A Proposed Solution to Voter-Abuse

The problem with abusive voting is not a new one, though the damage it is inflicting upon the platform has been amplified by the growing size of the community. With more people attempting to earn rewards, more are left with undervalued posts as the same group of people are continually upvoted onto the trending page. If you were someone who only used the trending page to find content on Steemit, you'd probably think there was only 20 authors on the site.

I have had an idea on how to resolve this very issue for quite some time, though I was reluctant to share it because, to be frank, I didn't expect anyone to listen. I spent much of my time on Steemit offering ideas to counter abuse, or shining a light on it where I could see it, so that others could think of the ideas my mind could not. However, all I really got from these efforts was less support. This resulted in me being one of the lowest paid users at my rep level, which in turn caused me to lose the motivation to work on 6-10 hour posts as I once did. There was no point if I was only going to get a few dollars.

I want that motivation back. I want to feel as though I can afford to put the time into creating the best possible content I can, without having to worry that I will make nothing at all and my dog will starve. For this reason, I am going to share one of my ideas that I am positive could resolve this issue if implemented, and I am going to remain optimistic that it will be heard.

How to fix the trending page

It's quite simple really. The voters who are abusing the system are incentivized to do so, and so all we must do is negate that incentive. Voting as we know it, should not be rewarded with curation rewards.

But, curation rewards ought to exist for those who deserve them- the ones who actually upvote decent content. So, a new sub-section of the site could be created where any user can browse through a stream of random posts from their favourite tags, and where they can earn as much as 50% curation rewards for voting in this sub-section. They won't be able to find the people they want to vote for unless they put in a lot of time into searching for their work, or if the use a very specific tag in order to be found easily(but this could be countered by having specific tags used in this sub-section).

This doesn't mean that people couldn't still support their friends. All they would have to do is go to their blog and upvote them. But, they would earn no curation rewards for doing so(though, the curation rewards could still be deducted and put into a separate pot that could be used for investments or to support new projects on the STEEM blockchain). This would dramatically change the content that would be rewarded each day, so I suppose those who are accustomed to receiving huge payouts on every little thing they post won't like the sound of this. But that number is very small. There are countless more authors who create very good content but get little rewards, and just like me, this leads to a lazy approach in the end to content creating because they know they're unlikely to make anything worth their time.

If those people had a reason to believe that their work really could be rewarded, then they, and I, would be willing to return Steemit to its former glory by posting top quality content each time. Then the trending page would more often than not be filled with content that people actually find interesting, and this in itself would drive more users to the platform.

There are some ways that this system could be abused, but I have already considered them and thought about many ways to counter them. I don't want this post to be too long, however, so I will save them for if they are needed.

One other thing I would like to add is that not many of the whales like to sit there and curate content, based on what I have seen in my time here. So, if they choose to delegate their SP to another, they should still earn curation rewards when that person votes in that section of the site. This would also limit the amount of users loaning out their SP, which is another issue many users seem to be taking issue with.

This would work for sure, but it would take some serious work done under the hood. I for one would like to see it implemented, however. Because this platform was once full of potential, but it seems that with every hardfork, things get shitter. I would like to see one upgrade to the code that actually results in a benefit for low SP holders, and this could very well be the way, for it would also benefit large SP holders who would now be able to earn more through curation rewards.

This is one of many ideas, and I'm open to sharing the others, many of which are better(though unrelated to this topic) with the right person. So if you are that person who has the influence to actually get shit done around here, then we really ought to talk.

If you believe this to be a viable solution, resteem this post to increase the chances of it it falling before the right set of eyes.