scrobble.life
#cleansteem

All aboard, the @flagtrail

Last week I delegated some Steem Power to @steemflagrewards and joined the @flagtrail. What, why, how......


Do you often see content you feel is hugely over-valued?

Do you wake up in the morning with 'spare' VP that could have been put to use overnight?

Are you fearful of a retaliatory flag if you down-vote content you disagree with for reasons relating to spam or abuse?

Would you like to be rewarded for flagging spam/abuse?

If some or all of the above are true, then maybe the @flagtrail is for you!


About a week ago, @imacryptorick put out a call to action post regarding @flagtrail, which is a service tied to @steemflagrewards with the goal of reducing the value of content considered spam/abuse.

Basically, it is now possible to automatically down-vote this type of content, which has been judged to fall into this category by the @steemflagrewards team.

Doesn't @steemcleaners handle this sort of thing?

In a word, 'no'. Their remit mainly covers plagiarism and rarely are they involved with content that for example, holds no value to the community and is boosted by an array of bid-bots.

It goes without saying that spam/abusive content is a matter of opinion, but the @steemflagrewards team are an experienced bunch of cleaners and so far, the down-votes my account has given I have agreed with:

https://steemit.com/@metma/life-is-jici4j7z

https://steemit.com/@vegawesome/spring-q5cbzic1

https://steemit.com/@esbjornbo/colorchallenge-friday-skyblue-ipci9v3b

Do you agree that these posts are spam/abuse?


How to sign-up

  • Join the flagtrail Discord server
  • Register your account via the following command in any of the rooms on the server

What do the numbers mean in the registration command?

100 - Allow up to a 100% down-vote to be given from your account

85 - Only cast a down-vote when your Voting Power is on or above 85%

10000 - Only cast a down-vote on accounts with less than 10000 Steem Power

And so, the command you enter could be something like ?register abh12345 50 90 5000 which would mean a maximum 50% down-vote, only when your VP is on or above 90%, to accounts with < 5000 SP.

These settings are available to reduce the risk of using more Voting Power than you would like, and also reduce the risk of being flagged in retaliation by an account much larger than your own.

Note: I would suggest setting the 'max SP value' to be no bigger than your own SP.


FAQs

What if I am flagged purely in retaliation?

Let the team know via discord and they will help! (no guarantees, don't bite off more than you can chew, etc)

Can I pause/remove myself from the trail at any time?

Of course. To pause:

To quit:

And there is a reminder with a link to remove posting authority for @flagtrail to complete the job.

Is there a commands list in case I forget?

Yes, this can be called on the flagtrail discord server by typing ?help

You mentioned being rewarded for flagging spam/abuse?

That is correct. When your account is used to flag a post, a comment is left under the lead comment that reported the content, e.g:

This comment is then voted on by the @steemflagrewards account later in the day. My down-vote on the content was as follows:

The reward ($0.47) is 38.2% larger than my down-vote value ($0.34), which if we deduct 25% for curation, means a 13.2% larger vote than I could cast on say, my own content. Not bad eh?


Delegate to @steemflagrewards

It is also possible to delegate to @steemflagrewards (the account upvoting the members comments), which if you don't fancy joining the trail, is a noble gesture for sure.

You can read more about @steemflagrewards on the posts that they put out each day, and here is one of the most recent:

https://steemit.com/steemflagrewards/@steemflagrewards/steem-flag-rewards-report---8-flagger-post---2019-04-13-1350


Summary

So far so good as far as I am concerned. I don't have to look for rubbish to flag, I get rewarded for flagging, and if I'm ever not happy with how my VP has been used, I can remove the delegation and quit the trail.

Cheers!

Asher

Comments · 21

  • @magicdice(64)· 2692d

    Magic Dice has rewarded your post with a 58% upvote. Thanks for playing Magic Dice.

  • @antiabuse(42)· 2694d

    Active abuse fighters and supporters also get added to the antiabuse trail. You have been added

  • @owllc(48)· 2694d

    You should put the utopian tag on this as well it is a nicely done post!

  • @steem-ua(64)· 2695d

    Hi @abh12345!

    Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation! Your UA account score is currently 6.941 which ranks you at #98 across all Steem accounts. Your rank has dropped 1 places in the last three days (old rank 97).

    In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 219 contributions, your post is ranked at #1. Congratulations!

    Evaluation of your UA score:
    • You've built up a nice network.
    • The readers appreciate your great work!
    • Great user engagement! You rock!

    Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server

  • @uwelang(79)· 2696d

    Let me know about this flagtrail initiative - one can flag a lot here as of various reasons - good reason but mainly the type of people get flagged that only harm the reward pool by a very low percentage while the real rapers sit on seats no one aims to touch with flags as of various reasons: Fear, Relations and others.

  • @arcange(79)· 2696d

    Congratulations @abh12345! Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade in the following category:

    • Comments - Ranked 4 with 107 comments
  • @crokkon(69)· 2696d

    .

  • @mrkebab(53)· 2696d

    Free kebabs to all that flag with the trail!

  • @jlsplatts(70)· 2696d

    This is AWESOME!!!! I have been wanting to help fight abuse and I used to a while back. But it consumed a lot of my time and in my current position I don’t have much of that. I am going to get my account setup ASAP. I thanks for sharing how this can be accomplished. These posts getting over rewarded wouldn’t happen without the use of...... I know... bidbots. I couldn’t help myself. Lol

  • @ats-david(75)· 2696d

    It really baffles me how the anti-spam police continue to shame and downvote spam/spammers...and then double or triple (or more) down on the spam. And then, to be entirely hypocritical, they upvote THEIR OWN spam and call it “doing good for the community!”

    So for every one spam post/comment that “adds no value to Steem,” the Steem Flag Rewards participants are adding another two, three, four, or more spam comments to the chain, which - according to their own claims - adds no value. If spam adds no value, then they ought to stop spamming more than the spammers they’re trying to dis-incentivize and stop rewarding themselves for spamming.

    I’ve had this exact conversation before with both Steemcleaners reps and SFR reps. Of course, they think their own behavior is righteous...and their rewards justified. Go figure.

    It’s just other people’s spam that “adds no value” and should be downvoted. That’s the Steem way - be hypocritical as fuck while funneling rewards to yourself.

    Good job, team! Pat yourselves on the back for “protecting” the shit out of the blockchain!

  • @shanibeer(74)· 2697d

    Not sure about joining the flagtrail; it would be something to consider when I'm taking a break from posting. Meanwhile, I've upped my delegation a little.

  • @celsius100(54)· 2697d

    I have been on steemit going on 3 years this July. Flagging hasn't changed anything.

    It is the natural thing for those that have the most "power" to think they know best. For the "good" of everyone. What they end up doing is causing different problems.

    I have powered down to almost nothing. When I see things like this, I realize that things won't change anytime soon, and I made the right decision.

  • @vibesforlife(65)· 2697d

    woof, this is kind of surprising, the way user was misusing it.

  • @beat-the-bookies(64)· 2697d

    The road to hell is paved with good intentions...

    This can go sideways real fast, but I think it will do wonders for the DRAMA token :-)

  • @reazuliqbal(68)· 2697d

    Thank you so much for promoting the Trail so nicely. :)

    Hope that more people would join and we will have a stronger team to fight abuse. Also thank you for your delegation to @steemflagrewards.

  • @newageinv(74)· 2697d

    Interesting indeed! I am still ashamed to say that I have yet to downvote a post or comment; I simply ignore them. However, now that my stake is growing I think I have a responsibility to start doing so. This may be my opportunity. Thanks for sharing!

    Posted using Partiko iOS

  • @samuel-swinton(65)· 2697d

    While I don't believe that zero value content should be rewarded, I disagree that it constitutes abuse. I prefer to focus my VP on promoting quality content.

    Posted using Partiko Android

  • @steevc(80)· 2697d

    I will have to look at this. I did a lot of manual curation for SFR and I will get back into it at some point. I trust the team to use their power wisely.

  • @mariannewest(75)· 2697d

    I am so sad that you are starting to go that way as well. All that valuable voting power could be used to support people who actually produce good content on the blockchain. I am so against this flagging business and find it very ego driven and hurtful to the community. Hundreds of good content creators leave because they are not seeing their posts rewarded. I very much believe that we grow the things we put energy toward. The flagging community is growing the problem of lousy content by diverting their valuable possible upvotes for good content. I truly hope that you reconsider that move. And no matter how "experienced" the people are that decide who gets a downvote - it is still censorship. Anyway, as I am writing this I feel myself getting more and more annoyed and I don't want to start my day that way. But honestly, initiatives like that have made me consider more than once to give up on Steem.

  • @enforcer48(75)· 2697d

    flag.jpg

    Memegenerator.net saves again.

  • @revisesociology(82)· 2697d

    @steemflagrewards is one of the most important communities on steem. I prefer to look for posts to flag manually every now and then... my fave technique being to look at the SFG post, find a candidate then scroll back to more recent posts that haven't been flagged already.

    It doesn't take too long given that I can't spare more than a few 100% flags per week. I think the returns from SFG are also pretty good as far as I can remember.