Sunday Reflection: This World of Cheaters and Scammers!
These days, I find myself growing more and more careful about the posts I curate and upvote, here on Steemit.
I try to find new content... and often find myself momentarily hopeful, then discover that I am actually looking at a post the seems legit but turns out to be part of some kind of "rewards farm" whose rewards suddenly shoot from almost nothing to $15-20 near the end of our 7-day period... and then it suddenly goes to zero as one of our anti-abuse accounts removes the rewards with downvotes.
"Nice catch," I think to myself... but it also makes me feel a bit sad that there are so many people trying to milk the system.
Of course, I could just stick to engaging with "the usual suspects" but the problem with that is that it fails to identify and encourage the handful of genuine newcomers who could grow to become valuable community members, if given the chance. And if we're always staying with the tried and true, we run the risk of staying in a pattern of eternal stagnation.
Thinking about it, I find myself going backwards all the way to business school at University, where one (controversial!) finance professor pointed out that "even reasonable people often behave badly, as soon as there is money involved!"
I have often found myself being rather naive as to people's intentions, as I have made my way through life. I like to believe that people — for the most part — approach their lives and dealings with honesty and integrity... even though I have often encountered a reality that is almost the exact opposite.
You might be reading this and thinking to yourself "maybe so, but I would not ever do such a thing."
While that might be true, the unfortunate reality is that when genuinely honest people increasingly feel like they are outnumbered by sketchy individuals, they gradually grow more likely to just give up and disconnect completely.
Perhaps you can't blame them... when it feels like your sincere effort ends up being ignored because illicit efforts "make more noise" it becomes very discouraging!
I don't have any easy answers to this kind of problem, but I do think those of us who have been here for a while can take a few extra seconds to make sure the curation (and upvotes) we distribute are going to real people contributing real content and not just to some harvesting organization!
I recognize it can be tempting to just "front run" any account that's going to regularly get big upvotes... but if you do so, at least make sure they are someone who's not just contributing AI generated garbage or copied content!
And that's pretty much all I have to say about that...
But enough about that!
A new week lies ahead, and it's time for me to go through my big "writing ideas file" and see if I can find something inspiring to write about, over the next few days!
Thanks for coming to visit, and have a great week ahead!
How about YOU? Have you noticed that we have an alarmingly large volume of "shady" posts on Steemit? Are you generally careful with what you put your votes on? Probably a silly question, because if you are actually READING this, I'm sure you are! Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)
Created at 2025.08.04 00:27 PDT
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You know, “milking” this platform is really not worth it. Steem is practically worthless now—and in my opinion, that's not because of the widespread abusive behavior, but because of the system itself. Regardless of my assessment, however, there is still the social component, the networking here. I'm satisfied if this function continues to serve its purpose. What others do... Goodness gracious. Let them be happy (which I consider impossible...).
0.00 SBD,
0.02 STEEM,
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You are quite right, of course... they will never be happy.
I suppose this frustrates me because much of it is just automated and reminds much the same reasons I have quit gaming sites in the past... they became so overrun by bots and scripts that actual humans playing had a pretty much meaningless experience because you were "competing" against a computer.
Not that I am planning to go anywhere... I will continue to be social with the small group I know are fellow bloggers!
0.00 SBD,
0.10 STEEM,
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I saw a ton of Actifit posts with beautiful pictures of people having a great time—coffee with a friend, a walk in the park. Then, after a few days, it hit me. Was it déjà vu? Was I hallucinating? Turns out, everyone was just writing and repeating the same content. 🤣🤣🤣
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0.02 STEEM,
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I try to not just dismiss Actifit posts because there are a few people who use the Actifit front end to write real posts, in addition to sharing their fitness numbers. Still, I'm not a huge fan, even at the best of times.
I hate that they are using it as a plagiarism farming vehicle...
You are right, there's some real stories there. I used it too but, on another site.
Upvoted! Thank you for supporting witness @jswit.