RE: Why the Whale War might be good for Steemit
First, I never claimed to be unbiased. In fact, in a comment on this thread I clearly stated that i am biased. Secondly, I did not set out to give a full account of the actions of the war on here. I only dedicated a few paragraphs to the background with the intention to give an overview of the lead up to the controversy. I didn't detail the flagging actions of Bernie for the same reasons I didn't detail the flagging actions of haejin; they are not relevant to the point I am making. My point is this; If the community feels that voting abuse is occurring, they will respond and that this makes those who would venture to do so think twice.
Regarding whether or not I feel your post should be censored, I don't. I have spoke out against it in the recent past. Regarding Bernie upvoting his own post for over $100, I just don't see it very often, compared to haejin. Here are Bernie's earnings for the next 7 days:
Keep in mind that that contains two abnormally high posts over $1000, at least one of which he claims he will burn the rewards earned. Now, compare that to the picture I posted in the article of haejin's rewards. 22K vs 2K, which one would you prioritize? I'll address some of your other concerns in response to your other comment.
This additional information is relevant. I hadn't realised BS had offered to burn his votes. Seeing is believing and I'd much rather he donated them to tree planter or some similar positive action. My point is starting petty wars is not the correct way and BS starts these spats for his own entertainment IMO. I haven't seen his positive suggestions for changes to the system. My feeling is that is because the system works well for him when someone else like Haejin isn't doing well. All this spat is doing is setting up the next Steem competitor.
Bernie has his style and it throws off a lot of people, but this situation definitely needed/needs a vocal whale to address it. He was the only one willing to put so much effort into it. Some others joined in for a little bit, but not to the point of really making a difference. Even @dan began flagging haejin, but I believe has stopped.
See, I think the only thing that has saved haejin from the wrath of other whales is that the price of Steem has been doing so well. His huge chunk isn't that noticeable to them because they are still earning more than they were before. If they had noticed a decrease, more of them would have acted.
Look how your 'hero' is censoring my comments with his bots. This is all The work of BS. Do you agree with his actions?
I do not agree with it. I think it undermines the effort. I also wonder if it works in haejin's favor by turning off whales who would otherwise support the effort.
Why not send BS a personal message as a supporter?
I have no special favor with @berniesanders, but I know he often reads these threads and chooses not to reply. @berniesanders, would you mind removing the downvottes from @tarquinmaine's post? At least this person seems to listen to reason. Many other have tried to tell me it's ok for haejin to kill a charity thread, but not this guy.
But don't you think they should react by either making better posts, voting for content they liked which would have diverted earnings away from Haejin. They could have petitioned to change the system. I haven't seen any if this. Dan downvoted 4 posts on one day only. Id also like to suggest that maybe you could also suggest changes instead of referring to the white paper. The white paper isn't a bible it as just a template with a misson. All missions need adapting whilst keeping goal and agenda the same. This is meant to be a communication platform based on quality of contributions whether as by authoring or curating. All I'm. Seeing right now is an undignified fight over a reward pool with very little positive input to bettering the system. If you have positive constructive ideas I'd love to hear them I a future post, as I'm sure many would.
Fair enough.
No. What haejin is doing constitues voting abuse and really should be dealt with directly. It would be like if Oprah bought a billion dollars worth of steem and then came here upvoted Stedman to 50% of the reward pool. The fact that the self-voting is done through a proxy doesn't negate its effect on the platform. By dealing with the user directly, you send the message that their actions are not tolerable.
The white paper isn't the Bible, but it is sound reasoning on the way Steem was designed.
Many have talked about changing the system, but change takes time and in this instance requires a hardfork to the Steem BlockChain. In the meantime, the situation demands that it be addressed via currently available means.
I'll think on possible solutions. I did write something on Self-voting and reputation on my blog, but that was only slightly related.
How can you tell Haejin has scammed the system?
Using certain tools, you can tell who upvoted the content and how much those upvotes are worth. While haejin would have you believe that his success here is due to his followers, in actuality, it is mostly due to a single user and himself. The user in question is a big whale with a lot of steempower and Haejin speaks for his upvotes and downvotes.
This information is available on the block chain via several tools, one of which is https://steemworld.org. I'd advise you to verify what I'm telling by looking at that site and putting haejin's username. You can tell who votes on each post and how much those votes are worth.
FYI, @dan downvoted haejin 34 times by my count starting 11 days ago.
I'm sure you're right as I've not been delving by through. I stand corrected. Amazing to think Dan cares that much as I thought he was only using Steem for the odd post. If so his stance on this issue is clear. I wonder what would think to the censoring of comments like this oneand my other comments to you?
I doubt he would like it much.
"Bernie has his style"
Indeed. His style is attacking a community minded Steemian because their popular contributions are thwarting @berniesanders parasitism.
It depends on what you mean by community minded. I hope you are not talking about haejin.