RE: STEEM Panel Discussion Next Saturday, Dec 9, at 11am EST (1600 UTC) // @jesta, @timcliff, @blocktrades, @pharesim, @lukestokes, @elear, @andrarchy
there are a lot of concerns regarding @sneak 's planned "moderation" ideas for Steemit.
Giving Authors ability to delete replies they don't like (like on Facebook and Youtube) is highly contentious and will become a censorship tool to stifle debate and for lies and propaganda to be perpetrated on the public without appropriate scrutiny.
Anti-social behaviour and spam is already tackled by the flagging downvote system and by mute button. There is no demand for a new arbitrary "delete comment" tool and infact in the Community Feature Requests recently compiled by @timcliff it was nowhere to be seen. The Steemit community appreciates the censorship resistant aspects of Steemit, and they realize it ultimately benefits everyone and the collective intelligence if noone is able to just make comments disappear.
Please read this post (and my reply), and lets at least keep Steemit censorship free:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@behindsteemit/behind-steemit-5-free-steemit-censorship-everywhere
If steemit.com was the only interface to the blockchain I would agree however, this is not the case. Posts, comments and replies cannot be deleted from the blockchain. That is how the censorship resistance comes into play.
Have you seen how chainbb handles moderation? There the forum moderators can hide a comment or post but if you want to you can show all hidden posts with a click of a button.
The chainBB moderation is something I can live with, and similar to my compromise proposal.
If Authors were given the option to collapse/hide replies but not completely delete them from the site I would be ok with that, as long as the reader could undo the moderation with a click.
Instead Sneak is pushing for moderated comments to completely disappear from the site.
Dan and Ned promoted the Steemit social media site as censorship resistant, and that nothing would be deleted from the site unless illegal under US law.
This position has been maintained till now but it is about to change because 1 developer insists on changing this and we shouldn't complain cos "Steemit is not the only site". That's not logical.
Keep in mind that Steemit holds the vast majority of the Steem tokens. They are the only site in the Steem ecosystem with the financial capital to deliver a social media that can compete with facebook and google. The other sites have to raise funds by taking a cut on user's posts which will always put them in a marginal role.
The only real alternative interface to Steemit may become the Vessel App, and when that expands to include all social media functionality then yes the fate of the Steemit website becomes irrelevant....but at the current time the Steemit website is key in showcasing the power of the Steem blockchain. With censorship resistance being one of the key selling points.
Steemit is not censor free. Anybody with more clout than you can wipe your account into oblivion.
I think it would be great to be able to delete comments from one's on post/thread. So much stupid stuff and spam and heckling and off topic and mean stuff gets in the comments, clutters it up for everybody.
As a compromise I suggested to @Sneak to just allow Authors to collapse replies they don't like (hidden like when they get downvoted) but not have them completely deleted from the thread.
Unfortunately Sneak insists he wants the moderated comments to disappear and with no trace on the website. I believe readers should at least be informed a "comment was hidden by the author" and be able to see the unmoderated content if they choose without having to open blockexplorers or leaving the site.
https://steemit.com/steemfest/@timcliff/dinner-with-timcliff-and-sneak-at-steemfest-discussion-about-communities#@lavater/re-timcliff-dinner-with-timcliff-and-sneak-at-steemfest-discussion-about-communities-20171110t054335347z