Interview With Enforcer48 A.K.A Leonis

Goooood morning InLeo I hope you're having a wonderful day, we're back with another feature interview with @enforcer48 who we recently put together a Hive Profile and the work he does IRL and in protecting our wounderful Hive Blockchain from abuse.

It's important that we focus on the strong community and our user base who have called Hive home as these are the faces that have been there from the start contributing to direction of Hive.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what attracted you to Hive

I originally signed up to Steem back in 2018 through @someguy123. At the time, I thought about doing something casual and productive when I was not at work.

Can you tell us about @steemflagrewards and your position on securing the blockchain?

Steem Flag Rewards (SFR) was the brainchild of @anthonyadavisii. I was the guy on the proverbial street who joined the cause amidst the Haejin issue. The idea was to provide incentives for people who downvoted abusive behavior. The scope of the operation was broader than the then Steem Cleaners as they did not deal with abusive self-voting and bid bot usage.

There were no "free downvotes" in 2018 because you had to use your upvote mana. You had to sacrifice curation rewards to counter abuse. Back then, you only received 25% of your vote in curation. Steem Flag Rewards aimed to provide some financial compensation for standing up to unsavory voting behavior on the chain. My role in SFR was acting as a coordinator for like-minded individuals.

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That is an interesting point and many forget the old curation and how it was set up, which brings me to my next question. What is your view on Hive Watchers? How has that relationship between yourself and them been?

I used to be an advocate for Hivewatchers (HW). I was one of the people who believed they needed DHF funding to become more effective. However, the lack of accountability and blatant disregard for public opinion left a bad taste in many people's mouths.

We were amicable towards each other for a long time. That changed along with shifting public sentiments. I've been banned from their Discord and MatterMost (the replacement for stakeholders Slack) by members of HW for speaking out against them. Their narrative went from I was rude to I was threatening the apparent "female" member of their team. Never mind that I have never seen this particular "member" interact with anyone on the chain and had been stashing HBDs from the DHF for years.

I'm not the only one banned from their establishment. We both know people who had similar experiences because they commented about their operations. Again, they have no accountability whatsoever. Hivewatchers' (or that one specific member's) usual retorts are but a compilation of accusing people of "trolling" or "misinformation" like someone who got their vocabulary from a mainstream media outlet.

It's an absolute travesty that we pay these people $290 a day for downvoting less than $20 of abuse a day. They also retain all delegations from old Steem accounts for private use. Recently, they modified their proposal and Discord announcement. The chain now pays them $95 a day for doing much less. It's a grift that keeps on giving.

Let's not even get into the damage they've done for the Hive community. They've chased away promising members, old and new, off the platform with their smug rudeness and impunity

I won't argue there, I had a run in with them a few times over images I paid for use. It is hard to even engage with them to resolve matters. It is a very my way or the highway approach, What are some things Hive can do better?

Hive still doesn't have native smart contracts that allow for native assets. The closest workaround we have is Hive Engine. It was a cool idea at the time, but it's rather outdated compared to what's out there today. Even if we have it today, we are years too late. We would be playing catch-up.

The chain also doesn't have native functions that work with a subscription model such as exclusive content behind paywalls. It's a missed opportunity. It's anyone's guess if there are technical limitations or there aren't talents here to build it.

The Covid times and recent geopolitical events proved that the chain isn't a safe place for dissenting views like some advocate. For the most part, Hive is an obscure enclave of people focused on mainstream views. There's no value in that.

Censorship resistance only goes so far when a content creator still needs to pay his or her bills. These days, content creators are on many different platforms because they know you can't trust one chain or one company to uphold free speech. Instead of making a last stand in one place, they opt for popping up faster than they are shot down.

I understand all the arguments for the technicality that's been rehashed many times over. If Hive were a robust ecosystem, the demonetization through downvotes due to your opinion may not be a big deal. The fact remains that Hive is not a robust ecosystem today.

Is there anything else you would like to add

The biggest problem with Hive is that it isn't fun anymore.

image sources provided supplemented by Canva Pro Subscription. This is not financial advice and readers are advised to undertake their own research or seek professional financial services

Posted Using InLeo Alpha