I'll pick out a couple of bits because they're pertinent to conversations I've been having this morning and the effort involved.
Newcomers Achievements
too often it's impossible to confirm that a person is real.
This. 100%.
In principle, it is, only some communities require the mandatory presence of a verified Achievement 1.
Achievement 1 has become a "seal of approval" that somebody is genuine and some communities have relinquished all responsibility for checking themselves. I'll repeat something I wrote a couple of hours ago:
"the volume of scammers, fake identities, account farming and harassment in getting these accounts verified has gone too far. The reliance upon communities for "Achievement 1" verification, absolving themselves of the responsibility has led to this situation which has become untenable. Especially with the volume of the aforementioned fake and farming accounts. The people we trust most on this platform have never been through the achievement program. "
I had this thought: if the account produces original and interesting content, what difference does it make who is behind it? Do we need this hard work of verifying accounts? Maybe just plagiarism and AI checks are enough? A scammer will always look for easy money, he will never write posts himself.
I’ve debated that myself too. But if somebody’s entering a contest with 5 entries and honest people are entering with 1 then irrespective of the hard work they’re putting in, they’re cheating. It’s unfair and will become a deterrent to honest users. So they’ll either leave or start cheating themselves.
If they manage to share interesting and original content across multiple accounts, then they must have a reason for it - like my multi-account chaos 😂 But it’s generally to enter contests. If not straight away, then definitely after they’ve been validated.
I just wrote a reply to inspiration’s steem rep. update that might be of interest. I’d link to it but I’m on my phone so it’s too much effort 😉