spam and scam, flagging is necessary.
Less attractive: if steemit were to be a beautiful lady, spamming certainly will make it ugly and unattractive.
Cheating: spamming relates to cheating especially those who send in loads of posts, comments and up vote spams
Solutions to Spamming on steemit
I do not have the magic stick however, the best thing to do is to be proactive and report spammers to @stellabelle , @sadkitten , @cheetah and @steemcleaners ( please not to @banjo , @ionlysaymeep or even @onlymanamana ) . Another good contact is @spaminator . In fact, on 30th July to 5th August 2017 the account found 10,102 spam comments see link here . Moreover if anyone sees anything fishy, please send a message in steemit chat to @sherlockholmes who will look into it .
;Out of 21,708 users that commented in the 7 day period more than 10% were comment spamming for profit with their own, rented, or borrowed vote trails. While I haven't checked every account, I'm sure 99% are using delegated SP from @steem;
Conclusion : in this post, I have outlined the dangers of spamming to steemit , indicated some members doing their best to make steemit a spam free platform and gave a succinct advise on what to do against spam. Moreover, there is no advantage of spam rather it is fraught with a lot of downsides (especially the bots throwing in spams) and thus needs to be eradicated.
What do you guys think?
• All spams are bad
• Not all spams are essentially bad, i.e. I do not have a problem with any spams
• Spams are here to stay!!! Indicate why you think so
Send in your comment, Please resteem this for others to join and up vote to send your support.
Is steemit a greaveyard for poor people? Click here and see my former blog post: Steemit: Poor People killer Or A Strategic Solution For All ?
I propose a solution to spam: Let them win.
By which i mean: allow everyone to spend 100% of their voting power instead of the current 2% (max).
If we do this the self-promoters and investors have no incentive to spam. Infact, instead of posting 5 mediocre spam articles a week some popular poster might try to make one good post per week.
I outline my argument here:
https://steemit.com/steem-ideas/@donaldtrumpfan/allow-a-100-sp-vote-the-best-voting-problem-solution
Good point, thanks for sharing. Checked your post and upvoted...good tip indeed
That's an interesting angle. I'm not sure that they would start creating quality content because it suddenly becomes profitable.
I'm new and struggling to see how I can turn a profit. I spent a few hours on a post covering this issue last night and only have 0.02 Steem dollars 😂
Anyway, I think it could be a self sabotaging ecosystem. I feel ReddCoin might come out the winner in the long term. Reasons are outlined here https://steemit.com/steemit/@joannajablonka/steemit-is-in-danger-of-self-destruction-why-reddcoin-could-win
Yes your solution does seem to be a good one for this as well as to get more investors!
Nice input!
Good point, feel free to see my latest post on steemit being undervalued and send in your suggestions..
Ok I wil check it out now!
Thanks a lot
what solution will you propose for scam as you did for spam in this post.I posted about even a more serious case of scam at steemit in my new post, I explained some points about scam in steemit-feel free to see it and send your suggestions on what to do. More success
When more people start to discover Steemit the level of spam will also grow since there sre always people out there who want to make money this way. My view is that we can only prevent spam if it is a joint effort:
When the numbers boom I just hope we don't also have to deal with new users reporting posts that they just find offensive. That could also be an issue
Good point indeed, noted.
Thanks
welcome
That's exactly what I'm thinking
Here, here.
With numbers and a sense of competition, yes we are bound to face more spam. Having a team to handle spam will help, but also a better distribution of wealth to devoted content creators and community contributors could reduce spam.
you should also mention the newborn @sadkitten!
Good post! Wee need more awareness of this issue!
@sherlockholmes see the updated version of the post, thanks for your sugestion.
Noted, thanks
Please follow Sherlock, he's doing great work tracking spam bots.
I confirm @sherlockholmes :D
I am doing already thanks, my latest post also explained some points about scam in steemit
Hey, I've heard about @sadkitten, what's that all about? I'm checking the profile now, thanks for mentioning it!
Hope you found someting good about @sadkitten, in my new post, I explained some points about scam in steemit-feel free to see it
I must read and learn everything!!! Keep learning new stuff every day here,amazing! And thank you for being part of that learning process ;)
Good point. In addition to my last comment, feel free to join the conversation in my new post about future of steem...it will motivate you more about steem . More success to you.
I will even though I'm still a newbie so I doubt I will actually follow (or be motivated) but you never know ;) Thank you! Likewise! (Now, where's my ice cream? :D )
Come for your Ice cream dearie...now?
ahahahaha again I feel this creepy breeze from the white van :P But oh well, this time I'll take it - Give! (please :D )
Haha, good point
I think another problem if I understand the system correctly is that it is totally impossible to make money on a post that is a certain age or older meaning any user is encouraged to spam more frequent less thourough posts than a very well-thought-out very long post that could earn money over time the extreme of this is obviously the spammers posting single stolen pictures or useless comments with Incredible frequency.
This is especially true with new users who if I understand the system correctly have almost no incentive whatsoever to put that much effort into their beginning posts because many of their early post will not even be noticed at all let alone make any money.
I think as well as systems to combat the obvious spam directly there also needs to be better systems that will help notice and support new users who are at least attempting to produce quality content and are going unnoticed.
I think there's also going to be an incredible increase in SOB stories and request for donation Etc which is fine but I believe there will be so many fake ones that it will take the attention away from people that actually need and deserve the help of the community.
Most of the spammers don't seem to engage in any real conversation at all so you may have a tough time at it but one way would be to try and make them understand that it is pointless even if you have thousands and thousands of followers if they're just chump change spammers like you than you won't make any money at all off of them, seemingly the only way to make it on Steam is to be noticed by the large dolphins or whales and most of them seem to be quite preoccupied with circle jerking each other...
Then there's the people abusing the power that they have in flagging in a way that does not line up with the guidelines for flagging.
If steemit gives particular guidelines about what deserves to be flagged and you have very powerful people flagging things that do not meet that criteria it is incredibly damaging to the reputation of the community.
This was common when I started here. I don't remember the user but it was a story from Venezuela that was at around $1000 that was successfully flagged and unvoted.
Guidelines are for the community to come up with and find support for. Groups like @steemcleaners and the future group @spaminator rely on support from the community to function.
I'm quite happy that most heavy hitters refrain from flagging these days. I once helped a guy who was flagged to a negative rep by @dan for a comment while well meant looked like spam.
I don't think this has anything to do with age. It has more to do with being seen in the new or hot tabs. The more you post the higher chance you'll hit the lottery and get a vote by someone. You may actually win the jackpot if you get a vote by @blocktrades who likes memes.
Same applies to comments. The more posts you comment on the better chance someone will upvote you. In that situation it is more likely to be less rewarding since users holding SP do value their votes and their stake in steemit.com.
When they removed the posting limit in favor of a bandwidth limitation I don't think they considered that relatively new accounts could post a lot of links. At one point @alonekim was posting more than 100 posts a day with only a link.
As a member of @steemcleaners I've shied away from addressing that problem because it strays into content moderation which I don't want to do. But it could be come a spam issue if it isn't deterred. I hope to come up with some rewarding ways for users to interact and have actual conversations in comments.
you are doing an amazing job. I am back from teaching, so I hope i didn't miss anything!
But it's true that higher quality longer posts are being forgotten. There should be another category in addition to new, hot, and trending:
qualityperhaps.That is true. I believe some older posts could still generate rewards legitimately. Some information doesn't expire or lose value. Especially artistic content. On the other hand I see them as ways to hide bot trails up-voting older posts for profit.
It would be great to have a way to view older content. The current development of STEEM/SBD tip bots would be a great way to reward those older posts directly.
Are you saying an author still receives payout rewards on posts older than 7 days, if it keeps receiving upvotes even months after?
pls do explain that further?
No. Currently authors don't receive any rewards for posts over 7 days. What I am saying is it would be nice for there to be a way to view older posts made by users more easily. There are graphics, tutorials, etc that don't lose value to the reader. With the development of tipbots here users could show their appreciation by tipping authors of these posts.
yes o. That does make a lot of sense, with tipbots, the rewards system for quality posts that remain relevant, can go on endlessly. This indeed will be a great positive innovation for the steemit if it is implemented
Good point. This is the case with top videos in youtube or blogs in google platform.. I agree. But new comments in an old post can still be rewarded
Thanks for the insight, I definitely think promoting quality users is a superior tactic instead of attacking inferior users, because the problem with spammers is they just make another account(s)
But undiscovered quality users being supported will have a stronger lasting effect in my opinion regarding the percentage of spam to quality on steemit.
This is one of the best comments in the thread. Good points!
I agree
Your points are great, I posted about even a more serious case of scam at steemit in my new post, I explained some points about scam in steemit-feel free to see it and send your suggestions on what to do. More success
So very true.
Great points indeed, I agree. Thanks for your comment.
Wow great post !! I also did a post a while back about all this spamming , it really is bad for the platform , hopefully it gets taken care of soon , im sure it will , Like to try VB and keep a positive attitude right now ! Steem on my friend , and don't forget to enter my Power Of Positivity P.O.P Contest !! Thanks !! Upped and resteemed your post !✔🆗🆒💙
Hahaha ! Kidding! Keep calm and Steem On !!😂😂😂😂
😂😂😂😂 always glad to see your comment. Spammers will run away after seeing you beat the shit out of a spammer!!!
Use your downvote to disincentivize abusive behavior.
Good point, thanks for your comment and surpport here. Wish you a blessed weekend.
This post earned my 100 % upvote
Good one @charles1 ... Your point on @joanaltres wallet spam is on point...I think that nonsense has to stop as am sure he now has over 10k spammer followers used to scam peoples 2sbd for resteem that has no value...also other annoying spamers should be deleted...thanks for this...
welcome, thanks for your comment.
always welcome... keep it up
Good content will surely prevail in steemit. Spammers will always phase out.
Thanks for your comment.
Spammers are people who are either too lazy or too incompetent to produce value content as that takes brain and time... Whenever money is involved people seem to just go for that rather than showing their value first!
Unfortunately I believe spam will always be with us. English is not the first language of many users on Steemit so to make it simple for them just a simple "Good post" or :interesting" is used to feign interest. Many people will start to lose interest if they find they are not getting traction so some of the spam will die off but new ones will take their place.
Good point , I agree
You've got an incredible gift.
I'm hooked!
This is excellent work.