An Open Letter To The SteemIt Community (And The Anonymous Spammers Who Have Been Threatening To Flag Me)

About a month ago I made a SteemIt bot and invested an entire Bitcoin into Steem to power it up.  This bot was supposed to be for everybody.  But some people were complaining that someone who they didn't like was using my bot to power up their own reputation score.  They've been sending me anonymous emails, calling that other person a spammer and telling me in no uncertain terms that if I didn't re-program my bot to block them that I would be severely flagged by very high-level SteemIt users (not for the content of my writing, but only because I didn't follow their orders).  I can't even write back to argue with these people because their return email addresses are fake.  So I'm writing this post because I can't reply to those threats directly.

First just let me set one thing straight, there is a big difference between excessive posting on SteemIt and spam in your email inbox.  If someone is sending you email after email with unsolicited promotions that's spam, and if they're sending you threats then that is even worse spam.  But if you don't like something on SteemIt then so what, just ignore it.  Why should I get involved in fighting on someone else's behalf?  The SteemIt documentation says "It is free to post, comment, or vote on all content on Steemit.com."

It's silly, why should they spend time and effort pushing around other users, when what they really want to do is convince @Ned to change the way SteemIt works.  Fighting with other users wont convince them to change anything.  And if Ned isn't changing SteemIt or blocking people from using it, then why should I change my bot to block people?

Now, don't get me wrong, a couple of weeks ago I actually did try to program my bot to block the alleged spammer.  Not because I felt like it, but because I had gotten so many emails complaining about how that user was using my bot to level up their reputation score after being flagged down.  At the time I agreed, it didn't sound fair.  And for a little while the threatening emails stopped showing up in my inbox.  I thought everything was okay.

But today I got another email saying that they were pissed at me and they would flag me down at their first opportunity because I didn't block that user from my bot.  So I just checked, and to my surprise, that user was still using my bot.  I honestly don't know how, maybe they found a way around my block, or maybe I'm just not very good at programming things like that.  I don't know, but it is what it is.

So now some anonymous people are mad at me because I didn't jump at their command (not for lack of trying, but just because).  Do I care yet?  Heck No!  In fact, it's makes me want to rebel against their demands.  Why should I bend over backwards and do extra programming work for some jerks who just want to flag people?  I say screw them!  They can flag me and get it over with if that's the kind of harassment they're into.  The only thing it'll prove is that they can't stay anonymous forever.

To everyone else who's reading this and wondering who those users are, just wait and see, they said they'd flag me at their next opportunity, so if they flag this post then we'll all know exactly who they are.  These people think they can control everyone on here with their Steem Power, but I say they're just a bunch of losers hiding behind their online anonymity while they try to push and bully folks into doing what they want.

If Ned and the other SteemIt developers wont change things for them then I don't think I should change anything for them either.  If they don't like it then they should talk to Ned, he's the one in charge of SteemIt.  I'm not the SteemIt Police.  I don't care if User A has a complaint about User B.  I don't know any of the people involved, and I'm not trying to defend any spammers, but the users who think they can control other people with their Steem Power are the real threat to SteemIt.  If they're that easily upset by other people's freedom of speech then they've come to the wrong Internet.

Thank you for taking the time to read this little rant.  And if anybody ever tells you to do something or else they'll flag you, then you should tell that troll to go back to Facebook!  Never put up with that sort of nonsense, giving in to people like that will only encourage them to push you around even more.