Vote Buying Will Destroy Steemit If We Let It.
I made this video the other day and decided not to share it, because I don't like to complain and focus on problems unless I have solutions. Today, I am feeling more bold, as I see the trending page covered in trash. It's time to talk about this and I do talk a bit about solutions, but even though I might not have it all figured out, it is time to address this.
I have been doing a lot of preaching recently about making high quality content. I thought that was the goal here. People that I have been teaching about Steemit must look at the trending page and think I'm full of shit!
If the trending page isn't about high quality content, then what are we doing here? What's the sustainable value proposition?
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
I have been back and forth on up-vote bots. I recently tried them again and ran the numbers. It isn't coming out as profitable as they seem at first. Looks like I'm pretty much breaking even.
I have also been thinking about how it increases the concentration of wealth on steemit. These bots just make the whales richer while the minnows are left with pennies for gains. I think I'm done using most of them. I will still be supporting and using @treeplanter because I believe it is a good cause. I will be using it to upvote other people more than I use it on my own posts. How many people send a bid on behalf of someone else? Not very many. I think that is the tell that voting bots are being driven by the greed of the steemit user base.
The trending page is broken in my opinion. Need an trending page ranked by organic upvotes. On reddit stuff rises to the top because it is good.
You got it, and that second thing, not the damn trending page, is going to be the issue. Communities can't solve that inequality. From what Ned has said, the communities will have a choice, draw from the community rewards, and face the bot vote competition, or create your own coin you can sell for steem. And who will be in position to invest in those communities and have the largest voice? The way it's set up now, it will only continue to increase the gap. But, if whales were forced to earn through content, like everyone else, it would slow their growth considerably and bring more equality, which I don't think is what they want.
This is excellent, this dialog needs to grow, else SteemIt will be viewed as a shilly joke and eventually people will walk away. I'm still quite new and trying to orient myself here. I don't understand all about the different types of bots and tricks people are using to "game around" the idea of actually creating interesting, quality content. I do see the horrid shit on "trending" and it's clear that the workarounds are producing results unfortunately. Thus far my strategy to push my content forward (short stories, which of course are subject to personal tastes, but, do take me many hours to outline, rough draft, edit, etc - and it is not something I started doing last week....15 years in the making here), content I believe is thoughtful and of high literary quality, is to interact (as much as time permits) in the spaces where people who I think will like my content reside. I try to find the literature curators, provide feedback and thoughtful comments on their ideas/projects. My first story here was upped by curie...I looked through the content of the associated curators, interacted with them, introduced myself when appropriate, etc. The vote buying bullshit is certainly here, but we all need to push as best we can to get eyes on the good content - not only ours, but others as well.
Your point is very clear though. The whales selling votes are diminishing the value of their own Steem, they are defeating themselves. New, better methods for delegation needed? More Curie like projects? I still need to learn more in order to have stronger ideas. Anyhow, nice work here @richardcrill
I see most of these comments have entirely overlooked your point about the posterity of Steem, and what is best for it in the long run. Unfortunately I have seen this a lot with users, especially those only interested in posting and cashing out. Everyone loves/wants/needs money, I get it, but as you said, a lot of people are here for the community too. I too feel as though bots will tear Steem apart. That is a saddening thought, as this platform has allowed me to be the most social I have ever been. I love Steemit, I have met so many amazing people and I only want what's best to keep it around as long as possible. Thanks for your voice on this.
Thank you @bethwheatcraft! Well said!
Well, I've cashed out my SBD from the very beginning, but still want steem to be successful long term. If it's not, then I lose a source of revenue and audience building. I'm 100% opposed to the bots, so not everyone looking to maximize earnings is opposed to competing for community attention.
there are certain things as a steemian that we all know that is against the steemian way. even though we know we can shitpost, we know to atleast give it our best to create quality content. things like begging for upvotes and leaving weak comments like. "followed. follow me back" or "upvote for upvote. as a steemian we should all keep to the steemian code.
as with all creations. people might use them in ways that the creator never intended or had little knowledge of what users will do with it. nobody knows how the technology will be used until people play around with it.
but yea. even the whales should lead by example. i mean, i'm guilting of self upvoting and buying upvotes but i also feel like minnowsupportproject was designed to pump up accounts so they can eventually not need to pay for upvotes. i have 1,100 followers and i doubt any of them read my posts. only a small handful of people.
Search google for: "steemit content crusader", and click on the first link. You will see how much people don't care and mock those who value quality content. I have been mocked in my earlier time here, by that author, and others in the same "clic" in the steemit chat "price" channel that focus on money. I am pretty sure I was the main one being referenced in that post (because I was a highly rewarded author at the time), as I have been in others who mock what I stand for. Notice that at the time, that post was #1 on the trending page. #1. Few people care for quality content here it seems.
I don't look at the trending page, ever. Not once since I came back. It's the same deal as it was in the summer of 2016, winter of 2017, summer of 2017. It's always the same: mostly crap.
Hey @krnel, glad to see you here. I've been reading your witness server tutorials and they were quite informative!
And to what you just wrote:
You are correct. How many upvotes or how much rewards a post receives, says nothing about the quality of that post and even less about how important it is for yourself.
But I'm pretty sure that communities will change a lot.
And honestly - when people say that it takes too long for it to be implemented - why don't they help SteemitInc to develop it?
How will communities change a lot? They will have two choices, issue their own coin to sell FOR STEEM, with the main possible investors being the same whales gaming the system now, or continue to draw from the same rewards pool. If you read the white and blue papers and even listen to Ned's latest talks, he constantly makes reference to the quality of the content? Why? Because the quality of the content ESPECIALLY content that is internally promoted, is the value of the site, and the underlying value of steem itself.
Thank you for putting this in such perfect words!
I've been on this site a few days and really was shocked by the amount of lazy, badly spelt and worded posts were trending. Almost every post I have commented on so far and has had random bot accounts comment (i have nothing to do with them, they just keep appearing and commenting), one was called catbot and just started hyping off a load of cat facts on a picture of my cat...
I thought the whole purpose of this website was to stop the promotion of spam, but that's pretty much all i've seen on it! That's the human race those, a platform that offers to pay us, of course it will get abused as people are too lazy too put the hard work and effort in themelves to create decent content. Shame really :( I know it would be impossible for the website to moderate all of the bots and spam. It kind of ruins ir for everybody in the long run. I guess us hardworking, original posters will just have to work even harder to get noticed then, lol....
Vote buying already is destroying steemit. The only ones defending it are the dope dealers. They don't care about the neighborhood. That's why it was so easy to compare this situation to the impact
Crack Cocaine
leaves in it's wake.
Pretty simple stuff. Enjoy the post if you have time to read it and notice the comment section. People are sick of it.
The only way co tent should be trending is by users upvotes or number of resteems or views. Or by the authors own money paid as a form of advertising.
Bots are too confusing and put new users off ("come to our decentralised and free social platform.... Where most of the votes are bots and paid for. Where we pay bots and cheat the system to get random crap to the top").
This isnt how Steem.it can grow. I came here all excited, wrote honest posts, voted, read, just to see that the whole thing is controlled not by users and good content, but by a few tech savvy folks and their bots.
What we have here now is a nicely centralised platform that shows you junk on the landing page (hello new visitor, we're full of shit), and isn't curated by readers for readers.
Whats the point?