I've been umming and ahhing over whether I should stand as a referee in the upcoming elections. While I like the idea of having a means of cancelling out some the more blatant abuse that takes place on the platform, I'm still torn over having a centralised force removing rewards for some areas that I feel are quite subjective. Still better to try and be a positive influence on an organisation from within and now that the gig is a 2-week affair it means I can opt-in and out as my timetable allows.
Experience Fighting Abuse
It all started here on steemit a couple of years ago where I got involved in trying to make an impact in the ocean of plagiarism that I found when I first arrived here. I did A LOT of reporting to Steemcleaners, acquired the rank of detective on their discord server and to this day I am still one of the all-time top 10 reporters to Steemcleaners despite having spent the best part of a year away from the Steem blockchain.
Still number 9 on the all-time list of abuse fighters! source
Identifying and preventing plagiarism isn't something that I just do on the blockchain. I've worked for over a decade in education and most of that time in Higher Education so I've seen my fair share of people trying to cheat their way to grades they don't deserve in much the same way that some users will look to steal from the reward pool. Those professional skills coupled with experience of the kind of scams and tricks that individuals use to try and cover up their acts on Steem mean that I'm pretty adept at identifying and sourcing plagiarism when I see it.
What I think the referee role should involve
In a nutshell, fighting obvious and quantifiable abuse. I think that any reasonable member of the community would agree that the following are a blight on the platform and drain on the reward pool
- Plagiarism
- Copy & paste
- Comment spam
- Comment farming
- Tag abuse inc. non-sports related content
What I think referees shouldn't be involved in
There are a whole load of very subjective and grey areas of "abuse" that in my opinion should in most instances be avoided by the central referee team. That is not because I might not personally see them as abuse but more because I don't think that you will ever find a community consensus on what for example constitutes a low/high-quality post or what a circle jerk is, etc. etc.
Individual users have been given 2.5 free downvotes to use a day and they should be encouraged to use them to remove rewards on the basis of quality/value as they see fit rather than relying on a central account to modify and censor content for them - if you want that kind of system then go post on Facebook!
Full details of the election can be found here
sounds good. voted
Thanks man, much appreciated
Fuck you man. Shame on you. Shit platform
I'm very excited to see you make this decision @talesfrmthecrypt! I would however encourage you to consider running from an alt account such as @talesfrmtheref. Referees will often need to make lots of downvotes to stop abuse. The way @referee votes is based on the % each referee downvoted. I would hate for you to waste your personal account's voting power on behalf of those seeking to abuse the platform with minor cuts.
Thanks for the support Patrick and the tip in regards the alt account. I'll get onto that now
Glad you are on board and I agree sharing roles is the way to do it. I can do 2 weeks at a time and then have a break and come back again depending on time availability.
Yeah, If I'm going to be involved in this I'd want to do it right and I know there will be times just like much of September and October when I was fairly inactive due to work commitment that I'm not going to be able to give it my full commitment
Good luck on running for ref. It would be cool to have you on the team. If I even make it. Right now it doesn't look too good! I have been on Steem two years and I have learned a lot about creating content that I have tried to bring over to STS in my role as a ref. Some of it worked out well, and others kind of hit a wall. It can be a tricky slope sometimes!
Thanks man, you too. I'm interested to see whether this "verified" status will make any difference to the outcome. If you're not verified does that mean you won't be elected? I also believe that a couple of people are technically on the list twice e.g. their ref accounts and their regular posting accounts. Presumably, only 1 account per individual can be elected?
Yes, that is correct about the single accounts I would hope. I think some of those people on there twice have already tried to get that sorted out by requesting people remove their votes and apply them to the correct referee account instead. It is mainly happening to the people who are currently referees.
Some commendable work as a non-ref right now, I'd like to see you involved.
Thanks abh and kudos to you for the effort you’ve made
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Hey dude. Why you downvoting everyone everywhere? Cos you've got little power? And now you could pounds on every post you see and downvoting? You wanna start the game? And I'll get 20M power just to wreck you.
I see you do that to someone without hey, this is what you did wrong.
Why are you trying to bring Steemit bullshit down here?
Thanks for highlighting yourself. You can't do posts like that as at least write your own material.
Bob. You have been on Steem for nearly 2 and a half years and know the rules. Copying and pasting and using it as your material isn't allowed.
Y'all are just fools. Plagiarism is when you copy someone's work without reference it. Y'all suffers from delusion and hatred. Same shit you did on Steemit bring down here.
I fuckin invested my fund on this platform and have the right to use it how I want. U wanna use your little muscle you've got. Fuck y'all.
Surprise! This is the same blockchain that Steemit uses :O - I know that might be a shock but SPORTS is not a different blockchain. Each post on sportstalksocial is a post on Steem .
So you think it's right to copy as long as you reference? Not the whole post dick head. No hatred at all and you are the only delusional person here thinking that this behavior is alright.
Downvoting you because you are copy and pasting. If you don't already know that's wrong then it seems little point in trying to explain it to you...
I don't need your explanation. You're just the little guy snatching missed opportunity on Steemit to use it here. This ain't going nowhere if you're gonna be stupid to see what you're doing wrong. What is plagiarism?
Now you raping the pool with your stinking posts. Owing millions of accounts. I ain't got time bargaining with you cos I've got better place to be.
Man. You ain't doing nothing other than shit. You have no record. You get no vote here. I'll move everywhere for it. I'll release article why you don't deserve it.
You need some training to know what is right and how to better judge what plagiarism is. As far as I'm concerned, you're much of a spinner. So I wonder how thief looking out for thieves.