Attention to all EXHAUST users:

I have recently noticed a large uptick in people that use the EXHAUST service. This is great, however, it seems to have come in tandem with people that are either unaware of how the system should be used, or are intentionally abusing the system and just trying to farm votes from @exhaust.

How users should use the service:

• Users should attribute their activity logs to the correct activity-type. This helps keep sports separate, and allows for people to engage with other cyclists / runners / swimmers / hikers / whatever.

• Users should not lie about their activity details. I understand that some people have less access to gadgets like GPS watches, and stuff like that, so I don't want to remove the manual-entry option -- but I will if I have to.

  • Please remember that for running activities should be entered in meters and seconds -- this allows for better resolution of activity tracking to see your progress.
  • If I see someone sharing another post of running 22km in 90-minutes flat, I'm going to start banning / blacklisting people. I would have assumed that people that are running those kind of distances / speeds, if they're authentic and honest activities, would be interested in logging detailed metrics of their performance. That's not a casual morning jog that you're not going to track in some way.

• I'm considering not allowing posts that are simply 'walking around' any more. If I do continue to allow them, I'll create a 'walking' category.

  • There are other places to share your step-counts and whatever -- consider using actfit or something like that.
  • I'm open to hearing what people think about not allowing walking activities.

Things that I have implemented in the last couple days:

• I have just scripted up a dynamic vote-weight system. With the influx of users / posts, @exhaust's voting power has gotten drained to <40% levels. I'm hoping the new system should automagically start balancing things out, and making sure maximum votes are distributed

• I have also scripted a blacklist system where I can prevent users that I suspect of abusing the system from benefitting from the system. I wont outright ban you, but the following will happen:

  • I'm going to integrate this with the blacklist maintained by @spaminator (unless others can suggest a better list somewhere... @steevc?)
  • You will only receive 1% upvotes from @exhaust if you are blacklisted;
  • You will not receive weekly activity rewards from @exhaust if you are blacklisted. Instead, you will receive a 0.001 HIVE transfer explaining to you that you have been blacklisted.
  • If you believe that you have been blacklisted in error, please reach out. However, I'm busy and am unlikely to respond rapidly. I'm even less likely to change my mind.
  • if you are blacklisted, I will continue to allow you to create posts through the EXHAUST website, which will continue to include 20% beneficiary donations to the rest of the athletes that are using the system fairly.

I'm pretty lazy. I do NOT want to police / monitor what people post. I do not want to say some posts are lower effort, or some activities are less worthy of votes. But I will blacklist people that I suspect of abuse/lying/creating multiple accounts.

The intent of this project has always been, and will always be, to create incentives for people to exercise, improve on their performance, and foster community. The intent is to not just farm out free upvote-value from the generous people that delegate to this project.