SteemSTEM and Cheetah
In recent weeks, more and more people have been complaining to steemcleaners (and it seems @guiltyparties in particular) that cheetah is the reason they didn’t get curated by steemSTEM. As that is not entirely correct, we chose to give out a statement.
Cheetah is a bot, that means for the initial comment, there isn’t a human checking your post. It’s scanned and compared to content found on the web, to spot any copies. If it finds something, it leaves a comment and upvotes the post.
This alone is not a reason to not get a steemSTEM vote!
If the link left by cheetah isn’t even remotely related to what you’ve posted, you can contact @patrice and she will change the comment. If cheetah is correct and the link it left is indeed one of your sources – which you quoted correctly! – just answer to cheetah, telling it that yes, this is your source. Nothing further is required.
But the last option requires you to quote your sources correctly. That does not mean it’s ok to copy a large amount of text, as long as you mention the website you got it from at the end. Try to only directly copy short quotes (if you have to), write what you want to write in your own words, add your own content and quote the source. No, BuzzFeed is not a good source for scientific content – as long as you’re not writing about the phenomenon of “10 things that will surprise you!” lists.
If you have, in fact, plagiarized, your post will not be curated by steemSTEM. But that is not cheetah’s fault, only your own. And if cheetah has to warn you several times, you will be blacklisted and flagged by it. At that point, a vote by steemSTEM is very, very unlikely.
Other reasons you might get blacklisted are identity theft or deception, for which the blacklisting is immediate and permanent.
Here is a list of reasons why your post might not have been upvoted:
- You’ve broken copyright law with the pictures you are using. No, “google images” is not a picture source. No, not every picture can be used for commercial purposes (which Steem is!). No, just because you “found it on the web” doesn’t make it free of copyright. Please click here for our post on copyright.
- Your post isn’t up to our standards. If you want to know what those are, click here.
- You keep asking us why your post didn’t get curated/only got such a low vote. Don’t do that. We get so many of these messages each day and in 99.9% of cases, there’s a good reason we didn’t curate it. We’re not that many people, we all have responsibilities outside of Steem and we absolutely do not have the time to explain to you in detail why we didn’t vote your post. You are not entitled to a vote, just because you tagged your post steemstem!
- Your post reads like a Wikipedia article and is as exciting as a soggy piece of bread.
- We simply didn’t see it. Sorry, there are so many posts with the tag on a daily basis, and we check the other related tags (science, technology, …) too. Just keep posting good content, we will see you at one point. And if you can’t wait, because you want your money, now! … You might have missed the point of this initiative. We’re not here to give you the highest payouts possible. We’re here to give STEM a place on the blockchain – not make individual posters rich.
If you’re curious about how the curation progress works or what the general structure of our community is, click here.
Getting a comment from cheetah is not the end of the world – as long as it’s a false positive. And even then, you have plenty of time to change our behavior for the better.
If you’re not getting curated, there’s a reason. Don’t message the curators about it, the probability of it changing things for the better is low. It’s more likely that we remember you in a negative way.
If you need anything from us (that isn’t upvotes), please contact our Public Relations Representative @suesa because that’s why we have her. The other members of steemSTEM management are not the correct people to contact, if there are any problems that aren’t specifically linked to them.
We hope that this post clears some things up and maybe reduces the panic felt by a few when cheetah comments.
Keep creating great content!
A question.
I write posts on advanced subjects (Astrophysics, particle physics, cosmology) which I try to make accessible to all, even non scientists, while still going in quite some detail. This is why I do it in series, so I can progressively guide the reader in the depths of things.
Many of my readers are regular ones, but I do think also of the new comers that discover my words for the first time. These need a little summary of the basics of the subject to enjoy the content of the post.
One solution is to give links to my previous work, sometimes to a section where there is a summary of basics. Yet, a new reader will probably not want to click on the link, search for the relevant paragraph, read it, come back, start reading the post, realising they need to review the basics again, go back to the summary, come back again etc... In our days of instantaneity, this is not very practical.
So I started adding an appendix to the articles with just what they need to know on the subject to fully enjoy the post.
The thing is that what they need to know is often common to many posts. And rewriting that appendix with different wording for each post just to avoid Cheetah is a real pain.
My latest post, I really didn't feel like rewriting the appendix so I just copy pasted the content needed as a quote like this:
I never received a Cheetah notice, so am not complaining. Yet, I suspect that doing this on a regular basis could bring the attention of the bot.
In that persepctive, I feel entirely justified to quote large sections of some of my previous posts as long they serve the role of appendix. Do you have a solution to avoid Cheetah taking it as plagiarism when doing so?
I don't, but I will ask @patrice about it. I suspect that cheetah might already be trained to "ignore" block quotes, but don't have reliable info on that. I know that several people are doing this, so it should generally not be a problem, at least not for us! It's obvious when cheetah quotes your own post that it's yours, and you're not put on the blacklist automatically - a human does that.
So no reason to worry! :)
Thank you @suesa for the clarification.
For now, when my future posts require appendices, I will use block quotes. I look forward to read what @patrice says. Cheers.
Thank you for bringing this up, as I am probably going to have the same problem. I write mainly about plant intelligence, plant neurobiology, and plant music. I only recently started, but I have already had to quote my own text several times in order to explain concepts previously detailed, so I have been thinking about how to do it. Even quotes would seem to be something that eventually get flagged unless they cite the source correctly. I was thinking of having a standard footnote like definition, which I have for some papers and books, but that seems like it would get flagged right away, no?
@yvesoler, There is an easy way I thought about to "cheat Cheetah" but haven't implemented yet. In our case, it would be legitimate:
Image capture. Take an image of the section or definitions you want to place in appendix , and just post such section as an image.
Great suggestion, thank you! I will keep that in mind.
There's a misconception that cheetah is a "plagiarism" bot. She does help us find plagiarism but she's also a fresh content bot. Getting a cheetah comment if you are posting you're own content from steemit.com, posting your own content from another source, or posting fresh content that includes quotes from sources shouldn't have a stigma attached to it.
Those who have posts with quotes sometimes get a comment from cheetah when the percentage of quoted material vs original content is too high or they are just unlucky. No one is blacklisted based on whether cheetah stops by their posts to comment one time or a thousand times.
Sometimes @cheetah is way off base and I think she's been in the virtual catnip. In those cases several have just made good natured fun of her mistake, in others they've reported it and we've changed her comment to "I'm a silly robot!"
If you'd like to help the @steemcleaners team you can respond to any @cheetah comment you get by saying something like - "Thanks! That's my footer, glad it stands out!" or "Yup, that's where I found that quote!" If we have a reason to followup on @cheetah we can easily see the reason she commented and move on.
If I can help let me know!
Even though I am trying to save on VP, this is worth a full vote and a full resteem.
The Steemstem standards are actually an exemplary practice based on ethics, copyright standards and often simply common sense.
I have not written steemstem related articles for a couple of weeks, because I did not have the time I wish to devote (but fear not friends, I shall return 😂)
If this will not cause a problem, I am including more information regarding the cheetah mostly aiming to provide new steemians with more information about it.
And to conclude..
Steemit (and specifically steemstem) aims to provide original content, new thoughts and ideas. Please be extra careful and before even thinking about complaining, take some time to research, ask, read posts that are getting more attention. (There is always a reason for the extra attention)
Respect, Recognition, Rewards are not just Received ..
You have to earn them and you have to be part of the community, with thoughtful comments, provide new insights and your own point of view.
With lots of admiration for everyone devoting substantial energy and time for making this platform a place of mutual respect and multi-dimensional knowledge.
💙
Certainly this happens very often and the users of the tag #steemSTEM and #stem-espanol ask puzzled why they are not given the vote of the community ?. Dear @suesa your comment is a clear message for the users of these tags: honesty, transparency and above all quality content presented in the form of a blog that strengthens the community steemit.com
Wow, wow, wow!! This is lovely. I thought having cheetah on a post is a clear and stamped disqualification for Steemstem's vote. It's nice to know that it's not.
Referencing a post is nice but over copying from the source because it's referenced is uncalled for.
Wonderful heads up!
Exactly my thoughts too. I think I've only ever had cheetah on my post once. Nice post!
Well said @pearlumie
Referencing a post is nice but over copying from the source because it's referenced is uncalled for 👍
Thanks @steemstem now i know how cheetah works👏
@steemstem thanks for this public information. I used to write science related posts and decided to be professional because of #STEEMSTEM, but in the process i got an upvote from @cheetah. Initially i felt bad, because my post was flagged. I later got to understand why.
This post has clarified my doubts, and i may resume my scientific posts. Thanks once again for enlightening me.
@antigenx
I totally agree with the point of over copying from a source simply because it's referenced. Thanks for the heads up.
The promise which i have completed
sarikaa (27) in steemit • 1 minute ago
all my respected friends and followers in the last post i have mentioned that about my scheme .that is just upvote to my this post then i will follow you and i will take your name on my coming blog.so friends the name of that members who have upvoted me are @hr1 and @farooqch . i have followed them which i have promised earlier and completed my promise .so
hello my friends and followers .i am sarikaa. as i have introduced in my previous blogs. but today i am going to announce a new my plan that if you want to be followed from me then you have to upvote to my this post.I will check wheather you have upvoted me or not. whoever upvoted to my this post, then i will open their steemit account and i will follow them .Also i will take their name whoever upvoted meon my next coming blog. it's very simple and you will definately benefitted from my this plan. so be hurry and up vote to my this post as soon as possible. In my next blog i will also show you the members who are followed by me.
thank you to all . friend this proves that i am genuine person and whatever i tell i really doo.again
Thanks for everything you doing @suesa and everyone involved with the whole @steemstem project.
I can't believe that people actually complain about not getting a @steemstem upvote, there's so many posts with the steemSTEM tag! I love reading as much of them as I can, but there just isn't enough time in a day to do so.
Just keep writing your posts and if it is good enough, more often than not it will get upvoted.
I am glad this post really clear things out. cheetah commenting on your post isn't the end of the world, you just have to know your mistake and make adequate steps to correct them. Some of my articles have been commented on by cheetah in the past, and i just ignored them and kept writing better articles.
sometimes though you might unintentionally make a definition as it is in some journal or website, but then it's important to always quote your sources.
I found you on twitter and appreciate what you are doing.
But twitter is a place to promote steemit and try to get new users - not a place to educate steemers for the most part. There are less than 300 of us actively on twitter and of course, millions who are not.
So I cannot retweet this post. Probably discord, other chat places, or steemit fb groups would be your best bet to promote this type of post. You have a lot of good info here and many steemers do not understand it.
If you could start tweeting out some of the cool posts that make it into your criteria - that would be awesome and I would definitely send that out to my followers. If content creators see the type of work you support - they might make the jump and try here.
Until both the code and the culture changes, there will be innate disincentives from the way the coin, inflation, and reward pool distributions are now, to spreading the word about steemit if you aren't past the threshold of owning enough steem to make the increased value of new users buying into steem be worth the increased competition you face as a poster trying to earn income from SBDs instead of your investment in SP or steem.
So the lack of excitement from any new steemit users on other social media shouldn't be a surprise. It's only in the whales' interests to want more people to know about steemit. Once someone is here, unless they are dense or trying to get upvotes for their promotional activities irl, they usually keep pretty quiet about their new revenue stream/crypto faucet because they know more visibility just means more competition for the dog food bowl.
How one can know that he or she is blacklisted?
Usually, blacklisted people get a comment from cheetah on their posts that says something along the lines of "Attention! This user is on my blacklist because of X!"
Thankyou for your quick response!