RE: Will the real sock puppet please stand up
Thank you for the post. It does show another perspective. Perspectives are important. From what you posted here it does look like you were trying to help out. So in the spirit of that I'd like to share some thoughts with you about what I have seen happening, and what may be happening to you. I'd then like to offer you something to consider. It is your call as well.
You indicated you are helping out friends and getting them to write on steemit. These posts get $1000+ posts for every post. These posts subjectively (it is an opinion) are not worth close to that when being compared to people that have been cutting their teeth here at steemit. There are posts that are not even making $10 by people that are better and more refined. It comes with practice. If you want to give them a big HELL YEAH this is real moment then perhaps one such post is a hell of a good HELL YEAH. I've been here about 2 1/2 months and had a post go over $300 I think twice. That does not mean I am worthy of high paying posts. That is again subjective. I am not stating this so I start getting paid more. I will say though it currently says I've posted 2471 times in that time period. In other words I too am busting my ass. You may not know me, so I may not be considered your "friend" yet is that truly what this platform should be. A club for our friends? Or should it be a place where we all value good content, we learn value, and we vote consistently?
Had your friends been receiving votes commiserate with their work when compared to similar styles on steemit it is very likely they would have been never looked at with a fine tooth comb.
Many of those posts I laughed at because I have a friend who is a chef and a phenomenal photographer as well as a good writer and videographer. I saw those posts and thought... man Alana should come here she will make bank and do really well. However, that is not true. She would make bank IF she were one of your friends or a friend of the other whales voting up these accounts. My friend would have to start in the trenches like everyone else and hopefully get noticed and be frustrated by $0 posts and posts less than $1 that she put hours into making.
She might go see one of these friends of yours post and see $1000 for something she could have done in 15 minutes (not exaggerating) and say WTF and walk away from steemit, and tell other people not to come here because it is a joke. The exception to this seems to be when someone new comes here that already has a large following. They get a lot of up votes and payment and if steemit is lucky their followers come here as well.
Now my proposal to you
If you want to turn this around keep encouraging your friends to come here. Yet take some time to look at what posts like they are making get when they are established. Give them a vote like that. Yet don't do it for every damn post they write. Make them earn their followers like the rest of us. This protects the platform. Favoritism does not. I like to help out my friends too and I see this as a human thing. I doubt you fully considered the implications of up voting your friends all the way.
So with that... I will vote for you on my two accounts @dwinblood and @chaospoet as I did before. I do not expect votes in return. If you see something I wrote that you like, vote what you think it is worth. I am giving you my votes back as a sign of trust.
I am trusting that this is something you can help stop from happening in the future.
I will give you that trust. I hope I have been helpful. I will remove my votes if this technique we are calling "socket puppetry" continues. It is unfair and is not indicative of the way this platform should work. Yes, the code allows it, it is legal from that perspective. I am not challenging that. It is however damaging to the perception of the platform itself. I do not endorse hurting the platform so a friend can get paid high amounts for average posts. (some were good, many were not = again I know this is subjective). My answer to this was to stop looking at the trending page.
As far as @bacchist. He is definitely not @ned. They have very different philosophical differences. @bacchist is a staunch Anarcho-Communist. That doesn't meld to well with the Austrian Economics and Anarcho-Capitalist of @ned and @dantheman. It is a testament to how wonderful steemit is that we all respect each other and get along. Normally someone like me and @bacchist would be like match to gasoline. Yet I get along with him really well here and respect him quite a bit.
IF what you said is genuine I can see you are trying to help the platform. That is what @ats-david, @bacchist, and @klye have been trying to do with these investigations as well. Peace, and good luck. I'll be watching to see how it goes.
@dwinblood Steemit is just starting as a social platform. I noticed there were good food authors out there, and in a time when there are collective efforts to recognize authors on steemit I thought about it and came out with the the Steemitrecipes Daily Picks idea.
It's a brand new effort and already got some positive responses from @knozaki2015 and @silversteem and I am grateful to them. Tomorrow will be just the third edition. Any power-up help of @steemitrecipes o resteem would help this kind of effort to grow (I think in terms of long term, years from now).
So if your friend posts good food related content I don't see how he wouldn't be eventually noticed on a Daily Pick. This is how I think a free market works. It is ok, there are whales with a lot of SP, but that doesn't mean you can't do anything to help the social network to grow.
I want to create some more camaraderie amongst food authors (in a very competitive field that sometimes lack a bit of it).
I can't promise any significant reward on SBD for your chef friend at this stage, but I can promise I will do my best to help food authors on steemit. So if anyone wants to hand some support, it is always welcomed.
Thanks!
Really she writes on facebook quite a bit. I don't think she would be worried about not getting rewarded until she saw one of those posts that are not so good consistently getting $1000+. Then she'd likely get a little angry. It isn't so much people coming here and expecting to get rich. It is people coming here and seeing people consistently getting high pay for average posts.
I think us all being aware about it and talking about it is a step in the right direction.
I will try to convince her to join. She is quite gifted and would do well here. She is pretty set in her ways though so convincing her to come is the challenge. She also keeps herself very busy.
She is a great cook, photographer, videographer, and writer. Seems like the makings for someone that could do well here.
Thanks for your response... it is appreciated.
@dwinblood she shouldn't be angry. Let's try a different approach. Steemit is not even a year old. We can think about ourselfs as "kids" in the steemit society. There are "rich parents" and "poor parents". Maybe a kid wants a brand new toy, he is good, but his parent can't afford it. The other kid gets a toy and maybe it's not as good. But his dad has a right to prefer him, because, afterall, it is his kid. See? That's life.
I'm not related to any "whale" on steemit, but that doesn't mean I can't do nothing. Actually what I do on steemit it's because I like. It's human action, sometimes you get an "instareward" and sometimes you need to build your place with time.
As I said before, the food space is quite competitive, but it is also important to promote camaraderie amongst food lovers, so at this stage maybe don't promote steemit as a place where you get an instareward but maybe where you can interact with other people in your field.
Yes, that is why I said community is how we'll have to solve some of these issues. I was not disagreeing with you. I sent a message to her husband who is also a friend. We'll see if we can get one or both of them. Both are creative types.
That sounds good, it will help grow the steemit social network and the food network in particular!
"@dwinblood she shouldn't be angry."
In the hypothetical scenario described, angry is completely understandable and should be expected. Nepotism masquerading as a meritocracy will naturally cause envy and anger.
Your parent analogy doesn't work. You don't seem to be taking into account that other peoples payouts are diminished by these actions.
If you want to use a parent analogy it would have to be along the lines of a team coach that always gives their child far more time on the field than the other child. If your kid wasn't getting any time on the field despite being an amazing player because the coach keeps putting their less than stellar child in you are going to be mad.
I don't think telling people that their very natural emotions are invalid is the right way to approach this problem.