I need a new image for these posts. I did notice that I was lax in sourcing the image on my previous posts. :shrug: We are all human and make mistakes.

Image courtesy of pixabay

Threat Level - Red

Account Zero - Hive account@felix.jasper

The phishing attack that originated with Hive account@felix.jasper is still ongoing. No new accounts are posting phishing links in the past 24 hours. Two known accounts have posted.

Account Zero - Hive account@accounttransfers
Has had no activity in the last 24 hours.

Report Threats

If you discover a previously unknown threat or have new information on an existing threat please report it to #threat-reports on Discord. Before reporting take a minute to scroll up to see if it has already been reported. I created the channel for reporting only. Discussions can be held in #steemitabuse on Discord or steemit.chat.

Enforcer

a person who imposes their will by violence and intimidation.
source

It has been brought to my attention that there are curators that are reporting contributors for abuse in an effort to use us as their enforcers. Looking back at reports some users were reported for minor infractions such as including images in their posts with no attribution outside of a creative tag such as photography that could have been reported out of spite.

This is unacceptable to me! I am not here to be someones lackey and I will not see Hive account@steemcleaners used as someones personal police force to bully users into submission.

Not that I don't have enough stuff to do but I will investigate reports of anyone attempting to use myself or Hive account@steemcleaners as enforcers.

Disputes

If you downvote someone because you don’t agree with the content of their post be aware that they may flag back. Provided the weight of the downvoting involved is proportional there is no reason to report it.

If you start a downvote war with someone we may provide advice on how to resolve the dispute but we are not here to mediate disputes.
Abuse Guide - 2017 Update

Why is it I'm never happy with my posts when I spend hours on them? I should have added "or comments" to the first sentence. I'll have to edit that on the site. Ugg.. I used the word 'flag' instead of 'downvote'.

If you downvote someone because you don’t agree with the content of their post or comments be aware that they may downvote back.

Full disclosure: I have not investigated the entire incident. I don't have time.

What I have garnered from various conversations is that Hive account@fulltimegeek downvoted Hive account@kerriknox after they downvoted some comments on a post for not properly debating the topic. :shrug: Not sure that is entirely accurate.

I was approached by a community member that asked me why I don't use the Hive account@steemcleaners account to downvote in this situation.

Mediating and solving disagreements is not in the scope of Hive account@steemcleaners. Doing so would take a lot more time and a dedicated team to thoroughly research the disagreement. Downvoting or upvoting in this situation would put us in the position of taking sides or being an authority on a number of subjects on Steemit

As a group we use the Hive account@steemcleaners account as impartially as we can. I'm also not an authority on any subject that I can think of.

There may be some arguments that appear to be black & white but are they? If I ask what color the sky is and one person tells me it is blue while the other tells me it is white. Who's right? I'd guess it depends on if the person who answered white lives where there is heavy pollution and the sky is usually a milky white.

We are available to give advice when we have time or feel it is warranted. I frequently recommend contributors and curators step back and discuss deescalating the situation by editing comments and removing downvotes.

There are many topics on steemit that are controversial and discussions become heated and downvote wars do result. If you can't resolve your differences please downvote responsibly. Don't flag someone to oblivion if you have the power to do so. Try for a more proportional response.

Reporting Downvote Abuse - Don't Waste My Time on Petty Disputes

I make myself available to the community regularly to give advice. Sometimes all it takes is an impartial person with some helpful advice to deescalate a situation.

Disclaimer: This is a rant not directed at my readers and NOT related to the dispute outlined above! The above dispute is definitely not petty. I just need to vent!

What I am not here to do is settle playground squabbles over who gets to play in the sandbox. If someone downvotes you ask them why? Comment on a post or find them in chat.

Don't waste my time (or the time of Hive account@steemcleaners and volunteers in #steemitabse by immediately running to chat:

He flagged me because i flagged him and i lost $2 off my post
She flagged me for something I said in chat
He flagged all of my posts and I want you to do something about it! (when the downvote has almost no impact on rep or rewards)
Can you flag user Hive account@xyz? They flagged me!

Try to resolve the situation before asking for help.

/end rant

Yes, some days it's like being a sandbox monitor. Luckily I usually only get one side of these conversations. When both sides get involved it sometimes sounds like a playground dispute.

To be fair they may not realize that Steemit is an unmoderated community and believe I am a moderator here to solve their problem. I see it as the responsibility of each individual to try to solve their disputes on their own before asking for help from me or Hive account@steemcleaners.