More Bitching and Moaning from a Disgruntled Curmudgeon: Continuing thoughts on the flagging experiment
As far as I can tell what this flagging experiment has done is as follows:
A. Push away the big-league voters I had worked hard to gain (several really have gone elsewhere).
B. Make sure a new set of "in-clique" folks could make thirty bucks from posting pictures of pizza and gifs. (Now, don't get me wrong, the market likes what it likes, and the Labor Theory of Value is total bullshit, so I'm all good with 30 dollar pizzas in that sense, but in view of other great posts making shit, I flagged this particular post (see recent Trending page))
C. Make sure I get no reward when whales do upvote me at full power because "experimenters" counter-vote me. This usually after I put a lot of effort and time into a post, to ensure that it would bring value to the platform.
If my post is not that great, I have found now that it actually does better. Welcome to Communism. One learns not to work too hard rather quickly, when success and ability is punished. (I cannot stand to do sub-par shit, though, so if it gets worse, I'll just have to fall back even more, I guess, like many others are.)
D. Render the trending page largely a cesspool of self-referential spam.
I am all for the free market, so this is fine, (it's a private enterprise) but damn... It doesn't actually seem so free anymore or like the Steem I signed up for. I can understand why a lot of people are quitting. Combine that with the recent hardfork and it's a bit of a jolt.
Ah well, Steem on. Sure do miss @canadian-coconut though and half the other cool people who have been driven away by the incessant politicking.
One important thing I guess for anyone starting something like this in the future:
Never punish success!
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
We have lost some good content. Curating has become very difficult and time consuming for a different reason. Before, it was because there was so much good-to-decent content that it was hard to pick when you had limited upvotes. Now it's tough to find much good quality, period.
In one sense, the experiment worked. Minnows and dolphins saw their voting power increase, which was good for the community. But by doing it as dictators rather than having a community discussion with announcements that would at least strive to interact and bring everyone on board, people were hurt and the community as a whole suffered badly, losing some great writers.
The 7 day payout only added to the perception of low payouts as the pool fills. It may have been wise to start with a full basin rather than set it on this course. I'm sure others have left as a result.
I'm looking forward to it shaking out. It will. But I'm not producing much content right now either. I had a decent payout just before the HF. My most recent one was better quality content, but got 1.5 peanuts. Nah. It's not worth the time invested to provide quality writing.
Exactly start with the basin full. The no/low pool cost how many users and killed the momentum.
I hear you man. When you make a platform like this, some semblance of consistency to the methodology is important for long-time, dedicated users. It's like starting a game of Monopoly only to have the banker change the rules every five minutes. Eventually every sensible player starts to lose interest.
Really appreciate the insightful comment, and glad you're staying on the platform.
I can't stand doing sub-par stuff either.
I don't want to fill up my page with posts that I wouldn't be really proud of months later.
I've thought about putting out general, quick stuff but can't bring myself to do it. Perhaps I should start a second account here and post general stuff that doesn't take as much thought and see what type of results that I get.
Thanks for the mention! It is encouraging to see that people miss it when I don't post frequently.
I still appreciate your stuff too CC
Thank-you so much Alan! That means a lot to me.
I also really enjoy reading your stories of recovering people from vaccine injuries.
I think a lot of it is a matter of expectations. I came over from Niume where 1000 views equals $1. So in that respect I guess I'm happy with a couple of bucks for a post. The $30 for a pizza post is disappointing just because it would be nice to see 15 others get $2.
As for the HF, I still have no idea why they didn't seen the data with historical data instead of zeros...
Anyways good piece. I love bitching and moaning! Followed.
Cheers man. Followed back. Never heard of Niume before. Will have to check it out.
But how are we supposed to subsidize failure and mediocrity unless we punish the talented and successful?
"Communism always degenerates to rule by the most stupid and the most vicious." -anon
The experiment also exposes another intersecting dynamic, intelligence and democracy. The majority is stupid. I'm not being mean, it's simply a fact. This is why democracy never works. Steemit contains a lower percentage than the general population, of stupid, but there are still many. As Saint Carlin stated, "You know how dumb the average person is, well half of people are dumber than that.".
I am sure that we do not have to be stuck in a false dilemma between oligarchy and communism fueled democracy. We are some smart monkeys. I am certain we can come up with some better games to play than those. Besides, the flagging of whales discourages investment in the platform, and I'm kind of tired of earning more rewards in steem power, only to see my account worth less and less every day.
I am encouraged by my followers. It seems that, as long as I put my heart into what I'm sharing, my following only ever increases. I hope I am, at least, of value to them.
But this is what the community always wants. And we all know that they should get what they want...and that it is always good for the platform in general. Right?
Right?!
/s
The COMMUN(ity) shall have its way!
Still trying to figure out who "the community" is. It always seems to escape me. Usually "the community" is a few people claiming to be "most people."
I was cool with stake-weighted voting and working my way up from nothing. You, know, what Steemit is. (Was?)
Apparently I had it all wrong. I was supposed to just ask for more rewards from other people's efforts. Very seductive, this selfless "community" way of thinking!
This post has been ranked within the top 50 most undervalued posts in the second half of Apr 10. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $0.68 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Apr 10 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
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nice post thanks for sharing
Silvia you say this every time but I am wondering if you even read them.
I sometimes read them, sometimes just reading the title
For B look at the engagement.
Dozens of comments and almost 1000 views.
Either people are returning to the post to have conversations or it's being shared elsewhere.