Dear @ned I write this letter addressed to you and all Steemians, I do not know if you will ever read it, but I feel the duty to do so to raise awareness on the issue and that we can work together to make Steemit a better place.
I want to tell what happened to me about 10 days ago, but not to point out my incident, but because I'm sure I'm talking on behalf of many and I fear for the good future of this platform if the things continue to go in this way.
A few days ago, after voting for a post of @berniesanders, I was flagged with no valid reason by these 3 accounts @done @bcc and @btu, just because I voted for Bernie Sanders I received 6 downvotes in two my posts. The fact that the reason is this is obvious, these 3 accounts are in war with Bernie Sanders and they wanted to punish me for supporting him. I have no interest in meddling in wars that I can not fight and I would not, I gave my little support to Bernie just because he was one of the few that support my start here on Steemit. But as I said it is not for the loss of this money that I write, but for the fact that there was not a valid reason for this action and that I am only one of the many victims of these injustices.
My posts that were flagged were posts that had nothing to do with anyone, 100% original and they talked about my project to invest in Steemit. Invest in Steemit to support more people and bring new value to the platform. I am a small fish and as a person I am not rich, but I wanted to invest the same and share my idea because I believed in a better future and I believed in other people. Steemit on a personal level has given me a lot and my main idea is sharing, there are users who use their steem power only on themselves and there are users like me who use it for others. You all know that Steemit is an open book and you all can control what I say, you will see that more than 90% of my upvotes are divided among many users that in my little I try to help.
After always behaving respecting everyone and everyone's ideas and dedicating myself to other people, sensitizing them to the proper use of Steemit, be massacred just because I once gave my support to Bernie Sanders I do not find it right, for fear of receiving further repercussions I also removed my upvote from his post... Do you understand the fact? We are talking about PSCYCHOLOGICAL TERRORISM here on Steemit. Now people are no longer free to vote for someone for fear of being slaughtered.
What they do not understand is that acting like these 3 accounts did, they are not only hurting me, but Steemit itself. So they should understand that even their investments of a lot of steem power will be lost if steemit continue in this direction. Already the situation of cryptocurrencies is experiencing difficult times, if the damage is created even from within then it will be difficult to think of a rose future.
In addition to economic damage, the worst thing of all was the great indifference. I did not react by accusing anyone, in fact I kindly asked @done @bcc and @btu to remove their flag from my posts, which had no reason to be destroyed so, but I did not receive any response and the flags were not removed. I asked for help from some big users and even at the top of the group to which I belong, I was simply ignored by everyone, for indifference or fear nobody was available to help me. Only a few friends tried to help me and I am very grateful to them.
As you can see today I'm not here to accuse anyone, I just ask a bit of honesty in this platform and that a user can not be targeted so without reason. The flag should be given only for the right causes, users with so much steem power should be more aware of their actions. It should not be allowed to deliberately damage someone just to terrorize and deprive him of his freedom.
Steemit has become like the Far West, where are the users with more steem power to dictate the law, no one can afford to express their opinion otherwise it is massacred with flags. In these days where I thought about my future on this platform, I had the opportunity to talk to different users in chat and I noticed something in common among all... Everyone would like to invest in steem power, but they are scared in doing this, because are continually allowed these situations and all are doubtful about the future of Steemit.
@ned I understand that you are a businessman and you have much more interest on users who have invested large capital rather than poor people like me. But I want you to think about something, Steemit is like an empire where you are the king, the whales your generals and the little fish your people. Remember that every great empire in history has always been supported by the people, there can not be strong growth if your people are not supported and live in fear. There are tens of thousands of users who have left Steemit for one reason or another, when it is certainly one of the most important projects in the world of the blockchain, and yet it not able to record increases like other coins. The reasons may be many, but one of the main reasons is that things are not going well here, spam, poolreward abuse, psychological terrorism, big users who dictate their law, all of this is slowing Steemit and its growth and removes people's desire to invest their money here.
But I'm still confident, that's why I'm here to write this letter today, with the risk of being again massacred for no reason. It would have been easier to give up everything, make power down and cash out, instead I'm here to fight for a better Steemit, to give voice to my thoughts and to share it with others.
For me, a solution would be to remove the flag and that can only be used by a team of serious and selected users who act as moderators on the contents. The flag is not like a do not like of Facebook or Youbube, a flag here can do a lot of damage both economically and psychologically, it can not be allowed to use it so lightly and without valid reasons. I think you need to think about a solution, it's clear that things can not go on like this.
The same applies to users who abuse their power on poolreward, I think selfvote should be limited, I will not say eliminated, but certainly limited, I have seen people use almost 100% on themselves, for me it is a shocking thing. Even the use of voting bots should be limited, it is not fair to see ridiculous posts on top of the trending list just because pumped by upvotes bought. These bots I used them too, but with awareness, even having the possibilities I pumped only a few posts strongly, but only because I thought that for the good of the community had to be shared among more people possible and not to seek further gains. I would also like to help this post, in order to give more visibility to this message, so that as many people as possible can read it, and in the hope that you can do it too. But I fear in further repercussions and I would not want to be again massacred and lose again what I got with a lot of effort.
I think that if there were similar measures to those mentioned above, then users would no longer serve the flag and things would start to go better, at the top of the trending list you would find only posts really deserving to stay there, so finally Steemit will enjoy of the trust it deserves!
Yes, there is a lot of work to do, but it can possible, there are lots of competent people, ready to work to make Steemit better, we know how many fantastic projects have been created around this platform, we do not let these difficulties ruin everything good that has been created.
There is still much to talk about, but I do not want to bore you too much, let's start from here, stop with damaging others and in turn Steemit itself, let's work together for a better future!
@ned, I do not know if you will never read this post, I know you can not intervene directly on these situations and surely you already know all these problems, but then I ask me why? Why if instead of thinking only about future development, you stop a moment and try to raise awareness of a conscious use of steemit who is suffering much due to of these careless uses of steem power, surely your word would not be ignored, as it will probably be mine.
I wanted to write this letter with an open heart, my intent is not to criticize, but to seek solutions to a situation that is damaging everyone directly or indirectly and is certainly slowing down the growth of Steemit. I only ask you all not to be indifferent to these injustices, not to be afraid of repercussions and to be united for the good of all, without creating any wars that never bring anything good.
Steemit continues to have my trust, I hope I do not regret, because the money can always recover but all the time I am dedicated to this platform will never come back. I believe that things can change, so I decided to continue. I apologize for my bad English, I hope it's all understandable, a hug to everyone from your @stea90.
