Yesterday I participated in the Talk of the Line post sharing chat in

@thesteemengine discord. After the chat was over I happened to noticed the dreaded three dots on a post indicating it having been flagged. When I looked further, I saw it was not just one post but two posts:

Initiatives I Support on Steem and The Love it/Shove it Challenge -- tagged by @thebugiq and they had been downvoted 100% by @Grumpycat’s attack dog, @madpuppy. Each hit shaved about $14 off each post.

Was a Bidbot the Problem?

My immediate thought was they were both posts that I had used a bidbot on. I hardly ever use a bidbot. The other day I realized that while the price is down, we actually receive a higher amount of SP on our posts so it would be good time to build SP. So I had used @upme to boost the two posts. It’s a bot that is grumpy-compliant so that didn’t seem like it should be the problem.

Someone directed me to Steem World to have a look at the puppy’s downvote history. I quickly saw that I wasn’t alone being downvoted. From the names on the list, I also quickly saw the actual reason I was hit.

What Was the Reason For the Hit?

There is no small irony for me that one of the posts Grumpy hit was one I had written about initiatives I support on the platform. It was very well received and had been resteemed by several people. There are some initiatives that I give some support to and do so pretty quietly for varying reasons.

I had been hit over one of those initiatives. It is an initiative formed to combat bullying by Grumpy. It was formed with the awareness that while today the bully may be Grumpy, tomorrow it may be and likely will be another with a large stake and a willingness to hit minnows and make them ‘collateral damage’ in whatever campaign he claims to be waging.

Where Did All This Start?

It started around the time that @grumpycat started demanding the bots not allow votes once a post was more than 3.5 days old. As I mentioned early, I don’t often use bid bots so, that was not what drew my attention.

Some of the bot owners stood their ground and refused at first to comply with the demands of Grumpy. Votes can be made on posts up to 6.5 days after it is posted. They were within the bounds of the platform to not comply. That didn’t really catch my attention.

What did get my attention was when the Grump decided to start attacking those who purchased votes through the bots which stood their ground. He didn’t bother with educating the people he attacked. He didn’t care if the post was quality or not. He didn’t care if the post was supporting a charity or other good works. His victims were nothing more to him than ‘collateral damage’ in his fight with the bot owners.

Even after most of the bot owners complied with his demands he continued to attack innocents seemingly indiscriminately. That got my attention even more. The fact he could do this unopposed in any manner was alarming for current and future implications for the platform. What was to stop others from doing the same?

Here is Another Initiative I Support

The initiative is called @the-resistance. This group came together knowing that individual minnows could not defeat a whale like the Grump. Even another whale would be hardpressed to impact his presence on the platform. Case in point, the efforts to deal with Haejin

Attacking minnows wasn’t the only thing that the Grump is up to on the platform. He loves to upvote himself — a lot. So, while he’s claiming to be fighting rewardpool rape, he’s taking way more than he recovers.

@the-resistance works to highlight his self-voting especially on comments which seems to be his favourite place to vote himself a big chunk of change. They also attempt to help the Grump’s victims to recover lost rewards. Members making even small delegations helps to build up and improve the help that can be given. I had made a small delegation to the cause and had joined the We-Resist discord

Yesterday’s Aftermath

After he carried out his attacks yesterday, the Grump showed up in the General chat in the discord. Needless to say, he wasn’t exactly welcome, but he’s not kicked either. Should he choose to engage in dialogue, he could do so.

When people headed over to the Steemstar Network to listen to @sircork’s Townhall followed by @patrice’s Trash Talk shows, the Grump followed. Gotta hand it to the guy, he’s a bear for punishment.

During @patrice’s show, she made a comment that sparked this response from the Grump:

Grumpycat - Yesterday at 8:14 PM
@Patrice, @Grupycat flag Non-grumpycompliant bidbots, It took about a week for all bidbots to comply, now it's only @sneaky-ninja. @Grumpycat also flag what it consider over-promoted trash on the frontpage. Since today @Grumpycat is flagging the people who automate flagging every single of my comments with @theresistance bot and spamming advertisement for their anti-grumpycat hate group.

It’s the last sentence that applied to his attacks yesterday. I had to laugh at the last part “spamming advertisement for their anti-grumpycat hate group”. He has complete control over the comments from @the-resistance appearing. When he stops attacking innocents, the comments will never be seen again. That will mean there will not be people who will need support to recover from his attacks.

So, How Do I Respond to Being Bullied?

It’s pretty simple. A bully being allowed to function without any consequences is a bully emboldened. It is entirely possible that at least for a while, the Grump is going to continue to attack.

I’m not about to quit a group because a bully is attacking. I increased the small delegation I had sent the account. Finally, I’m publicly talking about being part of the group and I’m publicly inviting others to join the group.

It’s counterintuitive, I know. Consider this, when more of the community steps up and takes part it means he has to spreads his attacks further and they get weaker. Right now, it is a small group. Imagine if he had to spread those attacks across one hundred or one thousand people?

My Thanks

My thanks for reading this far. A special thank you to those who were able to upvote the posts that were attacked. Also to the Steemian who sent me some funds to make sure that the Grump couldn’t take them away. You know who you are.

Final Note

This past Sunday would have been my dad’s 94th birthday. He gave up a few years of his youth to serve in WW2 during the Italian campaign. He was part of not backing down to a bully. He raised his kids to not back down from bullies. So, happy birthday dad, you’re gone but not forgotten.