My name is m.T
So I'm a new user to Steemit (less than a week) and so far my experience has been mixed. On one hand, I've come across a wonderful platform filled with an extravagent and diverse community with a wide array of content/information which was very exciting.
On other; much like a kid on his first day of school, I encountered a playground bully.
So without specifically name dropping we'll say for the purpose of this post this man's name is Matthew.
Now Borisis miserable with his life.
He hates his job. He has no job. His job is to steal your curation by taking advantage of loopholes.
He hates the circumstances in his life so much so that they have driven him to spend his time/money to ruin other people's days because (and I say this as an individual with a degree in Behavioral Sciences, particularly studying demeanor/facial tics/mannerisms/body language, overall human behavior in group sociology as well as individual psychology.)
Basically; Boris is an individual who likes to rain on the parade or ruin a good experience for others to satiate his own insecurities and unfulfilled lifestyle. People like Matthew can be easily profiled because they're very primitive/predictable in their behavior in that:
- They are easily trolled. A simple response, whether it is intended to troll or not will trigger a catalyst leading to a firestorm on Matt's "rebuttal (more like rant)"
- They relish in hypocrisy. They tend to view themselves as authority figures when they're nothing but just another average Steemit user with some more Steem power than others using it to crush people he doesn't like. Who doesn't he like? Pretty much anyone who disagrees with him. EVERYBODY knows somebody like this in thier life.
- They view themselves as right and it's imperative they have the "last word" in any disagreement/debate
Please allow me to share my experience with you:
Upon waiting 12 days to get verified; I was excited to be a part of this new platform. It seems as if so were many others. I had posted no more than (3-4) blog posts and that's all I could've seeing as how I haven't been an active user for more than a 48 hours. My Steem rep jumped to almost 80 before Matthew took it upon himself to knock me down to 5 (single-handedly).
My content was opinionated; yes, but it was also educational. It was in no violation of any rules (it's all flagged and taken down but should still be viewable) and were taken down out of spite. Why?
In comes matthew with his chest puffed out thinking he's top dog flagging a post/effectively removing something I spent hours of TA on. Additionally; it was a buy recommendation for Cardano RIGHT BEFORE it had a massive upsurge so in taking down that post, and spending more money to dismantle my reputation, he's accomplished virtually nothing but take away profit/proceeds from would-be investors who listened to my TA. He flags a post, I respectfully reply back with a post that includes nothing more or less than the truth and that was enough to make him crack. You know what they say. The truth hurts.
How does this pertain to the title? What does this have to do with me?
- If you're a new user on Steemit, you want to get your content out there; and you try to build a following by promoting your content, you're obviously not going to have the amount of exposure you want (unless you've paid to promote your posting, which most don't)
- If you happen to stumble across a Social Bully like Matthew; and God forbid you offend his delicate sensibilities, he can single-handedly flag and take down everyone of your posts. Regardless of how much time, effort you spent on them. Even though they're in NO violation of any rules/etiquette. They're quality, decent, content based posts that are being removed out of sheer spite; plain and simple.
- Now I know most would just ignore the bully and hope he moves on to the next guy. But that's not the kind of person I am. I respectfully replied "I would've appreciated it if you would've said something instead of flagging my post seeing as how I'm still trying to find my footing as a new user" where he tells me "if you had paid to promote it, I would've had it taken down muahah" and than claims there was no malicious intent whatsoever in what he was doing. After reviewing his comments/replies it turns out I'm not the only person he's been doing this to. He's got plenty of posts/content that has been flagged & removed. He's paid God knows how much $$ to try and rain on other people's parades.
So to get to the point of this blog post:
What gives Steemit social bullies like Matthew the right to destroy the reputation of a newcomer? If I have 40+ followers (which I've gained in under 2 days) with some of those followers having over 30k followers; why does some disgruntled petty individual with 3000 followers have the right to come down and remove hours of content I posted? I never did anything to him other than tell it like it is. I'm sorry I didn't lay down and take the abuse like most probably would; but when I see something that's not right, I address it.
And before you say "well he's earned that right through his steemrep" the truth is he hasn't. Most of his followers are steembots that boost your rep if you follow/pay them. That's how he's built what he has. So why do social bullies like this have the right to moderate / deter new users?
It's not right/fair whatsoever. If you leer over my blog posts, none of them are in violation of Steemit etiquette / code of conduct. None of them are immature. None of them are anything less than reasonable posts. Do I need to repost every single blog post taken down by this social bully?
When over 10 people with tens of thousands of followers upvote a post, and one person with 3000 followers flags it; it gets removed and all promotion spent / rewards attained are void.
Nobody should have that much power aside from a mod.... and even if Steemit users can mod their fellow Steemians based on their Steem rep, they should only be allowed to do so when in violation of the rules/etiquette.
Or if they're behaving childishly and lodging personal insults (like our friend Matthew has with me) Yet he's off Scott free while I'm the one with every post flagged. shrug I'm glad I didn't pay to promote my posts; because they had a fair amount of upvotes and weren't even up for 48 hours so could've gotten many more.
Now I know the majority of Steemit users are mature individuals (or atleast can act like such) and don't resort to such petty childlike behavior especially when it's a new user and you're a veteran; you should be expected to be more understanding and more willing to help the community/newcomers out.
I'm not worried/deterred in the slightest bit. Why not? I have faith in the community. The irony is that he's lost subscribers; gain no rep and I've gained almost 700 + 60 rep (from 17)in the process; because the truth is most people agree with me on this subject. It's not about who's right and who's wrong. It's about veteran Steem users acting like bullies and abusing their power to newer Steem users. They are the ones who should have their content taken down and rewards voided. Not the people who are looking forward / excited about a new platform.
UPDATE: 6 MONTHS LATER.. BELOW
- a1mtarabichi
Peace & Love all. Especially the haters.