The Rules of Whale Club
Welcome to Whale Club.
The first rule of Whale Club is: you do not talk about Whale Club.
The second rule of Whale Club is: you DO NOT talk about Whale Club!
Third rule of Whale Club: if non-whale yells “stop!”, criticizes, or flags out, their blog is over.
Fourth rule: only whale can flag.
Fifth rule: one flag at a time, fellas.
Sixth rule: the flags are bare authority. No questioning, no crticism, no equality.
Seventh rule: flags will go on as long as they have to.
And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first time at Whale Club, you have to flag.
The profit has been always the priority over well being of community.
Again, Steemit's content has been taken over by few whale investors whose priority is self interest not the good of community. If they do anything for the community it is just side effect of their attempt to acquire profit.
They invite and incentivize junk content creators showing disrespect for the rest of hard working content creators who try to improve the quality of this platform.
Just to make it clear, quality posts do not have to be long. They can be short too. Short does not mean few sentences and copypasta of YT link with few sentences, or flood of 10 insta googled photos just to make your post look long. Quality is about the amount of effort, creativity and time you spend creating something. How is that "5 minute" posts with photo of your sandwich or lazy copypasta video with 50 words earns more than well written and interesting article (even quality 200-300 word short one or genuine work of art)?
What is even worse is that some content creators who used to produce decent content have now started to create junk in order exploit these new, junk content initatives. They try to milk the rewards fishing for random, mindless votes from that "group" of few whale investors.
Just like all these Eastern European plagiarists have been doing for months with their trash copypasta which @steemcleaners has been futilely trying to fend off. Plagiarism in absolutely no way should be upvoted. For the respect of other content creators. Also it incentives scammers who just manufacture accounts with plag to fish for random votes from that small "whale-investor" group. There are so many such accounts popping out every day trying to scam that steemcleaners cannot keep up with finding them. Every day there is some highly rewarded plagiarism that goes unnoticed past the payout. There are not enough people volunteering for steemcleaners to find them out. Just because of that mindless upvoting by the "group" they cannot get rid of these scammers who persistently keep generating the accounts and new scams as they see the profit.
Upvoting plagiarism or trash content only attracts vultures and scammers not quality content creators. If you have no time to spend 20-30 seconds on at least looking through the post if its legit and quality then you should not vote on it. It is the ultimate show of disrespect of these few, mindless and inconsiderate whales towards great, quality content creators and contributors to community.
Donkeypong idea of segregating very short link type of content and quality posts would be very good. Any content in link section should have rewards disabled.
Here are some of quality examples:
Great, quality post by @sykochica
I suspect that this post got so little because of sykochica's gender or because it is related to LGBTQ. It is not a first time she gets peanuts for her LGBTQ related posts.
- "2016 Halloween Makeup Tutorial Contest Submission - my apologies to KISS Nation by @merej99" - 1SBD
Very funny, quality post with video of makeup tutorial by @merej99 who is well engaging community member.
She ended up with the last place in competition, because her entry post was not rigged by whale bots. She had no chance to compete with 2 other, whale-favoured users. One who does not even contribute anything to this community (same as her whale patron, compulsive spun content creator) - no curation of other users, no commenting, no chat. No engagament whatsoever. She only created some "Steemit" promotion posts, obviously to fish for easy profits.
Very unappreciated user with so much effort and ideas for Steemit community.
Here are some examples of dubious quality posts:
- "Introducing Myself-Alexa Nova" 65 SBD
Could someone, please explain to me why this new user deserves more for the posts than other old and loyhal users such as artists, musicians etc. If this user got so highly upvoted for being some minor porn celebrity, then it clearly sends a message to other users on Steemit that "you are worthless here unless you are famous or favoured by some whales".
I also wonder what kind of followers this user is going to bring to Steemit?
No wonder that this introduction received such a high reward, considering that Steemit is saturated with cis males of "peeping tom" mentality. It is probably the same reason why sykochica's LGBTQ posts are ingored or attacked.
3 sentences and copypasta of YT video.
- "My first Steemit post" 18 SBD
Seriously?
1 Sentence and copypasta of some gif. If I posted something like this I would select to refuse the payout. Taking the reward for something like this is awfully disrespectful for quality content creators.
These are only few examples out of dozens coming up each week.
I am well aware that this post is probably my Steemit suicide.
If that is so, let it be.
I'm not afraid to speak my mind.
I have done a lot to help Steemit become better in many different ways.
I will not be posting anything more in my blog until I notice that Steemit appreciates their loyal, long term users who produce quality content.
I will start writing when it stops being manipulated by small group of investors who do nothing for the platform except of bringing their investment.
I will come back when this platform stops advertising something that it cannot provide trying to lure new users giving them a promise of American dream type of product, feeding on their hopes jsut to realise that their blog is worthless unless they know some whales or are promoted by some.
EDIT:
There are some arguments that quality is a subjective concept.
I think that pretty much almost anyone in most cultures would agree that quality is defined by making an effort in your work and adding something from yourself. It is about being creative in producing something which is superior in its design over other product. The product can also be an information. Some information can have better value and teach us more than others.
According to dictionary definition it is "the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something".
All the best.
-logic
P.S. Since day one I have found the names "whale", "dolphin" and "minnow" to be really silly. They had major "WTF" effect on me making it hard for me to take the platform seriously at first. I think that those words have major anti-marketing effect on anyone new joining the platform.
Props to you @logic for speaking your mind. The payout scenarios have been a frustration point for content creators from day one. This has happened to more than one monitor. I assure you!
I have spent most of my SBD rewards on monitor replacement ;-)
Same here. I had to buy a surplus lot of 12 monitors off eBay so I can keep going. I typically will run dual monitors and will keep my composure long enough to drag the windows over to the monitor I'm going to spare for that moment. I will then put on a UFC glove and punish the chosen monitor and then I will continue to work on the surviving display.
Hahaha :-)
lol
Yea. eventually someone will come up with something better.
Appoved? :D
haha. i just noticed it. wahh.. i gotta redo them all.. ><
it was a drunken fun time though
Best Steemit comment I've seen today.
I'd have to say I did make a post shortly after I first started about how upvoting bots and a few other things were a major turn off for a new comer. I do see the fact that having steempower influence your upvote value most likely gives steem its true value. I just think that more people could be using it towards the good instead of just pumping there own little circle jerk. Upvote responsibly. I would agree my posts might not be the top notch of the quality content but thats what the upvote power is for. I do put work and effort in expressing my mind, sharing knowledge I had to look for, and sometimes openly promoting someone elses youtube video if got on an upvote list from a whale I dont expect all my posts to be valued the same everytime. End rant!!
I see that there were few 1 link posts in your blog in the past (you can always select to switch off reward for such posts). In general, you put something from yourself in most of your recent posts - that is thaw I think that should be valued. The post does not have to be complex in editing to be of good quality. It is also about the personal information it provides.
I do not always understand whale behavior. Sometimes I think some whales are young teenagers in a basement adept at video games and for whom Steemit is simply a game. With their power, they have fun to promote anything and dance minnows!
I worry when I see such behavior:
there are bully whales here. and powerful.
Steemit is just like real life. Gotta get over it. Sucks but thats life.
Yes, it often seems like some sort of game.
Btw, I heard that you may be the oldest user on Steemit :D That is awesome :-)
Maybe not! Being retired, I have plenty of time to read, write and comment, especially to flush out the paradoxes.
Hey man.
Good post. You said what a lot of people are feeling at times. Like word for word,
-why did I click on this post you may ask?
1/ I have always liked your content, and comments, so that is #1 -- kinda making your point for you in the article here you took time to write which is clearly original.
2/ As such seeing #1 -- I hope you don't leave but I would understand.
3/ The wording like I said is how a lot of people feel. I am not the most talented online guy or with limited skills online but I try my best. I am not a techy and I am new to crypto etc.
4/ Literally 3 mins before I saw your post -- I saw a person post a picture of them standing somewhere, asked people to comment on where they were - it was up for about an hour, they had a couple sentences in the photo driven blog post --- and it had 150 votes and was up to $170 or so and outloud, I literally said "How the f.. is this post worth that - what is this contributing to this community?"
I kid you not. I don't have much - but I appreciated your post so I took time to let you know.
Sincerely - Barry
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
Could you provide me a link to post you are talking about? :-)
I am Canadian so the Canadian Geese in the photo and comments piqued my interest - but look at the numbers.
https://steemit.com/bounty/@onceuponatime/where-am-i-6
I see! lol
Well he gives away 10 SBD for guess but earns 65SBD from the post. I would add that 65SBD as an extra to the winner.
I would agree that some of these "Where am I" posts don't deserve such a high reward. It took the guy 1 minute to take photo of himself and then later another 5 minuntes to submit the post. Well he gets such rewards as obviously he got his back covered by some powerful whales who like him including Ned. I see it as Ned's personal favouring of someone he likes. In the way nepotism.
I should have included this post in my article.
I can assure you that if you came up with such an idea for "Where am I", you would be likely to get nothing.
I had to reply here to answer you, the other ones were maxed out
1/ You don't need to have more words to make a post effective every single time. Memes speak for themselves and generally need nothing else, a lot of the time. So to say every meme needs wording all the time.... is false. They don't.
I also identify my short form posts nearly every time in the title -- Saying Short Form Post - so people know upfront. Lots of whales and dev's have openly discussed short form content as having value many times. Again, value is not dictated by slapping a pile of words on something. I say again, every case is different.
2/ Every one is different - if I have to edit them a lot or play around with things, could take me 30 or 60 mins. Some take 5 mins or 15 mins. Every case is different and often depends on the photo one would pick for the canvas or background of the photo on it - so to speak
I asked how long because many of them look like they would take me 15 mins to create (like you admitted yourself). That's not much of an effort.
My shortest 300 word TIL posts take 90-120 mins to make, not counting reading up/researching the topic first and look for material.
Thwt is true that memes can say something for themselves and don't need additional content but then they have to be really good and not look like some generic contemt. I see that you think that your memes and work are very good. What made you think that?
Yes. I agree
I like to have fun too, don't get me wrong. I try to make fun memes every day that usually promote the steemit community.... and I get no votes or reward hardly and I have to work at them using only my limited skills and MS Paint lol.
But I try to add value.
Your post is a good one, there is no doubt and it will upset some people, and likely my comments will too.
Well you put a work and time in your memes with limited tools that you have. I think that you could put more personal inputein your posts in the form of written content. That would improve them. You only post just a picture of the meme and thats it.
How much does it take you to create one meme like this using MS Paint?
Like how can this Meme of the Day not be worth something, this is a beauty lol
https://steemit.com/funny/@barrydutton/meme-of-the-day-it-s-michael-jackson-what-this-hit-song-would-be-called-today-and-the-video
Well it would take me 15 minutes to create it using MS Paint but I agree that it should be worth something. I would give it 2-3 SBD. You are just one of those unlucky users *most of users) who do not get upvotes...
I would also recommend limiting the amount of content you resteem in your blog. It is way too much and may frustrate potential followers. I would not resteem more than few articles a week. No mroe than 2-3 a day.
I cannot answer there so again, I had to here.
I believe my memes add value and are pretty good because I am generally considered witty by many people and a bit of a wordsmith
2/ Many others tell me the same thing regularly.
3/ I don't copy/paste others work and that alone is value, because it is original.
4/5 / I regularly give people a laugh and or create Steemit Branded memes which is also unique and specific to the platform -- which also adds value again.
6/ I also believe some of your points you made about good content being buried is valid in MANY MANY cases on here, with a lot of others. Sometimes that includes my own content and I am OK with saying it.
You can go on about how LONG you work on a post --- it does not mean it is a good post, right??
So I don't know why you have to be so critical of everyone else seemingly at times taking shots at some of us -- maybe you are just argumentative Personally - your comments are kinda rude at times, TBH and could be constructed a lot more effectively.
I believe our convo here has come to the end of it's life for me, seeing where you want to head things, so I will just leave you be. I have other things to do and have tried to support you and not poke you back, like you want to do to others, and not constructively at times.
But then again, you spend hours on posts, so what do I know.
Anyways, -- And I will end with this since you want to question other peoples' work or efforts and the length of their posts --- this is copied right from the banner on your own page about how you describe yourself and what you like about Steemit:
" EMAN YAL' PSID (66)
I'm here for the community and to support quality content creators. Long or short posts. Doesn't matter. Lets see where this Steemship takes us.
406 followers2109 posts174 following
Joined July 2016 "
"You can go on about how LONG you work on a post --- it does not mean it is a good post, right??"
No it doesn.'t. It is about creativity and "end product" - wht makes it different and more intersting than others.
It is important to refer to honest, critical feedback from others and also express modesty and being self criticial towards your own content.
Many of my posts were complete trash when I started. I used others feedbackand work as point fo reference to improve the quality.
Still learning how to improve it. Ther is a a lot to improve. I lack of any talent so I need to rely on constant experience and work.
"Personally - your comments are kinda rude at times, TBH and could be constructed a lot more effectively."
I agree, they may be seen as that. I am kind of "to the point" guy. I use straight forward and descriptive language.
"I believe my memes add value and are pretty good because I am generally considered witty by many people and a bit of a wordsmith"
I asked about what you think about your posts because I have had impression that you are quite narcissistic about them and lack criticism of your own content. By the above comment, it seems that you are also narcissistic about yourself. This is not ad hominem but just a critical observation. It is up to you how you take it.
In my personal opinion, there is nothing special about your memes. Neither there is anything of what I would consider "wordsmith" type. Not sure who tells you that.
Many of them are quite infantile and have traits of Steemit "lick spittle"/sycophancy.
Good post which has got better with the edits. Shows depth when one revisits what started as a rant to add the big picture perspective.
This post is a lot more than a rant about whales. It comes down to your edit.
Does a post or an upvote or a follow or an add to a vote bot list add value to us all? is the test I use.
With 27 posts about orchids, I perceive value the minute someone likes a photo and a story. Some days I get 10cents and others $20. C'est la vie.
My upvote bot allows 200 votes. I have only 20 people I like, so far.
A big upvote for QUALITY content.
Botting someone without knowing their content is a problem which is plaguing Steemit. Many people like someone's post(s) so they bot their asses up. Later, if these botted users start posting trash, they still get upvotes.
Your posts are great!!
It is a shame that you do not have steady support for your votes. I think that such steady support is crucial in keeping loyal, quality content creators!
Creators get frustrated when their rewards are like a gambling rollercoaster. Uncertainty tends to bring stress.
I will follow you from now on. And when I say following I mean that I will actually upvote your posts!!!
(some users say that they will follow you trying to make you follow them back to upvote their posts while they never reciprocate with votes).
I like your posts in general, but the only thing I learned from this one is that dead people can have orgasms. If sharing content that others created was useless, we'd live in a world without teachers.
Ah, the labor theory of value. That's how children and Marxists think: children want an A for effort and Marxists assume that everybody's labor is equally useful. Getting rid of this expectation would save you a ton of disappointment, on Steemit as well as in real life.
In my first two weeks here, my posts that received a non-zero payout were exactly the ones I expected: one with practical advice, and one with Steem-related news. They were certainly not the ones I spent the most time on. I'll keep writing posts that will get zero rewards, just like I used to do on my self-hosted blog.
I follow @sykochica too. If LGBT-related posts are neglected here, we should promote Steemit on Tumblr, and wherever gay-friendly people with money hang out.
I don't know if it is called " labour theory of value". I don't follow Marxism or any type of ideology, and I don't want to. Quality is often described by many properties of the product. Not just the amount of work effort but also how the work is performed. You also add aesthetics like look and presentation. That seems pretty much similar in all cultures including tribal ones. I don't think that some Aztecs, for example, had any idea about Marxism when they valued their artwork or craft.
I gave one comparison example above. You have (not talking about you as here btw) very interesting information to share with other but when you convert it to a post you don't care about proper editing removing grammar mistakes, misspellings and punctuation. You make it slapdash not even bothering to use capital letters when where they should be used.
It is like cooking very nice meal and serving it on filthy plate and dirty, rusty cutlery.
People are unlikely to be attracted to something like this as they see you as someone who is lazy or doesn't care.
It is not just about amount of time and labour you spend, as some people may be more experienced hence needing less time to do the same. It is about the properties of final product. It is also about using your own creativity and adding something personal and individual to it.
There are some products that you can just recognise that the least amount of effort was put into it and that such product could be easily made with minimum experience. An example is copypasta post of YT video. Anyone can do it. It requires almost zero effort, zero experience, zero personal input, zero creativity.
"that received a non-zero payout were exactly the ones I expected: one with practical advice, and one with Steem-related news"
I would advise not to look for such patterns in your posts trying to find out what information Steemit favours. I can assure you that there isn't any. If such content got rewarded, it was only because you were lucky. It is not because this platform favours such posts but quite likely because some more powerful user bumped into your posts aand liked it. Then he/she followed your similar posts bringing a squad of other whales who automatically follow his/her trail. There are many users posting great "practical advice" but get nothing. You are lucky with these posts that's it. Be aware that any time you may lose this trail of votes on that content.
EDIT:
You have had only 2 of your posts getting larger reward. You shouldn't try to look for patterns or make assumptions. This is not enough evidence and you have not been here for long.
On one them you got upvote from blocktrades. Blocktrades is a persistent curator who upvotes anything for his profit (his wife does most upvoting for him) regardless of content. They just auto-insta click-click-click on anything in feed which is in 15-30 minutes time mark for maximum profit. They never check the content. Steemcleaners has constant problems with them curating plagiarism and scams. There is a whole army of Eastern Europeans, mostly Russians who every day pop up trash content and plagiarism to fish for blocktrades votes. Steemcleaners cut one head off and another comes up. It will never end as long as blocktrades incentivizes it.
That was simply random.
It is low quality post: 3-sentence news and the picture. Typical type of post being created by new users.
https://steemit.com/steem/@edb/usd10-million-for-cryptocurrency-fund-interested-in-steem
The second post got upvote from val-a. There may have been something in the post (probably in the title and picture) that that user liked.
This one is a good quality post. Nice and personal.
https://steemit.com/advice/@edb/how-i-underestimated-the-importance-of-networking
Thanks for liking my posts, btw.
Maybe this can help
https://steemit.com/steemit/@cardboard/suggestion-tipping-autors-in-steem
That tip option is interesting but you can pretty much do it now by just transfering SBD to the user :-)
@logic, so I missed this and read it just now, I keep seeing you on steemd.com while returning upvotes and keep clicking on your page and been seeing other's post resteemed instead, I wondered where you are so I scrolled down and found this.
I feel for you and sometimes, it hits my head to stop - but then that's defeat so I'll just focus on what I want to achieve and do my best posting. This has not been flagged cause - IMHO - plenty of the thoughts you pointed out makes sense. We should keep writing and make the change cause if we think we are making quality post and then we stop and those we think are making so - so post goes on and prevail, then we all have failed.
If in anyway, it would help - look at @papa-pepper, @thecryptofiend, @meesterboom and I could go on and on but - there are still so many who do their best to come up with quality post.
I hope to see you write again my friend :)
Thank you for your constant support!
Thank you for your lovely support :-)
You have had my support for quite a while. You are one of the best bloggers here :-)
I may come back to writing on Steemit one day. Atm, I'm too tired and disappointed :-)
@logic, that means a lot, thank you.
when tired it would be good to rest and hopefully you come back stronger.
Hang around and just let us feel your presence.
Would you be in the chat?
Happy holidays and I hope you get to recharge soon :)
I do pop in to chat to check up messages but not that often anymore.
Happy Holidays to you too :-)
@logic okay then you should check it
I've sent you a message :)