I'll begin this post by saying that I've spoken to @malikusman1 and @waqarahmadshah before sharing with the community and I've taken the unprecedented step of sharing this post with @malikusman1 and made a few edits as a result.

This is probably the first time that I've spent so much time investigating a community's booming votes and been conflicted about whether or not to write a post about it. Whilst one of the users mentioned here has clearly been up to no good, I can feel the sense of sadness and disappointment from the other side of my Discord chat.

Whilst conflicted, I believe that there are a number of important questions to be asked at the end of this post regarding the wider use of booming, particularly in communities where admins and moderators have invited their family and friends to join them. Steem4Bloggers is certainly no worse than other communities in this respect (with the exception of one moderator) and some communities are unashamedly far worse. One recently exposed admin is still happily earning multiple booming votes per week as a moderator in other communities. (I'm pretty sure the steemcurators know who I'm referring to.)

I've also been told that @mariahweng is @shabbir86 's son - which explains some of what comes below (and perhaps some fragmented rewriting of my content). The regurgitation of content with a new cover image and account inactivity is too much of a coincidence so I'm sticking with my conclusion. Let's go...

There's nothing quite like a pushy newbie - an account created a few moments ago through @justyy's account creation tool and desperate to get verified. Introduced by:

none other than @malikusman1, who is my very good friend and considers me his small brother

Many of you probably know @malikusman1, he's joint admin in Steem4Bloggers, in which he runs many contests and also has the privilege of nominating users for booming support. Is the prospect of booming support why he's so desperate to join?

(@malikusman1 assures me that this newcomer won't be posting in Steem4Bloggers so if it is, he won't benefit from it here.)

Of course, I occasionally get triggered into looking at a community's booming support and this proved to be my trigger.

In their booming application, they describe their community. (They said the same in their Engagement Challenge Application - guys, you really should write something unique each time. The Steemit Team are like elephants that don't forget!)

👆 Source

Steem4Bloggers Booming

I chose the 1st April as my start date. Not only is it the day for fools, but it's 2 months which is a nice, random time period.

As is customary with booming support, the top spots are claimed by the community account, admins and moderators.

(Note: @solaymann has recently stepped down as a moderator)

Account	Votes
@hive-109435	a shameless 17
@malikusman1	10
@khursheedanwar	10
@shabbir86	9
@waqarahmadshah	8
@solaymann	7
@yancar	6
@steemdoctor1	3

@yancar and @steemdoctor1 being the only moderators who have resisted the temptation to max-out their allocated 1 vote per week.

In total, they've selected 250 posts in 2 months - 70 of the votes going to moderators, equating to 28%.

Or just over 1 vote per day out of a possible 4. I get that.

Aside:

We have different moderators from different geographical areas so that we could be able to cover different languages and people.

Well, they've definitely got Pakistan covered.

Ok, unremarkable and unsurprising allocation of votes to admins and moderators aside, what else is there?

So there are a couple of other names up there too, let's look at @mariahweng. Honestly, this guy's got to be a seriously good author to get more booming votes than the moderators.

He joined just over 2 years ago with a bang. Deciding that sharing a boy hanging from a tree was the perfect way to introduce himself (link removed - If you really want to see if, look at his profile).

Honestly...

WHAT THE ACTUAL F***?!?!

Having said a bang, he was largely ignored, scraping by on krsuccess's $0.04.

He made an unexpected return in January last year though and by incredible coincidence (😉) gained instant acknowledgement from an anonymous booming supporter.

He eventually introduced himself.

Twice.

His introducer, his father - @shabbir86 (The proud claimer of 9 booming votes).

@mariahweng's made 2 transfers to @steemitmylife1 - a user happy to expose his wallet, sharing it with 4 other users (@shabbir86, @bigbhai, @ronaqali and @ahmadfaraz).

Interesting - @bighai shares the same fortune of an anonymous booming supporter at the same time as @mariahweng for the same shitty posts about flowers.

@bigbhai's deleted his introduction now but of course, these things are immutable so can be found.

This part of his intro photo is interesting:

Image flipped horizontally and there's definitely some writing on the other side... something ending in 86... oh hang on... I can just about read it now: @shabbir86.

I genuinely didn't see that coming.

So looking at @shabbir86's Introduction, there's that piece of paper. And oh, that obscure, faint writing on the back suddenly comes into focus.

So, they were introduced together but don't mention each other. Weird. It's almost as though somebody's walked into where they are, got them to hold a piece of paper and taken a photo.

Who is this irrelevant photographer who doesn't get a mention?

Who is this anonymous booming donor and why are these votes in a community that wasn't selected for support?

Does The Camera Lie?

Then there's the camera. They acknowledge that they're related but why are they sharing photos across their blogs?

Notice the sausages (or whatever they are) in this blog, from just 3 months ago and the background from this blog a whole 6 months earlier. Same "sausages". Same tray. Same digital camera mark indicating the photos were taken with the same camera. You'd think that a day out with his son would involve a selfie and a tag? Small details.

@the-gorilla. Let me stop you there. Are you kidding me? You think those sausages in the background from one person's blog, are the exact same sausages on somebody else's? You've lost your mind.

How rude. Let me continue...

Pretty weird eh? Are you starting to think what I'm thinking? That @shabbir86 is also running the @mariahweng account?

Don't be so ridiculous. That's a coincidence. Just like the filenames.

IMG_20230621_121716.jpg in @mariahweng's post.
IMG_20230621_121730.jpg in @shabbir86's.
IMG_20230621_121736.jpg in @shabbir86's.

Linking filenames is an interesting way to catch multi-account users. You see, IMG_20230621_121640.jpg was taken in the same shop on the same day, just 1 minute earlier. @mariahweng used it in his Diary game on 5th February 2024 - 8 months later. So I'm guessing that he didn't get the pizza on that day.

Not to let a batch of photos go to waste, they were also used in the following articles:

It's hard work running multiple accounts - so I guess we shouldn't be surprised that this post and this post are identical apart from the cover image. Lucky the moderator didn't notice... who moderated these posts? Oh.

@shabbir86's life is pretty repetitive too. 23rd September 2023 and 9th December 2023 being a good example amongst many others.

3 out of the 4 duplicate posts received booming. Feels good doesn't it, knowing that booming votes are going to old, duplicated content.

But there's still room to say "he does the account himself" and as I've just said - running multiple accounts is hard work. It's more than just copying content and selecting booming. You've got to visit other blogs and write meaningful comments which takes time. Which is probably why @mariahweng hasn't written a comment since 27th January, despite writing (and receiving booming for) plenty of posts.

Lots of waffle. And whilst a father/son relationship could work as a great excuse - it's clear to me that it won't be enough.

A Nice, Little Cluster

Let's take @anjinoor, currently standing at 9 booming votes since the 1st April. 9 votes in 2 months, a nice, unsuspicious number. Introduced herself on 21st February 2023 after being told by her friend, @noorji about the platform. Having created her account through @justyy's account creation, we can assume that she doesn't have a mobile phone.

Her introducer, @noorji had joined on the 7th January the same year. In introducing herself, she talked about the food she likes and if you took the time to look at @anjinoor's Achievement 1, you'll recognise the food photo. Oh, and you know how I love a coincidence, she also created her account through @justyy's tool so presumably, she doesn't have a mobile phone either.

But fret ye not, her neighbour who introduced her (@mubashra) does have one:

"i saw my neighbor @mubashra she was typing something on her mobile. I asked her that what she was doing. She told that she is making post for steemit"

Having caught her "making post for steemit", It was a surprise to see @mubashra has written fewer posts that @steemcurator01. But at least this user had a mobile phone and was able to create their account the standard way.

I continued my journey through Steem4Bloggers booming votes and quickly came to @joojoo78 who introduced himself on 2nd March this year. Another unsuspicious 8 votes in 2 months, he was invited by his mother (@anjinoor) and this time, his use of @justyy's account creation was understandable. And presumably, also his love of chicken.

I'm also impressed that @joojoo78's been able to set up a Binance account (101167000) given his age. Hang on, no. He's too young to get an account set up, they have strict rules. Perhaps its his mother's account? No. Hers is 100762372 so why would a child, who was introduced by his mother, not trust his mother to make his withdrawals?

Looking at their blogs, you can see that they both own mobile phones too - so why not register with them? Had their numbers already been taken?

And then the comments - With @joojoo78, we have another user who doesn't comment, other than to say "thanks" a couple of times a week. It'll take some convincing to tell me that a user who doesn't interact with a community deserves so much booming support. His mum's better although not exactly setting the community alight - she peaks at 3 comments per week, mostly to say thanks or enter a contest.

So what? Steem4Bloggers accidently supported a group of highly suspicious accounts introduced by somebody who's never written a post or comment. Users who when mentioned to the community admin (@malikusman1) were met with the reply of "I dont know these users" and whilst the moderators who voted for them know them in the community, they don't know them in the real world.

The admin doesn't know 2 users who consistently account for 7% of the community's booming votes - I've recommended to @malikusman1 that he needs to keep a closer eye on booming nominations.

We'll come to this little group again later.

The Top 10

Well, that's the top 10 covered, equating to nearly 40% of their booming votes.

Moderators, an account linked to a moderator and a set of questionable accounts representing the top 10.

Let's see what the last 2 weeks have in store for us...

2 Weeks

These are all of the users who have more than 1 vote in the past 2 weeks, we've met @hive-109435, @malikusman1, @shabbir86, @mariahweng, @waqarahmadshah, @joojoo78, @khursheedanwar, @steemitmylife1 and @anjinoor already and they've increased their share to nearly 42% of all booming votes.

@fawadaslam is another @justyy created account which is never a good sign - his introduction cites @steemdoctor1 so I'm guessing that's who his booming votes are coming from 🤷

Transparency

The Steem4Bloggers account (@hive-109435) also shares a regular post, highlighting the 4 posts that are selected each day. Unfortunately, not every day is shared so this information is incomplete. But it might be interesting. Going back to 1st April again.

Assuming that the moderator selects themselves on the same day as others, let's do a moderator / member matrix (moderators first):

Moderator	Voted For	Count
@shabbir86	@shabbir86	9
@khursheedanwar	@khursheedanwar	8
@waqarahmadshah	@waqarahmadshah	8
@yancar	@yancar	6
@solaymann	@solaymann	4
@malikusman1	@malikusman1	2
@shabbir86	@hive-109435	5
@khursheedanwar	@hive-109435	2
unknown	@hive-109435	2
-	-	-
@khursheedanwar	@anjinoor	3
@shabbir86	@anjinoor	5
-	-	-
@khursheedanwar	@joojoo78	3
@shabbir86	@joojoo78	5
-	-	-
@khursheedanwar	@mariahweng	4
@shabbir86	@mariahweng	4
-	-	-
@khursheedanwar	@steemitmylife1	4
@shabbir86	@steemitmylife1	1
-	-	-
@shabbir86	@writer123	3
-	-	-
@yancar	@mominul01	2
unknown	@mominul01	2

For clarity, I've removed counts of just 1 or 2 and you'll notice that the admins (@steemdoctor1 and @malikusman1) rarely make their selections public.

What strikes me straight away, is that some moderators votes are clearly more concentrated than others.

@solaymann, @waqarahmadshah and @yancar have a large variety in the people that they select.

@khursheedanwar and @shabbir86 - not so much. And we know who's behind @mariahweng already.

That other cluster of suspiciously created accounts that I mentioned earlier... @shabbir86 is clearly a big fan of theirs too, giving them a combined 10 booming votes, whereas @khursheedanwar went with a more conservative 6.

@writer123 is a new one - In his introduction, he cites @steemdoctor1 as the person who's invited him many times. Plenty of booming support until this post which saw @waqarahmadshah ban him, having previously been caught cheating in the Crypto Academy.

Let's get back to @anjinoor and @joojoo78 now then. Despite their somewhat suspicious origin story, it could just be bad luck that @anjinoor was introduced by a liar and good luck that they've landed in a community that's willing to really support them. Oh, and bad luck that one of their biggest supporters appears to be abusing their booming votes. They've both got mobile phones so why didn't they register with them? (Note: Both their mobile phones differ from those used by the community's moderators.) Then there's the young child with a Binance account - unrelated to his mother's. This still smells off to me.

Community Activity

Excluding the highlighted abuse by @shabbir86, the high support of @anjinoor and @joojoo78 could be explained by a lack of activity within the community. When Steem4Bloggers applied for booming support, they had 282 Active Posters which we always see an increase in once the sheep gravitate towards these communities.

Steem4Bloggers has only 35% of that figure now, meaning that 65% have left (spot the maths degree 🤓) - just 101 Active Users. I can think of 3 reasons for this:

Users were deterred by the high volume of votes going to so few people.
Ongoing exams in Pakistan have reduced activity.
The previous "Active Posters" count had been artificially inflated.

Where does this leave us?

It's very difficult to say. I'd quickly noticed that there was something wrong with the booming votes and instantly became suspicious... but having been as thorough as my fragile little mind will allow me, it's definitely possible that there's just one bad apple, contaminating otherwise clean waters.

As a result of this, @malikusman1 has removed @shabbir86 as moderator with immediate effect.

I know that the admins trusted @shabbir86 and I have to be careful that the rest of the team don't get dragged down with him. The support for @anjinoor and @joojoo78 by @khursheedanwar is probably harmless but my recommendation to him would definitely be to try and spread your booming nominations around more (his votes are only 1 each per week - curation being rotated with the intention of each curator only getting 1 turn per week).

I'm also wondering what believable excuse will @shabir86 have to convince us that he's not running both accounts?

Oh, the activity dovetails so beautifully too. I almost forgot to mention that.

2nd June

1st June

30th May

29th & 28th May
Just Shabbir
27th May

26th May

I already know... they're using the same device (a Tecno Camon 20 CK6n if you're interested) - tossing it between them like a pair of jugglers at the circus.

Final Thought and a Questions to the Community

How do you feel about 40% of a community's Booming votes (approx. 11 out of 28 per week) going to just 10 users?

Since the community accounts are often owned by a single user (without multi-sig), should they be entitled to 2 community votes and 1 user vote per week?

Should admins and moderators be allowed to consistently select their family and friends for booming support?

Are users now uninterested in communities with Booming support, preferring to chase Engagement Challenges? Should we discuss the future of Booming?

Should accounts created via @justyy's website be applicable to the Newcomers' Certification? Or should we insist that they register through the registration page? Or that their introducer creates their account from their Resource Credits or STEEM?

_{5% beneficiary to @malikusman1 and @waqarahmadshah for giving me their time.}

the-gorilla's Alternative Steemit Interface

In case you didn't know, I've created an interface to help you find content that you're interested in more easily.

Posts by voting bot users, abusers and spam tags are hidden and you can search by multiple tags - allowing you to find the content that you're interested in more easily.

👉 Launch Alternative Steemit Interface 👈

the-gorilla's Club Status Tool

I've also created a tool to help users review their club status - showing them where their power's coming from, how much they're powering up, transferring out and who they share a wallet with amongst other things.

Please use it wisely.

💨 A Lot of Hot Air (and Another Dodgy Moderator)