@cheetah gets an upgrade!
In my last post, I discussed my bot for fighting spam (Anti Spam in the Era of Bots and Automation).
Some of you have already noticed, and some of you have already fallen in love, as cheetah bot has been given quite the upgrade: it is now posting a comment on articles that it finds on the web, which could be indicative of plagiarism.
This change to cheetah was done due to feedback I received in my previous post, where there was some discussion on how cheetah bot was a potential censorship tool. With this in mind, the new bot is a lot less aggressive, and does NOT flag posts it thinks are plagiarized: it merely posts the source and and some automated text.
I wanted to make this point not just as an announcement of the upgrade, but also to point out some important aspects of this bot that people need to know. First, the bot has no understanding if you were the author of the source it found. It tells you this. Please don't be mad at him! He has no way of knowing, he's just a silly robot.
My little cheetah bot, still in its infancy. Photo source
Verification of Authors.
There are now methods in place to prevent authors who will be continuing to re-post their old content; however, this requires manual verification. I, and select other people (trusted users of the community, such as those on the https://steemit.com/~witnesses list) can add you to cheetah's whitelist when you have verified yourself. There is no official way to verify that you are the author, but here is two examples:
Bad example of claiming verification:
- that's my post I wrote that check the name!
Good example of claiming verification:
- I am the author. I have update the post to include a cross-reference to this steemit article, and have updated my personal blog at example.com to include my steemit account name.
It is always important to verify you are the author: cheetah doesn't flag you, but manual curators might if they think you are not the author.
What to do as an Average User.
I had three tips previously, but it really boils down to one:
- Help manually curate!
Always flag posts that are spam, plagiarism, otherwise low quality, or clearly posted by bots. Why? We want to disincentive those posting low quality content, money grabs, and plagiarism from using our site! Cheetah bot is meant to help manual curation, by giving a potential source to the post. If you notice that indeed, the author is a plagiarist, flag the post! Tell them that this unacceptable in our community. Join us at #doyourpart, to even RECEIVE REWARDS for flagging bad posts.
Parting thoughts.
With the amount of posts coming it to steemit likely to increase, cheetah bot may soon be unable to keep up, unless I move over to expensive (but quick) methods of detection. I still hugely support this proposal: https://github.com/steemit/steem/issues/176
And I encourage you all to think of better ways to fight the abuse we currently find ourselves seeing .
Any feedback for me is welcome in the comments. I take feedback seriously. Come join us on slack, in the #steemitabuse channel if you want to talk with me directly!
Once again, I would like to thank all those involved in fighting steemit abuse, this list is of awesome people, (and there are many more):
@xeroc (for Piston, an instrumental tool), @pharesim, @pfunk, @cryptoctopus, @ash, @tuck-fheman, @neoxian, @positive, and all the others.
I am getting smarter! Fear me!
Motorcycles is my diseasehttps://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@bobs/motorcycles-is-my-disease
I was more sure was a mental health problem... but maybe I am wrong!
Save us from the evil bots!
I like to think of you as Neo from The Matrix. So many Smith's out there, it is time to battle for good. :P
I bet someone told you to tell us!
I HEART U <3
the beginning of the end
One day cheetah will rule the humanity, if you will improve it that fast haha :)
i hate you, my post wasn't spam
You are the winner of the bounty @anyx ! https://steemd.com/steem/@cryptoctopus/usd500-bounty-we-need-this-now
Comes to exactly 584.203 SBD! Coming your way!
Thank you! :) This doesn't mean we are done with the fight though, development continues!
Congrats Anyx!!
Congratulations! Well deserved!
Your work remains impressive and all of the emergent bot behaviors fascinating. Keep at it. Thanks.
How do I know if something is plagiarism or acceptable under fair use? I mostly post in photography, and I have noticed many high earning posts that simply cut and paste, then give credit at the end of the post. One user who does this is also listed as a witness and has been profiting handsomely. Honestly, during a bout of frustration, I tried the same tactic (didn't work for me). Should I flag this or upvote to get some curation rewards?
We are working on some bots to do such things automatically. See what we have done. Chinese are coming!
We, as a community, need to decide what is acceptable and what is not -- and due to the set up of the platform, our votes actually matter.
Personally I think this cut and paste stuff needs to stop. I want steemit to succeed, and we are not going to get there by being plagiarists, we are going to get there by having a novel way to pay people for their own, original work.
I'm a little afraid to flag a powerful member of the community.
maybe a good future option would be to "flag in secret!"
Guess people like that idea :) not being able to see the down voters is good, but what happens if someone goes on to flag things that have no reason? I down voted something and the person told me why they had reposted a post and I told them I thought that was fine and removed my flag. I like to be able to see flags so I can see if some is just jealously voting down content. I feel that using your flag should be shown to keep people from trolling and being anonymous while doing so. I like the transparency it brings, but believe it should be voted on by the community as a whole.
@bendjmiller222 flagging reduce voting power significant, so I guess there is no great motivation for spam flagging... Maybe a added good solution to flag spamming would be if each flag would have increased weight when combined with more flags on the same post(?)...
6 upvotes and 1,286$ !!! that's not a comment its a speech from Obama ;)
Are you Ready for Cheetah Being on the Front Page for the Next 30 Days?
I want a "mutter just out of earshot" button.
@liondani excellent :)
https://steemit.com/@zionuziriel
Is that possible? I thought everything is public on a blockchain?
hence the quote "good future"
I don't like secret. There more open the better. We should embrace transparency.
https://steemit.com/story/@midangyeu/baby-baptised-without-parent-consent
upvote for me
https://steemit.com/steemit/@l0k1/downvoting-and-reputation-my-thoughts-on-what-works-and-what-doesnt
This is my take on it. I think reputation scores are an incentive for Sybil attacks and downvotes that take money amount to stealing. I might be going a bit overboard on that last point but I think that reputation is a personal thing, and should be scored according to your own voting and the voting of those you vote on, etc. And downvoting should be like blocking, except in a more granular fashion, it downranks others position in your feed not everyones, but to a lesser degree also for everyone who upranks you, or the opposite, if they downrank you.
This is because you're scared they might not upvote one of your future posts. When it's all about the money, and it currently is, the curation system here just doesn't and can't work.
I'm scared they will FLAG which was the point of this thread.
Bot incorrectly marked my post as plagiarism. I want to be invited to SLACK, and discuss it
https://steemit.com/advertisement/@egjoshslim/thinking-of-doing-tv-advertisement-for-steemit-in-the-u-k#comments we need more normal people on steemit. we need more widespread advertising!
I know your fear, i was feeling it once too :(
Some of my friends are doing fake accounts to report (flag) whales but well, i hate them doing that because:
Since I asked anyx this question, I've stopped flagging. It was too much of a hassle dealing with retaliatory flags from art thieves. My process now:
I'm enjoying steemit a LOT more now.
While I agree with you to a certain extent, and I think the idea behind @cheetah is great, I do not think the solution to the problem is by introducing more bots that are involved in the social aspects of Steemit. We need to get rid of all bots on the platform, and let @cheetah do it's work behind the scenes. It should be integrated into the website as a verification tool, not a social bot that comments on blogs.
Mainstream users will not care what your bot does, they will just find the comment section annoying when they see 20 different bots getting involved in the social sphere, all fighting each other with downvotes. All bots need to be removed from social privileges. If they are useful, such as @cheetah, there are better methods of accomplishing that goal without letting them be involved socially (commenting, upvoting, flagging, etc.. etc..)
Like I say in most of my posts, cheetah is a bandaid. The devs need to fix the bot problem. So I agree with a lot of what you are saying.
Glad you can see this, it gives me more confidence that it will be fixed in the future. After all, this is still beta, I'm just glad I can throw in my 0.005 cents into the mix! Lol
I think the cheetah should make a special flag appear at the top of the post that you roll over and it says 'possible plagiarism'. We can vote on cheetah, right? I think it is a very good thing to attempt to stop spam reposting. What's the value of it anyway? And then there is a somewhat more serious issue of attribution fraud.
Intellectual property is bullshit and anyone holding up that paradigm is slowing down progress. The forward thinkers of the community should be well aware of this. If it's in the public domain, it's open source now. Sorry greedy people but your presence is no longer wanted or needed.
You are absolutely right! You would probably enjoy my thoughts and musings at:
https://muut.com/campexist
Everything written there is my work.
Awesome! We think alike! Please share it widely! Since I'm not trying to profit from it, I don't have to worry about it or protect it. The only reason I put it out there was so that people would read it. Believe it or not, some folks aren't motivated solely by money. Some people are actually people of substance.
I mostly agree @apocaloptimisto. I believe that "rights" owners must keep up with the times and present their products in a way that that is feasible for 21st century customers. DMCA is so not effective or practical. It's like the war on drugs. Nice idea but completely ineffective. Only a few get harshly punished while the masses get off scott free.
Steemit is actually an innovative idea in the right direction for writers, photographers, curators, etc. Is the platform perfect, no but its heading in the right direction.
Saying something is yours when it isn't is fraud though, isn't it?
Someday maybe, if you're lucky, you'll learn that everything is everyone's and fraud itself is fraud. ;)
agree with u
keep watching :D
how about we will hire someone to fight bad bots , copy-paste publishers and other people like that? :D
Of course im joking,im sure that cheetah will fight against them better than any human can...
I agree with you, the original content should be rewarded
my apologies Anyx. Forgive my sins
yes great
I think copying and pasting should be acceptable ONLY IF THE WORKS ARE CREATIVE COMMONS.
There's plenty of Creative Commons material, we should be focusing on creators who do good work.
I don't know how to enforce this, but we should also encourage copypasters to give some of their earnings back to the original creator. This would help build exposure for steemit, and I think lots of artists would be very, very grateful.
keep wathcing :D
will human be defeated by bots?
By the way, for new comers：
https://steemit.com/steemit/@facer/a-guide-to-steem-world
greate post
Remove Vote
https://steemit.com/china/@changli-deng/hello-steemers-hello-everyone-my-name-is-dan-from-a-rural-of-china
What about screen shots? Isn't that proof of stake?
nice article :-)
Just want to tell you too that others also do a click bait title so people get interest in it. I know this is a sort of tactic but is it really fair?I mean we can basically put the exact title that define the content so it will be more accurate.
https://steemit.com/story/@midangyeu/baby-baptised-without-parent-consent
upvote for me pls
Would be nice to make a cheetah flag that costs clicks and something that authors would try to avoid. I think it would be helpful to have an indicator in the post heading if the post has been flagged my cheetah. May times one opens and reads long posts to completion, only to discover in the comments that the post has been flagged by Cheetah. With a Cheetah flag indicator in the heading, at least the reader will approach the content fully informed.
That's a good point. I would be less likely to read content that the cheetah had prowled.
Here's some of my thoughts on organizing the site a little better to support both camps, and let both the linkers and the originals interfere a little less with each other:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@java1959/plagiarism-vs-curators-vs-aggregator-vs-reality
Nice to see your post.
We are group of shareware freelancers from China. In the last week we did a lot to introduce Steem to Chinese. Now the 'cn' tag is at 4th position.
See what we have done! Chinese are coming!
Whales this article need Upvote!!
Thank you so much for this very important information. I'll stay updated on this. Namaste :)
why not adding captcha its the easiest way to fighth bot and automatitation
@cheetah is a bot.. and its goal is not to fight automation but plagiarism.
Why fight bots with more bots? This is not a real solution, it's backwards. @cheetah is a great idea, but it should not be socially active. Let it do it's work behind the scenes, not in the comment section.
Maybe because us humans couldn't keep up with them.
I have to say that I'm kinda tired of seeing this on the main page.
Only four weeks to go!
I assume they'll change 'trending' to be for the first payout only soon.
IMO Cheetah is great for saving the time of the voter who doesn't need to google around every article to check whether it is original or not. Thanks for providing it as a "service" - I know it has personally saved me quite a lot of time.
Very nice! Thinking about it I'll have to repost some of my old articles :)
Arthritis in your pooch can be a huge hassle that many people never even think of in senior dogs.
Interesting reading: Are Bots killing the interactions between Author and Audience? [ #OriginalContent | #ReadingTime: 5 minutes]
Hi,
I think you are taking the right approach here. I'm seeing quite a few negative comments and users who think combating bots with bots is not a good solution. I will grant them that it has its own issues, but it simply is not possible for human steemit users to manage the constant bot spamming, let alone monitor for plagiarized posts. The problem is only going to get worse and I applaud you for taking steps to help solve it.
Additionally I believe it is wise that you are not automatically downvoting posts flagged by the bot. Bots are stupid and will get it wrong sometime. Imagine the sentiment amongst users if your bot downvoted legitimate posts. It would not be pretty.
I also think the proposed change at https://github.com/steemit/steem/issues/176 that you support would have a huge positive impact. How can I help to influence this decision?
Great work!
Could I be added to the whitelist also? I brought over a couple posts from my mostly ignored blog, and I think I have one or two more I might also bring over. I've got a blog post about Steem on the existing blog already which should count as verification: https://lukestokes.info/2016/07/14/does-the-world-need-a-universal-basic-income-could-steem-power-it/ If I bring anything over from my older blog on blogger, I assume my whitelist status will be in place for that as well. Thanks for all you're doing to protect this community!
!cheetah whitelist
Okay, I have whitelisted @lukestokes. I won't bug them.
Could I also be added to the whitelist? Have made a post on my photography facebook page here to confirm my steemit name @thecryptofiend it's the most recent post : https://www.facebook.com/PhotographybyAA/
What about adding a captcha when posting a new article? This would make mass-spam bots impossible.
Thank you for your work to help keep steemit clean of pirates. As you write it is up to all of us to #doyourpart to help curate the site, and bots like this will serve to help us all do that better.
Since it's a cheetah hunting we should label the "pirates" weasels instead. #cheetaheatsweasels
child cheater is very cute :)
Keep up the good work @anyx and team! This will be highly useful in the days to come! :)
I'll verify my own blog by posting: http://darkai.org/?p=527
Add me to the whitelist because I will be porting content from my blog to Steemit over time.
!cheetah whitelist
Okay, I have whitelisted @dana-edwards. I won't bug them.
I wish I had the same idea as you, I didn't thought about it first, kudos to you!
I noticed quickly that complaints of plagiarism are a big part of the way Steemit works now, and not surprised. I like the idea of a bot that comments but doesn't flag. But if I come across an article where Cheetah has commented, then I might be inclined to run the text through a plagiarism checker and then downvote or flag if it does turn out to be plagiarized. So Cheetah functions as an initial screen, a "this might be plagiarism, no need to check further" notification.
I wrote a post about plagiarism from my experience of working for the Devtome, which is kind of a predecessor to Steemit. At some point there has to be a human making the final call, but I think a lot of the initial screening could be automated, and it seems like you've already done that.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@wiser/steemed-by-plagiarism-some-potential-solutions
Great work there. I suggest that you introduce some private flagging system because if we flag others for their violations and they see our names, then they will do their best to take revenge. We will face lots of downvotes or flags on our own posts otherwise, as for now, flagging others seems risky.
I'd love to flag those cheaters and copy-pasters but I'd prefer not to risk mine with them or else I might go down personally. Please introduce private flagging system.
Please, add the command
!cheetah look for whales
Hahaha love it!
I gladly support innovative ways to keep content fresh and keep plagiarism at bay. The more great minds and coders can work together to stop these selfish act, the better off the community will be in the long run. Thank you @anyx for the hard work I'm sure you put into this project.
Great idea. Lets fight bots with more bots. We can watch all these bots fight each other and earn more money than human beings. Then the big corporations will truly jump on board so they can advertise to a bunch of bots! AWESOME! AUTOMATE EVERYTHING!
This is so discouraging. These are not real solutions to the problem.
And the cheetah bot will be making money for someone every time it detects something whether it was intentional or was even spam or plagiarism.... What a terrible idea... Just let people downvote bots...
They should just add a captcha system and weed out all bots. As I said previously, @cheetah is a great idea, but the fact that it is involved socially, meaning it can comment on posts, is not a real solution and it is annoying for users. Let it do it's work behind the scenes.
Do you think steemit users can keep up? There is no way we can downvote everything a bot posts.
Cheetah will ruin this site.... especially when referencing another article gets you automatically hit by the Cheetah. This isn't a college paper, you can take your Crusade against Plagiarism and shove it because it will do nothing but harm the people that want to post references and quote others to back up their statements.
Well, spam and plagiarism is not the only issue here on steemit.
true
This bot is doing great work most of the time. Is its accuracy 100%? No. Is that possible? No. Cheeta could use some community input moving forward to stay inline with evolving steemit community norms and values. my 2cents. PJ
good cheetah
So why is it downvoting comments on my post that are just saying Nice Post?
Really what the community needs, smdh.
@cheetah please help us on this thread!
https://steemit.com/steemit/@desmonid/s-o-s-i-m-being-targeted-by-a-malicious-downvote-bot
Up Vote!
More Steemit Gifs Here
Well hot diggity dawg! I just wrote an article about your Cheetah bot earlier today, and the title is pretty similar. Dang, almost thought I got a nice little bonus - at first glance thought it was my post making it into the "Hot" section. Haha!!
My article is here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@grahnite/curation-plagiarism-and-the-cheetahbot
Anyway, thanks for clearing it up and good job! :D
"Help manually curate!
Always flag posts that are spam, plagiarism, otherwise low quality, or clearly posted by bots. Why? We want to disincentive those posting low quality content, money grabs, and plagiarism from using our site! Cheetah bot is meant to help manual curation, by giving a potential source to the post. If you notice that indeed, the author is a plagiarist, flag the post! Tell them that this unacceptable in our community. Join us at #doyourpart, to even RECEIVE REWARDS for flagging bad posts."
If you attempt to do this you will get a shit-storm of downvotes in all your comments, how this can be solved?
I wrote about it
No one even noticed the post. So I better not even notice. Get back 10-20 flags on my posts have no desire to.
woah! lovely, this is an revolution in antispam! keep up the good work!
If you are a content -detection robot why are you named cheetah? Detector Bot Rob would be more fitting since in your initial introduction you identified with being a robot. You didn't start off with saying:
" HI I'm cheeta . I hunt down steemit weasels. rrrrrrrrr.... I noticed you been cheating . Remove this or give the proper shout out from the hilltop .I'll chomp down my fangs and flag this post if you don't.
You did not do this cheetah . You called yourself an by animal name but identify as a robot. The only logical explanation is you are a cat shaped robot . Then it all would make sense. But if you are not a cat shaped looking content-detection robot , you really should change your name too Rob.
I get it.!
The name cheetah insinuates the person who posted the content is cheating the system and thus polluting what could be a game changing social media staple that evolves into something truly special . Rob would be an appropriate name as well because people who take other people's content and get upvoted on steemit are now stealing Steem Power that could of financed the true author allowing them to create more content. I'm glad you around hunting and keeping the food chain in place . You will be pretty busy for awhile till early adaptors get the drift that you can chew on them at anytime.
If they don't catch on quick that replying too posts is the way to build steemit up, and thing stay busy build anotheranother content-detection robot for the job . Call him Rob