What is Steemit?
What is Steemit?
That question led me to ask what is Facebook, because some people describe steemit as social media you get paid for. But it is far more than that, just like Facebook is far more than social media you DON'T get paid for!
Steemit is different things for different people.
When I first discovered steemit in August 2016, I was told it was a social media website that you got paid to post on. So I wrote a piece about drugs, posted it and waited for the money to roll in!
Surprise surprise - not a cent! So a few months ago, I put out a message on Facebook for some help with steemit. And a long time follower of my content on Youtube contacted me. He had moved to Bali and made big changes to his life which he partly put down to the influences the videos had on him.
And then I started to post and a couple of posts got as much as $50 and $80 which is far more than I ever got from Youtube and with no advertising!
However, I started to learn that it was far more than a platform that paid people to post and share.
So far, I prefer to look at it as a game. A virtual reality game that is run on blockchain technology which means that it is decentralised, run by consensus and nobody can censor things. (There is however a process of 'down voting' content which is aimed at dealing with all sorts of unwanted content) Like any game, in order to play well, one needs to learn the rules.
What I like about the metaphor of a game is that it fits well with my understanding of offline life. As Tom Campbell explains (if you haven't come across him yet, please look him up. He is hailed by some as the Einstein of our times.) the world can be explained elegantly as a virtual reality - a digital information system that has rules - but nevertheless a kind of game that we play.
According to Tom, the purpose of the game is to reduce entropy, i.e to reduce chaos and increase love.
And that is exactly what my experience of the game steemit is doing - it has created a community feel whereby everyone playing the game worldwide (400k currently) wants it to work and people support each other for the greater good.
So its an ALTERNATIVE game to the game we are playing here with its own virtual currency (cryptocurrency) and its own economic, political and legal system so to speak.
In the steemit game, you can choose to play one or more roles. You can be a content creator, a content curator, an investor, a witness (these people make some decisions as to how the platform develops and are voted in and out) and/or a developer or any combination of the above.
I have chosen so far to be a content creator, a curator and an investor. It's a lot of fun and as I said earlier, it feels good to play the game. When I post or read/watch other peoples posts, it feels very connecting as opposed to Facebook where it feels wrong in some ways, at least to me. It feels like Facebook and Youtube are my adversaries rather than my friends.
I have 'earned' a couple of hundred STEEM (the cryptocurrency of steemit) which is the equivalent of a couple of hundred US dollars which can be cashed out via Bitcoin.
I have also met up with someone from the steemit community and we did some promotion of steemit together which is interesting since we don't 'own' the company but we both benefit from its adoption and success.
I think it has the potential to be the new Facebook.
Although I think it would be interesting and useful for many, especially those who spend a lot of time on Facebook, twitter and YouTube, I don't think advice is good practise and would not advise anyone to join. Instead I would encourage you to decide for yourself if this is for you.
Benefits of Steemit
I get paid a lot more than I get from youTube
My viewers don't have to watch adverts
My content can't be censored
It's a game designed by people who have our freedom in mind.
I get to help others, many of whom could be in countries where just a few dollars can make a huge difference to their lives.
I am involved in a platform that rewards great content provision by its providers
As an investor (relatively small one) I love the fact that I can actually effect the life of people all around the world by upvoting their content.
SKEPTICISM
I attempt to remain healthily and openly skeptical about everything including this game. Even though I am being rather evangelical about it at the moment, my concerns about it are as follows.
It is rather addictive and time consuming. I don't want it to become yet another form of slavery. Therefore if you don't spend much time online, maybe its not the right thing for you.
Everything is open on Steemit and can never be deleted. That means no censoring but it also means having to be very conscious of what I am putting out there.
As Neale Donald Walsch - author of Conversations With God says, in a reality that is made of of enlightened beings, competition, scarcity and ownership don't exist, because everyone KNOWS that they are connected t everything and everyone else. Steemit has not gone that far but maybe one day it will.
What a great summary. Yes, you've given Steemit a proper introduction here. One thing that might be added is the substance of articles here. Successful posts have a way of enriching people's lives, though various comprehensive messages that uplift, inspire, train, and entertain. We have monetary and social rewards for creating and curating quality content, so our posts tend to bring a lot of original thought, and thoughtful replies, compared with other social networks.
steemit is an exact copy of the current social model in most western environments .
You have the incrowd you have to roll with , if you don't one or two people can make sure "you never get a job in town again"
so learn to roll over if you're here for the money ... the term whale comes directly from the financial marketing world ... referring to entities SO big its impossible to go against as a smaller on ... one person who's overweight enough can ruin your rep in a matter of minutes, two can do it faster doesnt matter if there's 350.000 who either didnt care or didnt dislike
very IRL ... on top of that you can "buy" voting power, which makes it as lobby as can be, as for the censorship, i find my posts not liked by the in-crowd or extortion bots (o yea lets not forget the "pay for votes" and "pay or else" and "pay and i will gladly help you off the blacklist (my other bot put you on))
"
i find those posts "hidden" NOT CENSORED, ofcourse not, 'hidden' ... i hear accounts locked 'not censored' or 'kicked' but LOCKED
this goes nowhere but in the pockets of the 1% its the standard social model all over ... this is NOT anarchy okay, this is a few rich dictating whats cool to say and what is not and most abiding by that, if you can find anything closer to your western standard model let me know.
i suppose there will be startups building on the idea and using a more balanced system so i stay here just to scout out interesting people since i'm sure they will switch just as fast, or "fork" more like to use crypto-mumbo
That, mah frends, is my honest observation
comply or die, roll over or you'll never get a job again, BUY voting power, BUY votes ... PAY "or else" ... the prom queen and jock strap alpha will tell you how to walk
oh
have you noticed how i don't downvote this ? despite the fact that i completely disagree, i got lured here by the salespitch too but i dont really thrive in places where others get to tell me what to say to i quickly found that out, one american dyke and one nazibot was all it took, one vote on each of my first posts the first day by some i dont know twat bitch from california, and one from some extortion/blacklist bot b/c i shared an article on cloud mining and put a referral code in it ... now i didnt get a warning or anything on how his precious community feels (they must have elected him to be a spokesman or something, i suspect it follows up with a friendly namebot telling me i just need to pay x to @ to "get off the blacklist") well i don't downvote this despite the fact that i COMPLETELY disagree, especially with the non censorhip and referral to anarchy .. .and actually with everything in it since its nothing but a copy of the model most of you (and me) all live in while AFK
i don't , i should be bitter but i don't downvote, thats called freedom of speech and opinion, what i DO do ?
i mute all those scambots, i mute the whole incrowd, i keep only the people who think are real on my feed and i ignore all the rest, i am NOT a guiding member of the community nor will i ever be
someone needs to read up on anarchy , it means "no one is in charge" it does not mean whales and minnows ruled by the power of the dollar ... there we are, my not-so-incrowd-not-so-mainstream yet somewhat educated opinion on the matter
Thanks. It's really useful for me to have comments like yours as I don't want this place to be an echo chamber. It's very thought provoking. It also reminds me of something that has been running in the background for the past 20 years in my mind ever since I met a weird guru type called John de ruiter. He put a seed in my head which has never left, about how we end up becoming attached to ideas through investment in them. I notice that with steemit which leads me to WANT it to be the best thing since sliced bread. Maybe you're right about it all. Maybe it's just as bad as the system. Maybe not.
I have thought a little more about what you say here. As I say above, its a game - a social experiment. And like the social experiment we live in, it involves humans which always complicates matters. You've only been invovled for a very short time. If you dont like the platform then perhaps leave. But if you like it in principle, it may be worth learning and researching how the game works. As I said at the end of the article though, perhaps money needs to be eliminated from our culture to sort out our problems. But so far, i am enjoying the game and although you are correct that most of the 'power' is concentrated at the top, for the most part most of the 'whales' are helping people on the platform.
@dannyshine, a very nice read, especially the comments from @rudyardcatling, As an advocate of steemit, and a person who wants it to be all the good it potentially can be, I hear all of these sentiments with a struggle and reluctantly agree that they are accurate, all be it negative sentiments. There are, however in my opinion, far more positives and potentials than negatives, as with any social experiment, you have to take the rough with the smooth. I am trying to influence positive behaviors on the platform from whales and minnows alike though several initiatives i support, these may or may not work. I think a long term view, only risk what you can afford to lose and seeing what mischief you can get up to on here in a way to enjoy the experience, is my advice. additionally i would like to say that it is not nice that a lot of steem is concentrated with whales, however, it does not matter how you look at it, they are the ones that took the risk and have given the steem price its present value. At our (humans) current level of wisdom, this is the best system we have come up with so far to reward risk takers and incentivize value creation. If there is another let me know, if you want to distribute steem to other members, that is exactly what is going on now with whales up voting minnows. if you want a new platform that does this from the start, good luck finding investors to support the value reward token's price. in all very interesting and thought provoking! STEEMON!
Hello Danny. Sam here! I almost forgot that I acquired @steemtv right back at the beginning. Apparently I felt like I might need it for something important one day ;)
What do you think? Could be a good place for us to come together?
coming together sounds good but I will have to get my wife's permission. btw, whilst we're here, i posted this article on facebook and someone pointed out this. Is that censoring? who decides?
T&Cs
16.1. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Services in our sole discretion, immediately and without prior notice, and delete or deactivate your Account and all related information and files in such without cost to you, including, for instance, in the event that you breach any term of these Terms. In the event of termination, your access to funds will depend on your access to your backup of your Account data including your Account Name and Private Keys.
haha! Let's see what your wife says ;)
Good question above. Not sure about the answer. Doesn't sound terribly decentralised when presented with these words. Though as was the case for me, without some kind of human involvement I wouldn't have gotten my account back. Not sure who that final decision would go to however.
Let's chat further about the SteemTV account at some point :)
Thank you for explaining this! I could use a follow up post on how to grow fins and tail :-) I have read many posts, chatting with some friends on here, but honestly, I am working in the dark! Upvoted even though it has no weight!
I'm a software programmer and I always thought of making money online and Steemit has been my first experience. I always thought o joining Youtube to promote my music but I think I will stay here and people like you are helping us with this type of information because I' starting to see how things are working now. Thanks for the info. :-)
thanks for sharing
Very nicely put, love the game analogy!
Almost forgot to say... I love your article by the way but it could do with a few little pictures ;)
I know. And I think a lot about that. What do you think about the idea of my writing articles and your sexxing them up with pics and then we can both post them a week apart with mentions about who did what and then we can both benefit from it rather than having a joint channel??
Great to have you here @dannyshine!
great to be here
I enjoyed reading this post. Really explains steemit. Well done and thank you