I was afraid because one of the whales who's posts you regularly support, punished me by abusing the flag on a completely unrelated post when I flagged a spam comment one of his coordinated efforts left on a project that I support.
I generally stay out of flagging wars. Whatever is going on between you and that other person is between you and them.
To clarify then, you call it coordinated.. I call it non-organic and automated. It's a form of censorship to prevent anyone from promoting anything or any point of view.
I am pretty limited and selective in what I downvote. I spent around 5 hours researching posts from those users (and a bunch of others that I didn't downvote) in order to identify the ones that in my mind were truly 'abusive'. It was around 450 accounts that were all created by the same entity/group to repeat their message over and over. It is the definition of spam. It had nothing to do with what they were promoting, it was how they were promoting it.
It's a form of censorship to prevent anyone from promoting anything or any point of view.
Every user/stakeholder has the right to express their point of view by upvoting and downvoting the content they like and dislike. Everyone (including the spammer) is allowed to speak here. It doesn't mean we need to listen or reward them with tokens though.
One person's spam restricteratornatorfreedom fighter of spam, is another person's terrorist.
Downvoting != terrorism. Again, stakeholders are free to express their views on whatever content the like/dislike.
So what you said is not true.
I am literally clicking the upvote / downvote button myself on every vote I cast. That is the definition of manual. In other words, I have not automated my votes via bots, voting trails, or any other type of non-manual voting method.
Judging from your frequency of flagging, you seem to prefer downvotes over upvotes too.
You are looking at my frequency over a very short period of time. This week I have a lot of downvotes because I have been involved in some anti-abuse work. If you look at my voting history over the past month or year, you will see I have a very percentage of downvotes compared to upvotes.
You also only upvote posts by accounts that you follow.
That is also not true. I said A lot of the votes go to people I follow (not all). I do spend time organically reviewing content too.
Good to know. I concede to what you say then. My assumption that there is a bot involved was wrong. Steemchiller implemented an index in steemwork tool but many were opposed to it. I recall he calls it CSI - it's an index of social involvement. Personally, I think such an index is important.
I draw a link between the idea that here are some who are interested in 'fighting spam' yet the way they do it is to generate spam on other posts. It is similar to the 'war on terror' - one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter. But when both are using terror, the one defines terror differently. We are fighting the same tendencies here. It is political and economically driven. Spam is spam is spam. If it quacks like a duck, it is a duck. If it abuses the flag, it is an abuser. You may be one person who organically looks at who you downvote, but others are not doing the same thing. There is silence on a lot of abuse going on here.
People are of course free to downvote but when there is a coordinated effort that isn't organically driven, and where the opinion of large accounts is swayed onto one side, this smells terrible. It is then an unfair climate and one which will not gain traction, except among those who are actually abusing their power. The grumpycat for instance is a terrorist but so many whales use the argument that GC compliance is cool. It is tantamount to saying that killing villagers is acceptable collateral damage in a war on terror. It remains a political question and more a war of definition and fear where public opinion is swept along with noble claims like "I am against bots, and hence I abuse the flag".
I appreciate you taking the time to give your opinion (defend your side). I withdraw to observe. There is nothing more to it. The only flag war I am involved in is against GC and so should anyone who has a conscience or integrity. If I lose anything in that war, I do not complain. To put the record straight, mark flagged an unrelated post removing 0.45 SBD from me because I flagged his spam on @upv4life post - He owes me because he abused the flag - he maintains that he did nothing wrong. I disagree. he claims it is a tiny downvote. I disagree. i am not calling anyone into the issue, I am merely stating the situation and will continue to do so ad nauseum because I believe in my position. Abuse is abuse. It should be opposed byy courageous people.
I upvote all my own fantastic comments. I upvote fantastic comments of those I am engaged in coordinated efforts with. Because I can ;-) and because it is profitable.
so do I