Censored by Steemit
In August 2016 I joined Steem after a tip-off by @the-bitcoin-dood that it was interesting. We had both been using Tsu, a centralised platform paying users from advertising, which had just shut down due to lack of funds. I was a little reluctant to dive into a new platform immediately, but the fact that it was based on a blockchain and did not require advertising intrigued me. It looked like a more sustainable model that would be hard to shut down. Back then there was only the Steemit site, but it soon expanded to multiple dapps.
Over 3 years later @Steemit boss Ned Scott sold the business to Justin Sun who has a mixed up reputation as a crypto entrepreneur. The Steem community who have done most of the work in making the platform viable were suspicious, especially when they heard Justin saying he wanted to migrate it to his Tron chain. Their action of temporarily blocking the Steemit stake was to give them time to negotiate a way forward, but Justin exploited some exchanges to grab control. Since then the only witnesses who get to mine blocks are those with his approval as Steemit use their stake to vote them in.
After the Hive fork those witnesses forced through a hard fork that stole the funds of several witnesses. I know the funds were hijacked, but have not heard what happened in the end.
Steemit also started censoring accounts. Ostensibly this was to 'protect the blockchain'. Okay, so some people were spamming the feeds and being abusive, but the system is designed to cope with that. You can downvote accounts to obscurity. I did carry on posting for a while whilst trying to avoid 'shitposting'. I was not going to recycle old posts just for rewards. I know others did quite well from that and some may still be doing it, but since some of the auto-voting services shut down this has been less profitable. I also commented a bit, but did not get abusive. I just pointed out that they had some issues with some big accounts really 'milking' the rewards. Some use multiple accounts and buy votes to get thousands of Steem each week. Nobody seems to be downvoting them.
I accepted I was not going to earn much Steem as even my comments would get downvoted to nothing. Today I saw there was a change and now my account is censored. When Steemit do this it affects Steempeak too. I did still earn a few Steem by curating posts by people I know who are mainly on Hive.
I had already used Steempruner to redirect all my old posts to Hive, so there was not much content anyway. It is just a little sad to see this happen. I was not a big threat to Steemit as I only have a few thousand SP left and that will be gone in a couple of weeks. They refused to respond to my comments.
So I will not be commenting on Steem any more as people will not see these anyway. I join an illustrious club of people like @themarkymark, @rolandp, @joythewanderer, @pfunk and many more who have a high reputation and lots of followers, but no visible content on Steem. It will still be on the blockchain as you can see on steemd. Direct links may still work.
There are less and less reasons to use Steem now. You may be able to milk it by buying votes, but how long until the Steem token loses value? Justin may be able to prop it up along with some of his wealthier friends. It pains me to see the platform turn to shit like this, but anything on the internet must be considered ephemeral, even blockchains. I have hopes that Hive has a better future. Nobody holds enough stake to highjack all the witnesses. We have the biggest dapps like @splinterlands and a community who cares about building something better. We still have a long way to go, but I will be sticking around to see what happens.
Steem is dead, long live Hive!
Welcome to the club, the list is long but distinguished.
Cheers. The pettyness of it all is what annoys me.
Nothing petty about stealing $6M USD worth of Steem.
I meant their actions towards me, but they need to be exposed for their theft.
The guy is building his own grave....let's see how long it lasts after everyone has powered down all its assets
A load of Steem has been sold off already. I guess someone is buying it. It's tainted money now.
Congrats 😃
dang its like we've never blogged there, actually better this way.
At least Hive backed it all up :)
Sometimes just got to learn let go. I scheduled to recycle a whole bunch of old posts last month, and they just finished at the HF. I can't be bothered to do anymore, not worth me getting out of bed for
It was not worth the effort for me, but fun to taunt some of the trolls. I guess I took it that little bit too far :)
Nah, it's never too far for snowflakes
Sorry to hear about you getting censored on Steemit...but, hey, maybe it's for the better in the long term.
Thank god we have Hive. :D
I'm not too bothered and sort of expected it really. I can just concentrate on Hive now.
How did you find out that your account was censored? I would be curious to know so I can check mine. I mainly just curate over there now...
When I went to my account there were no posts visible. That is a sure sign. I think you are okay for now. This is only likely to happen if you bait them. They really don't care if people are just taking rewards.
Sounds good. Did you check the "All Posts" section?
I can see All Posts, but the feed page is empty. That makes it harder to support others now. Not worth my time to mess around too much.
One thing that has always been at the back of my mind was the 22.2 soft fork "first move" you mentioned.
Are there any legal ramifications of that "first move" (soft fork 22.2) because I did read about the pro bono legal opinion for regarding Steem's HF 23 and wondering if the "blocking of Steemit stake" (albeit temporarily) can be classed as "theft" in a similar vein?
I've moved away from Steem completely but I remember being unsettled after I heard the news regarding soft fork 22.2 and the precedent it set about accounts being frozen and inaccessible when this all kicked off back in Feb.
I thought it was explicitly made clear it was temporary. No idea if anyone took actual legal action. That could have big costs involved.
As it turned out I am not sure if anyone ended up worse off financially. Those who got Hive and lost their Steem may have more worth for now and Steemians who didn't get Hive have the same as before. Those who got both are the winners in all this.
Fair enough, I don't know either, a lot of it is over my head really!
Think I'll just focus on sharing music and live with the motto shared by Dennis Norton (RIP) - "It'll be alright on the night"
Sorry to hear about your account getting wiped as well - why would they even steal your funds too... crazy people!
I am hoping they do not steal my remaining funds. I doubt they will anyway.
I had thought that, as a little fish, I might hang around steemit for a while. I started powering down - I need the money. Now, though, it is beginning to feel really uncomfortable there. More so when all the drama was happening. I haven't posted there for over a week. I think when my power down is done, I too, shall be done.
The does leave such a nasty taste in one's mouth.
I am sorry.
It's okay. I still have my friends on Hive and that is what really matters to me. I should be able to power down the rest of my Steem and then I am done with them.
So far, I have only had one post thrown down the memory hole by the Steemit team, but a fair few downvotes from their official curators hit me. I quit almost all of my activity there a month ago, and I need to start selling my STEEM.
There is obviously a switch they can throw to censor a whole account. I don't expect there is any chance of appeal, but then I don't care. I gave them a chance and they snubbed me.
From the very start, I said I didn't trust Justin Sun. He had the opportunity to show himself trustworthy to the community, make peace, and quell our concerns. He did the opposite of that. I hope he goes broke trying to keep STEEM prices high.
You're probably not trying hard enough :) https://peakd.com/@engrave/even-better-steem-pruner
Although it's kind of funny seeing the my censored posts on your feed. Thanks for the reblogs!
I may use that tool and post a final farewell video of me burning the Steemit business cards I had made and Papa-Pepper's Steemit shirt. But much as I hate what Sun did to Steemit, I'm not sure I want to burn all of my bridges. For now, I'll leave my profile settings as my middle finger to the system.
I sincerely hope that hive has a better future.
Me too. It is in our hands. We have to do our share to make it a cool place to be.
hahaha slowly everyone is censored. For me it was one of post that had over 40$ in steemit but i was talking about hive :p My account is still "safe" for now though
Well enjoy it whilst it lasts and get your Steem out to something safer.
Only a couple more weeks, then done with it myself. I did until the 4 week power down hard fork held some hope out for steem, no longer. I am still voting on post over there, but that is pretty much it any more. Sad to see what has happened there.
It's hard for me to even vote on stuff now as they blanked my feed page. It's petty, spiteful behaviour.
Yes it is, my feed is down to very few on there posting anymore, I have to load my wife's feed to find enough post to vote on
Friday Follow, Open Mic...
It's almost like if you didn't exist and these are new ideas coming from their bright minds.
I'm so glad you made the journey from TSU to Steemit and now here. The entire crypto ride has been a wild one. It sucks to see all the hard work so many put into the Steemit community end this way, but I think Hive is a new beginning. A great platform and a new start. Most of the people I knew on Steemit, came over to Hive anyways. It's good to see this community begin to flourish. I think big things are ahead for us all here! Cheers Steve, better days are coming!
I'm glad you brought me to Steem. I've met so many cool people through that and been to some new places. Some people think it's all about the money, but that's just a part of the experience.
Incredible that they have really gone all in on the censorship. I can't see what they gain except getting the cryptoworld against them. In the end everything is still being decided by decentralisation geeks... but this is maybe the time when things start to change and all the easily herded are being brought to crypto paradise to be slaughtered.
Let's hope it isn't.
That sucks. How they can just wipe out someone's years of hard work and think they can get away with it is funny. The world is watching and their farce won't last for long. People will wise up and as time goes on, the interest in that place will dwindle to zero
I'm happy to call them out on it. I think quite a few other people have been affected. I was really into Steem, but the new management have ruined it.
I feel you. I was into it as well, but just like you, I'm almost done with the place. Once my powerdown completes, I'll be out of there
I'm still posting on Steem while I wait for my power-down to complete, and I can't help but notices less and less activity and votes on that platform and more activity and votes on Hive. Better monetary incentive AND supporting a better platform counts as a win-win in my book!
The good people have all powered down. My Steem vote is worth nothing now.
I know some people said they were less likely to vote for Hive people who also posted on Steem, but we should be free to do what we want.
I think I only have less than 2 weeks before my power-down is finished. If I still had substantial votes/income still coming through Steem the decision might be harder, but given that's not the case the decision pretty much made itself...