Am I Being Hard Forked Up the Ass?
What In Thee Actual Fuck is Going On!
Do I suddenly suck at this game? Was it something I said? Is this because I flagged that asshole for spamming bullshit comments on my page? Wait, you probably don't even know about that, ignore that part.
Speaking of which.
Pain in the Ass #1
These spam comments can go away! Don't try to kiss my ass for a follow and a $10 vote! Wait, you probably didn't know my vote is worth that much. Ignore that part. Pay attention to the first part. Besides, I lied. The vote is worth more.
Great post @nonameslefttouse! Just so you know, your posts always inspires me... No wonder I became addicted and followed YOU!
ME!?
That comment really stands out for me. When I first read it, I thought someone was really taking a shining to my work. I do receive a lot of good, wholesome, genuine comments. They make me feel good. I did not feel good when I noticed that user was leaving the same comment on every post. The included link to his work was what made me suspicious.
I don't like being manipulated. Nor do I enjoy a mailbox full of flyers. I don't look at the flyers. I don't want to buy your shit. I burn them when I feel like having a fire. Do you want to get burned?
In the past I've been calling people out and asking them to stop spamming. I'll usually include a screenshot of said spam so they cannot come back, call me a liar, and attempt to manipulate me further.
Up until recently, it wasn't much of a problem. It's getting worse now. Anyone caught leaving bunk comments on my blog will be getting a flag. Most people don't even apologize when I ask them to stop, they just carry on spamming other members. If you do come back to apologize and stop spamming other members, I will remove the flag.
That asshole who was so addicted to my posts didn't apologize. He got the message and abruptly stopped following me. Does that sound like something a true fan of my work would do?
So Cut The Shit Already
As of this writing, I've been able to gain 793 followers. They came to me, I didn't go to them. I guess they simply enjoy what I do here and dammit I love them for it!
Whether they enjoyed my post or a comment I left somewhere else, they came to me for being me. I can guarantee that because I don't try to act like anyone else.
Just talk to me, us, this community. Don't be the guy standing on the sidewalk rushing every passerby and jamming a pamphlet in their face! That doesn't work on the street. It annoys people. When someone on the street asks you to follow them down a dark alleyway, do you go?
Act natural. There's your advice.
Not everyone will like you, get used to it. Not everyone likes me, but at least I don't give them a good reason not to like me so it's their own damn fault.
Speaking of which.
Pain in the Ass #2
Why do I suddenly feel like nobody likes me? What's up with that! I'm sure it's mostly in my head, but damn!
Votes are way down, views are down, comments are down. I'm going crazy! 793 followers, I've been here for nine months and two days, high reputation number thing, I can count the amount of times I've been an asshole on one hand and still have fingers left... so what's up? Did I miss something? This feels like the day my friends in grade seven ditched me for the new kid because he had a Super Nintendo.
I hated that day!
I don't know if my posts have started to suck. I've been working hard, as per usual. Not many have been looking, so it's not like they show up and leave feeling disappointed. Have I been muted? Is everyone sick of me? Is this only going to get worse? Just thought I'd ask.
I can take an honest answer.
I was wondering a few days ago if I had done something wrong. Since everyone has a nice strong vote now, I thought I'd try going the extra mile. That incredibly long image inside the Chuck post from yesterday was way too much work. It's not a small image blown up. It was produced to that scale. Three hours in, I had ten views. It felt like 760 people turned their back on me. To be honest, I'm not even comfortable bringing this up. Doing my best to keep my chin up.
Enough about me though.
Pain in the Ass #3
The whole maximizing curation rewards mentality has got to go!
Those of you selfishly setting auto vote services to vote only for a few select "easy money" authors in order to maximize your curation rewards will not be feeling very good when those curation rewards are worth fuck all. How do you expect this platform to succeed if only a handful of people get the votes? You're not thinking about the future!
Why is it so difficult for new members to get noticed around here? Well, one of the main contributing factors is the fact so many members went down the automation route. They're not even here to look.
Why do we have a trending page if the typical advice being chucked around to new members is:
Don't even look at the trending page, it's too depressing.
Everyone's sitting around with their thumbs up their asses pointing blame at everyone but themselves. It's this whale, it's that whale, is these members over here! Meanwhile, they could be spreading the wealth around more efficiently, making it easier for new and established members to at least be able to find the ladder that needs to be climbed.
Use your robots, I don't care! They make life easy, right? I don't use one, but I can see the benefits. You're not maximizing your curation rewards when everyone guns for the same people. Find who you like and vote for them. In the future, when more people are allowed to succeed you will then see how you've maximized your curation rewards. You're not maximizing a damn thing if you're contributing to this place struggling to get off the ground due to the very simple fact that it has become increasingly more difficult for new members to gain traction because of bullshit maximizing curation rewards strategy.
It's very simple math, I don't need to explain anymore. I'm not trying to take away rewards from anyone either. Just giving some long overdue advice that will end up giving away far more rewards in the end. I have thirty thousand dollars today and I don't want to see it go down to a few bucks because of a few selfish nincompoops.
Yes! I said nincompoops!
That is all. Have a nice day.
OK, here comes the tough love.
Seriously, you're an artist, aren't you used to people sucking up to you all the time?
Add to that the fact that I'm pretty sure you're what's called a Whale here what with 13,932.528 STEEM.
But you're not one of the pissy whales who use the -trails bullshit.
I may be misreading you, but I think you just might give a shit about this whole platform so you should understand the massive tidal wave of mind-numbing drivel that's headed this way.
You've got talent and you write from your gut.
That's already 2 strikes against you on this planet.
I'm not writing this for an upvote either, I don't want to be stuck here with nothing to look at coming through my feed except bitcoin price updates and half naked women getting $386 payouts for almost showing their tits.
Now I am tired.
I have a problem telling people what I honestly think, you should mute me if you don't want more.
I'm new to being an artist in public, but I used to be a manager and back then I could not stand anyone kissing my ass. It actually hurt them in the long run because I can't stand fakes. People don't need to suck up. I'm not a whale, I think I'm a dolphin or nearly one. I'm a Damien first though.
Mind numbing drivel. Yes, I know it's coming. I'll tell you a secret... I noticed some who used to complain or left because of low payouts suddenly came back and love steemit again. Some even say they don't do it for the money. That there be some mind numbing drivel. Make that three strikes now.
It's not easy being a writer/artist here when so many will follow the herd, drop their original blog intentions and start talking about crypto because so many others do. I won't stop being me though and because you were being you, I gave that comment the vote you didn't want.
I did a little time as a manager too, luckily I was in a small group of talented people who didn't need to suck up.
Then I went back into an environment where there were a lot of people who's greatest talent was kissing ass and they worked for people who LOVED IT.
I understand what it's like to put your heart and soul into something and then get shit on for it. Mine took 5 years of my life, overcoming incompetent managers and sometimes even dumber engineers.
Two of us, both worked our way up from being nobodies, carried the program all the way through from concept, development into production and then we made it more profitable for them after program launch and they let us both go.
The program continued making money for them hand-over-fist 4 years after they unceremoniously dumped us.
That was 8 years ago and I might still be carrying a tiny bit of bitterness.
I will piss on their graves.
I'll follow you for life as long as you keep being you.
And I'll give some of your vote back.
Dude!!
Here's my take.
I just cleared 1000 followers and my view count and vote count is down as well.
I think it just that there are thousands of new users posting and the votes are just be spread out more now.
Also
We can't vote as much as before the fork so people are just aren't voting as much so that when they do vote they can give more rewards.
I still like your stuff. ^^
I agree the competition is getting stronger as the community grows.
Stiff competition is a good thing too. That should be enough incentive for everyone to perform to their best abilities.... In a perfect world.
Agreed
I just bought you a coffee with that vote. This is where I invest much of my voting power. My comment section. You come here, vote, chat it up a bit, I'll maximize your curation reward for you! LOL
I was hoping it's all in my head. It's our job now to help out these new members and find a balance. We can still vote like crazy, just use that slider. You're still giving out the same amount, just spreading it more evenly right.
I like your stuff too!
Cool. Thanks man. ^^
I believe a strong comment section is the best part of a post. I always upvote comments on my posts even if I don't like what they said. lol.... well, unless it's a complaint about using a wrong tag, i didn't upvote that. hehe
I do still vote as much as before but at 21% which over a $0.58 each. Feels frickin good too. I remember when I had 5,000sp and my vote was barely a penny full power.
It's good days for steemit. This week and the next will be a roller coaster as voter find new habits as we all learn the new amazing system.
Yeah, just have to let the dust settle and get the word out on how to keep things running smoothly. There's no good reason though for these folks to pile up and turn the $500 posts into $2000 posts with their added power. That is beyond being ass backwards. This upgrade was supposed to be about equality...so, let's see some!
I guess they have a lot of minnow support too.
Some of most common advice passed around here to new members has a dark side with a hint of the brutal truth.
I was told this and you were probably told the same.
"Comment! Get people's attention...yadda yadda yadda. Try to get the attention of a whale for a big vote."
Every minnow hears that, so now even the minnows don't help each other out. Too busy trying to get noticed.
Who's giving that advice? The ones reaping the rewards.... So why did they say it?
Don't get me wrong here, it's not all bad, but look where it's leading. We need to work harder at being a united community. Those top dawgs cannot and will not ever be able to vote and pay attention to everyone and the minnows need to know that the next minnow is just as important.
I've heard that. Comment section does make things interesting around here.
I had an insane weekend. Then a normal week. Preceding the insane weekend i collected more interesting people to watch. Following the insane weekend well i gave up trying to catch up and am now trying to stay on top.
Sorry i missed a lot!
Wasn't giving anyone shit, don't worry about that part. It was getting a bit quiet around here though. An eerie feeling. Just wanted to make sure I didn't mess up somewhere or piss everyone off, so I asked.
Bit hard to piss everyone off 😆 think it's just general overwhelm 😊
Ok I am so happy about this post!!! I feel that you should be rewarded by the posts and the work done to get the followers through the work and actually getting to know people online!
That has been my approach to this since nearly forever. I did make the mistake of spam commenting someone, once, early on. They showed me the way with some damn good advice. I still remember his name. I even wrote a post and thanked him for giving me shit.
For some strange reason though, some of the advice being passed around always goes something like, "If you want to get noticed, comment comment comment." Then they add the part about how commenting on a wealthier members post might help too. People take that the wrong way and start brown nosing. Nobody here wants to know fake people, I can guarantee it, so why try!
There I go again.
I'm Calm!
Breathe.... That is a problem, I feel a lot of people are only focusing on what is peoples wallets and not making the effort to have a bit of fun and get to know you audience a bit. What do you think of "bots" dare I ask? I may have missed a rant, however I would love your opinion. I like to follow success but truly feel when it is organic and true intentions are present that indeed will be successful!
I'm fine with bots, provided people use them responsibly. Many of us, at some point, did something right to earn automatic votes. The one using the bot trusts that our work will be up to their personal standards. They do come and look at the post, eventually. There have been a few people in the past who've wanted to support my work every step of the way. They might be out, not able to vote, so I can appreciate that sort of bot vote.
Some people abuse bot votes. Once they found a way to be placed on someones list, the begin posting garbage every few hours because they know they are guaranteed a few votes regardless of the performance. That's not good. There has to be some level of trust between both parties.
Some members look for easily attainable statistics, set their bots to vote for the top 40 authors of the previous week, then leave. They might check in to have a look at their wallets every few days, but as for the content they vote for, it doesn't matter. Then the next person does the same thing, and the next and the next. This guarantees the same people earn hundreds if not thousands of dollars shortly after posting every time they post because of this mass of automation. Many do that. They don't curate, they set their bots to follow the money. The more who join in on the madness, the more those few successful authors earn, everyone is happy except for 99% of the members who were not in the top 40 that week. Do you see how getting in the top 40 would be impossible?
I worked my ass off and nearly got to the top 60 without a mass of automatic votes. Because people want to maximize their rewards for not even being around to enjoy content, even being in the top 100 isn't good enough. I hate bots for this reason.
There's the good and the bad to everything. Those chasing the easy money and using bots to get it are one of the main reasons so many people struggle and then eventually quit. For me, I don't want to quit, but have hit that wall where if feels like you can longer climb. It should just be a steady climb, and even those at the top should have to deal with a few posts that haven't done as well as others. Even the best comedian can still go on stage and bomb or arrive at a venue only to see half of the seats are full.
That is insane and I so appreciate you taking the time to give me your opinion. I am here to write and want to find my writing space. I have bigger goals in writing and want this to be the "start-up". I have grown many companies in my career and I am treating this the same way. SO I enjoy the honest dialogue that justifies that I am looking at this clearly. My boyfriend is trying to set it up since he does the research and I have hestitated because I do not want to ruin the integrity of my work. Which is suffering because of my dilemma- so I am not even wanting post.
We need to KNOW the community to police the bullshit. Not as eloquent as you , but I feel the growing alliances will create the future of this platform- well more like "set-the-bar".
The struggle is real my new friend.
As I sit here to write you I am determined to support you and those with similar views amidst the chaos.
Steemit is still a great place to self publish and earn without advertisements. It's ahead of it's time. Even though a few greedy types are making it harder for more to join in on the fun, that doesn't make it impossible to find success here. Many still do. It's not the end of the world. People need to be encouraged to curate responsibly, and many do. Even today though I saw another post where someone was bragging up the benefits of automation, which means we lost another set of eyes...and unfortunately a few read it, jumped on the bandwagon, now we have less.
Strange to me though. They could just as easily earn curation rewards by voting for anyone. In some cases they'd earn more because they'd be sharing their piece of the pie with fewer people. Finding the diamonds in the rough seems to be like too much work for some though. Clicking a button is too much work. I usually earn more on curation by voting manually than most of these with similar SP who use bots, yet they hear easy money and throw logic out the window. That's life I guess.
I don't think it can be policed. We do have downvotes in the form of flags that can negate rewards gained through abuse. They work. Unfortunately, many who don't vote responsibly will have to see the value of their rewards plummet before they will believe value can actually do that. People will be people. There's always some who can only look out for number one.
Its good to hear you say this, I was told to go with a bot , but then what is the point in posting and being here if I can't interact? To me, this platform is amazing and I just need to be "me" and be patient. Thanks so much!
At least you get more than a 100 votes. I dunno where all my followers are hiding or if they are not voting... I literally check my followers pages to see if they posted or not, and if I can't do all in one day I leave the rest for the next day. Luckily we have a week to upvote on posts now so that makes it easier. I just wish more people would actually upvote the people they follow. Why even follow someone if you don't even bother to read their blogs or upvote them?
They've been lured into that trap of auto voting for the top performers with promises of riches. Then they can take those riches and shove them up their ass once they realize so many months of voting for only a few people means they can only afford a role of toilet paper. How many people have you witnessed start up, and quit? I mean good bloggers, not these shit ones who heard about easy money. So many good ones gone, right? While a few others seem like they aren't even impacted by any of these hard forks. I can't be the only one noticing a trend. Even those at the top will feel the burn when they realize what the limited success ratio has done to the place and their wallets. In a world where people think logically instead of irrationally, you'd think they'd be the ones saying something.
This was the first post where I received that many votes since the hard fork. I know a lot of the honest bot users have switched them off for the time being(but only for people like us right because, those other ones, again, unaffected and oblivious to these problems many are facing) to make adjustments.
As for followers. It's superficial. It's a number that makes people feel important. Like how some worked hard to get 3000 facebook friends, but only speak to nine of them. I don't go on those follower hunts. They discover me for the post I did that day. That's the best way to do this... and I don't treat you folks like a statistic.
I've never thought of it like that... I just hope that people will start focusing on voting for better content, but then again, friends just upvote each other and they don't bother to even read the posts. Realistically we have to just go with the flow and adjust and stick to what we know AND stick with our friends here....I've made some good friends and I will always remember how we all struggled in the beginning but we stuck with it and here we are...still posting...I liked it the way it was and they say change is good....will have to see about that one.
I still love you @nonameslefttouse - I'm just not around as often and I turned off my SteemVoter bot for a week or two to see how my organic curation affects my vote power before I made adjustments to it. So far I'm liking the influx of new people but damn, swimming through the pages of junk posts is time consuming! Maybe I'll turn the bot back on and rely on thoughtful comments on my friends' posts to follow new people? Hmm... That might be my new strategy.
So, use a spoon instead of a fork up the ass - it doesn't hurt as much. LOL! :P
Those bots. I noticed many shut off their auto votes coming my way. That's another thing that made me feel like I've done something wrong. Many tell me the bot makes it easy to see who posted and they come to eventually look. I think that's why my views eventually start going up but the votes stay the same. With so much art, I need the views, ya know! For the most part, that's what makes the post unique every time. We've all seen the picture of the frustrated woman from pixabay or the cat and everyone has an opinion so the words are often predictable. People seeing my stuff is just as important as the rewards and everything else, but I know everyone is busy and I've at least learned today there's no reason to take it personally.
I'll go look for a spoon now and test your theory. Thanks for the advice!
Wow, this article kind of depressed me haha, I was so amped up to be able to put out good content that people would appreciate, but it doesn't seem like that's possible. I put an hour or two into writing my stuff becasue I figure it'd be pretty cool to stockpile a goldmine of content that's as good as I can make it for the lucky person or two who happesn to stumble upon it. It's a hell of a lot easier to get information out here than on instagram that's for sure. I just no longer have any delusions about making money from this endeavor.
I shall un-depress you now.
First off, I noticed your reputation is really low, which means you're new, so I had a glance at your offerings.
You're not doing anything wrong!
You're only five or six posts in. This takes time. I didn't make $30000 here on my first day, that took nine months. I wrote at least one post per day, and created 99.8% of the images. In other words, I worked hard. You're working hard, so you're off to a good start.
Stick to what you know and hold on to the reason why you're here. Don't get lost and start following the money by emulating others. So many have tried that and end up quitting. You'll need to find an audience that learns to accept you and your posts as you present them and yourself. That doesn't mean it's okay to keep making the same mistakes though. Improve with every post and find a way to make what you do appeal to a wider audience.
Treat your blog like a business and run your business how you see fit. I typically write a lot of crazy shit, so me flying off the handle to shed some light on a few things was not unexpected. Most saw the humor in it, because most know how to read me. Someone who blogs about serious science daily might not be able to pull something like this off without looking ridiculous. The more ridiculous I look, the better, I guess.
Making money is not a delusion. There are a few problems here, but they are not the end of the world. The platform is new and under constant improvement. I've seen it with my own eyes.
Just keep at it. The money will come. I've been here nine months and I'm nowhere near the top. I started at the bottom though! Certainly don't want to go back there after coming this far and my eyes are still set at the top. If I get there, I did it as honestly as possible.
You can too!
(Fuck...was that ever corny. Truth though.)
That was the motivation I needed! I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out.
@nonameslefttouse OMG you should post under philosophy and psychology...lol
...but then I'd have to be smart everyday. Where's the fun in that!
If you're not smart enough you always have this man and that man to help you....I miss them....lol
Truth
That coming from someone who created a bot. I'm incredibly happy to know you agree with it.
For real. If you've read about it you know I'm all about "cultural curation". Easy money if that's what you're into, it's a tool after all, but that's one of my focuses.
My role here is to create something worth voting for, or at least frickin' try! It's the work hard money I'm into. What came first, the chicken or the egg? The bots and manual curators alike depend on us to create something. People have done it elsewhere for free, and they'll do it again if people here are not responsible with true power behind that vote. I want to see this place kick ass. Everyone wins when that happens.
I've been pretty busy with all my delegations and loans. It's been hard to keep up with those I follow.
The busy stuff I totally get. I'm busy too. By the sounds of it, I'm not the only one falling through the cracks, so I guess that somehow makes me feel better, which is good.
I think in some cases the maximizing of curation rewards comes into to play as well though. I can't be totally wrong when I think if a post is old, some of the incentive to look at it is gone. That mentality gives us a too short of an attention span. It's so rare to get a vote later on, but the views do trickle in sometimes.
I like your humor please follow me and upvote my post for $10.00, I'll follow you back😍😂😂😂
I'll just LOL at your post @reddust and refrain from posting the same type of comment. :-)
😏
Great movie. Great performance. :-D
My husband's favorite next to the Big Lebowski, which I didn't get until I was falling down drunk and half asleep. Oh wait this movie has no plot, that's why I never got it the last 6 times I watched it with my husband.
I can't help it, the comment about the "hardfork up the ass" just about killed me, I've got perforated colon syndrome now.
I knew someone would do it! Luckily for you, I like your humor too!
Just keep me away from the whisky!