Good evening @dana-edwards,

You're absolutely right about the conspiracy theories, that could get Steemit monitored by various agencies, placing it's future as a whole in danger. This may actually be something that I would want to research more, and write about in the future. Keeping free-speech is important, and you bring up a sticky issue that I wouldn't know how to deal with personally, but deserves a second look at.

We are seeing now with the heavy censorship being displayed to YouTube vloggers the kinds of things that could potentially happen to the US user base on Steemit, and it doesn't look pretty. I agree that being decentralized will make Steemit durable throughout these types of cases.

I live in Hawaii, and cryptocurrency as a whole is heavily regulated to begin with. Steemit will last, but being a US user, I don't want to see our region get censored, or limited.

Plagiarism is a big deal to me which is one of the reasons I came to this particular post, and you are correct about better methods of handling this form of abuse. The other week I flagged down and reported user earthnation for multiple abuses towards the platform. I chose to not write a post about it.

Instead I took the above actions, then provided the image proof of why I was flagging, and for which offense, and commented it directly to the post to raise awareness.

I don't agree with the assault on @supassinggoogle, however, it was @littleboy's title which is why I came here- so I see the purpose in it. I know that ned allowed Terry to keep his delegation, and I opened this article to understand why someone would have a problem with one of my favorite Steemians, and to get to the bottom of it. Calling someone out who is not the offender it really bad, but I give @littleboy props for not putting Terry's name in the title, I feel doing so would have brought a lot of hate from both sides, and ignorant opinions, which was adverted to a good extent.

Terry is someone I hold in high regards, and I consider him one of my actual friends here. I understand that by making this post, he would get attention from Terry to better understand what's going on, but the same could have been done by commenting the plagiarizer's post, asking Terry to step in instead. He does read the comments.

This issue matters to both him and littleboy, but the difference is that Terry has other important focuses right now, and littleboy specializes in catching dishonesty, bugs, and testing. They both care, but research in different subjects. I do think littleboy did a good job getting his attention (and mine as well), but asking to unvote his witness over this, was not the coolest move. We're all human though.

I will read your blogs after commenting here, and will leave my commentary on your actual posts c:

I do see where you are coming from, as a few weeks ago, a super user (teamsteem) brought up with and asked me if the quotes and images I was not citing in my posts were mine- which they were, and I was able to clear up this misunderstanding in the comments of one of my posts.

I will inform you that I have visited the posts of your accuser, and will tell you that his view point is ignorant of the platform here. You are an established user, with a dedicated following that will vote you. I am in the very beginning stages of that myself. Him asking if your post is worth as much as it is making is biased, as we both know that everyone can use their stake as they please, and although one user may not see value in your article, another will appreciate your existence. People want to excel at a system that they don't understand.

I am a variety writer versed in a ridiculous number of topics. My followers are not following my topic, but are following ME and although they don't understand everything I write, they trust in my quality from the ones they do, this guy has yet to learn about networking, and I hope one day that he does.

It is in fact funny that you mention that all really detailed articles and excellent work must have been cheated from somewhere else. He is in fact conspiring against you in this regard not having proof, and although I never contacted earthnation directly, I have explained why I was behaving the way I was, and how I viewed the situation, they definitely were aware of my activity. If his claims were based in fact he would have no reason to hide.

One of the things I like the most about Steemit is the level of skill, intellect, and talent present that is non-existent on other social media. You have to work really hard to climb here, and put consistent efforts, and I feel that he is another user like the ones who rant about the hot/trending users on the site who can only see what is wrong with others, and NEVER himself. People don't learn and improve this way, all it does is justify why they are not doing as well as someone else.

I don't think I deserve anyone an explanation on why some of my work is amazing :D that people find it hard to believe that I did, but I do have proof to back myself, and I even write specialty posts, and tutorials that explain what experiences lead up to learning what I know. What I feel helps me, is that people who follow me for a while start to understand me as a person, which makes me happy. I know you aren't plagiarizing.

Any person this guy is able to convince, is not capable of thinking for themselves and is not a problem for you, but for Steemit. It is discouraging though to work your ass off for someone to try to discredit all of your hard work.

I do agree with the why bring ned into this, but that was the clue for me, to investigate the contents of the post knowing who the delagatee is. Your comment, this post, and a lot of what I see happening in the community is some of the topics I want to focus on in the future.

The problem I see is with educating new users coming into Steemit. The topics are, how to spot and properly disclose, and report suspicious activity, and what makes a good Steemian, and the type of experiences, challenges, and growth every user must face here. Without spreading awareness, new users will become ignorant and run rampant, while scammers go undetected.

TL;DR- I am now following you, and look forward to some awesome posts to share my opinions on, good job to littleboy for exposing an actual plagiarizer, and for getting attention to these types of issues, but please get to know Terry, he has a great heart, and has Steemit in best interest for all of us.

@surpassinggoogle, a suggestion I have is to get a couple of people who know how to check for plagiarism to join your team, to investigate complaints like these and help determine if someone plagiarizing, and a black list them. I personally will volunteer some time, if you add a channel for it on Steemgigs, so that you can focus more on your own duties. You could also have people apply for a position.

This was definitely an experience to be had today, and I am glad to see people discuss serious issues maturely for most part. For different reasons, I can tell that all 4 of us really care, and being able to be transparent and honest does really help.

Thank you again, with love
shello