So What's With All the Downvoting Bots?
Okay. So, I've been looking over the votes on my recent articles (they're not exactly trending), and I noticed a few downvotes. I'm not exactly one to get "triggered" or whatever term they're using this week just because someone didn't like my post, but I was curious enough to click on the downvotes in an effort to see who they were and, perhaps, find out what they found offensive about the articles I'm writing (my suspicion at first was that I would find that they were members of the 50 Cent Party who don't like the negative press I give to China).
What I discovered was that in every case, it was a profile with a reputation score of 25, who joined in October, has not posted an entry or comment yet, and holds 0.000 STEEM in their wallet with no SP except the 15 is delegated to them from the beginning. And again, for emphasis, I wouldn't think much of this if it weren't for the fact that every downvote received matched this profile.
Further, I noticed that these are all followed by a collection of the same people.
For example, my article from 7 days ago
received downvotes by the users fuicres, isstick, and lubrice. At time of post, all three of these users have no posts, no comments, and no STEEM. Their accounts read as if they are brand new. Photos below will verify this.
Likewise, my article from yesterday had only one downvote, from an account named qitrulle, and this account too fit the same pattern: joined in October 2019, no posts, no comments, 0.000 STEEM.
So... are people signing up for STEEM accounts just to downvote articles? If that's the case then... to what point and purpose? An account with a reputation score of 25 won't hide much content, and an account with no STEEM Power doesn't reduce the reward much. I can't imagine this is very effective. So, what gives?
Meanwhile, I also noticed that these accounts all have similar lists of followers.
fuicres
Followed by: Ameratar, ashher123, maxer27, cryptobraw, nessa64, xamatec, starloc, puncakbukit, crypt0tek, clyns, raise-me-up, sp-group, jabba666, anhvu, marcusmalone.
isstick
Followed by: technicaldaku, pgshow, musses, askdavid, cryptobraw, nessa64, starloc, puncakbukit, dave973, sp-group, crypt0tek, toothrot, marcusmalone, anhvu, raise-me-up.
lubrice
Followed by: lea8ndrea, askdavid, cryptobraw, nessa64, starloc, puncakbukit, maxer27, rajusaha, anomaly, anhvu, marcusmalone, sp-group, raise-me-up.
qitrulle
Followed by: pgshow, ameratar, toothrot, askdavid, starloc, puncakbukit, clyns, sp-group, maxer27, anhvu, crypt0tek, marcusmalone, raise-me-up.
Now again, I have no problem if someone flags a post of mine because they can legitimately find something "offensive" or "false" in it. And for those who are petty enough to say "WAH! YOU SAY WHAT ME NO LIKE! FLAG! WHAAAAAH!" all I can do is laugh. What I have to wonder at is the obviously interconnected nature of what appears to be random downvoting by accounts whose downvotes can't hope to have an impact on the reward pool.
I'm certain these must be bots (even if random users signed up, flagged my post and got bored with the site, they wouldn't all have such interconnected lists of followers), but did I miss something here?
What's happening on Steemit with all the snivelling shadow downvoters?
May I point you to @camillesteemer?
Basically, someone got pissed that they got caught for plagiarizing and copy/pasting other Steemians' work. So, their response is to abuse free account sign ups, which STINC isn't doing much about.
It's been going on for well over a year and half now.
You should check out their website, it's a page filled with grandiose delusions.
Well and duly noted. Thank you for filling in that piece of the puzzle.
You actually went into all that effort to investigate ?
Its nice to humour yourself sometimes 😊
One of the occupational hazards of being an ex-detective is a tendency to stick one's nose to far into any business that presents itself. :-P
There is a little crew of them ... I have screen shots of different names, but there are at least 30 of them. The problem is known ... it may take a while for it to be resolved.
These accounts are pathetic “creatures” who have nothing better to do @patriamreminisci than go around and downvote. While I have briefly read about them elsewhere, i.e. what they think their uhhh ... "mission" in life is, I've never paid them any attention. I’ve received downvotes from this “posse” for many months. Probably a bunch of children, living in their hard-working parents basements, with nothing better to do …
They good news? Their combination of low rep scores and negligible VP means that are achieving precisely nothing_ …
#sbi-skip
I thought as much. As I said, my first thought was that the "wu-mao's" had found their way onto Steemit, but I would have thought that the FCP would have been organized enough to actually back their accounts with some SP, and probably add the same trolling comments that they put on Facebook.
In other news, welcome back. I haven't seen you on in a while (you mentioned a "family emergency").
Hope everything is sorted out now.
Thank you for the well wishes @patriamreminisci. I just happened to be up very early, as I have not slept well …
Sadly, it became a family tragedy, with the loss of our grandson. And our grieving daughter and her husband. Family arriving in a little bit from out of state, so looking forward to Thanksgiving and all that being a close family represents. It will be particularly meaningful this year.
#sbi-skip
Oh my God... "sorry to hear that" just sounds trite and empty but I don't know what else to add. I've only got two kids (a two year old son and a seven year old daughter) so grandkids are far off but the times I've come close to losing one of them have been bad enough that I can't imagine how it feels losing a grandson.
woooaaaahhh! I get them too, I prefer my flags to have some weight behind them..
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STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
I get them all the time too. It's hard to imagine someone with so much time on their hands that they'd build bots that have no purpose other than to annoy, but I guess I'm short on imagination.