RE: BEWARE - I'm FIGHTING Spam In My Comment Section From Now On
Currently flagging is more hidden away. Had to Google search for it and I didn’t even find an article showing how to do it. This is also a big reason why people don’t do it since majority barely know you could flag bot automated comments.
Also it looks like it can be a bit risky to start to flag stuff how it may eventually get yourself in trouble. Especially since we are used to the big dictators over at other platforms how they treat you if you speak up.
Since it’s not just a red downvote symbol but a scary flag. But you said a good thing that it’s needed to keep up the quality of the ecosystem since we are all now invested in the Steem Blockchain and it’s in our best interest to keep this place being run well. But if they would tone down the scariness of the red flag I think more people would report stuff.
There has been an on-going discussion with Steemit inc about putting the downvote back as a downvote instead of a flag. It's tricky. But yes, there are still massive whales here who start flag wars and will make every post or comment hidden for someone they don't like if they so choose. It's a tricky thing. When it comes to flagging spam, I think the chance of a flag war is small. If you have concerns, you could also report the account in steemit chat instead of flagging it yourself.
As for the flag being hard to find, that's surprising to hear. It seems pretty straightforward to me.