The top lists and the bottom shifts

A few days ago, @whatsup posted an updated list of the top 30 authors by payout over the last 30 days and it is quite an interesting look at what the EIP has done over the last few weeks, and is ongoing even further considering some in the list now won't be there next month, like those who have been in a few circles or caught plagiarizing.

@whatsup took a list before the EIP and hardfork which looked like this:

1 haejin $3,437.788
2 coldsiksu $1,835.176
3 traf $1,589.967
4 majes.tytyty $1,436.376
5 gooddream $1,353.580
6 steemcleaners $1,277.187
7 angelinafx $1,272.109
8 zer0hedge $1,184.907
9 deathcross $1,180.559
10 banglatech $962.087
11 creativecrypto $951.971
12 hatu $872.293
13 ronaldoavelino $869.920
14 jrcornel $850.667
15 donekim $750.367
16 onepercentbetter $705.510
17 oendertuerk $689.912
18 slowwalker $663.086
19 ocd $660.417
20 raindrop $659.417
21 chbartist $659.372
22 flamingirl $653.455
23 zzings $640.219
24 firepower $639.517
25 htliao $637.292
26 tarazkp $622.214
27 abitcoinskeptic $590.693
28 etherpunk $589.124
29 discernente $565.003
30 me-tarzan $561.813

And then after (nowish):

1 gooddream $829.525
2 steemcleaners $624.566
3 acidyo $577.401
4 axeman $523.966
5 tarazkp $476.968
6 slowwalker $469.336
7 aggroed $437.010
8 flamingirl $432.778
9 anomadsoul $426.856
10 ronaldoavelino $420.432
11 haejin $419.720
12 taskmaster4450 $404.649
13 czechglobalhosts $386.197
14 angelinafx $382.645
15 kingscrown $372.331
16 ocd $356.707
17 abh12345 $354.955
18 me-tarzan $354.189
19 themarkymark $349.028
20 exyle $342.934
21 coldsiksu $336.185
22 steemchiller $333.774
23 joythewanderer $332.056
24 travelgirl $330.569
25 oflyhigh $323.743
26 sigizzang $321.168
27 hangin $320.465
28 donekim $304.888
29 oldstone $301.173
30 bitrocker2020 $298.947

What is interesting to note are the people who are in both lists, me included. As I mentioned to @smooth the other day, is that my account might be a good indicator of what is going on to some degree, as my posting behavior hasn't shifted (I post regularly as I have for years), but the difference between the payouts is that I stopped using @ocdb a few weeks before the hardfork.

On the first list I was in 26th position with an @ocdb enable $622 dollars, but on the latest list I am in 5th position with $476, about a 25% reduction. So I am higher on the list with much less payout and no bidbots at all. I wonder where 476 would have appeared pre-hardfork considering the top 30 cut off was 20% above that? I would say much, much lower.

Nowadays, the top payout goes to @gooddream with $829, which would have put him in 15th position pre-hardfork. This got me thinking about what the difference really is between these charts so, I did calculations.

Pre-Hardfork total for top 30

29,361.998

Post-Hardfork total for top 30

12,145,161

 
Wow! what a difference.

But, if you want to see something more interesting you have to start asking the question: where did the $17,000 go?

Here!

Oh no, not there, here:

This is the account of an Australian photographer, @paulmp, who in a few minutes is going to over double his account payout with one post on his exploration of Antarctica with his camera Since that post got seen and pushed into Trending by @ocdb, he has been getting consistent support for his photographic work, the way it should be.

While very few are going to get consistent support on their posts over time, the lottery effect has returned back to Steem to some degree and unknown accounts are not only getting additional support, some of them are actually getting seen by others and I noticed that @paulmp posted about an hour ago, and is getting some accounts voting on him that would not have known he existed a week ago.

But, the lists above are only the top 30 accounts before and after and I would predict some relatively strong reshuffles of economic outcome through a great many more down the list as while there was a lot of high end abuse, a lot of the circle abuse can now be seen, and the light has been shone upon the lower (but still very high) levels too and at least flamingirl, angelinafx, coldsiksu, sigizzang are unlikely to appear next month and perhaps a few others. (with Sigizzang spreading his stake to many more authors than previously).

The accounts that have taken the majority of downvotes have been the most abusive on the platform or, have been retaliated against because of the downvotes they have cast on abusers. While far from pretty, what has clearly happened at least at the top end is that the abusive accounts that do not actually have community support have had their payouts heavily curbed, while those who do have community backing have moved upward.

What this also means and we can see demonstrated through the trending page on Steemit.com now is that it is easier to be seen and there is more chance of variety in the top ranges due to the reduction of hyper-inflated post payouts. This means that the odd poster who benefits from the random large support actually has a chance of gaining traction in the eyes of the community.

The other thing to think about with those lists above is the change in curation as not only does it require less payout to be in those lists (all lists really), the curators are getting twice the return that they were getting pre-fork. This means that the EIP (pushed by @trafalgar and @kevinwong for long time) with 50/50, combined with the convergent curve and the downvote mechanism has broken the reign of bidbots and encouraged much more direct participation in the voting process, including the bidbot stake roaming the Steem seas.

It is a learning process though and while there is still a lot of room for improvement, I think that those who actually get off their own posts and out of their comfort zones once in a while and look at the average changes and who is getting supported, might be pleasantly surprised by the development thus far. Still a long way to go for sure, but with the increasing dynamism of voting and the coming tools of communities, SMTs and Resource Credit delegation, we are shaping up for a chance to make an impact in the crypto scene at the right time.

For those that don't like that there is anyone let alone those who might consistently be in the top 30, 50, 100... In time as Steem continues to evolve, the list will change but there will always be some who outperform others for attention and support in the same way that not every tennis player in the world can win a Grand Slam tournament, but Roger Federer has 20 to his name.

What I think is that eventually these lists are going to be filled with the best of the best, but they won't be on Steem, they will be on the SMTs and the applications that best suit their type of content and their personalities. In this vein, It would be interesting to see the top 10 lists for the tribes to see what kinds of overlaps there are.

Anyway, back to IRL work now.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]