This is a "strategic position" in response to the many (many, many) people actively fighting spam and spammers on this platform.
The infamous "page 15 / 32"
First, let me say, spam is bad, very bad. Spam is the result of a serious design flaw of this platform (yes, I'm looking at you, @ned and @dan) who implicitly encouraged spam when they wrote in the Steem whitepaper
This is not the first time I'm taking this position, this time in response to a recent post by @meno called "An Ode to Spam"
I reckon it is absolutely natural and human to think the way @meno thinks. Yet, dear @meno, dear @heimindanger and others, I respectfully disagree with your (plural, because there are many people sharing it) recommendations.
Yes, spam is not good. Spam is a drag on platform quality and on the reward pool (though I'm not alarmed if it's only tens of thousands out of about 750 000 weekly reward pool)
Spammers gonna spam. But what makes this platform great is the rest of the people, the good, very good and excellent content creators who produce content that even people not owning an account want to read and come on Steemit to read.
And these content creators who move the platform forward have a limited amount of time and energy to dedicate to these primordial task of producing original, high quality content.
Platform strategy
"Strategy is choosing what NOT to do" Michael Porter said.
I contend that in the current state of the code, working around the loopholes of 0.19.3 by compensating with extra "manual cleaning work" is a huge strategic mistake.
In order to drive the point home and raise the hair on the back of many libertarians here, it is equivalent to the focus of socialists and communist on just redistribution of value / profits rather than the capitalist focus on increasing the size of the pie for everyone.
People who are able to create that incredible content which brings people to Steemit should focus EVERY SECOND of their available time, energy and brain power on producing great original content. Focus on what they do best.
And spend NOT A MINUTE on looking after so-so comments, determining whether it's "flaggable" or "not-worth-flagging" spam and then balancing that against the consumption of voting power flagging implies.
Haters gonna hate. Thiefs gonna steal. Spammers gonna spam.
Focus on bringing people from outside the system ONTO this great platform by creating content they want to read, content they can't find on Medium nor on Quora nor on Twitter.
Else, we are going to end up burning the platform at the stake of righteousness. We are going to end up like this
source
Related posts:
Steemit has great content to the point where it attracts people from outside the platform. More such content is needed.
Steem accounts linked to real world identities are a correct answer to spam. Maybe not the only one but the link to real world identities encourages pro-social behaviour (positive reinforcement) and discourages anti-social behaviour (spam)
I am walking the talk myself as I explain here
We are making again, at much accelerated speed, the same mistakes and taking the same blind alleys that human society has taken during the past 7000 years. In the end, we'll discover that what we have in the outside world is as close as it gets to the best we can collectively achieve, as a species ...
Content is King. Bringing great content creators here and rewarding them right is what will drive Steem market to reach 10 billion. NOT the absence of spam! Basically, the best strategy against spam is to ... drown it in excellent content!
If you enjoy my posts, please approve @lux-witness as a witness!
I agree with this. Although I do report some things mentioned in my comment on @meno post which I hope you will read. After long deliberation in my brain on this subject, I've concluded that phishing links and hijacking attempts are worth my reporting. I don't hunt them but if I see one, it's getting reported.
And I will always flag if a friend of mine had their content stolen. That's just solidarity.
I have spoken many times on the passage you quoted from the whitepaper. All activity is good activity for "steem blockchain" and the only bad activity is no activity. However, various malicious code attempts could result in lower to no human activity. A shitty overall experience could as well.
I agree that attempts at stopping J'en (no tag) and changing the trending page and all that is somewhat crusading and stopping the progression of steem into a multicoin multidapp type of database. If they don't stop with it, it could deeply effect how smts and dapps work; especially if a major corporation decides to start a dapp with an smt. Folks need to accept the changes.
Note, I would report phishing on facebook and I don't get paid at all to. I'm a savage but not that whew, just if my mom hit a phishing link I think I'd always wonder if it was the one I didn't report?! HAha.. Okay done here.
Well... believe it or not... we don't disagree disagree... I mean, we seem to disagree but our disagree is agreeable.
hahahaha Ok, on a serious note...
I concentrate 90% of my time on building a community, on coaching and mentoring other Steemians, I try doing this through @helpie and also through our weekly meetings and mentoring sessions we host on the discord server.
But... I do spend a little bit of time reporting accounts to @steemcleaners , a little bit... just the ones that are so blatant, my sandwich lost its initial flavor.
So yes, we disagree... just not all the way...
Maybe?
You are right. I'm forced to appear categorical in my public positions or else nobody would read my posts till the end! :)
One can never be 100% sure :
{
"classification_bot_score": 0.007,
"classification_human_score": 0.979,
"classification_spammer_score": 0.014,
"comment_count": 93,
"name": "sorin.cristescu",
"post_count": 5,
"steem_plus_sbd_amount": 2600.0,
"transfer_to_votebot_sbd": 2600.0,
"transfer_to_votebot_steem": 0.0
},
I see, its called the strategy of the skateboard down the stairs. You need to see it through... I appreciate... 10 ninja points for you.
Stop making funny comments, you force me to deplete my voting power!
Hahahahah awesome... btw you are a smart man... I have a mathematical somewhat mathematical really problem for you...
No need to upvote it... as a matter of fact, flag it... (im serious) it will be good for building my skin.
But... see if you can answer the conundrum
You got a 34.87% upvote from @upme thanks to @sorin.cristescu! Send at least 3 SBD or 3 STEEM to get upvote for next round. Delegate STEEM POWER and start earning 100% daily payouts ( no commission ).
You got a 13.22% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @sorin.cristescu!
Want to promote your posts too? Check out the Steem Bot Tracker website for more info. If you would like to support the development of @postpromoter and the bot tracker please vote for @yabapmatt for witness!
As sad as it is, spam seems to be here to stay (for now anyway). I just choose to ignore it as much as I can and focus on what I can do better - and I have also managed to educate a few new Steemians on what they are doing and that it could be percieved as spam - some people dont even know what they are doing is coming across as spammy.
Scams on the other hand, I hate them with a passion and flag anyone who looks even remotly like they are trying to scam -anyone offering upvote services with a link now I pretty much flag.
As you say 'spammers gonna spam' so I mayswell just move along and get on with life