I Promised Myself I Wouldn't Become Triggered After Looking at the Trending Page So I Won't Say a Damn Thing About That Asshole
Here's my latest creation:

I won't be talking about any assholes in this post.
Maybe have another look at the art.
You'll notice how I continue to carry on like assholes don't exist. Nothing to see here. Just some art produced by one of Steemit's first artists who was 100% exclusive to the platform(still am too). Yup.
I'll never forget the day I discovered I was listed as one of the top five most rewarded artists on Steemit.
I honestly didn't know at the time how well things were actually going. I would get about $10 to $20 and sometimes but rarely $30 or more per post. There were quite a few posts of mine that earned a lot less. I was unfazed by that, for the most part. I just kept going, worked hard, and that was that. I was happy. When I saw those statistics that put me up there with the best, my confidence level went through the roof. I was ecstatic. More than that. My mind was blown. I honestly didn't know. I thought I was closer to the bottom of the pack.
I didn't let it go to my head.
I wrote a quick post about it and I haven't said a word about that since.
How do I say, "I did good," without sounding like an asshole? How do I speak of my accomplishments without it sounding like I'm bragging?
I want people, here, to have the same opportunities I had. I want to see people succeed.
I can only do so much and I feel so goddamn powerless some days. I feel so fucking useless!
Yet I still try.
Have a look a this guy when you have a moment.
Majority of his rewards came from my votes. I tried. He's not the only one either. I can't even get to everybody's posts. I miss posts and I feel bad. I feel like I've failed them.
I still try, I still vote, but all it takes is one fucking asshole to buy a vote which only bumps others down so they can move up because they think they're hot shit and deserve the fucking spotlight. They don't fucking think about anyone else but themselves! Slowly but surely those fucking assholes put everyone else out of business.
Selfish fucking bastards!

Just a bit of an update. Unfortunately, it's time for me to go. I keep forcing myself to stay. There are many things falling apart on this end for me. The things I can't change aren't the reason I need to go. It's a tough decision to make, it has to be made though. I'm tired. I said that already, I didn't rest, it's only getting worse. I'm fucking wiped, I gotta go. I'll still be voting while I'm quiet. Thanks for everything you folks have done for me. Peace.


This dickwad comes to mind - taking 3 out of the top 4 spots for trending in art.
I know this sounds counter intuitive, but the reason I've been working on a bot is so I can take money off these suckers. They're gonna buy votes anyway - might as well go to me so I can give a couple extra cents/dollars to the posts I think deserve it.
Also, I checked out eterno's blog, he's got some good work - anyone who spreads the McKenna legacy is a friend of mine.
Look at that right. Those aren't even art posts. They're not even promotions. Whatever...
And if you're looking for curation rewards, you get more if you're not sharing it with 400 other voters.
The ever-changing bought-bot dominance on trending shows the problem is structural. It would be cheap for competitors to swamp Steemit with this sort of activity and crush it, since they can't buy a distributed platform. There's an assumption that all this post-promotion activity increases the value of Steem, but I can't see how that's true over the long-run. No one will be here looking, just posting onto a paid-post platform. Like all those bought Twitter follows and retweets, or the unmoderated G+ accounts. Wastelands.
Enjoy your break. And some fresh air! : )
It's not true. Some think this system is distributing the tokens, but they're not looking at the money the bots get. It's putting more tokens in fewer hands and it's painfully obvious. Those who are earning by selling the votes are shooting themselves in the foot. They're setting themselves up to fail because they don't understand how this entertainment industry works. That's painfully obvious as well. For the life of me, I can't figure out why they would do that to themselves. They stand to lose the most. I can't wrap my head around why this is so appealing.
I think bots really are a product of the system, most notably - the built in promotion feature not working.
As well as a content creation and curation platform, steemit is also a free-market, capitalist, self policing anarchy and people will just go down whatever route seems to be the best for them at the time. The idea being that if people don't like something enough - it'll be down-voted to oblivion, but somewhere along the way - low quality content apparently became more acceptable to the masses.
Yeah, I am not even going to look now. Every time I do, I get mad.
Every freaking time. The last time, with the dude eating bugs, was my "Not anymore. At least for a freaking long time".
I wish you well, man. Hope we could get you back soon. The quality of your posts are all kinds of amazing.
Awww noooo </3 I just :( I hope you get bored fast and come back here :( I will miss your posts.
Dude, I merely have 21 days on steemit and I already know that you shouldn't be leaving, I enjoy your posts, your twisted sense of humor, your helping... Well I guess i'll watch after your sheep while you are on vacations. See you around.
My feed is so beautiful now, trending page be damned. I just resteemed and followed that artist you mentioned, thank you for not letting me miss him.
You're welcome. Thank you for going there and doing that. I might start mentioning more often now. I can't keep up. People need help though. There's always a way.
I think the main issue in the future will be finding and promoting good content; so much is getting lost. I hear there is a community feature that is being worked on by #curie. They will have a built in audience as so many have been helped by them and they have prominent steemians in leadership roles.
I still insist when the bots are used, Steemit detects it, then moves the posts away from hot and trending and puts them under the promoted tab. That way the content that is receiving true high ratings due to being popular with the people gets seen. Why Steemit insists on placing advertisements in with actual content baffles me. EVERYWHERE else on the internet the ads are marked as ads and they are kept separate.
Well they are also draining the reward pool, so might be a good idea, but do some curators use bots? If it wasn't for curators I might not still be on the platform.
Some people auto vote me. They come and view posts later. Nothing wrong with that. It's just those the paid vote services should have to register their service so their bots are detected. Those are the ones causing all the problems.
Now THAT would be a great idea. I haven't been on Steemit for very long (12 days), but the bot thing is confusing and annoying. I wondered why so many boring posts were trending. Now I understand.
Life sometimes isn't fair
as you know how I learned.
Assholes are out there
And man you get burned.
But friends and relationships
are better than gold.
For they help you gain your grip
when assholes take hold.
A little poem for you inspired from your post. @nonameslefttouse
Thanks for the poem.
It's true, life isn't fair. It's better that way. When people are acting unfairly, people can put them in their place. That's life too.
I think that you shouldn't give up, every single one of us should work as a community and make this place as good as we can! If can say that this place here is like a "miniature" of the real society well then you just don't give up, you fight for the better!
I'm just taking a break from posting for a few days, maybe more, I don't know yet. I'm not giving up. I'm sensing a bit of negativity and frustration within myself due to stress and fatigue mostly and I don't want to be projecting that out into the world. I don't want to end up bringing people down.
It is normal actually, we all at some point feel tired or disappointed or stressed, I hope you will feel better soon!
I really liked this creation. My favourite one. Of course there's more to say but.. I wish you well, brother!
Did anyone else think it was a joke and it was a picture of Paul Rudd with a guitar?
Holy shit. It is Paul Rudd.
I loved the cold sunset shades in the background (at least that's what my eyes saw) and this bright blue at the bottom has something luring ;)
Selfish people will only stay selfish. I know, I get mad, disappointed, but then keep doing what I have always been doing in my life: persisting.
Sometimes we need to take a rest and regenerate our lost power. The emotional burn-out is inevitable at some point, but you can't let it bring you down.
I hope to you see you around soon :)