The Circle Jerking State of Steemit - December 23rd - Minnows READ!
Good morning all,
I'm reposting this for visibility on a wider scale.
Steemit has been a great source to find new and inspiring authors that are drastically changing the Steemit ecosystem. I'm a fairly new account having joined just two months ago. In that time I've amassed over 800 followers and have gained a small amount of steam power; however, there is one thing that's always in stuck in my mind about Steemit and that's that the same individuals keep getting all the rewards while new authors seem to be making pennies.
Each day I come across a multitude of new Steem accounts that constantly ask what's wrong with my posts? They write meaningful content that should honestly be at the hot page, if not the trending page. With the recent SBD pump these new accounts are getting more for their writing and it's a good step forward, however I believe that there is a strong inequality in the reward system. New accounts need a way to gain rewards and have incentives for writing new content.
I see the same accounts getting hundreds of dollars in rewards each and every day and their posts aren't even meaningful. Some accounts post total shit and receive the same circle jerk rewards by the same 4 whales who I won't mention today.
It seems that nobody wants to spend their vote on content of new users and this forces new users to rely on bots such as minnowbooster or buildawhale to get their posts seen. This is not what Steemit should be in my opinion. How do I know this? Because even with 800 followers I get almost no rewards other than self up-voting. In fact, I have to send some SBD to a bot just for some people to maybe see this post (Which I doubt).
While I agree that not all of my content is the best or meaningful, there are times where I will write something that I feel has value and get nothing in return. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way and this only makes new accounts just want to post crap quality content. It is frustrating to see a photograph that I took gain $0.10 and I see a blurry picture of a street lamp that gets $200.
Let's be real with ourselves, who wants to spend hours on content just to receive $0.10 in rewards while consistently seeing the same individuals ramble about what they did for the day (which took 5 minutes to write mind you) and receive $100 in rewards if not more.
Sadly, until this gets fixed we will always see an inequality that should have never existed in the first place.
Yes, our economy is in bad shape. Whales have too much power and behave antisocially. It's not inequality by itself that is bad but the behaviour of those at the top.
Well said, the top should reward the bottom other than themselves..
I take you are not a believer in trickle down economics?.... XD sorry
Extremely true. I also see that posts with lousy content, but which contain images with sex appeal get paid better than meaningful and informative posts.
I guess sex appeal sells.. lol
Haha....true
Just as in many games.. Pay to Win! ;)
It does seem a bit strange that new users with sometimes not that great content get massive rewards.. I remember I got a post reward of well over 200$ when i just started out.. And that was just a picture of a drawing I once made.. Since then i tried to learn and create better content, but it is still hard to get some (imo good posts/content) to be seen by a lot of people.. even with about 800 followers the amount of views is sometimes even lower than the upvotes.. its strange
Strange indeed.. Well maybe people loved your drawing! I don't mind artwork getting paid well, it's just annoying seeing the same individuals constantly rake hundreds without any work.
I know what you mean .. but i think it has something to do with a couple of whale bots that seem to do big upvotes in order to try and make new people stay for a while.. when they do stay for a while.. they loose that whale-bot support.
I can relate to this in a very significant level. I have been writing a lot about science and philosophy with the right sources and I know are meaningful opinions that could even start discussions in the comments or inspire others, yet I see a post with just a sentence and some grabbed-somewhere photo getting over $30! I believe Steemit isn't really all about this injustice.
Well said, keep on writing! We need more individuals such as yourself on Steemit.
Yeah it's a known problem... Still my biggest hope for Steem lays with SMTs, as this could potentially bring forth platforms that work similar to utopian.io (just with different content). The thing is though, that this circle jerking behaviour will only come back at them. Cause without the incentive of new people coming in, Steem will eventually lose its value.
This exactly! Steem will lose its value if new users aren't welcomed and feel like their hard work goes unnoticed. I hope SMT's will be the first step in changing this.
On this day, you can not call Steemit social media or a social platform. It is more a translation of our current capitalist system. People at the top protect each other and the rest must do it with the crumbs that remain. Nevertheless, I think it is important to remain positive. Many people are lured here for the money and think that it is easy to find. That was also the first reason why I came here, and for many people if they are honest. But the longer I am here, the more interesting posts and people I have 'met'. Earning money disappears more and more into the background. Otherwise, the only thing that remains is frustration. Keep posting interesting things and eventually that reward will come. For example, I can only dream of a post that yields as much as this. You're doing great! One day you are a wale and you can take matters into your own hands and make this platform really social!
The top will only look out for themselves it seems.. not all of them, but the vast majority sure do. Thank you, I hope one day I can reward new accounts and give back to the community that supported me. I love those that support others. It is not about the money, I also love reading and curating new and amazing content from writers like yourself. I know one day Steemit will change, the question is how far off that vision is..
I think it takes a lot of time to get integrated and earning. The networking side is just as important as the content creation - it's more hard work than people are led to expect when they join up.
Some of the whales will have been here 18 months. New users come and go all the time. You have to make your mark and then continue to post consistently.
It also really helps if you can add value to the structure / communities, i.e. be someone that builds and organised things or contribute to the work of the people that are.
But there is help too when you are starting. Join minnowsupport and register for the upvote. Once you have followers, post on busy with the busy tag. It's all little amounts but it adds up over time.
In the end it can never be easy for everyone. It requires hard work as well as talent (unless you can invest). And there are lots of people prepared to put in both.
Thank you for the information about Minnowsupport and your own thoughts and concerns on this issue. Hard work eventually pays off, you have to remain steady like you said. Thank you for looking at the bright side of the issue :)
No problem!
It's definitely difficult when voting weight is linked to SP rather than reputation which in some ways might be better or at least equal as a measure of upvote weight. That said it's always going to be difficult to find a solution that pleases everyone, don't get me wrong, I totally get what you're saying. Maybe I'm being naive but I'd like to think that over time, as the platform develops, the cream will always rise to the top?
I hope that over time the cream will rise like you state. Keep writing your best and let's make this community a better place to be for everyone! Thank you for your comment.
Steemit currently rewards not quality content but popular content. Popular content is almost always by early adopters of steemit with a lot of steem power. So yea just like in life, it's not a fair system sadly.
Steem, the platform, rewards by upvotes based on stake. Nothing to do with popularity, nor with quality, just stake, the more Steem Power you have, the more an upvote pays out.
The more sp you have, you can cast a self vote to boost the payout and people votes regardless of the quality of the content. So i call it a popularity contest. Just look at the hot posts. There are more votes than views. lol. btw steemit is the platform, steem is the blockchain.
cool, thanks for the insight. yeah, its kind of frustrating, I believe most of people here are idealists in some way, so lets build something fair and innovative.
If not, eventually will collapse !!!
Without fairness and equality, Steemit will collapse. Thank you for your input!