Double Standards? When is it OK to use 'pretty girls' for marketing on Steemit? Let's get back to the 70s and attract new members with tit pics!
She's excited to spread the word about the new movement............
In August, the guy who runs a tribe called 'Lassecash' posted a post requesting attractive young ladies to create content for him in return of payment.
https://steemit.com/lassesangels/@lasseehlers/lasses-angels
He bid-botted the his promotion/job offer post to trending and got wasted. The vitriol from the upper echelons of the community was palpable, partly due to the bot abuse but mainly due to him attempting to hire pretty girls to attract people to his tribe. He also got a number of ladies willing to take him up on his offer.
Personalities, whether you like the guy or not shouldn't come into the reckoning, just the principal of the post and whether anyone agrees or disagrees with his approach, Steemit is supposed to be a place for free speech. The guy lost a fortune financially and has barely posted since.
Fast forward to now.
Appics is possibly one of the best designed UIs I've seen and it appears to be run by a lady called @soldier . To build up their userbase, they are recruiting attractive young ladies from Instagram, setting them up with accounts on Steem and posting their content that has already been used on their Instagram accounts. Even the adverts for Appics use such pictures.
Over the last few months, many such accounts have been seen in 'introduceyourself' and this post yesterday, introduced some more.
I have a couple of questions.....
@steemcleaners have a rule about stuff like this where the account owner has to post a link on their Insta account mentioning their Steem account to prove that the Steem account is not simply a fake. None of the Insta accounts I have seen has that verification and I'm not party to the background dealings of @steemcleaners but I hope they apply this rule evenly and maintain their integrity.
Apart from an odd 'thanks' there is zero engagement from these accounts, this suggests to me that the person in the pic has zero involvement in them and that Appics are simple acting as their Steem managers which if so is shit and misleading. If this is true, are Appics also taking a cut of the generated rewards or paying the girls for their image rights? Would you like to answer please @soldier?
The posts these ladies are making are just 5 or 6 words and a picture and are somehow earning decent rewards! Again, no downvotes.
The main thing that saddens me though is the utter hypocrisy and double standards applied. reading the comments from members congratulating Appics when just 3 months ago they were berating Mr Lassecash is an absolute shame.
It makes no difference that I personally don't like this kind of marketing and it surprises me that on a chain that considers itself to be pushing a brave new world and full of free thinkers that so many 'old world' values still apply.
Here is a picture of 17-year-old Melinaceline from Munich, her user name here is @melinaceline if you want to pop by and say hello, but she is hardly likely to answer you!
You've completely missed the mark here.
Nowhere in @soldier's post do I see sex and beauty being used as a marketing tool. Those are apparently people who signed up and those people just so happen to look like that.
Those ladies are not being objectified in the context of that post, but they most certainly are in your post here. Why is that?
Must women cover themselves if they are to be anywhere near a camera? Should they not do their hair and makeup as they see fit, for fear someone like will come along to say, "You're just looking like that on purpose, to get attention, and should be ashamed of yourself!" Would you have preferred to see those same women in different clothes and hairstyles in that post? Something more 'suitable' to your standards of how people should look within a social media post when it's being announced they have taken interest in something?
lasseehlers post was sleazy, yes. And what's with the sensationalism? "He lost a fortune on that post?" Get real.
I can't tell whether you have your serious head-on or your comedic one!
Assuming you are right, and these images are NOT being used as a marketing tool due to them being beautiful young ladies, I ask why there are no ugly old men being signed up, and why in @soldier 's 'comments' to them on their posts, he calls them things like 'beauty', a level of condescendency which is off the scale! Of course, the young lady didn't respond to any of the comments!
That was a response to @valeriaaa 's intro post which consisted of 1 picture (with a 2016 copyright notice from 2016) and no words at all!!
https://steemit.com/appics/@valeriaaa/alpha-kw-8-appics-im-37730
And as for @lasseehlers post, as I said, I was writing about double standards. Yes, his post was sleazy but it was at least honest!!
Please tell me you were being ironical?
And just to reiterate, I in no way made any judgement of how these girls should look so please don't throw in stuff that wasn't there in a weak attempt at a strawman logical fallacy!
That's a huge chunk of us current Steemians you've just described. So you just want more of the same? This is like saying why aren't more men being recruited into the army?
I was going to dissect your entire post, pointing out some of your false equivalencies and all that, but I honestly can't be bothered at this point.
I'd much rather read a post of you showcasing all the people YOU have on-boarded on Steem, rather than one of you moaning about someone else's efforts.
That's one of the co-founders Uma (Mrs.steemit), and Soldier at 1:08 in the video. Yes they are real people that just happen to be good looking. Uma co-founded this bootstrapped business at the age of 19! But I'm sure she still has to justify herself to ugly old men everywhere she goes.
Don't worry they are also planning to bring on musicians, painters, dancers, poets, fashion designers. I'm sure some of them will be old and ugly like some of us.
But yet you could be bothered to paste a video and a further 2 sentences that bear no relevance to the points made?
I made what are legitimate points, and your response is one of the worst problems Steem has which is if anyone dares to criticise the status quo or disagree with anything then you're labelled a 'moaner'.
The post was about dual standards, and asking if 'shitposts', which one unoriginal photo and 5 words are, is the way forward for Steem, you obviously think it is so thats fine. I respect your opinion even though I disagree.
Enjoy your break and I will look forward to these artisans arriving.
It's not that I don't have the time for a detailed reply, it's that I can't be bothered to point out the obvious.
My reply is perfectly relevant. You kept trying to create this impression that Soldier is some kind of shady unknown personality, even after corrected, you talk about "neutral pronoun" or what not.
The video points out that not only are the appcis team exactly who they say they are (as they show their faces unlike some), they are also well known to the community.
Nobody says you can't disagree, just prepare for people to disagree with your disagreement. I didn't downvote you did I?
And thanks. It's less a break than doing something else outside this crazy place :) . Cheers.
Another problem here is the fact (I think it's a fact), @soldier is a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, yet you keep saying it's a he. If a male says beauty, it's not honesty, it's bad and should be frowned upon.... ? That's another thing about society I don't get.
I'm not sure how many ugly old men have large followings and use things like instagram or whatever but I'm sure they'd be treated equally upon arrival, if their arrival was being announced.
But because they look like that, you automatically jumped that gun and assumed sex is being sold and the women are being objectified, which in my opinion, wasn't the case.
I agree, I don't know but their gender still makes no difference but I should have used neutral pronoun. I will find out and correct this if it is a lady.
Now I am triggered to sign up an ugly old man with social media following to prove my point!
I've followed her for awhile. I don't often upvote the one image say nothing type posts but I have seen her, saying this is me, in a video, where she's dancing.
Like you folks, I hope the accounts are verified.
I'm sure there's a few ugly old guys out there somewhere to tickle your fancy.
I'm struggling. I think I'm the only one ;-)
Start with Casey Neystat, keep going with Billy Bob Thornton and end with Rowan Atkinson and you've made your point. Come on! I want to see your efforts pal.
Posted using Partiko Android
You are right, there is a double standard here.
I've absolutely no problem with beautiful girls putting 3 word posts with a pic with them half naked lol. I'd enjoy seeing that. But they shouldn't be earning much on those types of post. Also, if there is no link on their soc media, and no verifiable intro post (with them holding up a 'joined steem sign') then chances are the accounts are fake, leaching value of the platform while adding nothing to the network.
I still get pissed off after 2 years of posting nothing but long form content here when I see an appics post making more than an article that took 4 hours to write.
This type of BS has driven many high quality writers away from steem in the past 3 years.
I do think that steem is getting better at regulating these types of things though, but there is a lot still needs doing.
Posted using Partiko Android
Totally feel your pain at the BS but hopefully you might have a chance of getting some better curation in the future mate but as you say, this sort of bollocks needs to be sorted. Sadly though, if you're in with the 'incrowd', the other cheek often gets turned.
Also, the fake accounts have been created by soldier. But never changed their keys.
So, if they would not be fake, they need to be informed, that their key is known to other parties.
But anyway, those are just fake.
Well, I didn't know enough to look that deeply and I wasn't intent on making accusations I couldn't back up but I assumed that would be the case. Of course, it won't make a jot of difference....
Are you still a witness by the way ?
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.
I have read that post.
Thanks @bring , hope you're well :-)
I have always been a little scathing about Appics but I suppose there is room for it somewhere. I believe @soldier is female and what she appears to be, I think I spotted her and a bunch of other 'good looking people' at SF3 last year.
@adetorrent is supporting Appics right now I know and there's a push to onboard. I dont know much about it, he might be able to tell you more.
Thanks. I've just edited my mistake. I still can't see the difference in their 'recruits' posts though to a shit post of a flower posted by some Bangladeshi kid which also has zero engagement.
The App itself is great, I just feel that Steem has more gravitas than signing up attractive young women to shitpost and the post was more about double standards.
Bags packed yet? ;-)
I can't bring myself to vote for little effort, but appreciate all types of content are coming on the blockchain.
If it attracts attention from investors, or the outside world then I wont damn it. if Appics are at SF4 I will take some time to talk t them and what their vision is.
LOL, day before.. I'm not one for bringing the kitchen sink.
Great idea. I fully support it. We also have a porn site if you want to go a bit further down the line. Scams posts i have no time for but sexy girls on STEEM is ok by me every time. This will be what communities are needed to filter out but as an app there should be a place for appics somewhere down the line. Posts like this on Instagram get lots of comments and interaction. It just doesn't have that kind of audience on steemit as a site but with the right community interface it could be a good thing.