Welcome to "The Inquiring Times" brought to you by #NewsTeem
As "Editor in Chief" of "The Inquiring Times" brought to you by #NewsTeem, I am getting together the final edits, adding images, a reference list, as well as posting on behalf @mikepm74 and the rest of the team. This has truly been a team effort, and we sharing the rewards as equals.
If you have not already seen the first installment of this series, we spoke with #BISteemit member and Excel lover @paulag.
Before moving forward, lets take a moment to review.
Fortunately, there are people out there who are willing to put in the work to expose those who mean our community harm. We are grateful for those who have the skills and the knowledge needed to help us clean up the streets of Steem, and to help this community thrive.
Recently, @inquiringtimes asked me if I would be interested in working on an interview series with a couple of the people who are out there improving our Steem existance daily. The two people he was able to get me access to were @paulag and @sherlockholmes. Both were kind enough to take a few minutes out of their very busy schedules to answer a handful of questions for us about what they are doing with their time on Steem.
As I review their answers, I think it is safe to say, neither of them sees themselves as a "Hero", but there is no doubt that they have stepped out of the shadows to become active participants in the direction of Steem's future.
In this edition we are going to visit with @sherlockholmes. The Sherlock account was created on 7/31/17 in an effort to expose people who are misusing the Steem Platform. In the brief time this account has been active, @sherlockholmes has published 10 cases of abuse, as well as a trail of "cookie crumbs" that have exposed several people who are not adding value, but are simply here for thier own benefit.
@sherlockhomes has quickly built quite a following in his short time here, including some prominent whale names who we are all familiar with. They have taken the information Sherlock puts out, and made their own judgements on the cases, and in most cases, effectively shut down the suspect(s).
This is work that we should all be so bold as to help out with. But only a few people actually stick their neck out there to do it. Today we meet a role model for doers of good on the Steem platform.
Interview with @sherlockholmes
@mikepm74: There are a lot of people out here who see something that doesn't look right, but pass by without doing anything. What was it that made you decide to be the person to stop standing on the sidelines and create this account to actively seek out and bring attention to people who are gaming the Steem system?
@sherlockholmes: I have been a lurker on this platform since it's early days and I have been one of the many passive bystanders for way too long. Something needed to be done, whenever I tried bringing awareness to abuse, it was often shunned with disinterest and I had to go to lengths to prove my point. One day I had enough, so I decided it was time to make my findings publicly known, in the hopes of getting more attention that way. I guess it did kind of work out so far.
@mikepm74: You "started" with a collection of small time plagerists (See Cases: 1, 2 & 4) and people pretending to be artists who they were not. But your latest cases are more along the lines of catching people funneling massive amounts of Steem Rewards out of the system. In one case, over $80,000 passing out of the system through one account. Do you think your cases will continue to find larger and larger elements taking advantage of the system?
To be honest, that @ecoworld conspiracy I wrote about just recently, that was probably the spark needed for myself to become more active in exposing such schemes of abuse on steemit. I had that on my desk before I started this account, but I wanted to wait for a steady audience before making this into a post.
Will I find larger elements, yes I will, but taking on those will require some time... 80k sounds like a lot, but I know for sure there are even bigger stakes involved in scamming.
@mikepm74: One of the comments from a reader to your latest Case noted that @dan had flagged someone who was flagging one of the spammers, inferring that Dan was taking the side of these comment farmers you are trying to expose. What do you think Dan(in his user capacity), Ned, and other Steem officials think about what is transpiring with the Comment Farms and other bot networks popping up in the system? Do you think they are aware of the issue and are moving to resolve it?
@sherlockholmes: To be honest, the comment you are referring to is a bit off-topic. The flag-war between noganoo and ausbitbank is not directly related to the ecoworld scheme. I do believe the flagging from "higher up in the foodchain" was more of an attempt to calm the waters there... but really, I don't want to speculate on what motivated any of the individuals involved there.
Why those "higher up in the foodchain" are remaining rather passive in the battle against obvious and objective abuse like in the ecoworld or escapes me. I certainly would wish for more activity from that side. Let's not forget that @steem created most of the abusing accounts and has the ability to withdraw at least their start-up delegation. Even the 1700 accounts I uncovered almost a month ago, all still have their steem delegation in place
@mikepm74: In your Observations post regarding the blacklisting of @adrianna, you draw no conclusions, but you do provide a significant amount of evidence indicating some connection between the real person and the people working to take advantage of Steem. As a whole, how do you reach a point where you consider yourself to have irrefutable evidence to run with alligations against a user? Everyone you have brought up in your cases has been downvoted to zero pending payouts, this gives your voice a tremendous weight considering the people who are following your trail. How do you work within the weight of ensuring that you get it right every time?
@sherlockholmes: Andrianna was my first post WITHOUT undeniable evidence, but I felt my findings would be valuable to the discussion. andrianna is not the only account with very similar circumstances, so I felt this story needed to be seen from a non-emotional perspective, too. I made sure to note that i did not present any undeniable evidence in that post twice, entering and leaving the post. I try to remain neutral and unbiased, I focus ONLY on the facts I can find. It wasn't an easy decisions to post about this.
When posting my usual cases, it's simply a lot of work, I look for facts and evidence, a process that can take many hours. I also try to speak to the real people involved in a situation before i make any public statements, again, tedious footwork but nothing beats first-hand evidence. Only when I myself find that the evidence is overwhelming and clear beyond doubt will I post it. My biggest concern is ever having to redact any of my statements in the aftermaths.
But really, I do not want anyone to blindly follow my accusations or findings, be critical, be inquisitive, demand clarification from me if anything does not appear sound and valid. I am not the judge, and I do not want to be one, I am trying to provide unbiased investigative services! That's it. I'm not the police, nor the jurisdiction! I am just a detective!
For additional informaiton on the @adrianna case, please check out the article posted just hours ago by @stellabelle, who actually skyped with @adrianna in an attempt to get to the bottom of the issues at play here. That post can be found HERE
@mikepm74: In the fiction writings, Sherlock had his famous nemisis James Moriarty. Is there a Moriarty on Steem for you? Without naming names and giving away your investigations, what sort of next step in the evolution of the Steem Criminal do you expect is out there?
@sherlockholmes: Steem in itself shows many attributes of a pyramid scheme. The economics in this platform are very attractive for scammers and cheats. I am curious myself what kind of schemes will evolve from this framework. Recruitment scams are certainly a topic I will have to delve into in the future. Is there a Moriarty? Maybe, but that's certainly something for a chapter that hasn't been written yet.
@mikepm74: Bonus Question: You have been granted the ability to make one change to Steem to make it a better place. One change to the programming or rules to move the platform towards a brighter future. What is that change?
@sherlockholmes: I don't want to change the game's rules, that's for other people to discuss, I am only here to show some of the results created under the given rules. Abuse will happen under any kind of rule-set, but if my findings can help to consider how those rules could be improved, I'd be more than happy!
Since conducting this interview, and as we prepared to go to press, @sherlockholmes released their 10th case. Read all about the exposure of a husband/wife mini voting farm. As of this writing, this case has been up for less than six hours and the culprit has come clean and offered to make ammends for their actions. In Response, Sherlock took back the call to flag both accounts to zero payout. Assuming these two follow through with their promises to change their ways, this will be another shining example of how minnowsunite to make Steem a better place for all of us.
So there you have it from @sherlockholmes! Certainly an individual with the community's best interests at heart.
The commitment to the truth here is self-evident. This person really digs to find the truth of the matter, and then lays all the facts bare for us to figure out what to do with it.
To serve is noble. There may be no higher calling. Having the access and the ability to find the information necessary to put these cases together makes @sherlockholmes a treasure to the Steem community. We wish this person nothing but success moving forward as they continue their investigations and allow us all to track their progress.
Make sure you go visit, follow, and upvote @SherlockHolmes as well as @PaulaG in support of all the good work they are doing for our community.
Thanks for reading! Steem on!
References
- Cookie Crumbs 2: Impudent Impersonation in a 2-for-1 Value Pack
- Case 1: @iconzbranding claiming stolen artwork as his own
- Case 2: Lots of tattooed vixens and a network of fake accounts
- Case 4: @katrinart is impersonating artist Ekaterina Putyatina
- Case 9: The Ecoworld Conspriacy
- Observations: The blacklisting of @adrianna
- @stellabelle - I skyped with adrianna today, and more facts
- Case 10: Your wife loves to upvote your spam
- @mikepm74 - Support those working to expose abuse and save the rewards pool. Part 1, with @paulag
Resources
- hackmd.io - Realtime Collaborate Markdown Editor
- beta.chainbb.com - Forum View of Steemit (no resteems)
- steemit.pics - All images from Steem Profile
"...dont be afraid to analyse the data and question what is happening on steemit. we need to work together to keep this platform clean and free from scams and rubbish" - @paulag
Thanks for reading. From "The Inquiring Times" #newsteem
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