Sunday Reflection: RELEVANCE, Network Marketing and What Bid Bots Remind me of

in #content6 years ago

Many moons ago, I used to write for a weekly publication called "Emerald Coast News."

As I was perusing various topics on Steemit, Facebook and other places, I grew very aware of the great number of complaints and accusations of scams, shady businesses and the way people "manipulate their way" to the top of success ladders.

So many people feel they have been "wronged," somehow.

History repeats itself

With some resignation, I realized that I have been writing (mostly "analysis" pieces) for what we might call the "Opportunity and Entrepreneurial Press" for longer than half the people on Steemit have even been alive: 33 years and counting.

Nasturtium
Nasturtium

You see, "Emerald Coast News" wasn't a regular newspaper or magazine, it was a periodical for "income opportunity seekers" and those interested in network marketing, as I was, at the time.

I realized that the more things change, the more they stay the same. I know. That's not my saying, but it fits here.

Although vastly different to look at, the landscape of Steemit isn't all that different from a circa 1988, or 1998, or 2008 "income opportunity."

At least not from the perspective of examining the inevitable "Cast of Characters" that seem to congregate anywhere someone opens a gateway to freedom, income, wealth, a better way.

The Dichotomy of "Good" and "Bad" Actors

Just like it was true 30 years ago, much of the "energy" of our beloved community focuses on the eternal "conflict" between what we consider to be the "good" and the "bad" actors.

Cherry
Cherry Blossoms

Of course, good and bad are pretty nebulous terms; we could also call them "heroes and villains," or we could have "the light side" and "the dark side."

"Come to the Dark Side! We have cookies!"

Kidding aside, all these venues have good and bad actors; and they always have had. It's an inherent part of the human condition: Someone "invents" something; some people legitimately want to develop it; some people want to manipulate and exploit it. 

To even think that Steemit could be exempt from such things "because we're on the blockhain" is folly. 

But is Steemit REALLY an "Income Opportunity?"

Orange
About to bloom...

Well, no. And yes. No more or less than Amway, one of the world's oldest and largest network marketing organizations — in business since 1959.

For many of us here, Steemit is a social blogging platform where we can publish and share a variety of content, using a growing number of front end applications. That we get paid is a sort of cool — but ultimately secondary — consideration.

Similarly, for many people involved with Amway, they are a manufacturer and it's simply a line of products they buy and use in their daily lives. The fact that they sometimes get a royalty check because a friend ordered some products is a secondary consideration

On the other hand, many get involved in either project purely for the money.

What's more, both are legitimate aspirations!

That Cast of Characters

Without identifying the structure within which they are operating, the "cast of characters" tends to be consistent, whether you're dealing with Amway, Steemit, or a great other number of "ideas" that involve people coming together and using some kind of "system" or "method" to attain an objective... that's usually a "reward" of some kind.

Leaves
Leaves in the sun

You've got the Central Structure; you've got the Builders; you've got the Early Adopters; you've got the Sincere Hard Workers; you've got the Peripheral Service Providers; you've got the Eternal Idealists; you've got the sketchy Snake-Oil Salesmen; you've got the Scammers and Users; you've got the "Churners;" you've got the Tireless Promoters... and then you've got everyone else. MOST of whom are struggling to reconcile their pie-in-the-sky dreams and aspirations with a somewhat harsh reality.

Oh, and "everyone else" is probably about 95% of "the population."

"95%??? You've gotta be kidding!"

Because most people who will read this are likely to be fairly active here, odds are you don't give a lot of conscious thought to the fact that more than 800,000 of Steemit's one million accounts are pretty much "dormant." 

Some were never used at all; some were created and used for ONE day and then forgotten; some where used for a little while and then abandoned as "too difficult to use" or "disappointing." Which leaves maybe 10% who are tiny redfish and minnows struggling to find any sort of traction.

So, About Those Bid Bots...

Yeah, I'm getting to it.

The Bid Bots remind of those people who were constantly sending us ads about their "service" which was a "secret system" that would help people succeed in the main business. 

GrapeHyacinths
Grape Hyacinths

"Just $39.95 for our amazing system!" they'd say.

Of course, the "secret" consisted of becoming an affiliate for their system, which basically entailed persuading others to spend $39.95 to get the "secret" system. 

There actually WAS no "system;" the system was persuading people to buy the system; an endless "resale" of the same dollars... what we loosely labelled the "Churners."

When questioned, Churners always had the same two responses: One, that the people they were selling to were making sales they wouldn't otherwise have and two, it's somehow "better" to make $100 as a result of $5,000 in sales than to make $100 as a result of $250 in sales. 

The logic, of course, is faulty. 

In reality, it takes far more effort and risk to process $5000 worth of sales than $250 worth of sales... all to make $100... and ultimately, the only people actually making "more money" were the purveyors of the service. Not the people BUYING the service.

With Bid Bots, you give them $25; you get back the equivalent value of a $25 in votes; some people spend as much as $500 to get $500 in value... the only way YOU are better off is in creating the illusion that a lot is happening... and your rep score increases faster. 

Meanwhile, the Bid Bot operator is collecting CASH money for something most users are giving away for free... that's a pretty sweet deal! If you're them...

You Mentioned "Relevance?"

Yes, to close the loop here... a couple of days ago, I wrote a piece about the difference between "Quality" and "Value" when it comes to Steemit content.

PurpleFlowers
Purple flowers in the sun

The word I didn't include was "relevance."

When we use the web, we tend to gravitate towards content that's relevant to us. Relevant content adds value to our online experience... but "value" is a general concept, while "relevance" is very individual.

So we can't plan the "total community" around relevance. For example, I can recognize that posts about motorcycle repair add value to Steemit, but they don't add relevance... for ME

So when we talk about adding "value" to the community, it may take many different forms... many of which may not be relevant to a lot of people. But the value is still there.

As a curator, I come across a good number of posts that don't really have much to "offer" me, but they still get an upvote because I see they offer value to a group of people with a particular interest.

How about YOU? Do you recognize the different "players" on Steemit from the "Cast of Characters?" Do you think there will always be "good" and "bad" actors in any system? If there were no rewards involved, do you think people on Steemit would behave differently? Do you agree that something can have "value" without being "relevant" to YOU? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!


created by @zord189

SB-Marvel-Family.gif

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 180520 16:50 PDT

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Yes, I am still trying to avoid the big bots and using them. I am trying to be like you @denmarkguy and hold off on them. Actually the word "trying" is misused in my case (and probably yours too) as I just flat out refuse to use them..

Just a lot of abuse and people taking advantage of them to get on the Trending page. When they have NO business being there in the first place with their questionable Content.

Also good analogy of Steemit to things like Amway.

I have been there and done that and like you point out there will always be shady characters making their faces shown when ever there is the mere mention of money and income involved.

Thanks for the post buddy/

Shady characters seem to show up pretty much anywhere something "popular" happens. Perhaps they are especially drawn to ventures where there is an "opportunity" of sorts. And so, they come here... as they have come to pretty much any form of "opportunity" for as long as I can remember.

Their central thought — before they even start — seems to be "How can I exploit this without having to do the work?" I realize that may be an inevitable mindset of the human condition, but it still annoys me.

Yes, there are the good. the bad, and everyone in between. Without the reward system, there would still be the good, the bad, and everyone in between. However, I wonder how we would react to them? Would we still flag them? Would we still post as often, would we engagement more in comments? If rewards were based on quality and engagement would that eliminate the spam or just change it? I had similar thoughts the other day and I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't write at all if there wasn't a reward system. I would however follow my followers more closely then I do now.

I guess I would probably flag them anyway, because it annoys me when anyone steps in and causes a disruption that "ruins the fun for everyone else."

I would probably still be blogging here even if there weren't a reward system, simply because this format is so much more interactive than any of my other blog sites since the early days of "social blogging" in pre-Facebook days.

I have difficulty in justice to the posts that are not as 'relevant to me'. This is a not so much as a weakness but as fault. On my part, I have been deliberate in doing this and it is embarrassing as hell to admit.
My voting power is already low ($0.01). Then I am already voting at a less than 100%. I am not really sure how relevant my vote remains after a bus day on Steemit.
Although I do give out as many upvotes as possible hoping that if I won't be able to add $'s but at least I'll to the statistic of number of upvotes received. Even here there is so much content that frankly I haven't been able to look beyond my own feed.

It's often difficult when our voting power is low; especially in view of the minimum payout is $0.02, as far as I know.

O yes, Steemit is a copy of real life. Here are all kinds of people, good, bad, greedy, egoistic, dissatisfied...

Yes, Steemit is pretty much a copy of external life. I think some of the early people here were more idealistic and hoped this would cause people to "behave well," but it seems we get all kinds, anyway/// including thieves.

/ᐠ.ᆽ.ᐟ\

Interesting topic and choice of pictures to go with it. I must admit, I only clicked on the article because of the flowers which have absolutely no relevance to the story but started reading and enjoyed the piece.

Either way, thanks for stopping in and actually reading the piece!

wow thats a perfect content .. bt with out a Without the reward system many user do not use their steemit id .. that the bad effect. bt the good effect is every one here same platform. its help know each other .

Yes, in many ways I think the rewards system serves as a tool to help people connect with each other... and it can result in some very sincere connections.

yeah you are right .. have a good day sir.

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