LeoFinance

The ability to speak freely, not earn freely

Out of the woods? Maybe not quite yet, but it is nice to see that the Steem feed price has moved up from the adjusted 20 cents to 21 cents due to the price movement. Only another 40x to go to hit an All Time high!

Again, my small Steem sell was just a touch too high above the spike before the pullback. I even mentally set it first, and then lowered it slightly to try and trick it into being "on point", but no. I think someone is watching my trades...

Cryptonoia: the belief of crypto traders that their buy and sell points are being observed and avoided just to fuck with them.

I got a comment today with a hypothetical regarding downvoting (something they don't seem to like) that asked something like, Would I be okay if the Chinese Censorship Brigade bought a lot of Steem, increased their REP to 82 and then obliterated my account until it was -11 and hidden away.

Firstly, the number mentioned was 2 million Steem, but that wouldn't be enough to increase their Reputation significantly fast enough and that would be noticed. They would be better off buying a high rep account instead. I am sure Kingscrown would sell his and move onto one of his many alts. Secondly, that amount while significant, would still take an eternity to lower my rep to the auto grey point.

But anyway, let's say they buy 20 million instead.

Yeah, I would be okay with that. Firstly, it would create a nice bump in price and decrease liquid supply by 20%. I would even keep posting and make sure that they used as much VP as I could force them into using just for the fun of it. I would be very interested to see how the community would react and if the tools of decentralization are robust enough to counter.

But more than that, I would like to see how price would cope and if SMTs came into play in the way that they could and provide an uncageable decentralized animal. The thing is, that if an account was able to affect the decentralization so heavily, Steem loses its value. But to do so, that "Chinese account" would have to be able to corrupt all consensus witnesses. The moment that happens, the blockchain gets copied and a new blockchain with new witnesses springs into life, or the old ones that were forced out of Steem.

But, this and a million other things aside....

This isn't censorship!!!

The blockchain would keep recording my posts and comments as long as I have the possibility to post and comment. To censor me from Steem they would have to stop me from posting and commenting, which would mean forking me out in a centralized manner, and the project is dead anyway.

Steem is censorship resistant and as I said in replies, there are many front ends that do not even grey downvoted to oblivion posts and, anyone can make another. People seem to commonly call downvoting censorship when what they actually are doing is piggybacking another aspect of the blockchain onto their "claim". Earnings.

While anyone can essentially say whatever they want on the Steem blockchain, meaning they have freedom of speech - Freedom of Speech doesn't come with the addition of freedom to earn on what is said. Pull your head out of your arses, if you think that your freedom to speak also includes your earnings.

If for example, you choose not to speak what you want because it will cost you votes or your stupid reputation, that is on you and perhaps you should reflect on how strong and how much you believe your own convictions. If your freedom is affected by your need to earn - you are not free.

Then there is the other thing. What the fuck do I say that is so important that censorship even matters to me? I do not believe that anything I say here is so important that it truly matters if I got censored or not - how full of themselves are people these days - Perhaps there are lots of people who think they are Jesus reincarnated or something.

Don't get me wrong here, people can and are being censored on the centralized platforms like Twitter and YouTube, because they do not for whatever reason forward the agenda of the platform. People need to remember something. Ready???

All of these platforms are opt-in and your account is not owned by you. Ever.

You are choosing to agree to their terms and conditions and, they can kick you the fuck out of their house while under their digital roof whenever the fuck they want to. You are censored on their platform - not in your walking life.

And then there is Steem

Steem is an opt-in platform too and on Steem I own my account, which means it is very difficult for anyone to take away my ability to speak here, even if many could take away my ability to earn here. Censorship resistance is not overly important to me personally, but I love that this is available to anyone who opts themselves into Steem, which is why I keep opting myself in. Once here, people's words are protected by dozens of witnesses spread around the world, and tens of thousands of accounts that have stake in the future of the platform.

Essentially, if one is worried about being censored,

Steem is currently the only place to be online.

I would rather have my account obliterated here through a highly convoluted, complicated and very expensive process than -

have it deleted at the click of a button anywhere else.

But, that is just me.

and this is Steem

So, you can speak for yourself.

Taraz [ a Steem original ]

Posted via Steemleo

Comments · 11

@robertandrew(70)· 2388d
And I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but Steem for that exact reason !!
@arcange(79)· 2389d
Congratulations @tarazkp! Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade in the following category:
- Comments - Ranked 7 with 59 comments
@insaneworks(71)· 2389d

What the fuck do I say that is so important that censorship even matters to me? I do not believe that anything I say here is so important that it truly matters if I got censored or not - how full of themselves are people these days

I, I, I. Me, me, me. Selfie culture, 15 minutes of fame. I did it, not us. I deserve it, not us. Everything I say, people listen and care to like or to upset themselves.

Cryptonoia: the belief of crypto traders that their buy and sell points are being observed and avoided just to fuck with them.

Oooooooo... crap. :D Been there, thought like that too.

No-one cares and I don't matter. A liberating thought I think.

I would rather have my account obliterated here through a highly convoluted, complicated and very expensive process than - have it deleted at the click of a button anywhere else. But, that is just me.

It's not just you.
@ryivhnn(73)· 2389d
Have people always conflated weird things or is it a recent development?
@shortsegments(78)· 2389d
There is so much in this post, it’s hard to know where to begin. I am happy that the price is improving. Thanks for tackling censorship issue it’s a very divisive one and an ongoing discussion of how even grey posts are visible if you wish yo see them. It appears that central tenet of earnings being yours in seven days are being debated, as all rules should be in a community and if there is enough interest voted upon.
@logiczombie(67)· 2389d
The ability to speak freely, not earn freely

Also, does this mean you believe that if you don't like a shop owner (who isn't doing anything illegal) or you don't like the patrons of that shop, that you should be able to take money from their till and redistribute it to other shops?
@logiczombie(67)· 2389d

Steem is censorship resistant and as I said in replies,

I agree.

...there are many front ends that do not even grey downvoted to oblivion posts

I haven't found one yet that shows posts from accounts with negative rep.

steempeak and busy.org show individual posts that are downvoted below zero pending payouts, but still hide posts from accounts with negative rep.

and, anyone can make another.

Well, not exactly "anyone". Do you happen to know of a good tutorial?

People seem to commonly call downvoting censorship...

Censorship is the suppression **[NOT NECESSARILY THE ERASURE]**of speech, public communication, or other information, on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient." WIKI

...when what they actually are doing is piggybacking another aspect of the blockchain onto their "claim". Earnings.

Look, nobody, and I mean nobody's earning lambo money on steemit.

Upvote rewards are negligible to non-existent for most people, and you can make way more "profit" by simply band-wagon-voting the top earners.

It was suggested to me by steemcleaners that declining rewards would mitigate downvotes.

I shared this suggestion with a few accounts that were getting heavily downvoted (for differences of opinion and not for "specific violations of community standards") and they reported that the downvoting continued without interruption and their rep was getting slaughtered.

So, no, it's not just greedy twits who are hungry for fractions of pennies.

Declining payouts does NOTHING to slow down the abusive downvotes.

Let me ask you,

Does it make sense to you to set a minimum payout above 0.001 steem?

Why?

Why steal scraps of dust from all the hopeful newbz and shovel that dust into the mouths of the top-earners (with pending payouts above the 20 steem reward curve sweet-spot)?

How does this seem "fair" to anyone?

What's the moral-theory?
@bashadow(70)· 2390d
I think people take the greyed out comments and post issue to serious. There was an individual that had all of his comments greyed out. It did not stop me from being curious as to what they said and looking at the comments. It was just a simple click to see the comment, most of the comments were relative to the post, I asked why, I was told, I gave my opinion, and the person's comments are no longer greyed out, I am pretty sure I did not persuade anyone to change their mind, but I spoke up. Even if they did not stop the auto down voting of this person I still would have seen each and every comment of his if I saw his name I would just ungrey it for myself.

On the other hand there are comments that are greyed out that I will not bother to look at, these are from disgruntled woe is me types, or spammer accounts. So the auto down votes do not bother me, people can still look and still see the comment. It is just a click away after all. I do still look on occasion to see if they have changed their ways and if they did then I will look at their comments and post also.

If a person is concerned that someone they follow is being censored all they have to do is look at the post. They can resteem it so others that follow them can see the post. They can make a post and then put a link to the greyed out post. There are ways and means to remove perceived censorship on the Steem Block Chain.

If they do not like the fact that a tribe or a community has blocked/muted a friend then they can always still use the steemit front end. Unfortunately if they did that they would have no reason to play the woe is me I am a victim card and try bullying others to get their way.
@zaibkang(67)· 2390d
Steem is decentralize and censorship free downvotes are good to stop spamming butt as compare to other centerlized social media platforms steemit is best

For example on YouTube if your channel is disabled by YouTube team you can't even open your YouTube channel

But on steemit if someone downvoted or flagged you post you can still open your account and also you can do post and comment visibility or earning may decrease but it's also recovered when you get upvotes again
@edicted(83)· 2390d
It's so weird to trade 1 SBD for 5 Steem now that SBD is being printed again. IMO anything less than 40 cents a coin is a steal.

It's also funny how people talk about reputation in the context of censorship. Do these people not realize that reputation is a centralized metric invented by Steemit Inc themselves? It has nothing to do with the Steem blockchain. So much to learn here, I'm guessing most users are clueless, and that ignorance will only get more pronounced as we enter a bull market and all the shitposters come out of the woodwork.
@bozz(83)· 2390d
Good points. I wrote a post the other day about a guy that was downvoting me. It wasn't until I finished my post that I realized I don't really care as much as I thought I did (about getting downvoted). The result of the downvotes have very little impact on my account and if they are spending their VP focusing on me, then that is other legitimate people that they are leaving alone. I figure it is a win win for everyone :)