All but one photo in this post was taken by Stellabelle at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage

I'd like apologize to Hive account@mibenkito for publicly questioning the legitimacy of her blog.

In thinking several days about this, I learned that attempting to get personal answers in a public forum style is not the ideal method. I apologize if I caused Hive account@mibenkito any discomfort or unease. That was not my intention. Speaking one-on-one is the better route to finding answers to questions and I will be changing up my methods to uncover information from here on out.

As far as the Hive account@msgivings information, there's no need to retract any of it. That account may not have been AI, as many of you pointed out, but it was nonetheless fraudulent. That account was not run by a real blogger. It was manufactured and plagiarized, either by a person or an AI respinning article writer, or a combination of all of these. The point is that someone managed to siphon of a huge amount of the community's good will and funds. For people who care deeply about Steemit's reputation, this one account should really be a red flag in moving forward. Steemit is still a baby and it's not surprising that a number of individuals have discovered a way to game the system, and stripping it of it's potential to have a respected reputation.

When you steal from the community, you not only take money with you, you steal the community's reputation too.

The reason for my post was to inform people to be vigilant and to use their critical thinking skills. The method I used may have been flawed, but the intention was based in a desire to improve Steemit's reputation, value and ultimately its marketcap.

I think we can all get behind the common goal of wanting to see Steemit's marketcap go up.

But being a bunch of sheep will not bode well for Steemit's marketcap. Value is created by having a great product, blog posts and an intellectually challenging community. This is Steemit's true advantage over other platforms right now: there are a lot of highly intelligent people on Steemit.

When people trust the system, a great reputation follows. Value is not created by economically rewarding posts that are subpar and poorly written. This is fundamental to any business.

Without trust in a system, we have a platform that the outside world will scoff at, deride and continue to call a casino. But if we work together to create a high quality site with content that is equally high, and if we each operate based on transparency, we will see our investments, both in time and money, truly pay off. The choice is all of ours to make. Quality, transparency and reputation are all goals we can work together to achieve. And the majority of people are already doing this.

But we cannot let money blind us to the truth.

At the time when my AI post was flagged to death by a few whales/witnesses, I was at an ecovillage, doing an AMA about Steemit for the people who live there.

It's called Dancing Rabbit and it's one of the most successful ecovillages in the United States. It is the true definition of decentralized living. It began in 1993 and is still going strong. I know a few people who live there. I had communicated with Hive account@nathanbrown about a month ago, telling him about Steemit, and we came up with the idea that I could visit them and provide more in-depth answers to all the ecovillagers who were interested in writing and building out their marketplaces on Steemit. Nathan Brown is a respected leader in Dancing Rabbit and he's an expert in conflict resolution, business strategy and marketing. He's an excellent conflict resolution facilitator and very well respected in DR (Dancing Rabbit). I think Steemit could definitely benefit from his services.....Hive account@ned?

Image Source: http://www.livingasimplelife.com/nathan-mackenzie-brown-modern-homesteader-profiles/

In the morning when I met with a few of the villagers, Hive account@nathanbrown and Hive account@dolphindigest, I had to discuss the fact that my latest post was flagged to oblivion by a few of the powerful whales in Steemit. After Nathan had a chance to read over my post he said that I was approaching the issue from the wrong angle but that the flagging was over the top.

Instead of bringing up questionable accounts in public, things need to be resolved in groups, and include those who have significant stake in the success of the platform. We should not be silent when we discover suspicious activity, but we should work with others who care for the long-term health of Steemit. When Nathan was expressing his opinion about this, I could feel myself thinking, "But Steemit was supposed to be a place free of censorship, and a place where people can freely express themselves." It turns out that freely expressing one's thoughts, in their rawest form has a negative economic cost associated with it, especially when those who are in power might be the same ones who are actively engaging in not-so-transparent activity.

He then discussed how problems and issues are solved at Dancing Rabbit, and that a conflict resolution facilitator is brought in to resolve issues.

He also said that the primary stakeholders have to be working together and have some sense of unity if Steemit or any organization is going to flourish. Factions and factions within factions will splinter any community. If a fearful atmosphere develops where people are afraid to speak their minds in an honest way, the organization will fail. It will take time, but the environment will breed a population of sheep with a few powerful wolves controlling the resources.

The other important aspect of a healthy community is the ability of individuals to self-correct when they are wrong.

Admitting that one has made a mistake is a sign of a healthy, growing mind. It's a sign that one's ego is not in control of an organism. Like many people, I don't like it when I'm wrong, but it does happen. If there exists a group of individuals, all of whom think they are right all the time, it won't be too long before the fabric of such a group begins to dissolve. No one can be right all the time. Humans are not that sophisticated and advanced to be correct 100% of the time. We need to rely on each other for feedback and then self-correct.

I was committed since day one to creating posts that pushed the boundaries. I didn't always succeed, but I learned every day what is good writing because people on here and elsewhere tell me. But high quality was my number one priority. I wanted people to associate high quality, engaging writing with my name. I never want someone to associate me with mediocre, subpar work. I also want people to know that I will speak the truth, as I see it, even if a small group of whales/witnesses try to censor me.

I refuse to be some kind of shill or lily-livered fake writer. That's not my destiny. It should not be yours either.

Until Steemit Inc. has created some kind of robust system to detect fraudulent accounts, it's my belief that the reputation-destroying activity of some people will continue on.

I went to Dancing Rabbit with the intention of doing an AMA about Steemit, but it turned out that the community of Dancing Rabbit was the one who ended up giving me guidance, helping me to see some new solutions for Steemit.

Here's the owner of the Gnome Dome, Kyle, and this is where I slept while at Dancing Rabbit. You can rent this place through Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5720642?sug=51

Here's Kyle as he gave me a tour of his dome that he built with his own hands:

Thanks to Nathan Brown and Vic.

Gavin Andresen's latest Twitter post is pretty fitting:

I wish our brains were better at separating "I disapprove" from "Untrue"
And our hearts were better at loving people who tell hard truths