Views & Concerns regarding Steemit - One week in
So, I'm 1 week into my Steemit adventure and I had some thoughts/views on the platform that I thought I would share.
Ultimately I'm not highly tech-minded, nor am I necessarily the target audience for social media in general. Saying that I have always used a variety of social media platforms from a business perspective and Steemit is a truly interesting proposal and one that I personally expect to grow (explode?) in the future.
My concerns regarding problems that Steemit could encounter:
As with the state of Youtube right now, from what I can see it's been a slow decline towards an attitude of quantity over quality from many of it's users, with the mindset of 'keep posting content until something sticks and garners attention, thus earns me revenue'. I guess my concern is that any social media that incorporates the notion of earning money from content tends to influence people to focus on that revenue rather than the integrity and quality of the content itself.
Are we likely to see a situation in the future with Steemit, where the mass public becomes aware of the platform and quickly realises that if they were to post 30 articles a day they could earn somewhat of a decent income from doing so, thus diluting and saturating the platform?
How long before we start to see revealing images of women and a link to a webcam for example?
The spam/saturation factor has to be a concern for the future. Perhaps these concerns have been raised/addressed in some form already?
As it stands I really enjoy reading and communicating with this community, from my interactions so far it is largely made up of switched on and intelligent people who are posting interesting articles/stories of a high quality.
I would like to think that as things progress the people who are taking the time to genuinely post original and thought provoking (non- copy and paste jobs!) are favoured for rewards. I don't necessarily mean that this should be a problem to solve from a tech point of view (because then we enter the 'fake news' rabbit hole etc), but more that it would be good to see an organic preference towards favouring original content moving forward.
If we are faced with a barrage of articles that lack integrity/effort and we simply get the vibe that the majority of posts are simply 'for the sake of it' (or more to the point to earn a few bucks!) then it's going to turn people away from continuing to use the platform.
I believe that platforms like Facebook/Twitter are enormous because they've been allowed and engineered to be enormous. ie, they received funding from CIA investment sources (In-Q-Tel) and ultimately it could be considered one big surveillance program... without getting too far into conspiracy territory ( I do that a lot), it's a fact that newer players like Gab.ai and Voat (I don't have accounts at either so can't speak regarding the platforms) have come along as viable alternatives to a lot of heavily censored and troll/shill heavy platforms such as Reddit, Twitter etc and the more independent and decentralised-minded platforms have a big role and are likely to increase in growth as people wise up about issues such as privacy and timeline manipulation.
Steemit faces an uphill battle but I'm planning on sticking around for the ride!
Thanks for reading my stream of consciousness, your thoughts are welcomed.
Hey again jonboka. I read your post and agree with some or most of it, but also had a few thoughts to offer.
I do believe we already have umm.. Sexual/implied webcams and stuff like that. Which I don't see as any problem myself, I think steemit kind of covers almost every market that's out there, so to try to exclude one of the ones that is the biggest and most profitable on the net, wouldn't be wise imo. Not saying you're trying to exclude them, but.. It does sound like you're not thrilled by that idea. I'm rather indifferent about it since it's not really a market I partake in, but I have no problems with others doing it.
In regards to people posting a lot of articles to make more money.. They have built in things where the rewards start to decrease the more you post.. I forget exactly what it is.. But I generally try to post 3 times a day, and I don't think there's a LOT of benefit to posting more than that because of the reduced awards, but.. I dunno. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm not an expert on this platform this is just my basic understanding as someone who's used it for around half a year.
The other stuff you said about content on YouTube resulting in monetization and here I half agree that many are doing that indeed.. BUT.. For others I think it inspires them to make even better artwork. When they realize they are getting paid for it, they often start treating it much more seriously, like a real job.
However, this doesn't stop people like Pewdiepie from hitting a niche and just milking the fuck out of it without really offering much new, ever.. Other than playing new video games.. But hey.. That's a big market. It is what it is. I just wish more people cared about politics and reality like they care about video games and more trivial stuff.
And finally I just wanted to comment on your suspicions that big sites are so big because they are invested in by the deep state in order to spy on us.. I totally agree! This is a conclusion I've come to more and more recently with the Vault 7 disclosures.. I kinda already suspected they were spying on us more than we knew, and I was aware of intelligence agents coming out and warning us as to how the government uses Facebook and stuff, but.. I still think Vault 7 kinda showed us that it is indeed worse than we thought it was, and for all we know even the freaking microwave might be spying on us.
So.. I guess in light of that.. If steemit starts getting big, watch out.. The government will do it's best to control it as much as it can.
Great points @apolymask appreciate you taking the time to write that. I think you're right in respect of providing a platform for every niche, it's certainly a more well rounded way of looking at it, and you are right, excluding any form of content is a precedent that we don't want to see, but there's always a line I guess.
The more the platform grows perhaps we are likely to see people focussing more on their niche interests and thus circumnavigating around the topics/groups they aren't so interested in. Perhaps this is something that will happen organically and maybe it will involve a redesign in the future with more of a focus on 'niche groups'...
I wasn't aware of the possible reductions in rewards for people who post frequently. That is certainly a logical approach and good news if that's the case. As I say I'm new here so should probably delve deeper into the inner workings of the system (probably should have done that before posting the above tbh!)
You're right re: Youtube too, the other side of my argument is as you say, that earning revenue from what they do empower's them to improve the quality of their material. I guess I'm often faced with a barrage of recommended videos with super high impact content titles that simply act as clickbait and we all know there's money to be earned from clickbait.
Basically anyone who writes their content title in capital letters can kiss my ass ;)
RE: CIA/Social media etc, glad we're on the same page. Vault7 has pretty much confirmed what most of us 'conspiracy theorists' have been laughed at about for quite some time. When people like Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are put on a pedestal as some goofy whizz-kid inventors you can bet your bottom dollar there's someone much more sinister behind the scenes pulling strings. At the end of the day there's plenty of people housed in the 1 percentile that can pay you off, burn patents, fold the business and wipe you off the scene, so you can only make it to the echelons that Facebook has reached if it's allowed to happen or if it aligns with ulterior (control) motives. Blockchain technologies are going to change this precedent!
PS - You joke about microwaves spying on us, watch out for the fridges ;) http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/samsung-s-crazy-family-hub-smart-fridge-costs-4-500-now-in-uk
Thank you for your thoughts. I like your positive perspective on the future of Steemit and the organic movement towards creative and positive posts.
Good thoughts - just FYI - the reduction in rewards when you post more than 4 articles within 24 hours is not existing anymore since the new HF so you can i theory post as much as possible - if that is good for quality is a different questions, usually it is not good depending on the content. There might be exceptions.
Oh really? I didn't know that.. Thanks for the info!
happy to help
Some excellent points I agree with, let me elaborate more tomorrow
Look forward to it sir!
I owe you some more - commented above already. Think the cam area and reward reduction for posting too much has been covered. Re declining quality can lead people leave is a dangerous thing than can happen, I hope there will be enough mechanisms to avoid the influx of spammers and scammers. At least they can be flagged and down votes by us so hope that is something we can manage.
If we want to keep content up there might also be an option that new users have to pay to post until a certain reputation level or we make the platform invite only - not sure what the INC is planning though
Thanks @uwelang some good points. It's good to see that people have similar concerns, albeit with a positive outlook for the future. Is 'down voting' a thing?
Hello @jonboka. Glad that you seem to be enjoying your Steem experience. Your concerns are perfectly valid and ones that I would be interested to hear opinions on from the more established players on here. Interested to see how this debate develops. Followed you and upvoted. Thanks for the post.
Thank you for your comment @maninayton I'm equally interested to hear from people regarding this topic. While I don't think that Steemit right now is in a position where these problems are apparent I think they are likely to be hurdles to overcome in the future!
Hopefully Steemit will learn from the Facebooks and Twitters of this world and not follow their example. Forewarned is forearmed.
Agreed. On a side-note I was sad to see that someone has created a Steemit app that basically makes the platform appear like Facebook. Why?! :)
I honestly don't know about that @jonboka. Maybe the developers are wishing to tempt people away from Facebook by making the Steemit platform look familiar? Only guessing there.
Fair point. I guess my tainted opinion of Facebook had some bearing on my reaction ;)