‘The Sock Puppets’ and the Endless Cycle.

I wrote part of this article in November 2018, so the first part of it pertains to something that happened 6 months ago…, let me take you back into the depths of time....

Source

November 2018 - A History Lesson

For the past several weeks I have been flagging a gang of abusers which I will name from here forth, ‘The Sock Puppets’.

It’s not just me, but several of us from the @steemflagrewards team, namely @steevc, @themarkymark and @revisesociology more recently. @clvr is also getting in on the action.

What I don’t understand about @atempt, @stimialiti, @slowgrow and @fersher (likely all the same person), is the need for more. What I mean by this is they incite me to continue.

Let me make it very clear. I don’t want to flag people. It sucks to have your rewards removed, especially if you have put your heart and soul into writing something.

This is a comment, not a post!

The Sock Puppets like to pay bid-bots to upvote their post and comments. We at @steemflagrewards normally focus on bid bot abuse on posts, but comments, give me a break!

I would like to know who @chronoboost, @sleeplesswhale, @steemdiffuser, @whalecreator, and @kakibukit are, advocating bid bots on shit posts and comments like the ones that @atempt and his gang produces.

ANY comment they create, they pay a bid-bot to gain more rewards. I can’t say I have seen anything like this before, and so we will continue to flag them until it stops.

Today - 21st April 2019 - (approx 6 months later).

The Sock Puppets are still about and quite active, but not in the manner I would have expected.

There are no posts and no comments, so nobody can flag any of them.

They ritually flag my comments (not posts), on day 6 or 7 in a feeble attempt to lower my author rewards to below the dust threshold. Unfortunately having FOUR accounts with all less than a 1c weight vote doesn’t really work.

The flags are not just targeted to my account, but ANYONE associated with @steemflagrewards, past or present including innocuous Steemians (in the flagging sector) such as @abh12345 and @shortcut.

They are obviously manually curated flags and doing this sustained behaviour to several accounts over the period of 6 months requires a decent degree of tenacity.

As well as us ‘victims’ losing barely anything, it’s costing them quite a bit in terms of time.

The Sock Puppets are also using sniping tactics on incoming SFR rewards in an attempt to gain some curation. I feel this is where they get most of their STEEM from.

There is little we can do about this, and I suppose they have learned something about how rewards are distributed, so well done there.

The latest tactic is for one of the Sock Puppet accounts to guess if I am going to vote a comment in another attempt to gain a cut of comment curation rewards. This is sniping again but much less profitable than the above method.

If I don’t vote that comment, then they cancel the vote several days later.

Honestly, guys, can you not just post something of value? I for one will not hold a grudge against any of you and will not flag you for the hell of it.

The last time I posted something like this, I got a comment from @whatsup, ‘Who are you helping with this shit-show’, so this time I’ll answer that question before she asks.

It really intrigues me that someone can go to such lengths and gain very little from it.

For the last 6 months, we have been unable to retaliate against or communicate to something that is really not worth the effort of retaliation.

There’s no doubt, ‘The Sock Puppets’ will read this. I don’t really care if they carry on flagging me until eternity as it makes zero difference, to me or to any of us.

Sometimes my ideas bank gets a little low but you have really saved the day, and you have my word that I won't flag any comments you make that are constructive on this post.

As I mentioned above, I don’t hold grudges, though I can’t speak for all the other people you ritually tickle on a daily basis.