HF 19: A Circle Jerkers Dream
The overall success of the recent hardfork is undeniable in my opinion but so is the potential for the ultimate circle jerk. One old problem that could now be potentially worse is the concentration of votes in an effort to earn curation rewards.
If voting behavior stays the same, or changes for the worse, this problem could become even bigger. I'm not sure that it will but I think it is important to address it.
More Power, More Responsibility
Linear rewards is the way it always should have been - directly proportional to stake. Now there will be at least an opportunity for more consensus on what is rewarded.
The only problem I see after HF 19 is that it can be easier to concentrate votes on yourself, your friends, and your sock puppets. This problem does not come from linear rewards, but from the change to 10 full power votes that are 4x stronger than the 40 full power votes before the fork.
Voting After Hardfork 19
In all my positivity about linear rewards, I didn't worry too much about the potential to abuse the new voting structure. Now I see that I will need to change my voting percentage and I am just now unchecking the "upvote post" box while writing this post.
I have always had it checked, but when I posted after the hard fork and it made my post worth $8 immediately, I felt a little guilty giving myself a 100% upvote when I am now mainly giving out 25% upvotes.
In the last few days since the hardfork, I have voted more than ever, because I see my vote having such an effect especially on new users posts. I have always found plenty to vote on, so it has always been hard to keep my voting power up.
10 full power votes
I have always used full power votes, but now I am switching to 25% or less unless the post is really good and has somehow gone unnoticed and unrewarded. That will be rare though as I prefer to vote 40 plus times a day.
I have never understood why we needed to make votes 4 times as powerful. I thought the goal of simplicity on forks would have us simply make the linear rewards change and not change anything else, but now that it's done, I will adjust accordingly.
Circle Jerking
Clearly some will use this system to try to reward themselves as much as possible. This will happen of course, but it will be visible for anyone who wants to see. Sometimes it will be less clear in the case of sock puppets, but the evidence will be there on the blockchain.
I hope this means that overtime people will learn to spread their votes around to create more diversity on the trending page. If voters are truly trying to reward what they see as valuable, it will improve the trending page. As more people join Steemit and communities come into play, some of these problems will be fixed as new ones arise. As the community evolves, so will the code and the individual actors.
Undoubtedly, there will be ways to game the system, but you can bet the community will point it out. Because Steemit is such a strong community driven project, I have faith we will continue moving in the right direction.
Having been here for 3 weeks I can say it's been an interesting ride so far. I've seen the good and some of the bad and have seen where the platform can be exploited. As a whole I'm happy with HF19, though I'm still trying to hone my curation sense.
I agree that now it's easier than ever to pool up rewards amongst a 'circle of friends' whoever that may be. Abuse is bound to happen, hopefully not that badly.
I very much liked your summary and own view on upvoting. For me this worth 100% of my voting power. While in the past my vote was hardly moving the needle now I am very happy to see that I can have an impact on the result. I thereforeb want to see my voting power to increase so I do find a self vote important as well.
Thank you! And yeah that is another positive for smaller stake holders
Totally agree man! Saw a post today that stated if you upvote all your own posts, comments and all, you will be able to double your voting power in like half a year. The urge to try this was overwhelming (But I promise you I did not give in).
HF19 Really makes you mindfully vote. I used to just totally disregard the power of my votes; after all the range was $0.01 → $0.01 so there wasn't much thinking involved. But now I can create upvotes worth up to $0.45 (if I wait for full power). While this is nothing insanely crazy, it does force me to think about who deserves the full power vote and who gets a nice $0.01 pad.
Cheers and Steem on!
I do like your post @richardcrill and you have my full support ! Resteemed on my blog :)
Now, that we're talking about voting power, I dare you show how much your vote is worth * cough * 100% * cough * on this comment ...
lol, Nice effort, but my voting power is low enough as it is. I'll do 25%
Haha. No worries man :) I was coughing when I wrote that :))))
Thanks a lot!
With comments and such it's easy enough for 40 votes to be concentrated. 10 makes it easier but I don't think you'll see any new abusers just more obvious abuse. Personally I love having a tad more power so I can't hate on the HF.
Awesome post, I have a lot to learn. I still don't really understand how to curate, effectively. I want to play a part in bringing value to this platform in every way possible. I'm not hear just to make a buck, I want to call this place my social media home! I have no desire to shit were I eat and I don't want anyone else doing so as well. Don't get me wrong I do still want to make money at this, but not by scamming or gaming the system. It does seem in the short time I have been on the site that majority of the people hear feel the same, this is a wonderful realization. The potential of this platform to change the world as we know it is exciting. It teaches people to communicate in a much kinder, well thought out way. Hell it is even teaching me how to communicate using a keyboard! I have never been good at writing out my thoughts and in just under 2 weeks I can see the improvement. Well thak you for the post and good day! P.S. How do I change the voting power?
chainBB let's you adjust the power applied to your votes using a slider on the button, as well, if you use that platform to do them ...
Ok thank you, good to know!
Once you get to 500 Steem Power, every time you vote you see a toggle that allows you to decided what percentage of an upvote you want to give.
OK very good thank you.
I need a steemit tutor. I get so confused here!
there's a tool bar here...to the left of your avatar on your home page...a magnifying glass thing.
it's steemit centric...and a good tool...use it as a google search...key words or members.
hope that helps
Thank you 😊
There will always be problems and the problems are always because of how and why people do what they do. Selfish people will always act selfishly and always try and use the system whatever it may be for selfish reasons. Mean people will be mean and find justifications to be mean to nice people. The biggest problem we have in this world is PEOPLE hahaha and all we can do is our best to support and interface with people we feel good about. It won't take to long to find out who is worth really supporting and who isn't. Who is legit and who is fake, who is benefitting this community and who isn't.
Thanks for your continued contributions to a better steemit world!
That picture looks like the followers of the Bagwhan Rashneesh (sp?).
Osho! I don't think so. It's from a martial arts school in china
10% upvote, uguish