Steemit: Noble Cause or Oligarchy?
Good evening. The reason for my post is simple: I don’t like what I see on Steemit. I heard a lot about Steemit over the past 2 years, mostly positive, and always encouraging. I heard that it was “Decentralized “. I heard that it was a place of Freedom of Thought, Freedom Of Censorship, Freedom Subjugation!!! I’ve only been here a few short weeks, and I see Absolutely No Evidence of any of these lofty aspirations.
What I have seen is infighting, censorship, automation for profit, avarice and greed. What I have seen, is an Absolute Monarchy and Aristocracy built in the early days of Steemit’s inception and launch, that have lead to an Oligarchy. I have read that 1% of Steemians own 90% of the Power, Wealth, and Control Of Steemit. I found it hard to believe that so few people could hold SO MUCH POWER AND CONTROL ON A SUPPOSEDLY DECENTRALIZED PLATFORM. So I found a list of the top Whales on Steemit, and what their net worths actually were, and it was pretty mind blowing. You can do your own research and draw your own conclusions. Suffice it to say, they own a TON!!
But this isn’t a post designed to bash the Whales, or the people who got in early, that is counterproductive and ignorant. I see plenty of people trying to improve the experience of others on the platform, but I fear that their efforts are falling short. Contests are great, involvement is wonderful, and getting people engaged and interested is all well and good, but when it comes across as a handout, or even worse, an act of retribution for wrongdoing, it defeats the entire purpose. Contests can be fun, but the Plankton, or minnows, as you call them, are not toys to be played with, or be amused by, for the price of a few crumbs of bread. This post is really about finding a way to afford those same opportunities to the incoming waves of people who heard the same positive and inspiring things that I did, which spurred me on to join this community. We need to reconsider how things are done around here, otherwise there is either going to be discord and eventual revolt, or there will come the slow bleed out and resulting death of Steemit. Neither of those options seems either necessary or productive for the future of such a Nobel project.
So what is the answer???
Not any single one of us knows for sure, but collectively, with all the great Mind Power here on Steemit, I’m confident that a solution could be swiftly assembled and put in place that would not only take into account the importance of long standing members with superior reputations and immense “Power”, but also Encourage,Nurture, and Promote the Efforts of those New to the Platform, so that they don’t get discouraged and disaffected, and ultimately abandon their accounts. Is that Really what Steemit is or was ever about???
I wrote this post because I felt compelled to. My time here has been brief agreed, but it doesn’t take a brain surgeon, or a blockchain technician to figure out that there is a problem here.
I am trying to contribute to SteemIt by giving away things people want (precious metal pieces) in exchange for feedback in developing my art. Here is an example:
https://steemit.com/contest/@zetetrahedron369/contest-and-raffle-whats-in-my-collection-precious-metals-edition-2-contest-and-raffle
Supporting fellow Minnows here.
Nice work.
Thanks. It was a risk. :)
That is noble of you. It is not of people like you that I speak. It is those in Control, the ones who own Steemit, The Whales!!! They possess the power to make it great, yet they fight amongst each other in a pissing contest to vie for superiority. When they should be giving back to the community that afforded them their “Fortunes”. And then, they get pissed off at the Whales that are Cashing in on the very System that they built. If it’s in the rules that they agreed to, it seems counterproductive at best. In the simplest of terms: something needs to change, to keep the newcomers engaged, and the course of Steemit moving forward. They can’t even agree to disagree. It’s all finger pointing and trashing of others. They need to get their Shit together, or shut up. The problem lies in the basic rules/guidelines/ workings, of Steemit, itself, as laid out by its founders, not in its members who act in a manner outlined as permissible within the guidelines set forth by the platform’s Whitepaper. Sorry, but excuses are like Assholes, everybody has one. Nuff said.
Like life .... I just ignore and MUTE the Haters and Spammers .... and Steemit is wonderful.
It is posts like this from new users that the whales (I really dislike the terms used on here to describe the different levels of users) and people running Steem.inc need to read.
In the early days things seemed better but the problem you highlight of 1% of accounts holding the vast majority of Steem Power and Steem has always been the same and as time goes on they get richer while the average user who has less than 500SP is grateful for crumbs.
Steem and the way it was designed appears to mimic life in as far as if you have money/power (Steem/Steem Power) or influencial friends (with Steem or SP) you will do well on Steemit but if you do not as is the case for most people you will make little to nothing. Now of course it can be and is argued that people joining Steemit from other sites like Twitter/Facebook were making nothing before but this really isn't the point as far as I'm concerned.
I agree with your points here and agree that solutions can be found and there are a lot of people on here that feel the same way as you who are trying to make things better @berniesanders and @hendrix22 being a couple of good examples but now we see flagging wars and insults and people using their voting power for downvotes instead of upvotes and it really isn't doing the platform any good and at the end of the day in my opinion but what else can they do when they see a handful of users earning $1000's a week by upvoting each others posts and comments. Those rewards could be distributed amongst users like you and me.
I really want Steem and Steemit to flourish but the way things are going I am not convinced they will. Perhaps when Smart Media Tokens come in it will make a difference. Who knows?
Upvoted and resteeming for visibility.
How is he a good example?
A good example of a whale/witness would be to petition to get the flaws in the code of Steem changed.
It really is a simple fix. All they have to do is remove voting from the API for everything except for Steemit.com. All of this automated bid bot crap would go away. If there is still an issue, then they can add the human check used on Binance when people do votes so that page skimmer bots can't do the votes.
From reading @berniesanders blog I believe he has tried reaching out to witnesses and people like @ned who do have the ability to make changes or at least demonstrate in some way that they care, but maybe he believes they are not interested in making the changes otherwise they would have already done so. You yourself say how easy it would be to fix so why hasn't anything been done?
I can understand why people like @everittdmickey would react in the way he did to this post because he actually has been successful on Steemit due to hard work and perseverance as evidenced by the fact that he posted 29,000 times in 18 months which works out to over 40 a day (I realise this includes comments). He is exactly the sort of person I like to see on here but there are some on the platform who just game the system and put out shit content and upvote themselves and others that just set up a voting bot and watch the money roll in. There is nothing to stop people doing this of course and as I said in my reply I think, Steemit it basically a reflection of the shit system we have now and the world.
There are always the genuine success stories like @everittmickey but on the whole like in life, if you have money/steem you will earn money/steem and if you don't you won't.
Maybe Steemit is a good way of preparing the younger generation for the realities of life and the platform is working exactly as designed.
Sure, he calls out the biggest abusers, but he owns randowhale, of course he doesn't want to do the fix I suggested. I don't think the flag wars are a good thing and he just continues them. But, yes, Ned doesn't seem to want to get things fixed either.
The founders of Steemit thought that anarchy works. They apparently do not understand human nature.
You see, one whale reads my post (@everittmickey) and he responds defensively and somewhat arrogantly. This furthers the point that myself and others are making, that many at the top simply don’t care about others experiences, just so long as it works for them. Like I stated in my post, I’m not bashing the Whales, I’m simply pointing out a few flaws that I observed in the system. I certainly wasn’t trying to piss anyone off. I think that many of the powerful Steemians genuinely do care, but there will always be those that think singlemindedly. Anyway, thanks for the support.
Anyone who posts 40 times a day can't possibly be posting any content of quality, not possible. You expect me to believe that someone can craft 40 high quality posts a day? Not buying it. It took me 12 hours and 2 days to write my last article! I've been a journalist for years, and good writing takes time.
This is pure greed. I would however agree that anyone can make it though. I recently did a video on DTube where I mentioned that every social platform has its stake holders, it power users, and the tough part is getting their approval, along with the approval the wider social masses.
I started out on Google+ with zero followers like everyone else, and today I control a fairly large swath of the social network, and Google gives me the power to enforce their guidelines. So, its not just Steemit that has whales, its every social platform in existence. If you want to grow then you have to build authority and influence. I did it on G+, and I haven't any doubt I can do it here.
You see, one whale reads my post (@everittmickey) and he responds defensively and somewhat arrogantly. This furthers the point that myself and others are making, that many at the top simply don’t care about others experiences, just so long as it works for them. Like I stated in my post, I’m not bashing the Whales, I’m simply pointing out a few flaws that I observed in the system. I certainly wasn’t trying to piss anyone off. I think that many of the powerful Steemians genuinely do care, but there will always be those that think singlemindedly. Anyway, thanks for the support.
Thank you, I appreciate the help.
whelp! I don't guess Steemit is for you.
don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Seeya...have a nice day on FaceBook.
There are certainly still lots of room for improvement for Steemit as a platform. As you correctly pointed out, most of the power is concentrated in the top few percents of the users here. However, we can all say the same for any economy in this world.
There are certainly a few ways they can make it more fair. Below are some that I thought of:
These are just my thoughts. But I guess the developers are too busy working on SMT now to bother about other things.
@deanlogic made some suggestions that wouldn't take much time at all to implement which is why some people believe the developers and those with large stakes in the platform are perfectly happy with the way things are. They have most of the power and reap most of the rewards.
Let's hope that the developers have the long-term interest of this platform in mind. If they do not tweak the platform to reduce the gap between the whales and the minnows, I think the majority of the users will be disappointed and leave this platform. We will then inevitably lose quality contents, therefore losing viewership and together with it, losing the value of this ecosystem.
Thanks for your feedback@culgin, I appreciate you taking the time to point out some potential improvements. I’ll keep them in mind, and if you don’t mind, perhaps I could mention one or more of them in a future post, crediting you of course. Keep on Steemin’. Best Regards. 👍
You are welcome! And sure, feel free to mention the suggestions as you like.
Yep, some valid points here for sure @gregcar48. There's definitely a lot of bullshit here on Steemit. That being said, there definitely are some whales who are focused on "spreading" rewards around by delegating SP to curation projects (@curie and @ocd are great ones) and other types of "quality" bots, among other things.
Your point is certainly not lost though. From the heaps of bullshit content here, to the pay bots, to the shitty whales. Steemit certainly is an experiment, we'll see how it goes. I for one though feel obligated to focus on the positive, at least for now. Because, the 1/99% paradigm is a certainty outside the walls of decentralized networks, along with the spying, tracking, data selling, privacy issues, govt collusion, and on and on. I'm hoping the majority of whales end up realizing that a healthy ecosystem here that generates excellent content and rewards said content appropriately is the ONLY way this experiment survives.
I agree @gregcar48. There is potential here for everyone to get their fair share but it looks like greed has already taken over just like anywhere else. I have been here for less than a week and I can already see content creators being legitimately p.o. with their efforts not paying off. I probably know too little about the workings of steemit yet, but I don't get that bot madness, why do they even exist if one of the main point is to initiate genuine interaction between users? I am fed up with social media in general bc it has become an advertisement platform more than anything else and I am hoping Steemit can be different. The future will tell.
Good Morning @maddiedee. Thanks for the comment on my post. My post really isn’t meant to discourage my fello Steemians, like yourself. I’m still learning the ropes here myself, but my post probably comes across as disparaging, when in reality, I was simply making an observation about the hierarchy that I perceive it to be here. Please don’t take my words as anything other than a heads up, as it were, about the difficulties of being a newbie to the platform. I’m not discouraged, it simply spurs me on to put greater effort into my contributions here. You have the right spirit to do well here on Steemit, and I wouldn’t want to be the cause of putting doubt in your mind, about the positive aspects of Steemit!!! I followed you, and I’ll be back to upvote you, as soon as my upvote Power is restored to a sufficient level. So keep your chin up, and be creative!! Best Regards , @gregcar48. 👍
No worries @gregcar48. It is not only your post but also similar ones AND a lot of so-so content that pretty much killed my initial enthusiasm. That being said, I have the intention to keep my blog active, just for the sake of getting into a writing habit. And if I can have intelligent and authentic conversations in the process with fellow Steemians, why not? Money may or may not come as a result, I don't believe in letting financial gain dictate blog posts.
I've seen all that you mention and it is not ideal. Cryptocurrency and decentralised platforms were meant to break us free from the centralised oligarchs that control them. Both have failed because the mindset just isn't there yet I believe.
Cryptocurrency was meant to break us free from fiat currency ponzy scheme that operates on bust and boom cycle and where 1% or less control what 99% or more of us do through financial terrorism. It has failed because those that use Crypto interact and declare their crypto earnings. Why? Because they are told to, told by the criminal characters they went to crypto in the first place to escape from. Now those that comply with this have ruined it for the rest of us and makes it even harder for future adopters of crypto to do so.
Decentralised blogging and any site based on crypto like steemit has failed because we have a small few who are dictating how the rest of us should behave and that is tyranny and worse than that they back it up with financial terrorism (down votes and loss of potential crypto STEEM earnings) which wipe out a hard earned reputation score and for some financial independence. A lot of people are full time steemians and support themselves from this platform. What steemcleaners is doing is VERY very disturbing for instance.