What Type of Content Do We Want Steem to Be Known For?
Should we be holding high standards for content creation on this platform? It is difficult to say since there are many different ways to interact with the Steem blockchain.
Spam
There will soon be a micro-blogging frontend that is a twitter-like setup and lately, I have been seeing a lot of posts that are trying to deal with "spam" and "quality" content. It's always a continuous discussion on what type of content should be rewarded on the Steem platform and there is no real easy answer.
Every social media platform deals with "spam" content but with Steem, we have to ability decrease this problem more than other platforms. Collectively, we need to work together and decide where the rewards should be allocated to. That's starts with having stake. The more stake one has, the more influence an individual has on Steem.
This is a blockchain so it is open to anyone in the world and with that, we all have different views and opinions on things. We all don't get along in the world and it's no different with this platform. There will be abuse, spam, plagiarism, etc. and currently there is no way to completely rid these types of issues due to Sybil attack and other factors but we do have the ability to combat them as best as possible with the current state that this platform is in. There will be individuals with stake that will support spam-like content and other types and that's where we collectively need to work together to shape and form this platform and reach consensus on such matters.
Getting Organized
This is why the "Communities" feature will change the current structure and is a needed feature to continue with the growth and progression of Steem. Just like in the real world where we are divided into different communities and countries, this feature will form its own ecosystem to co-exist with one another on this platform.
With more and more growth in the userbase, organizing content into different categories and communities will allow groups with common interests to come together and decided what content is acceptable within those communities. Remember, not everyone agrees on what content is considered "spam" or "quality". It's all subjective views and one group of users could think a certain type of content is "spam", but another group could consider it valuable.
There will always be division and differences in opinion since as human beings, we have different beliefs, interests, values, etc. and are capable of still working together and respecting one another.
At the same time, remember we are all competing with our content to earn the most rewards. People will collaborate and find different ways to have their content gain attention. That will include paying for services. Take the Superbowl for example, lots of organizations pay a hefty amount to have their commercial content air during time slots of the game to gain attention for their products or services.
Striving to Do Better
We see a lot of different content that is rewarded and naturally, we avoid trying to reward those that are plagiarized. There's even a type of content where someone would take an article from another website, and change a few words, cite the source and publish it. This is known as a "spin" article and there is some difference in opinion but ultimately, if everyone did this, I wouldn't think this platform would have real value since no one is creating fresh, original content. Imagine if music artists just did cover songs and not create new original ones. We would tend to get bored and music labels wouldn't invest money into the artist.
So what do we want Steem to be known for? It is up to us set the standards of what type of content is rewarded the most and how this platform is identified to others. Isn't what we strive for is to be innovative, better than we are now, and have excellence and greatness?
If we look at YouTube, the content with the most views and likes tend to be rewarded the most and those content creators invest a lot of time, money, and effort into what they produce and it shows. At the same time, there is always undiscovered content that ends up going viral.
Whether if there is memes, microblogs, video, and so many other styles of content, each has their value and their place. So maybe consider this, can't we have Steem to be known for almost every type of content?
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Quality is the best rule of thumb and thank you for shedding light on how we should keep Steemit a spam free environment. I agree :D
I completely agree that the definition of SPAM is as diverse as there are points of view or laws of individual country's . Some guilty will slip through the cracks and some innocent will be caused undeserved grief . I think what will be needed is a solid appeal structure so that vigilante thinking cannot rule .
Definitely. Thanks for the comment.
Every type of content makes variety! So yes, agree to be known for all types! Makes the world a colorful place! (minus spam of course). Thanks for the great post!
Mostly agree with your post, but some times new users that have content in other platforms (wordpress, facebook, twitter) they will want to share that content on steemit.com too and if they are the author of that content then they should do whatever they want with it right? maybe with a proof of stake they can prove that they are the original author of that content, that will help a lot with false positives on plagiarism.
Yes, that is understandable. It of course is best if the author can verify that it is them on other platforms. But until they verify, it's hard to support it when it could be someone posing as that author.
Look at @vicenews, I don't believe anyone got a verification it was really them so they weren't getting much support. For all we know it's just an impersonator.
Spam is like throwing mud on a clean window. You want to see what's out there but the mud splatters get in the way. Say NO to spam! :)
No one wants a dirty muddy window. Need to be able to have a clear view of what's outside. Especially if you're driving! A muddy windshield? Dangerous!
the steem blockchain is right for every content. was just thinking how incusive steem is of everything internet. we have dtube to compete with youtube, steemit to compete with facebook blogger reddit and even freelancing sites through steemgigs and now come the micro blogging platform to take on twitter.
It's going to be huge!
For a nice community, good content and "killing" spammers or maliciously people from the start.
Organizing will be good to be present here.
Main spam is only advertising links from same user without a good posts in his history. But we can't decide that as many other things.
Also, flagging and downvoting can be made in a bad way just to hurt others.
I can't see a good solution to that, but maybe will be one at that point. We must see how it goes when members will double or even triple in numbers.
Till then,
have fun and cya soon!
I agree with you. we need to clear the Spam from steem community.
The spam will never end. It can only be flagged and ignored. Here the flagging can be helpful if is used by right people.
But spammers can flag or down vote on good people.
I suppose that things can be ignored at some point, but when it grows it must be talked somewhere, not with a crying post but maybe in some way.
Maybe on steemit.chat or discord...
We'll see. Lets hope it will be not so bad as we see it. Lets grow :-)
yeah .. we should avoid spam to make this site more strong and for good experience on it..
like your post and upvoted you.. :) :) :)