Steem user @lasper seems to think he was going to pull a fast one on us. Well, as a matter of fact, he already did and has been that is until our friend reported this on the @steemflagrewards Discord.

He has been confronted on another post with no response. Should we allow him to walk away with the rewards he has earned though abuse? I think not. Here's one of the spam comments that paid out. This is unsatisfactory.

Here is the abuse link

It is our hope that he either rescinds his self votes on the spam comments or the comments are otherwise flagged to zero. Either way, the end state is the spam comments receive no rewards as is appropriate.

Would you like to join our ranks?

Now, is your opportunity. I still plan on instating a support rank structure as well for all that have upvoted previous post or other wise contributed. If you would like to contribute scripting ability, writing or anything else, we would be glad to have you join the cause.

Rank Structure

F1 1 Mil	F2 10 Mil	F3 100 Mil	F4 1 Bil
F5 10 Bil	F6 100 Bil	F7 1 Tril	F8 10 Tril
F9 100 Tril	F10 1 Quad	F11 10 Quad	F12 100 Quad

Previous Roster

@troglodactyl - Rank F8

@littleboy - Rank F7

@anthonyadavisii -Rank F6

@sundarrajan - Rank F4

@sohamrajput7 - Rank F3

@jackraptor - Rank F2

@steemseph - Rank F1
Meritorious for Discord Reporting / Contributions

In my time on this platform, I have seen a number of scammers who have been exposed but have walked away with rewards. If we expect this platform to change and quell the rise of greed, we must be firm and we MUST put FEAR into those that would DARE exploit the platform we share together.

If they do not fear the consequences, blockchain abuse will continue.

If we fail to enact austere punitive measures, scammers will merely calculate this into their risk management strategy and continue their exploitation. Perhaps, they will make adjustment so their craft is more subtle and mostly imperceptible to less vigilant users. I understand that some instances of abuse may be attributed to ignorance and in those cases, I encourage we do our best to communicate and support the user in the reform of the behavior. In this case, after observing roughly 13 comments in reply to his self using two character 'ty', it seems apparent that defense is off the table.

My job and my commitment to you is to create an automated solution to increase the risks associated with scammers. The old saying comes to mind.

Play Stupid Games. Win Stupid Prizes.

Together, we can give them their stupid prizes in the form of a 🚩. If we render scams to to be less profitable, we will see less of them. It is my sincere hope that they will start adding value to the blockchain.

Here's your opportunity today. Any downvotes on @laspers 'ty' posts are now the focus of the next campaign. I will be posting a series and tabulating downvote reward shares. Starting with this post until the campaign is closed, downvotes will be tracked for rewards. No comments are necessary.

Additionally, I make an appeal to those delegating SP below. This has been brought to the attention of the @minnowbooster team. I am glad to report that @reggaemuffin will be addressing by revoking his delegation and talking to the fellow delegators.

If you are among these delegating, my recommendation is for these to be revoked as the user has taken advantage of the community. It would be wise for them to work to regain the trust through demonstrated reform.

Account	M Vesting Shares
@smooth-c	3.075
@coinfund	1.824
@cryptoeera	1.138
@ccoindigger	1.025
@amreshchandra	1.023
@reggaemuffin	0.612
@investegg	0.512
@alketcecaj	0.512
@thecryptodrive	0.471
@sstefan	0.409
@itsnicoletv	0.409
@zonguin	0.409
@zephyraijunzo	0.315
@pro-analyst	0.307
@roomservice	0.307
@glowingbehemoth	0.307
@neworleans	0.307
@twoeightjune	0.307
@baghera17	0.306
@rhanna10km	0.204
@iamfrog	0.204
@raimo	0.204
@m33lucky	0.204
@theia7	0.163
@w-inv	0.163
@blocktrades	0.114

How can the problem of abused delegations be addressed?

Two ideas come to mind.

Pre-Delegation User Posting History Review
Post-Delegation Follow-up

I encourage those delegating SP to be very mindful of whom they are delegating. It would not hurt to review their posting history at a minimum. Think of it kind of like a background check. The person is in a position of trust, that is you are trusting that they will be good stewards of your SP.

If you are delegating a sizable amount of SP to a user, also it is recommended to take the time to follow up after completing the delegation and review how they have used it.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to join us on Discord to discuss.

Steem Moderation Channel

https://discord.gg/Ds62ezK

Steem Flag Rewards Discord

https://discord.gg/aXmdXRs

Additional Updates

Much work is yet to be done for the more expansive automated Steemflagrewards solution. I will be working hand-in-hand with some top notch Steem community members. A few challenges that will be faced are implementing a relational database for better accounting on flags and additionally leveraging MongoDB / SteemData for more effective queries for downvote data as well as @steemflagrewards comment mentions.

Ideally, this operation will be mostly self-sustaining through Discord commands interfacing with the flag rewards bot. We have a way to go in order to turn that vision into a reality. Much of the work thus far has been manually performed by yours truly (with some programmatic assistance of course). One big goal that I would like for us to meet is to get @steemflagrewards to at least 250 SP without delegations so that we are able to reward flag comment mentions more substantially. Once the bot is complete, I think we will get there.

Steem Flag Rewards Campaign: Addressing a Comment Spammer Abusing Delegated SP