How the v12 tag really works, and why you should stop using it
First things First
Everyone is free to use whatever tag that fits their content. The keyword here is "fits their content". One of the tags that is abused a lot is the "introduceyourself" tag. This tag is to be used only when you... introduce YOURSELF to the platform. Most often this will be a tag you use for your first post, and never again after that unless something drastic happens to you, or you return to the platform after being away for 2 years.
There is NO reason to use this tag, when:
- you post a picture of your cat
- you post a picture of a new hobby
- you post a post about your relatives
- you post about people who just joined
None of the above is related to "introducing yourself". They are focused on introducing someone or something else.
Annoying but no Harm done
Many people, including myself use the "introduceyourself" tag from the taglist to find people who joined the platform recently. It is nice to welcome these people into the community and give them a good start with a nice reward.
It is annoying to find posts in this listing, that are not from new people and are not focused on a member introducing themselves. Some may think, well at least I got some eyes on my post, WRONG. If anything were to happen, your post will probably be flagged. People who are looking for new arrivals, are not likely going to reward posts that do not belong in that "introduceyourself" category.
Reward Bots
Some people use bots to reward posts. They don't read the content, don't check for plagiarism, don't check for copy/paste. This isn't exactly helping to maintain a quality standard on the platform. A random bot voter you may have seen on your posts is @holger80, and a voting trail from the people we mentioned in Shoutout #5. There are more, but there is no use in listing them all.
Tag Reward Bots
These bots are triggered by use of a certain tag. Use the tag, and the bot comes by to reward you, again without paying any attention to your post. Some just reward and are happy with the curation reward they get for doing that, others take it a step further. The v12 tag reward bot is one of those bots that take it a step further. The v12 tag reward bot, rewards the post without looking at it, and adds a comment to the post.
This looks innocent enough, they just want to thank you for using the tag. But that is not the whole story. They give you a 3-6 WLS reward on your post, while they "rape" the reward pool for a lot more.
An Example
This post gets a 2.55 WLS reward.
The total payout for the post is 8.27 WLS
The total payout on the v12 comment is way more
A nice 93.72 WLS reward.
But you can't control who rewards your comment, right? Wrong. This comment is, in a way, self rewarded. The v12 account keyholder, also holds the posting keys of the other accounts ( @blocktrades, @goldlover, @scipio, @matthewdavid, @karinxxl, @meno, @wls-us, @ederaleng) and just uses another bot to reward all comments the v12 tag reward bot added to posts.
The v12 tag reward bot creates a lot of comments per day. This is why the account often shows up at the "Daily Payout Statistics" list, created by @whale-stats.
Some data from those listings:
| Date | Amount |
|---|---|
| 24-4-2019 | 806.256 |
| 23-4-2019 | 400.026 |
| 22-4-2019 | 4,326.547 |
| 21-4-2019 | 0.00 |
| 20-4-2019 | 750.906 |
| 19-4-2019 | 2,533.972 |
| 18-4-2019 | 1,540.943 |
That is just one week. Not bad, 10,358.65 WLS for running a bot script.
Why do we care?
This is not the only group of people who abuse the platform. That is true, but they are the only ones who make you believe they are here for the good of the platform, while all they are doing is, grow their own wallet by comment farming.
Another reason why the Whaleguardians Team cares, is the support for plagiarized and copy/paste content. We are trying to prevent posts like that, but this bot encourages it by rewarding whatever. We'd rather spend mana on rewarding original content than on flagging v12 rewards.
Why should you care?
We hope you are not okay with people who do so little and claim so much. There is more though. Many curators and token issuers are skipping v12 tagged posts when looking for posts to reward. This means you are probably missing rewards that are not only higher than the 3-6 WLS the v12 tag reward bot gives you, but you also miss out on a chance of being showcased in curation posts.
Try another tag, originalcontent would be a good one, if that is what you are posting. Don't use the originalcontent tag on plagiarized or copy/paste posts, you will get flagged. Not sure what tag to use? Read this post @merej99 put together. Make sure PEOPLE can find you, not bots.
(NOTE: This post is using the "art" and "photography" tag because many members who post in those categories use the v12 tag)
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