@willymac, it has been a hard lesson indeed. i have always felt that we do not encourage good writers. if i consistently tell a good writer that you are only as good as the followers you have got, then i have not created a platform for you to flourish.
i have made points like these in the past but not many people read it or even acknowledge it. I am ok with it if it is a difference in opinion but such writing dont seem to elicit any opinion whatsoever.
Of late i have struggled to post on Steemit for that very reason because it is very hard to see things come to a pass just like you have predicted it.
I have read many articles like the taskmaster's posts and i have not agreed with them. quality is subjective but that does not mean it is insignificant. Quality should be encouraged without which we will have chaos.
Is quality elitist? i hope not.
Initially steemit encouraged bloggers to come on board and pushed for quality posts. Eventually they wanted people to come on board so that there are a lot of transactions on the system. that itself seems like a system bent on self flagellation.
i think there are a lot of people who have made financial investments into Steemit who just want to see it succeed by any means possible. Maybe that is what the platform requires. Who am i to second guess them?
A writer requires a platform that can give people good visibility to his/her work. A platform that is not governed merely by social behavior. A platform that thinks itself as a bridge between consumers and publishers. It will deliver material from publishers to consumers based on preference matching.
I would like to follow good content rather than the author who writes them. But that is my personal preference. I don't think Steemit thinks this way.
Unfortunately, Steemit appears to openly state that quality needs to be completely eliminated from the platform to open it up to non-intellectual endeavors. Too many words in a posting must frighten potential users away when all they want to do is post semi-literate one-liners and clips they found on the Internet.
I was a bit surprised at the total lack of interest in the posting. How everyone - assuming that more than four people actually scanned through it - could be so apathetic to the idea that the apparent majority of Steemit users want to eliminate quality is beyond my understanding.
It is like a sports team who collectively want to strive to be really bad performers! I certainly have no desire to make a career playing on a team that has such a small opinion of itself.
Steemit is designed like a video game: keep the user on the keyboard, time entries, award "gaming" scores based on participation, interact with others, form teams, compete..faster, faster, faster! They do not care about quality, so all measurements are essentially how many times you pull the trigger. I know that's a bit crude, but that is exactly how I feel when I'm trying to communicate with someone who will actually listen at the same time knowing that saying ten words to fifty different gamers would generate a higher score that writing something only one person will read.
Steemit is going to change and it will be in a direction in which neither of us will be comfortable trying to survive. All my life, quality has been emphasized and the fact that many users want to eliminate it is as bizarre as any collective decision could be!
I urge you to set up an account with weku and begin moving your posts there. The account is free and you get 100 WEKUs to start; no payback needed. At least it will give your posts new life in a new world. When the finer points are added next year, you may be able to sell your stories or use your material to support advertisers. It is going to be a place designed for writers and even beginners there are discussing quality and the need for creativity among themselves.
It is a new frontier now, filled with immigrants and settlers and escapees looking for a better future and it is growing faster than Steemit did at this stage of development! To me, it's an exciting venture with a far brighter future.
At least set up an account and look around. if you use my referral, I'll get a bonus and I'll give you half of it when you make your first post. It's an appalling oversight that your posts have received so little of the attention they deserved. You have nothing to lose by adding them to a platform that does not have cancer! https://deals.weku.io/pick_account?referral=willymac
Five minutes to set up an account!
Join me there, my friend.
I haven't posted in this way @willymac, and neither have the people I follow. It's a shame you are heading off to what you see as greener pastures but I wish you all the best.
None of that was directed at you, my friend. Those appear to be the opinions of those who want to eliminate quality and quality is one thing you have delivered constantly and superbly. What gets me upset it such a blatant comparison of quality with a terminal cancer. That comes from someone with a totally different vision and who is in an influential position to make his opinion heard.
One of the reasons I'm not more productive is that I spend my time reading what others have written. I enjoy and learn and am often intimidated by the things others produce on a daily basis. There are a lot of very bright, creative people here.
The other viewpoint wants the really creative people like you to stop because a block of text that apparently few potential new members could read will be intimidating by its mere presence. That is the part that still has me partially stunned!
It is the first instance I can remember that someone has actually advocated dumbing down a game so anyone with two functioning brain cells can play on an equal level. That does not bode well for the platform, and the lovers of creating word pictures are the ones being targeted to surrender to allow it to happen.
It is the beginning of a race to the bottom.
I do see weku as an alternative since its express reason for being is to provide a place for writers by correcting the anti-creativity stance being taken by Steemit. I don't plan to leave Steemit, but I am trying to build myself a base in weku since it is in its startup phase and advancement is far easier now than it will be in a few months. Many others from Steemit are doing the same and it is more like a family reunion every day.
Peace.