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RE: Steemcleaner Report for January 14, 2018 Part 2
Leaving short generic comments such as "thanks", "thank you", "nice", or "nice post" could be mistaken for spam. Try telling the author why you are thanking them or what you like about the post.
Your Reputation Could be a Tasty Snack with the Wrong Comment!
Thank You! ⚜
I hate spam as much as the next person. But here, you've admitted to censoring what people say and how they say it.
Where did I censor them? I am not flagging them. I'm suggesting they expand on what they say before they get flagged by other members of the community. I'm giving them a link to a post with tips on how to avoid getting flagged.
I seriously don't get why others think it is better to let the community just flag these comments than providing some feedback to the person commenting.
Unfortunately, the "Your Reputation Could be a Tasty Snack with the Wrong Comment!" line is a THREAT. One minute you're trying to make steemit a better place, the next you're telling people what to say or not say or how to say it...OR ELSE. That's called censorship. Anyone should be free to say "Thanks!" or "Nice post" if that's what they think or feel like saying. It doesn't matter if an individual or group of individuals dislike that simple comment and upvote or flag it - that's freedom of expression, too. However, when you establish a system that threatens to punish certain kinds of speech, that's CENSORSHIP. Does this make sense to you? Have I missed something?
It's a post title - and it is accurate. If someone thinks their comment is spam they can and do flag them for it. Some whales don't even care there is a slider and they will just flag a 25 reputation account to 10 or less.
When they first introduced the reputation system I spent quite a bit of time trying to help users recover from getting flagged by whales like @dan, @sneak, and others.
I still do on run across those who have had their reputation wrecked because they said something generic or posted in the wrong tag.
The only part of @spaminator that is automated is the actual flagging. All of the research is done by me. I spend hours looking at queries and then looking at the actual accounts before I add them to a list to be flagged. I still review the accounts being flagged daily.
All of the comments left by @spaminator are also done so by a human. Some days we have more time to write custom comments, sometimes the comments are more copy & paste.
From the day we formed an actual group we have posted about helping the 'human' element stop what the community sees as spam by replying to their comments and giving them helpful advice as well as warning them about what could happen if the wrong person reads their comment.
Overall the feedback from those getting comments has been positive. Most are oblivious to the fact that I do flag the automated comment/farms or the garden variety human run ones that haven't progressed to automation yet.
I'll think about creating a new account for commenting but the message is still going to be the same no matter how it is worded. From the reports I receive for comment spam I see that there are a number of members in our community that are more and more intolerant of what they perceive as spam. Some flag first and just don't care if that was the only time someone said "Nice post" in the last week.
I see. Your work sounds genuinely good. Thanks for putting in the thought and care and effort to make it happen. However, to beat a dead horse, it's still too easy to misinterpret that phrase as a direct threat (as I did) instead of as a warning about the potential actions of others. I hope there's some way to improve on it.
Now that @spaminator has a delegation I can't upvote at all with that account. I may create a new one for commenting. I'll see what I can do.
I think it's better for @spaminator to comment in its own name and do a better job of providing context. Unfortunately, the actions of other heavy hitters on steemit have created a toxic environment where people are scared of saying "the wrong thing" or making minor missteps. This is where my misunderstanding of your intentions came from. Better to let @spaminator explain and educate directly than to create a proxy user who speaks on its behalf.
Perhaps the reputation system needs some refinement, too.
@patrice Are you @spaminator?
I started @spaminator. I'm also a founding member of @steemcleaners. Trying to separate the initiatives a bit and provide more feedback to 'human' commenters.
Overall, I support the work and goals of the @spaminator project. I'm just suspicious of over-regulation of free speech in a decentralized system like this.