This is a "strategic position" in response to the many (many, many) people actively fighting spam and spammers on this platform.
The infamous "page 15 / 32"
First, let me say, spam is bad, very bad. Spam is the result of a serious design flaw of this platform (yes, I'm looking at you, @ned and @dan) who implicitly encouraged spam when they wrote in the Steem whitepaper
This is not the first time I'm taking this position, this time in response to a recent post by @meno called "An Ode to Spam"
I reckon it is absolutely natural and human to think the way @meno thinks. Yet, dear @meno, dear @heimindanger and others, I respectfully disagree with your (plural, because there are many people sharing it) recommendations.
Yes, spam is not good. Spam is a drag on platform quality and on the reward pool (though I'm not alarmed if it's only tens of thousands out of about 750 000 weekly reward pool)
Spammers gonna spam. But what makes this platform great is the rest of the people, the good, very good and excellent content creators who produce content that even people not owning an account want to read and come on Steemit to read.
And these content creators who move the platform forward have a limited amount of time and energy to dedicate to these primordial task of producing original, high quality content.
Platform strategy
"Strategy is choosing what NOT to do" Michael Porter said.
I contend that in the current state of the code, working around the loopholes of 0.19.3 by compensating with extra "manual cleaning work" is a huge strategic mistake.
In order to drive the point home and raise the hair on the back of many libertarians here, it is equivalent to the focus of socialists and communist on just redistribution of value / profits rather than the capitalist focus on increasing the size of the pie for everyone.
People who are able to create that incredible content which brings people to Steemit should focus EVERY SECOND of their available time, energy and brain power on producing great original content. Focus on what they do best.
And spend NOT A MINUTE on looking after so-so comments, determining whether it's "flaggable" or "not-worth-flagging" spam and then balancing that against the consumption of voting power flagging implies.
Haters gonna hate. Thiefs gonna steal. Spammers gonna spam.
Focus on bringing people from outside the system ONTO this great platform by creating content they want to read, content they can't find on Medium nor on Quora nor on Twitter.
Else, we are going to end up burning the platform at the stake of righteousness. We are going to end up like this
source
Related posts:
Steemit has great content to the point where it attracts people from outside the platform. More such content is needed.
Steem accounts linked to real world identities are a correct answer to spam. Maybe not the only one but the link to real world identities encourages pro-social behaviour (positive reinforcement) and discourages anti-social behaviour (spam)
I am walking the talk myself as I explain here
We are making again, at much accelerated speed, the same mistakes and taking the same blind alleys that human society has taken during the past 7000 years. In the end, we'll discover that what we have in the outside world is as close as it gets to the best we can collectively achieve, as a species ...
Content is King. Bringing great content creators here and rewarding them right is what will drive Steem market to reach 10 billion. NOT the absence of spam! Basically, the best strategy against spam is to ... drown it in excellent content!
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