Who are all these ghost upvoters?
I've been questioning myself something for quite a long time and since I've seen it happening with a recent blog again too, I decided to create this blog about it.
Maybe one of you can tell me what it is...
The thing is, I've been getting some upvotes. I'm not complaining about the upvotes itself. I like my posts getting upvoted 😀
But the upvotes that I'm receiving are from accounts I don't know. Hivers I never came across on Hive. And that while I've been around for quite a few years already.
I also noticed a certain pattern with all these accounts which made me even more curious...
A couple of facts:
- The upvotes happened around the same time, more than a day after publishing my post.
- They upvote about the same percentage (9 or 10)
- All accounts have a reputation of 25
- None of the accounts have a a profile image or any other info in their profile
- The account names look a bit Asian to me
- They all aren't following a single other hiver
- They have published no blogs themselves
- And with a few exceptions they also didn't publish any comments
- I can't find any outgoing transactions on these accounts
- They do claim their curation rewards regularly
- The accounts are all over a year old, ranging from may 2023 to february 2024
Here is the list of accounts that I have found.
| user | upvote% | upvote | reputation | blogs | comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| @otsoak | 10% | $0.044 | 25 | 0 | 2 (from 2023) |
| @shayaiykram | 9% | $0.056 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| @silingsi | 9% | $0.069 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| @zhaoyiseng | 9% | $0.063 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| @ukulima | 9% | $0.074 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| @soumaren | 9% | $0.072 | 25 | 0 | 0 |
Again, I'm not complaining about the upvotes. I appreciate every upvote I receive. But it does seem a bit strange to me. I somehow get the impression that these accounts are all operated by the same user. I've checked the activities of two of them and you draw your conclusion; some of them (not all) are upvoting the same posts.
But why would someone have multiple accounts to upvote the same content, don't interact with others and do keep collecting interest.
If one of the accounts is active, please let me know. I'm quite curious 😀
And if someone else has an explanation. Feel free to share it in the comments!
Friendlymoose
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i see i'm not the only one with a strange fanbase , maybe they get more %rewards this way from the curators half.
Yes, they are voting multiple posts. I really wonder what their idea is since I don't se any extractions (yet).
Probably someone following a curation trail or auto upvote list for the curation rewards. Not sure off hand why one person would do it with multiple accounts though if that is what is happening.
That indeed. Why all those accounts?
Ye, sometimes xD
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Ah yes. That.
Short answer, already mentioned in other comments: They are following a curation trail.
Longer answer: They are likely part of some community/Discord server where they are encouraged to follow a curator with such-and-such a vote weight in order to maximize their curation returns, and perhaps promised some kind of reward for just investing some Hive power and leaving their accounts on "autopilot" in the care of some leader/curator.
The fact that none of these accounts appear to have outgoing transfers, or within-Hive transfers suggests (to me) that it's not a rewards farm; further supported by the fact that they hold HP amounts (mostly pretty substantial) that very a good bit.
Short of a bunch of digging around with a blockchain explorer, it's hard to say what the true deal is, here. Not sure if it makes a difference, but they all have @ecency as their recovery account, and they all appear to be voting only for "real" content creators.
This indeed! Quite strange.
That is a positive thing!
here have a non-ghost upvote! ;)
Haha, thanks!
Maybe they have something to do with Hive Posh and sharing posts on reddit?
I see my post listed, and in the comments of that post I had a Reddit thread...
I never take a detailed look at the profile of someone who votes for me and doesn't have their own posts, and so do these profiles, I thought they simply invested and entered curation trails, but I see that they don't vote on every post with the same % that is usual for trails, as if they have another model or manual voting?
Interesting isn't it 😃
But is was that I noticed this group of account woithoutna profile picture upvoting my post of a day old with the same amount.
Probably a whale diversifying their stake and upvote to stay under the radar
I would have expected some in and outgoing funds then...
If you go back far enough, there's bound to be incoming funds, and if the whale is here for the long term there is no need to transfer out.
True!
wow i hope they can also upvote my post. 🤣
Yeah I have them too and they never come alone... we can't complain tho, I always thought it just was someone who put in some money and let auto vote make a nice ROI on it.
I don't complain. Every upvote is welcome!
I'm just curious who and why this way 😃
These ghosts visit me from time to time, too. Not always. But sometimes. I think @curatorcat.pal is on the (pardon the pun) money, here.
You're real. As much as others might like to contend with the notion of a "Friendlymoose" :P
I still wonder why you would use such a construction for voting.