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RE: At a crossroad
We don't have choice, if the rules of the game are like this we have to play it, if we don't play we will never win, I accept the rules and keep playing, I will never give up. ☺
We don't have choice, if the rules of the game are like this we have to play it, if we don't play we will never win, I accept the rules and keep playing, I will never give up. ☺
what if the goal isn't to win, but to succeed as a group?
we succeed as a group by having the best content out there, not by individuals 'winning'
and i say buying votes will not get us the best content, but it will get us mediocre content, and even downright garbage, as people continue to 'play the game' without respect to the whole.
There is a position that is healthier than either "I'm here just to make my numbers get bigger" and "you must abdicate your self interest in favor of the group."
And that's to adopt a system which rewards people positively for actually engaging with content that they consider to be quality, whether that is creating it or making sure that someone else who is likely to like it sees it.
It's in my best interest for me to get more content that I like, however that is. It's in your best interest for you to get more content that you like, however that is. Ideally, if we both pursue our best interests, we both get what we want – we both profit.
As the system stands now neither one of us profits by pursuing our best interest. Unless our interest is very narrowly to make our numbers bigger. And our only interest is very narrowly to make our numbers bigger.
I've said it before, and I will inevitably say it again:
You get what you reward.
Steem is set up to reward "playing the game" of making your numbers bigger – and that's it. Observed as a game system, which is really what it is, the current situation of vote buying and influence delegation in order to facilitate evermore vote buying was inevitable. That's what the system is set up to do.
The system rewards acting at certain temporal breakpoints which humans are lousy at doing. The system rewards not caring about content, per se, but only about gaming those upvotes. The system rewards a fixation on chasing the dragon of the most upvotes at the right time.
Because it literally does not reward human interaction in a meaningful way with content. It makes no statement as regards the content of the system. And because the content doesn't matter, the game can be played without reference to content.
And so it is.
The only fix for that is not social. No amount of social influence or interaction can make that change. The only thing that can make that change is a change to the rules of the game so that individual choice makes a difference at an individual level. Individual choices have to empower individual desires.
Until that happens what you can expect to see is what you've already seen.