2715 - Whaleshares & Randowhale
Whaleshares and Randowhale are two projects started recently to help minnows get some recognition and support. Today I am declaring my support for both projects for a few reason I will outline for you below, but before doing that let me give you a brief introduction to each as described by the founders:
Why WhaleShares?
WhaleShares was designed by @officialfuzzy and built by @elmato to enable him (and in the future all other whales) to give minnows the ability to summon whales who trust them enough to give tokens to use on their future content and content they believe deserves rewards! When you use WhaleShares, you not only gain Steem and Steem Backed Dollars (SBD), but you also stick out from the crowd when others are voting! Think of it as an Advertisement Bonus!
One vote from WhaleShares can get you into the Hot and Trending tabs on Steemit and Substantially increase your chances of receiving upvotes from other steemians from all strata of the Steem Ecosystem!
Here's how it works:
- Review current voting power at https://steemdb.com/@randowhale
- Copy the URL of the post you want @randowhale to vote on
- Navigate to your Wallet
- Select Transfer under Steem or Steem Dollars
- Populate To field with "randowhale"
- Populate Amount field with "2" (Steem or SBD)
- Paste URL into Memo field
- Submit
@randowhale will now place a vote with a random vote power of 1-50% on your post!
Now why are these projects good for Steemit?
Since the early days of Steemit, multiple programs started to help minnows bring attention to themselves so they can build their following. Those programs did a lot of authors good. However, the overhead to run and time needed to curate was and still is a barrier for these programs to scale. Automating this process and creating free enterprise businesses that will run these programs is the way to make it scale. Think of it as an AD agency that charges you a fee to promote yourself. The AD agency can not grantee your success, but as a minnow, this process is the closest they will get to self Promotion.
"Making SP attractive again"
I know this is out of Donald Trump's playbook, but in this case we should consider the benefits vs the negatives. These programs will help with reward pool distribution, give a chance to minnows to get their content seen, but will not create a drain on the reward pool more than any other program did in the past, they are somewhat automated, and require much less overhead to run.
The negatives?
Not all content will meet your taste. it's a form of abuse. it can be abused. But if you analyse these statements carefully, does all content right now meet your taste? Can't that SP be abused without a benefit to these minnows?
Weighing in on the good vs the bad, these programs offer more positive than negative. If that SP is used to benefit more people then it's put to good use. And with the less overhead, it offers less cost, which means even if half the content is not good, it will still perform better per cost than fully curated content.
The content will still meet the same anti plagiarism, anti ID theft, or any measures we use now to identify bad actors, so there can be no extra harm done that we do not face on regular basis.
If you are new to Steemit and want to promote your content I encourage you to use these programs, to help yourself with that extra push you need. This will not work for you on the long run if you try to abuse it, but will surly give you a chance to improve your following. I consider this approach much better than spamming posts and begging for upvotes, something that can get you on the bad actor list.
The Second Chance Free trip to Lisbon giveaway still running, winner will be declared Saturday. Submit your entry:
Paying someone to upvote just seems wrong.
If whales want STEEMIT to become more successful so their investment will pay big then they need to become more active in upvoting content they actually like. This will then also encourage higher quality content and make STEEMIT a site worth visiting.
Yes, there is no point of blindly voting random posts. Quality post that offers value to its reader should be voted. As a reader when we open a post, we expect to learn something new, something valuable.
I can't agree more. We need high content so we don't waste time when we read posts.
Totally agree. Quid pro quo in action here, and it just does not seem right that content that is not worth attention could stand to be the forefront of what people associate as "trending" by simply paying for the added attention versus earning it. On the flip-side, the influence these whales garner is disproportionate and too dependent upon their individual tastes, whereas, I see success with STEEMIT being dependent upon a diverse set of contributors that attracts new users to the platform. Keep plugging away, and eventually you will earn enough recognition to be called a whale yourself...or at least that is the hope.
Interesting, I am not sure whether Whaleshares is a good thing for the community or not. I guess time will tell.
I agree with you @g-no as great content will make steemit become a stronger community with quality content for consumption. Kindly follow me @bewajijohnson
Thank you for a detailed explination of both of these programs. I have not used Waleshares before, but will definitely be looking in to it more. I will take into great consideration the idea of spending a little less than 10% on advertising and marketing. I had not previously thought of it that way. I guess, I had not thought of my Steemit account as a business even though I am trying to make money on here. Really appreciate the thought provoking idea. Treat Steemit like a business!
Both are definitely interesting services; whether they are "good" for the community is hard to say-- as a newcomer, it's certainly nice to be "seen" by someone with major voting power; on the other hand it also sounds a bit like "buying favors."
I realize advertising is everywhere in a free-market economy, but this kind of thing also seems rather open to abuse... someone can post utter garbage and then pay the equivalent of 2SBD to get an 8SBD boost. Sure they only get a little more, but in a system with a fixed rewards pool, that also means money OUT of perhaps more worthy pockets.
Although there would be not serious way to verify it, it might be a little more equitable if you couldn't buy yourself such an upvote... it could only be someone else who gives it to you as a reward for excellence.
Of course, that brings up the whole ball of wax of whether we're purely here "to make money" or we're here to "create worthy content."
Can you, please, explain, why are you supporting randowhale?
It seems like a lottery to me. Nothing to encourage content, voting, interaction, community, ... What am I missing?
I think it is a way to get someone that posts good content, but doesn't have the backing to let anyone see it. This happens with a lot of people starting out.
It almost seems like a pyramid scheme.
For $2 you can make $6!
Seems a bit fishy.
Seems interesting.. will give it a test shot. Worse case scenario, it's only 2 :P Would love to hear more about how it actually works though.. is it effective long term? Probably not
Make a test and make a post out of it. You will get more back :)
Yes, that's why I am asking.
it's a concentration of power, a kind of feedback loop. It siphons earnings away from those who don't use it as a service.
Fishy. No pun intended ... :-)
I agree, this post lacks any explanation why these are actually good for the network
I think the same... And a very expensive lottery, now for 2 sbd you only have the chance of getting a max 5% vote...
I am also trying an initiative, called POWERVoice! Search for it.
But I have not yet tried @randowhale. Always a good time to explore more...
How can I contribute to the "to Lisbon thing"... I was living in Lisbon before coming to NZ. =)
Will look up for your POWERVoice project ! Until then, you also have my full support haha ! Keep it up, thanks!
So, what's POWERVoice @forykw?
good cause... thanks for these...
You know about the Minnow Support Project and the ~1000 people that we support through it? Sad we didn't make the list :(
Cool joseph! Glad to have you on board!
If you guys want to learn more about WhaleShares, join our discord https://discord.gg/zsdWYQX.
We have contests that everybody can join for a couple of WhaleShares. In my previous post I was talking about how WhaleShares are strong now (and they really are). 10 WhaleShares tokens can increase your post payout by more than 20$. Go and get them!
On @randowhale's own most recent post, it says 1-5% voting power. I hope your figures are the correct ones.
until now i dont understand how randomwhale works. :/