How Steem Steals Your Brain and Common Sense!
Imagine that you're going to work somewhere, to do a job you'll get paid for.
Presumably the job is "defined," in some way; because you perform task "X," you get paid amount "Y." Since we live in a pretty ridiculous world, let's just for example's sake assume that your job is to pick cherries, and put them into neat little boxes with 25 little compartments... one for each cherry... and then put a pretty lid on the boxes.
That's what you do and that's what you get paid to do.
Yes, I know... it's an apple, not a cherry...
At the end of the day, you get to hand in your completed boxes for the day, and you get paid, let's say, $2 per filled box.
But THEN....
But let's further assume that you decide — since the job foreman doesn't have time to actually LOOK in the boxes — that you decide you can just bring a bag of cherry sized stone pebbles to work, load up the boxes with stones in a fraction of the time it takes to pick cherries and put them in the boxes, and then hand in a huge number of boxes at the end of the day and get paid a LOT more.
Clever? Well, probably not. And it certainly makes you a pretty shitty person with zero integrity. And likely to get fired.
I'm guessing most people reading this would probably think "What sort of twisted scammy fuckwit would even DO such a thing???" Good question...
Nasturtium...
But let's — again for example's sake — say that you actually start protesting about how it's "wildly unfair" that the foreman doesn't want to pay you for the boxes of rocks, AND it's "wildly unfair" that you're now on probation at your work, and have to open and show every single box of cherries you pick and pack... OR get fired, permanently.
By now a lot of you are probably thinking that this is a completely mental example, and nobody in the real world would actually be stupid enough to try such a thing and entitled enough to start protesting when discovered.
What's My Point, Here?
You're probably not gonna like it, but every single day, hundreds of people in this community engage in actions quite similar to our fuckwitted cherry picker, posting plagiarized, spammy or "empty" content in expectation of getting rewarded.
And somehow, they think it's OK. And then whine that it's vastly unfair when people flag them (the equivalent of the job foreman putting you on probation) for wasting everyone's time. Or they just don't get paid.
Now, I didn't write this post to call anyone out on their approaches to using the Steem blockchain... I'm no slave to quality content but I do appreciate a measure of authenticity in how people present themselves.
Daffodil!
I wrote this as an illustration of the way seemingly normal and level headed social media users completely lose their brains and common sense when suddenly faced with a situation when they can be compensated for what they have been doing elsewhere, for possibly twenty years.
Consider this: You'll sit down and spend an hour or two creating a pretty elaborate post for your WordPress or Blogger blog that you get paid ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FOR and then you'll pop over to some front end of Steem and try to cheat your way to rewards rather than simply do the same thing you normally do?
Maybe I'm massively missing something here, but I don't get it.
Again, this isn't directed at anyone in particular, it's just one of those odd paradoxes I can't get to make sense. Why not just keep doing what you're doing... and enjoy the fact that maybe you'll get a reward, instead of nothing?
Ah well, life's mysteries...
Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190401 17:08 PST
0960
Slam Dunk!! I so agree.
Thank you! It's oversimplified, of course, but just wanted to make the point about the inconsistency of behaviors, more than the behaviors themselves in a broad sense.
The article was great and right on!
Fuckwitted Cherry Picker made me laugh out loud.... good post.
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I agree with your observation but we have different people and cultures here with different customs and norms.
Can you imagine what response will get a post from China with the title:
How to grill a dog to perfection.
Or what people from a Muslim country think about my BBQ post and bacon.
Or a guy from India reading how tasty is muscle jerky of a young cow.
For many third world countries begging is normal and Arabs are very proud of themselves when they trick you to overpay 3x price for some stupid souvenir.
I just want to point out that it's not as black and white as one might think.
You're absolutely right, of course. A friend of mine lived and worked in China for a while and pointed out that there was actually a Chinese phrase (or series of logograms) that literally meant "cheat, if you can get away with it" and it was considered a phrase with positive connotations.
In that context, I suppose there isn't much that can be done if a social values system is built around deceptive practices.
Users will only follow the rules of the code and adopt right away to any change.
How many steem do you think is going back to reward pool from self upvoters before 15 minute mark?
I know that I didn't vote a single post before 15 min.
I'm not saying what is wrong and right here. It's in the design, name of the game.
And we know who can implement changes.
My perspective is quite possibly skewed by the fact that I have been a blogger and content creator for over 20 years... and have had a long time to establish what works and doesn't work... for me. And I am not really inclined to approach the task of creation any differently, simply because there are rewards at stake. My guess is that 99% of this community's users are not approaching their presence her from that angle... so why do I even care? I suppose because I have seen dozens of rewards-for-publishing venues go down the tubes as a result of certain behavior patterns among the users.
In short, I like this place, and I don't want to see it go down in flames. I might only be one voice... but I'm still going to say something.
The missing part is that those plagiarisers aren't writing anything on another site like Wordpress. They just weren't doing it before and are too lazy to start now when they might get rewarded for not taking the time to put in the work.
I think of them like people who live off welfare or something. Not the people who made a couple of mistakes and found themselves in need of some assistance for a little while so they could work hard and get back on their feet. I'm talking about the people who don't try to find employment and get out of their current situation because they are getting a tiny little bit of money and are too lazy to put in a little work for anymore.
Welfare Bums! That's all plagiarisers are.
Well, that's certainly an interesting characterization... and not one I had really considered. But you're right, since we're essentially talking about individuals who piggy-back off other people's efforts, a lot of the time.
I agree with what you say, but the problem is not the 'empty content', - that is merely the symptom.
It is the structure of the system itself...
The structure of the system, indeed. If it rewards... or, at the very least... fails to downplay the importance of gains made through sketchy behavior, then we can question the system, rather than the player.
Yeah, you can try...but it makes you no friends in these parts.
People have a problem with harsh reality when it interferes with their illusions.
Oh well...
Sheez @denmarkguy. Since we were talking here for utopia example's sake, I thought that twisted scammy fuckwit was going to put on his x-ray glasses or something and he was going to get away with choosing only the boxes that in fact contained the cherries that had not been filled by him while in probation by the job foreman.
But yeah, seems like the fuckwit in your story may well be dumber than some more cunning leeches proliferating on this place. };)
Yes there are, indeed, quite a few cunning leeches, here...
Maybe I'm just strange in that one of my first thoughts when encountering an opportunity is "how do we preserve this thing so it keeps going?" rather than just "How do I get the most out of this RIGHT NOW?"
Yes mate. I suspect honesty, frankness & authenticity has become already a heavy load on the shoulders of experienced elders like us as to go jumping and tumbling from one side to another looking for short-lived shortcuts. :)
Upvoted.
That said, what if I were to argue that well-crafted rants about low quality content on Steemit qualified as one of the low quality pieces of content this piece complains about?
Just kidding, that was a bad joke but I had to throw it out there because the idea came to me.
Thanks for the post, I also try to contribute quality content but I must confess that I often syndicate posts here that were originally published elsewhere. I am active on so many platforms (Tremr, Minds, Steemit, Blogger, Medium, WordPress, Gab) that it's not always feasible to create original content for every single one of them. I still agree with your thesis here, though, mostly.
I don't really have issues with syndication, provided you are the original creator and whatever you created had some sort of value to start with...
I'm active on many platforms, too... including my own free-standing blogs... and some of my pieces are rotted in each other, across platforms... although most of my posts are created from the ground up, simply because my head seems to be an eternal maze of ideas to explore.
So... With lack of my English ability, I try to give a comment for your post. In simple words, I can conclude that the point of your post is Just Do It but in proper way (get used to make original post?). Am I right?
I would say that's a pretty close summary. Also, be yourself: Just because you can earn a reward, why would you suddenly change an approach you've been using successfully, elsewhere?
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