Steemit 'Smack-down' analysis - Flag usage: September 2017 - February 2018
A look at the data behind the seemingly increasing number of flags/down-votes that are been distributed on the Steem Blockchain over the past 6 months.
Are the number of flags rising?
Who are the top 'distributors'?
Who is on the receiving end?
Previous analysis of this type can be seen here:
A brief introduction to 'Flagging'
Flags, or down-votes are a method to reduce the rewards on a post and or make the post less visible on the Steemit user interface.
This can be for a number of reasons including a disagreement on the rewards payout, which may be due to plagiarism or spam, as well as just a general lack of approval on the pending rewards.
Additional flags may be given due to general disagreement on what is being said, or a general dislike to the user making the comments. Flags could also be given in retaliation to a flag, and although there is criteria behind their distribution, a reason is not compulsory when a flag is being issued.
With up-votes, we have down-votes. Voting power is consumed either way, and the user flagging is entitled to do as they wish.
Flags - A six month high level data review
Data in this section has been captured from the 1st September 2017 through the final day of February 2018,
When comparing the full date range, we can see that from September to early December, the day-to-day flag numbers were generally around 2500, with a few spikes to around 10000.
From the middle of December onwards though, the average rose considerably, touching 10000 on many occasions, and there are a number of days when the total count finished above 20000.
The above chart in numbers:
From this chart and data, it is easy to spot an overall rising trend with regards to flag issuance.
And, by looking then at the new account registrations, it is possible to see correlations between flags and new account sign-ups.
The charts do look remarkably alike, even with regards to the 'spikes' seen in, most noticeably, in January and February of this year.
If we now take a look at the price of STEEM over the past 6 months, we can see the same pattern present again:
source
What is interesting to note to the analyst at least, is that there is a lag on the Price of STEEM starting to rise, before the new accounts start to significantly increase.
It is difficult to suggest whether this is down to people not jumping on the Steem train quick enough, or that if there was a bottleneck with regards to new account creation, or both.
Averages and Totals
Flag averages
The average number of down-votes fell from September to November but rose sharply in December, peaking in January 2018 in the data range analysed.
Flag Totals
As with the average flag data, the total flags issued each month peaked in January after rising sharply in December.
New account registration Totals
Again, if we take a look at the new account registrations on the Steem Blockchain, we can see that the same pattern is displayed in regards to the total flags issued over the data range represented.
This seems to suggest beyond doubt that the influx in new users caused the increase in flags.
Who's flagging?
The analyst would again like to reiterate that flags do serve a purpose, and that it is the freewill of any accountto the use to both the 'up' and 'down' vote for content they agree/like and disagree/dislike.
Top 40 accounts issuing flags over the last 6 months
@mack-bot, @cheetah, @blacklist-a, @spaminator and @steemcleaners are all (hopefully) known to many as the main accounts fighting abuse on the platform. It is a welcome sight to see these accounts present in the first 6.
Together, they have issued over 225,000 of the total flags (851300) given in the past 6 months - over a quarter of all flags.
Is this list how you expected it to look?
Who's being flagged?
Here is a list of the top 20 most flagged accounts.
It is interesting to note a few names appear on both lists. Is it possible that an account could be producing so much 'flaggable' content, as well as finding so much 'abusive' content to flag?
Summary
With an influx of new users, which seem to follow a rise in the price of STEEM, we have a new set of 'uneducated' accounts joining the Steem Blockchain.
The learning curve in general has been noted by many people as being high, and with this there is also a requirement to adapt to what is acceptable, or not, with regards to content.
It is reasonable to suggest, that as the price of STEEM falls following a spike and levels off, the same pattern occurs in the the number of new accounts registering, and the number of flags being issued.
The accounts that stay through the price lulls, have mostly learned what is accepted by the general populous and so the average flag levels fall.
We can expect that when the price of STEEM rises considerably again in future, the number of new account registrations will rise, and following that, the number of flags issued.
Finally, the analyst would like to suggest that flags are an integral part of the steemit.com platform (and other varieties), and without the option to flag a post, the level of 'abuse' would be overwhelming and unlikely retain the accounts, both producing and reading quality content.
Tools used to gather this data and compile report
The data is sourced from SteemSQL - A publicly available SQL database with all the blockchain data held within.
The SQL queries to extra to the data have been produced in both SQL Server Personal Edition and LINQPAD 5.
The charts used to present the data were produced using MS Excel.
A selection of SQL Scripts used
This data was compiled on the 2nd March 2018 at 7:00 pm (UTC)
I hope you found this analysis interesting.
Asher @abh12345
Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors
Thank you for the contribution. It has been approved.
Hey @abh12345, great work! A lot of well known names in both the flagger and the flagged lists. The most recent activities probably will make an analysis on its own.
Btw, the >1000 zappl flaggers were operated from a central instance, all those accounts share the same owner key.
You can contact us on Discord.
[utopian-moderator]
Thank you!
Ahh really? In the first analysis I made a point of mentioning zappl as they seems to have a huge number of flags.
Sooo, who's is the owner key? Someone big don't like the zaps!?
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@crokkon/one-key-to-rule-them-all-analysis-of-key-resuage-across-steem-accounts
So at least someone didn't like zappl, the accounts are mostly powered down in the meantime.
Excellent work this, I understand it better than I did when you first published it.
Certainly some interesting accounts in there!
@crokkon I was going to ask the question about zappl because I was surprised to see that in the data above
Hey @crokkon, I just gave you a tip for your hard work on moderation. Upvote this comment to support the utopian moderators and increase your future rewards!
Thank you as always for compiling these things @abh12345; it's something I would never do, but I love to look at the analysis overall and try to put a 'human' spin on the numbers.
If it's safe to assume that the flags increase with new users, then the work that, for example, we are doing with @newbieresteemday, is very valuable. If we can continue catching new folks in our nets before they unknowingly do a faux pas, then that is time very well spent. The hope is that they will take their knowledge and pass it on to others. The bigger hope is that we are creating a continually changing, selfless foundation here.
I want to focus on unknowingly for a moment as well; not long ago, a fellow with a reputation of 25, commented "cooperate please" on my post. After teaching ESL for years, I assumed he was doing the "I upvote you, you upvote me business". He got a few jabs from others on my page, but I decided to go to his page to see his work, which by the way wasn't bad. So I left a comment, and his reply was the same kind of nonsense. I thought about writing him off then and there, but didn't. I instead wrote a lengthy comment explaining why his behaviour was in poor taste. He eventually thanked me profusely and came back to my post and apologised to the other guys there too.
I'm a firm believer in second chances; not third and fourth ones. I also think there are a lot of new people here who honestly just don't know any better, and if we are all in this together, I think it's all of our responsibility to teach others, or at the very least, give them an opportunity to improve.
I'm not naive enough to think that all the abuse here is unknowing; in fact, I know the exact opposite, But if we can focus on the newcomers, perhaps when they become "old-comers" (yes, I know that's not a word;), we won't have the selfish abuse.
Ideal and optimistic I know. But that's the way my head dreams!
One final thought; when people flag, I guess there's no where that a "reason for the flag" is also documented? It would be an interesting table/chart to analyse as well.
Geez, this is starting to look like a @davemccoy comment haha I'll leave it at that; thanks again for the post, and of course for reading all of this :)
Cheers!
When I saw this comment as I scrolled down I immediately thought Dave was here again! :D
Knowledge is key with regards to some of the flags, but I think the largest % of flags come to counter blatant abuse.
It's very mindful to give 2nd chances, and it worked really well in your example - well done you!
Sadly there is no where to give a reason, although the main counter-abuse accounts are probably very grateful for this - they are already reaching limits with regards to how many flags(votes) they can issue in a day, and so bandwidth worries would make their job even tougher!
Have a great weekend!
haha commenting like @davemccoy...I'll take that as a compliment ;)
Thank you for your kind response, and yes "sadly" is right. It would such useful information as well as a possible deterrent.
Have a great weekend as well!~
Nice collection of charts here. It gives a clear picture of who (whether a person or bot) is flagging. Obviously cheetah and steemcleaners would be mentioned.
I understand the basis and purpose for flagging or down voting; but have never done any myself. If someone writes a post that is derogatory or inflammatory, I generally skip over it and don't stop back by the person's page. I know you can mute people too, or choose to not follow them... and those are the routes I take.
When I am curating posts and see blatant copy/paste and plagiarism, I will report to steemcleaners but that's the extent of my negativity on the platform. I'm normally an upbeat person with a positive attitude. People do what they do for his or her own reasons but being a journalist by career, I can't go with the plagiarism aspects.
Hi Dawn, thanks for your comments :)
I've sat on the fence on the post, as this is how it should be for an unbiased view.
I do think that a lot of people feel the same way as you, and this is a go-lightly approach to take and one I adopt in the main.
The probably with this is that if too many of us turn a blind eye to obvious abuse, then it degrades the quality our platform as a whole.
Each person should care enough to police the place, with their own values / understanding of the reasons for a flag. But as you say, it is also possible to report the abuse and let someone else deal with it - this is a nice to have, and the people managing these services should be appreciated for this!
Thanks!
One thing I noticed, being a newb, is because this platform is worldwide, there are language, cultural and societal intricacies that can be misconstrued. Another reason I'm not a fan of "flagging".
Yes that does happen - a bit like with the 'sir' thing.
But I do think their needs to be a way to hide such things as porn/insults/worse.
Awesome @abh12345, thanks for doing some great analysis work and providing data for us all.
My pleasure Jeff :D
This is quite a funny piece...I just knew Bernie would make the first list and haijin the second. Those guys are always fighting.
But why would someone wana flag jerrybanfield and cheetha...I don't just get it.
Bernie made both lists :D
Haejin a new entry from the previous analysis.
Jerry - he does write a lot of stuff people don't agree with and is in the spotlight a fair deal.
Cheetahs flags are mainly retaliatory flags from abusers, I think.
Lolzz...so they all really do have reasons to be flagged .
Excellent analysis Asher, I totally agree on the correlation of spike in new accounts to the amount of flagging, because they are clearly creating a large number of spam accounts. I actually had a few posts on this and a few simple answers, take a look if you'd like: https://steemit.com/earthnation/@cryptkeeper17/my-thoughts-on-new-account-creation-on-steemit
Interesting idea for sure. However, I own at least 5 'dead' accounts for the future, and if you check crokkons link above, you'll see in the 2nd spreadsheet that other, certain high profile types do too!
I have no problem with people owning multiple accounts, what annoys me is that it seems that the word is out and people could be purchasing them, and either using them for what they want or handing them over to other people. But the platform 'giving away' a relatively high amount to people that are totally unknown to be effective or real additions to the platform, or a front for jerks to pull all kinds of shenanigans like it seems they are with your point that the new account numbers and the number of flagging is virtually identical, thanks to your great analysis that is now apparent to me btw.
Yes we need a new sign-up process, a lot of SP is sat in accounts that will likely never be used.
Cheers!
Great content. Thank you for taking time to produce this and sharing it with us.
I am a relative newbie and totally agree with your point regarding a steep learning curve. But on steemit, it's worth it.
My pleasure, thank you for your supportive comments, and welcome to Steemit!
Am really sure March is going to make that list looks like a child's play. I have been reading a lot these days from many author's and it looks like March is gonna be a month of bloodbath. From spamming comments to cave trolls, a lot of people are voicing out their engagement in the cleansing process.
The result of this: we still waiting to see.
The potential is there, but i think perhaps not due to a low STEEM price and fewer signups - lets see!
Thanks for some data on this, although it's all academic and philosophical for me at this time...
This has been a topic on several forums I'm involved in.
This fits within my understanding of behavior. What lay people "know" about behavior modification is a mix of pop culture and old wive's tales, and is often far removed from successful training.
I tend to agree with this hypothesis.
I find it funny that those flagged by cheetah and Steemcleaners would do retaliatory flags. Just sets them up for more flags.
I'm surprised with the flags for zappl and when I read @crokkon post it kinda explains things.
Things will be heating up in the coming weeks as war operations will be in full swing.
Yeah, more flags for them I think - might as well set a new account up and try to do things differently.
I think if I did the same analysis in 3 months time we'd see less flags, only because I think the price of STEEM will range for a while and new signups will be low in comparison to Dec and Jan. We'll see!