Many new users have recently been targeted by flagging. The individual behind the flagging is someone who has problems with steemit, and wants to harm the platform by targeting new users.
I have seen many calls to action to stop this individual. From allowing Steemit bills of attainder (the flagging of users vs. content), to removing the downvote alltogether to making individuals pay money in order to use the downvote.
To my mind, all of these are bad solutions. At the end of the day, even though you might not agree with the way this individual is voting, it is his vote. He has the SP and has every right to use it to vote how he wants.
I have a better idea. How about, we all get to vote however we want. Even those that vote in a way that most of us disagree with. How about we all have a voice.
Now, you might be saying "but thats not fair! My post was hidden by this guy." Its easy to sympathize with that. But, now your post has been unhidden. I have went back through all of this users downvotes for the past 24 hours and manually upvoted all posts that his vote hid. The system works. Without a wacky scheme to stop people from voting.
Because at the end of the day, the if there aren't enough good actors acting good to overcome the bad actors, whats the point.
What we need isnt censorship or restrictions on voting. Its people who care about making sure everyone in the community has a voice. One of the most disturbing things about this situation is not that the downvotes actually happened, but that in all the absurd talk of how we can make sure no one ever votes in a way we don't like, nobody ever thought to go through and undo the damage that this user did.
I have created a private channel (im not cool enough to create a public one i guess) on steemit chat to combat censorship in all forms. Its #censorship. DM me there (@sigmajin) if you would like to be added.
You can also DM me there or reply here if i missed you and your post is still hidden. I am working on a solution to automate this proccess.
Good work @sigmajin! Always a good sign when @smooth is on board with what you're saying.
thanks. I like to be added. upvoted
PS: I promoted this with 1 SBD. Its important that people see this.
I was in a similar situation yesterday. @sigmajin helped me out, thanks again.
same name on chat?
yes
btw, thanks for the promo dollars. Im actually gonna send a few myself later on today when my powerdown comes in.
Thank you. I don't see flagging as voting. I think we need something more like YouTubes thumbs up or thumbs down.
Its not really flagging. Its a downvote, just like in reddit. The flag is something that they made up for the UI to discourage irresponsible use. There's not even any proof its a flag. That picture could be an empty box of tampons with a pencil sticking out of it.
If you want to think of it as a thumbs down (which is how its expressed on steemd.com) then you can do that too.
But, in the actual back end, it is a vote, just one with a negative weight.
I've just been hit buy this guy... My Heddon's mouth post. :(
Though it hasn't been hidden as it had a few votes already, so perhaps you only need to vote if you like the post :)
actually, i think it was hidden for a time. I've already voted for that post -- it was one of the ones I unhid.
Thank you!
Yes. This. So much.
One thing to note -- if your post was not hidden, I'm not upvoting (youre welcome to talk about the post here). My rationale here is that rafkens vote only cost you a fraction of a cent, and even just upvoting actually hidden posts is nearly exhausting my voting power.
If your post was hidden, post the link here please. This way, there might actually be people who come by and look because right now, i don't have a robot and i can't monitor it manually 24/7. I am going to see if i can get streemian to work to directly counter these votes.
Hey guys... I had a work thing i had to take care of yesterday afternoon, so i wasn't around for very long after I posted this.
It looks like a lot of the commentary here was hidden, then revealed by @highasfuck. thanks HAF -- Shipped you 10sbd for censorship fighting.
Quick update to this. It looks like @highasfuck is a bot. The programmer set it to vote in opposition to @r4fken, but @r4fken caught on. Now, @r4fken is upvoting things instead of DV'ing them, and drawing the (more powerful) downvote of @highasfuck. He needs to change his algo to only counter downvotes, not upvotes.
Thanks @sigmajin, I've seen some vote battling going out there.
youve actually made me laugh probably more than any poster... i swear to got you get me every time (satire tag or not)
update: you inspired me to do another just now.
well at least that's one steemian that gets my posts, thank you!
@highasfuck sent you a msg on your wallett.
I'm a victim of more than one. Other than r4fken, there's also scentihark.
I just posted one that r4fken and highasfuck are taking turns flagging and then unflagging.
sigh.... sigh.... sigh.... guess what else can I said.
Care not hate, agreed. You didn't upvote my greyed post :P
Just got my downvote cherry popped by r4fken in a post I had deleted. I had never been downvoted before, curiously I got a few upvotes for that post after the downvote, so it's kind of funny... https://steemit.com/writing/@catsmart/the-wiz