To report or not, there is no try. There is only Spams

BjRz...5AGi
30 May 2024
293


The master once said



I joined the platform around 8 months ago, with excitement to write again. When I first joined, the Bulb platform seems like an alien space to me, just like any other platform I joined for the first time. However, since Bulb is simple and easy to use, I did not take very long for me to get used to it. Including with its token claiming system.

As I was away from writing for sometime back in 2022, the writing passion I had was lit again after joining Bulb and I was determined to improve on my writings. As you can see, my post totaled at 23 after 7 months. Considering I am writing thoughtfully, without copy pasting from other's article and generate my content through the usage of A.I, 23 is considered as good enough.


I do plan to increase my writing rate to twice per week in the future, so I could double my practice. I however think that writing everyday is the best way to practice, but that has to wait until we all could make a living by just using Bulb. For now, spending a half or an hour is sufficient enough for me to keep up with the new articles here. It is also a fact that writing everyday here in Bulb would reduce the overall quality of your article. Unless you have nothing better to do, then the keyboard is all yours.

I've seen people uploaded everyday, and yes, the quality of the article deteriorate in alignment of the bulb points gained from each write up. 


That said, I love writing my own piece the same as everyone else, who wants to take advantage of the opportunity presented here in BULB. I have no idea if there are any writers out there who does not love to write themselves. Its like a foodie who doesn't love to taste. Weird if you ask me. Maybe even borderline idiotic.


My Valuable experience (if you would call it that)


As a writer myself, I love to read. I'll read whatever I can get my hands on. Books, magazine, comic books, newspapers, online articles and many more. Few years back, I decided that I am only going to read any reading materials that contributes to the skill improvements of my choice. I have to get my reading compulsion under control, or else I'll be reading craps too.

And there's so much here in BULB. There is no wonder other writers from Publish0x refused to come over, even though the rewards are great. The amount of spams will undermine their work and personal brand. For me? I'm good here, I'm picking this battle for a chance of success. 


So back to the main story. Normally, as a writer that loves to read, I looked and scoured for good reading materials in Bulb. SCOURED!. That was the first red flag I personally experienced. And what better way there is to look for article under recommendation section. Why wouldn't I? I have already set the "Niche" that I want to be recommended to my interest right?


What I found out along the way, well, let's just say, were piles of dog craps. For the fun of it, let me list what I've found.

  1. Copy pasted articles from Medium/Publish0x
  2. Copy pasted articles from Bulb itself? (Are you f***ing kidding me?)
  3. Copy pasted articles from crypto News outlets (That's right, I see you and I'm itching to get to you very soon)
  4. Spam articles that repeated gazillion times (somehow still manage to score Bulb points - Why?How?)
  5. Airdrop posts that are outdated but the article dated recently (suggesting that you copy pasted)
  6. More airdrop posts that are copied pasted from external websites
  7. Airdrop posts that shares malicious links
  8. Articles that doesn't even make any sense that is filled with referral links from top to bottom
  9. A.I generated articles (100% copied pasted from Chatgpt with little to no modification at all)
  10. Articles with BLANK PAGE


I'm sure if I were to look hard enough (NOT REALLY) there are more variants of these low quality rubbish articles in Bulb and that is a very bad indicator of how bad this platform will be for the readers/writers/investors/owners if we do not take the necessary action to eradicate them soon enough. I hate the idea of reporting someone for their work, but as @MBA ChitChat said, enough is enough.


While I don't really care for those who spams got their rewards and dump it, because for every dumper, there are buyers. And every buyer, there's a dumper - that's the nature of the beast that is crypto. Nothing to be surprised at. But the fact that this low quality sub human spammers are getting their cut through manipulation of the system, is an insult to writers and readers who try to do their best in the earnest way. And that is me, downplaying the pain of it.

Sidenote: I can count with my 10 fingers of top writers that I love to read from. Hated that fact. But, Bulb is still wildly undiscovered and we may see new good writers coming in after I wrote this sentence. I can only be hopeful. 


There is nothing can be done to change the collective minds of spammers. Because let's be real now, even spammers and manipulators think that they are morally right. And due to that, the only alternate path is to eradicate the spammers from this space. Follow the rules and repent, or risk having the accounts devoid of energy.

I have tried warning them lots about what they are doing, and to those who are lurking behind a seemingly legit account, don't breath a relief breath yet. Because sooner or later, we will find out. The reporters and moderators are a bunch of smart people, and they will read you between the lines. When that time comes, you'll be this cat right here - courtesy of @MBA ChitChat


Back to the original theme of this post

How to find and report spams or/and moderation of Spam correctly with fairness

I will not lay out exactly HOW I FIND you spammer lots, because I know you'll read this and try to go around whatever methods we share here. Let me be absolutely clear - NONE OF WHICH YOU ARE DOING IS DISCRETE. It is clear as the blue sky. My god. Pardon my french. Its like thieving in the open day light. 


To the authentic users, below are the simple steps you can follow to start reporting


Go to the article that you want to report, click that "..." 3 dots button. There's another way to access this function. If you click into the article, scroll to the very bottom, you'll find that same 3 dots button.


After you click that button, a drop down menu will pop out and there's a "Report" function. Click that and it will bring you to the form below.


Now, depending on what you want to report on, you have to best match the reason why you wish to report the article or comment. A false report will lead to low quality moderation on your end and will destroy your credibility and account governance. You have been warned. Just because it rewards you the most, doesn't mean you can spam it willy-nilly.

As an example, below is my stats as part of the moderation system.


The best way to start this off


A few weeks back, a friend of ours @J.D. was reported for being a spam. The reason why is because he writes back and forth shortly with someone he was familiar with in the comment sections. The good news was that he managed to appeal successfully, because he wasn't a spammer and he wrote real good articles and commented thoughtfully. I suggest you to read his piece if you love to read. I recommend this piece by him : PERCEPTION

The bad news is that it can happen to anyone here without prior warning. I got my comment flagged for spam. For your info, most of my comments averages at 100 words. And they are not A.I generated. I wrote it myself, after reading the article. I don't comment on articles that I don't have anything to say about.


Nothing fancy, just what normal people would do instead of summarizing the whole article and post it as comment. I know, some people here does that in hope it doesn't look suspicious at all. I smell A.I miles away before turning the web page.

Quiz time.

This comment was cherry picked by myself on one of my articles. Can you guess which article it is? And can you guess if the comment is A.I generated. If so, how do you recognize it?

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"Mindset plays a pivotal role in our life’s journey because it shapes our intentions, actions, and preparedness for the challenges we face. The story of Sharon Tirabassi, who won a lottery but lost it all, highlights the importance of preparation and mindset in handling sudden changes. Without a strong mindset and awareness, unexpected success can lead to failure.

Preparation is essential, but it must be guided by a positive mindset and awareness. Mindset and awareness do not require high intelligence; anyone can cultivate them to improve their chances of success. Consistency, a positive attitude towards learning, and keeping things simple are crucial elements of a successful mindset.

The article emphasizes that stepping out of the 9-5 grind requires more than just skills; it demands a strategic mindset and awareness of the journey’s difficulties. Awareness of the value of time, the inevitability of learning new skills, and the importance of having a fallback plan are key points."
---------------------------------------------------------------------


Now, would I report this comment? Nah, not likely. But is the practice frowned upon? By me, a Yes. Maybe not others. This goes back to what I have wrote in my on going series of "Going out of 9 -5 hell". If you do not take this opportunity to build your brand on a project that is as fresh as Bulb, you are wasting the potential benefits you could get out of it! That includes commenting thoughtfully, not only you will be able to improve your english comprehension, you will be able to make some genuine friends over the net!

Of course at the same time, commenting thoughtfully will improve your skills as a writer as well. This is not news. Its.Just.The.Way.It.Is.

Second Quiz!

Guess if this comment is a spam or not. If yes, why? If No, then why?

"Good Project"

If you answered No..then maybe you are a part of the problem we are having here in Bulb. Seriously.

One easy way to determine if a comment is a spam is if the comment is not in context with the written article itself. I have seen countless of this here over the months and honestly it made me chuckle. I thought to myself "Hey dude! Wrong Channel!".

Those are for commenting part of the Do to Earn, But how about Articles then?

Well, courtesy of the spammers, look below. Take a guess, were these articles made by the same author? different account? different time? different title?

Answer: Possibly, YES, YES, YES.


*These images are one of the same. I couldn't bother to screenshot these article one by one just to drive my point across to you. The point is these articles are same in format, image used, and titling method*

These articles were produced by a group of people who post countless of similar articles with the pretense of sharing airdrop opportunities. I do hope nobody got fooled into clicking the links in those article. If you do, discard the wallet that you connect it with. Because those links are malicious with the intent to separate you from your assets. I will avoid from linking these article to avoid giving it any more exposure more than it already has.

There are possibly thousands of the similar accounts with generic account name with numbers stuck in between the alphabets - generated by name generator is my best guess. I wished they use those energy to post thoughtfully instead of wasting everyone's valuable time.


Above is my stance on copy paste bad actors here in Bulb. Its a false fallacy of "MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO", just because other's are doing it, doesn't mean what they are doing is right. The word "PLAGIARISM" exist to protect the original creator of the work. Make that make sense to others of WHY YOU THINK WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS RIGHT. Copy paste, without paraphrasing, and crediting the original creators, the right way of referencing, then you are considered as copy pasting other's work and it falls under violation of conduct - Plagiarism.

If you wish to quote - then do it in the context that what has been said, supported your own ideas. This is a scholarly advice.

In more idiotic way, let me ask you this. Will you be fine if your hard work being copied, and have that work credited to that person instead of you? Another one, if you have your life partner stolen away from you, would you be fine with it?


Yeah, I thought so. Stupid right? Different things, same situation here buddy. Don't argue with it. There is no justification of the act of Stealing. Stealing is still Stealing.

The fairness


To be honest, I am tempted to put this section under TLDR (TOO LONG DONT HAVE TIME TO READ) because, why would I be fair to spammers? There is none needed, let me be clear because these people clearly does not care about you. But, in order to access this situation clearly and critically, there are certain circumstances in which the humane part of you needed.

As I have said, I still have a little bit of leniency towards posts that are A.I generated because they cause no real harm to the platform. Unless those articles are operated by a group of people, making multiple accounts to earn more tokens. Now, my stand on this is, I get it. More accounts, more moneys yeah? But according to the terms and condition, that is a very bad idea and you could get your account banned. Worst is that you just spent 2.5K Bulb to unlock the features for commenting and writing article. Do yourself a favor, Don't. Our report buttons are free, even the newbie accounts can report you.

Honestly, I would love to have a second account where I just post my hobby over there and not mix my "Writing out of 9-5 hell". Publish0x has a function to segregate these articles into different playlist/blog compilation as an account function. I hope Bulb will have this as well in Bulb in the future. For now, I have to keep all of my post under one page. 


It is also important for the moderators and reporters to gauge the writing skills of writers here in Bulb. There are still many who are out there whom just started to learn to blog properly. Meaning there are little to no structure to their writing. I love the enthusiasm and these types of articles should not be reported, but instead a little bit of guiding is needed. I post about guides weekly in my profile, for those who wish to learn hit that follow button so I could send those guides direct to your email so you can refer to it anytime you want. (Wow, I sound like a youtuber - subscribe guys!). Lol kidding.


There is however a fine line in between good articles, bad articles and spam articles. Bad articles are still articles and we should not report them as spam. Most of the time I try to go through it, make sense of them instead of doing trigger happy with my report button. Like spam, reporting just for the sake of reporting will damage Bulb even further. Because by the end of the day, if we report those who are just starting to write, we might kill off their motivation to write. When no one is willing to write, aside from me and others like me (who are very small in numbers compared to spammers), Bulb Platform will be empty and boring.

But, there's always some easy way to determine if an article or comment is harmful or bad for the platform that I believe must be reported on sight

  1. Sharing malicious links through articles and comments
  2. Short comments that has nothing to do with the article itself
  3. Long comments that has nothing to do with the article itself
  4. Comments that is copied from other commenters
  5. Articles that shares nudity or any other form of NSFW
  6. Copied pasted article from other social platforms or Bulb itself
  7. Hateful comments/articles that incite violence


The proverbial Anchor


There has been some backlashes to what the moderators and reporters have been doing. For the most part of it is that we manage to clear out some of the spammers accounts. Some big and high level accounts that seems to be running on multiple accounts still eludes me in both the reason, and the shame that those accounts are gone now - because they clearly write good human generated articles. There has to be a clear instruction to new users about not having multiple accounts or else we will face the same situation over and over again.

The good news is that, after having paywall to commenting and writing article, we have been seeing less (or maybe none) of the spam posts and comments popping out. That is a win for the community, and to be fair, moderators and reporters are still human. And human make errors. Some of the errors are unavoidable through lack of diligence, while some are deliberate.


To be very honest, I am not happy getting these accounts reported, because the more I report, the more I realized how severe the infestation of bad actors in Bulb. For the sake of the rest of the community who are real users who wants to earn through Do To Earn model in the way it is intended for, I hope we'll get to the end of all this.

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