I'm still a newbie on Steemit.

I've only been seriously writing for about the last 6 weeks or so and I've greatly enjoyed my time so far.

I've slowly been learning the ropes.

I've sought to contribute content of quality and of value.

But there is one thing that has confused me: censorship.

I'm not looking to get attacked, I'm just seeking to understand, so please hear me out.

I always thought that one of the great values of the blockchain and of @Steemit is that it is a censor-resistant platform; that it's a place where people can share ideas, even unpopular ones, without being shut down or their voices silenced.

The same goes for @dtube.

But as of late I feel like I'm seeing more people being heavily censored and their lives affected.

So far I've seen a few different kinds of censoring take place. As I enumerate them, please know that I'm not making per se judgment calls about whether these are good or bad.

1. @grumpycat

From what I've seen, this account seeks to call out people who are not producing quality content; people who are taking advantage, perhaps, by just posting something really short and then self-voting on it.

Or, I've seen the account also flag people who are using bid-bots that could be used for posts longer than a certain number of days. It recommended only using accounts of 3.5 days or less.

Did I do ok in describing this account? @grumpycat, if you're reading this, feel free to give more perspective below.

1. @berniesanders

This account seems to flag people who are somehow cheating the system or who are scammy or spammy. Most noticeably, his account—and I suppose a lot of people with similar sentiments—downvoted @trevonjb into oblivion.

Note below:

I confess it's been somewhat fascinating to see that a post can have lots of likes, comments, but zero funds in it.

Again, I'm not saying that what @grumpycat or @berniesanders has done is bad. I'm actually just trying to understand better. @berniesanders if you wouldn't mind taking a moment to comment below, I'd love to hear what the purpose or mission is of your account. Seems like you're trying to protect the ecosystem, but I'd love to hear more.

Here are some questions I have for @ned and the community as a whole:

I thought that Steemit, because it was built upon a blockchain, was a system that was inherently censor resistant. But it seems like that is not really the case, right? Anybody want to chip in with more perspective?

One of the things that attracted me about Steemit was the idea that people can feel free to share ideas, whether good or bad. One of the things that I've seen with YouTube is that different people are leaving it to join @dtube because it seems like people can share freely on there.

Are there official rules somewhere about what is appropriate behavior and post material?

There is a flagging system inherent in the platform, but what are the rules that govern its use?

Should there be rules to govern what can be posted and what cannot be?

What are the roles of witnesses like @jerrybanfield in this?

Or is the point for it to be exactly what it presently is?—which, I confess, seems like a rather random wild-wild-west-kind-of-place.

Finally, am I really free to post whatever I want on Steemit? Is this a place where free speech can abound?

What happens if I begin to post things that happen to be unpopular material? Is it ok that people would have the right to shut it down completely?

If I'm misunderstanding the purpose of Steemit and how it does or should operate, fine. I just want to better understand so that I can determine whether this is the right platform for me to stay on.

I believe that for Steemit to succeed in the long run, more clarity concerning expectations and how things operate need to be given. As an old college professor of mine used to say, "Clear expectations lead to stability."

Without those expectations, Steemit will continue to come across as a somewhat scary and random place, which will affect its ability to grow and develop.

So what do you think? What are your thoughts on the matter?

[image by Oscar Keys]