Copy-Pasting Isn't "Curation"

I really wanted to write a story today.

Instead, I have to devote my energies to outing a low-effort copy-paster. When I first joined Steemit, the promise of the platform is what drew me in. The site and the software behind it allows content creators to be rewarded for their hard work.

Steemit has flourished since launch, with umpteen thousands of accounts being registered, and a good portion of them are active and posting original content they've made. Originality is part of the Steemit ethos, where a creative can make works and share them with the potential for acclaim and crypto-currency rewards.

But it isn't all rainbows and butterflies.

Like any system, parasites and leeches have prepared proboscises and slobbered from chitinous mandibles at the prospect of feasting on the reward pool. Dirty tricks abound, sockpuppet accounts, self-voting, botting and the rest.
A seething mass of opportunists is always lurking beneath every "Follow for follow" or "Good post, much interesting, plz follow me and upvote" comment.

I've stayed out of the fray, keeping my head down and writing a short story nearly every single day since I've joined. I believe in the platform, and sharing things with others. I follow high-quality people that believe in the same thing, and it shows in every creative post they share.

I now pull the curtain back on user @zer0hedge, who joined in January of 2017.

Months ago I stumbled upon one of his posts in the "New" section, and wrote it off as a simple website scraper. That was a mistake. Over the past half-year, this user has been posting under the zer0hedge name, riding the coat-tails of the more popular site http://www.zerohedge.com

His scheme? Cutting-and-pasting content from Zerohedge, and posting it on Steemit. If you look up this user, you'll see that current posts have a "disclaimer" that tries to paper over his scam. Was it always there? Being curious, I dove into his post history.

I found that from posts 6+ months ago, there wasn't a single definitive statement that "zer0hedge" wasn't affiliated with the offical Zerohedge website. I'm not the only user that noticed this. Blogger @patrice took notice of these obvious attempts to game payouts three months ago.

https://steemit.com/steemit-abuse/@patrice/tyler-durden-of-zerohedge-joined-steemit-oh-it-s-only-copy-paste-zer0hedge

Interestingly enough, when the copy-troll @zer0hedge realized that a spotlight was being shone on its reward-pool pilfering, he immediately began posting "disclaimers" on each copy-paste post. There was no attempt to do so before - which just confirms what I suspected - this user is all about appropriating someone elses content and profiting from it.

So, after a late evening where I had been writing and doing other things, I checked this user out again.

And I saw them, post after post - all ripped from Zerohedge. No in-depth commentary, no analysis of the topic with excerpts to prove their points. Just blatant cut-and-paste douchebaggery, proudly displayed under a user alias that was puporting to be affiliated with the site.

I got mad. This was complete bullshit. I have some contacts, so I reached out to Zerohedge legal about it. They had no idea this guy was posting articles from their site.

NONE.

I got even more agitated. Content creators that I follow pour their hearts out into their posts, and this low-effort troll just slides in here with a cut-and-paste slime trail, making a mockery of the whole thing?

That was the final straw.

I went through every single post that hadn't paid out yet, and flagged it. I also added a comment to educate followers that this person was not affiliated with Zerohedge itself.

Cue hissy fit.

User @zer0hedge replied to some of my posts, asking for an explanation. It was pretty obvious what was going on, and I did reply to one of the queries. But that wasn't enough, so he began posting in my blog posts - demanding an answer.

Here it is, you blood-sucking scrounging freeloader:

I will flag every single article ripped off from the official Zerohedge site.

I will keep posting a warning in every thread about what @zer0hedge is doing.

If @zer0hedge persists, I will then start contacting the original authors of the posts he rips off and see if their legal teams are aware of his plagiarism. If I were him, I wouldn't start cashing out the $9,000+ in his account just yet, he might need it for legal fees.

For my followers, I apologize having to divert my time to this - but sometimes you have to face up to someone's actions and firmly say "No more".

(Cue high-pitched shrieking as the parasite is thrust out into the sunlight.)

---

It gets better - thanks to some high-profile visiblity the parasite has changed its logo to yellow from white - while still copying the Zerohedge website. He's also added "not affiliated", as if mirroring stories from Zerohedge verbatim is still a legit thing to do.

The original version - google cached so the logo is in a small square - Link

The newer "leechin' yellow" version.

This bloodsucker clearly intends to keep on doing what he's been doing - ripping off the rewards pool using the work of others. Don't reward low-effort leeches.

---

So this parasite has kept on going, he thinks by changing the website logo to a different color somehow makes it all okay. Its like arguing with a 2 year old. In one of his recent threads, a user thanked me for calling him out. They had been duped into believing he was the official site.

---

The hits keep rolling on. Here he suggests I find something for him to upvote. Maybe his conscience is getting to him.

Nope! He's just concern-trolling about my posts. Classy dude, eh?

Spread the word, resteem, etc.. "zer0hedge" is a leech on the rewards pool - plain and simple.