@the.masses account has been shut down :(
I am sad to report, that @the.masses project has been shut down.
@the.masses account was an experiment I started back in October. The idea behind the account was to share the private posting key with the entire community, and see how people would use the account. You can read about the experiment here.
A lot of interesting things have happened with the account over the past several months. Lots of people have used it to resteem their posts, to get exposure to a larger audience. Many people have also used it to upvote their own posts. Probably the most interesting part though was to see how people used it to communicate anonymously. Many people would use it to reply to things and express opinions that they would not feel comfortable saying using their 'main' account. A lot of 'drama' has come from the account, but there has been quite a bit of interesting material as well!
A few weeks ago, the account began to be used to flag a bunch of people. It was close to getting shut down, when @anyx stepped in and created a bot to counter the downvotes. (Thanks @anyx!!) Sadly, another person decided to start using the account for abusive purposes, and has been using it to post a lot of spam. There is no easy way to counter this, and it is annoying a lot of people - so unfortunately I have decided to shut the account down.
I am very sad for all the people that have enjoyed using the account, and watching what people do with it. It has been a really interesting experiment. Sorry that it had to end this way! It is very unfortunate that one bad apple has to spoil the whole bunch :(
Thank you everybody for your support on this project, and I hope everyone had fun!
It's not a failure. No experiment is. We just got a result.
and, I might add, exactly the result we might have expected. What we don't know is what would have happened if it had stayed alive just a bit longer... how long before the real spammer got bored and went away?
Interesting view :)
Geez.
I thought it went well, considering. It could've been a lot worse.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/03/24/microsofts-teen-girl-ai-turns-into-a-hitler-loving-sex-robot-wit/
lmao, yes. it could have been much worse :)
:)
Ah, RIP, the.masses
Aw, you didn't have to shut it down, I had that under control. :) I wrote a cute little script to publish a comment every 20 seconds so that the real spammer couldn't get a post in edgewise. Witness it in action here (you'll have to reveal it, since it was down voted to oblivion): https://steemit.com/spam/@the.masses/456123
The real spammer would have gotten bored after a while and gone away. :)
Oh, that part was you? lol. I thought the spammer was just trying to flood the network with garbage :)
I appreciate the effort to fix the account!
The comments were one of the main things that people liked to use the account for though. With it being blocked for the spammer, it would be blocked for the rest of the community too.. This also wasn't the only incident with it causing issues. (It was more the last nail in the coffin.)
I do think that this latest incident is a good indication that the account should be lay to rest.
Thanks a bunch for your support!
Haha, I just wanted to see if I could stop the actual spam. I couldn't think of a good way to do it other than to make unobtrusive spam. Still spam, but better spam. :)
Yeah, I think accounts with public posting keys are an interesting idea but will ultimately tend to being used for spam.
see my post in the other thread. there is a way to make it work.
https://steemit.com/@sigmajin/re-themasses-anybody-know-how-to-write-a-bot-to-delete-comments-by-this-account-20170127t134033986z
edit -- though im not sure if this would work at all with steemit.com to broadcast the one party signed transaction (or even to log in for that matter). That said, it would probably be really easy to make a web interface to broadcast the initial transaction no log in and the public posting key wif right in the function.
:)
reminds me of the time in jr high when one of the bad kids brought vodka in his water bottle... They banned water bottles... I was thirsty for 2 years cause of that jackass!
lol, yep
Phew, that's good. Then I don't have to flag it to oblivion...
I added it to my up-vote script ages ago and it was actually earning some good curation rewards while supporting some good content.
I always cringed when I seen it being used for controversial topics. I guess we all knew this day would come.
In my mind it is a measurement of how far we fallen as a whole.
RIP @the.masses
That's cool! Yeah, it really is too bad. I know so many people that were actually using the account for various things and having fun with it. I did see way more 'good' come out of the account than 'bad'. It's sad it had to end :(
I agree it was more good than bad, but it was always on my mind that the bad was just waiting to happen.
Honestly, I feel the same about a few other steemit features, once the masses gets involved what we have all seen as a positive can quickly turn negative. No pun intended :)
Steem on Tim, I know you took heat for this. I hope you learn from it :)
Agreed. Thanks :)
Apples these days...
Ha.
I blame millennials.
I thought those were bananas?
Yep.
Mhmm