Dear @Dtube #42 // personal opinion vlog about ten things i’ve noticed about steemhunt as a moderator and user of the platform so far.

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As someone that loves flipping through flipboard last at night and some times in the middle of the day from the hammock with a phone and a twitch stream in the background I wanted to put my 2 cents (2 steem?) into the pot about steemhunt — where it’s at, where it’s come from, what’s going on in the near future, the big HUNT plan and just generally TEN things about steemhunt that as a moderator I see. ..

again, these are my opinions and ‘shooting from the hip’ style of thought processes, ill formed maybe at times but that’s because I’ve got a million things I’m working on or want to work on and I’ve got reallife(tm) to deal with as well as being flexible to the real kind of working I wish to do — learn, build, educate, earn, upgrade is my mantra of the moment for myself.

As a team of moderators we aim to be fair to everyone, we don’t have a squad of people that allow our own stuff, we can’t moderate our own things and we don’t hold grudges, we just try to keep to the guidelines that have been set for us — of course we have been part of those conversations too and as early advocates of the platform we are helping shape where it should go too in these early stages.

If you know product hunt you will know it’s based on things that the AUDIENCE or the MARKET dictates are good things out there on the web — things people have seen, teams they trust, brands they like, people with ethics they agree with etc etc — it’s an internet melting pot of stuff that’s hunted by t’internet, the only different your time is on your cost, you don’t get anything for product hunting.

So then, step in steemhunt, a similar thing but based on the steem blockchain with all it’s flaws and all and the ability to get some funds from that ‘proof of brain’ algorithm on it’s speedy blockchain — people with invested steem power, bid bots and everything else that goes along with it and when steemhunt started it was a joyful, fun place for the few hardcore users… then like everything, everyone turned up! :)

Now, that ALWAYS happens right, because that’s where ‘exclusive’ and ‘early-adopters’ comes from. You’ll always here from every generation on planet earth the expression ‘it’s not like it used to be’ — everyone has a different ENTRY POINT to something — be it fashion, music, education, religion — we all have our time when something WORKED OUT for us — that was when it was GOOD for us.

While as humans we embrace change for the better, when it’s not better or not like we remember it then it’s different in some way, we look for the fixes and the flaws and the parts that are supposedly better, we frame them in our often complex ways — how they make us feel, what it adds to our life, we look at all the different nuances in our own attached and often under the skin emotional ways, that what it is to be human, layer and layers like an onion of relationship data between us and the IT.

everything has a lifespan and that life changes — take you own, from when you were a kid, to a teen to adult life you grow and adapt and change based on what stimulates you and what around you influences you to make decisions for yourself — what side of the camp you decide to pitch your tent on and for how long, we all have incredible unique attributes that makes us who we are and the problem is we are all in different stages of that life journey.

So today when I write this out I want you to understand this is not directed at one person, or one pursuit, it’s meant to challenge from my own personal opinion of what effort, quality, creation, consumption means to me as of today, and of course what will no doubt change in time as I travel down the road of my mind getting older and my body and views changing! :)

so then, ten things about steemhunt you might want to consider if you are here for the long term and want to build a collection of awesome hunts.

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quality vs quantity vs taste vs opinion

The biggest issue right now across the site is ‘quality’ — everyone has a different definition of what quality looks like. Also if you don’t understand what the platform requires of you, if you don’t review the guidelines then chances are on of the moderators will bump you.

You can tell a hunt that’s ‘got no love’ — it’s a copy and paste, crappy image, no video, no quote, no opinion and it looks very ‘link farm’ — instead of being a quality hunt that ‘someone has taken time over’ it becomes a fire and forget in the hope that it goes up the chart.

I actually think the top 10 chart is a problem at this stage because everyone is trying to win and it’s no longer about quality because of the way that the blockchain works — people with rep can lose out to people with none if they can get together a zombie army of bidbods and upvoters — unspectacular hunts are in the top 10 purely because of the payout amount.

And that’s where the greed kicks in — green to be in the top 10 and greed to win and get more of a payout — you see posts that imitate the previous days and you see copied ideas from people who don’t know what to post and post whatever else posts, the quality instantly hits the floor.

And here is the interesting thing - there is no accounting (even on a blockchain) of taste and opinion because we all have different levels of that at different parts of our journey as a human being on earth — what’s important to me now compared to me drinking my face off in my 20’s is light years of importance to today.

upvoting does not mean quality

when did free equal quality? When did that happen when did we assume that free has any quality in it at all. When did we assume something that COST a lot was worth it? Who puts the VALUE on things and why do we DESIRE them? — it’s quite obvious from the up-voting and bid bots that we have an issue there with everyone wanting to win and make more money — to some maybe it’s just a game to be won.

I have ZERO right to stop you doing what YOU think is right, that’s your choose or opinion — that’s why I make a curated show for things that are UNIQUE or QUALITY to me and that’s sure to be different to everyone — even those who know they are gaming the system in acquisition of wealth from whatever source.

Of course I do upvote my own posts (like $0.23! Lol) but that’s a knee-jerk to wanting to appear in the list even for a moment, it’s interesting how gamification makes our behaviour change in a moment.

we all define quality differently

I mentioned it above but you may think your product is the best thing ever where someone else might see it just as a bag imported from china by the thousands and you buying for $1 and selling it for $100 — that alone for me sparks a bunch of thinking processes. ..

• how much are the people making the $1 bag getting for 100 of them?
• how much a day is a good wage for people on the other side of the planet
• the damage on the planet to import that instead of making local
• is business really greed when we have such markups?
• why do I think a 100 year company is better than a 2 year old one?
• is quality to me the story rather than the product?
• am I buying into a lifestyle choice or sheep culture
• are we comfortable with the disposal culture of throwing away stuff that
• why are we ok with ineffectively made products?

Those are just a handful of what goes on through my mind in a decision making process on a product that I use. .. I have many more at the time of purchase and the lead up to one, using it and after it’s ran it’s course! :)

See, you might not CARE about any of those thoughts, but I do, I’m sure you have your own thoughts about products and if you dig deep enough they impact us in so many different way — from the things we want and need vs the things that stay and define us as people moving through the world.

The way we smell, the way we look, the way products shape our decision making and can become short term happiness time fillers — the life of our consumer patterns really say a lot about who we are as humans, it’s as a close a subject as education or religion, we just don’t talk about it much.

education education education

I feel that life is a constant exercise in learning. Literally their is nothing more self empowering than learning a new skill, iterating and getting better at something and have things pay of when you put the work in — it’s easy to coast and get by but it’s another thing to just scrap through.

I’ve had many times in my life of scraping through, heck before I came across the potential of how blockchains would change the way we would work and live I just kept banging my head against the wall in trying to keep up with new technology so that I could keep upgrading and stay up to date.

like with anything for me @steemhunt is an evolving platform with some great devs and staff and already incredible thought provoking moderators and hunters — it’s amazing to see how much has already been added and where we will be in six months time.

We need more education, more curation, more tips and advice and we need to build on the quality of the things that are hunted (for all of us) that means better graphics, quality information and quotes, first hand experience and really digging deep again the web to really find those unique items whilst at the same time building the community and making a space for everyone to use — the team behind the product is really hard at work and is moving heaven and earth to deploy features that will help all the hunters old and new.

investors, hunters and ecosystem

It’s been an incredible journey so far to see how @steemhunt has managed to get the attention of investors — from very small amounts of delegation and to coming up with ways to communicate their intention it’s been a tour de force of smart thinking, great communication, brilliant blogging and regular outreach — if you want to see how to launch a new web app on the steem blockchain the steemhunt blog from start until today is the perfect place to see how they set out their intention.

I truly believe that we will see a complete 360 package for everyone involved from the investors getting returns, hunters improving their quality and getting feedback and upvotes and a solid niche group of steemians actively using the service and the other’s planned.

long way of from true top 10

As with everything brand new and being in from the ground floor it’s easy to judge where the platform was and where it is now — can be both a blessing and a curse deepening how you view legacy and entry point.

Of course I used to love it when the platform was small and I’d get into the top 10 (financial rewards were great) but also at the same time it felt more ‘you and your mates’ — with delegation comes the attraction of money and you know what that often brings with it — the quality (I believe) took a bit of a hit from people not really interested or understanding the ethos of the site but that’s to be expected — it became a little link farm for a few days.

But it’s getting better, people are understanding that quality is a factor, people are adapting, putting in work, finding their most awesome things and things that a technology unique or really bring purpose to our lives — the content guidelines are constantly getting added to and improved as well — I really look forward to the day when the top 10 is full of things that make me go wow, until then, it’s curated list time! :)

short term gains vs long term thinking

when I found steemhunt it gave me a bit of a ‘blogger downtime’ — I could hunt my favourite things and new things I had found and thought were cool, it helped with my anxiety and stress on days where I had issues with focusing on bigger stuff — that’s an incredible thing when a blockchain can have so many different entry points if you can’t fully perform one skill over another, kinda feels more inclusive instead of exclusive.

I personally think for those hunters that make the decision to really dig deep and post things daily outside of the obvious short term financial rewards their is a real wealth of consumer intelligence that is floating around the site with people giving real honest real world experience and feedback on consumer items — that’s valuable.

For me having a profile of hunted products is three fold — portfolio, bookmarking and financial rewards. I’m in it for the long term, I want to put all the cool things I find there so I have them in one place. I’ve used lots of bookmarking sites before that have ended up shutting down after a year and so I’m wary of that but I trust the guys and at least I know what I’ve hunted is also on the blockchain — I like that security.

Also from a perspective of supporting a steem blockchain project (or web app whatever you see it) that’s what being an active community member looks like, putting up your best stuff, spending time on a well thought out opinion based on why you think it’s cool so that other people can debate with you in the comments of that post.

gamification we get better.

I can’t help feel right now (and of course this will change in time) that the ‘gaming’ of things is really killing the social connection between us all — I mean sure the rewards are great to get when you have spent years in digital platforms and got nothing for your time but I think the future of online interaction will be really smart AI looking at your activity, comments, feedback, time served on a blockchain and all that will pulled together to give you a scoring.

I’m really looking forward to the future of what that looks like for a content creator and course builder specifically for me because I think it will help with my own time management and accountability — I can’t wait for AI to suggest food/exercise and healthy working cycles!

one of the best steem blockchain products

Next to @dtube and @dlive I have no doubt that @steemhunt is in my third application (mainly because I’m using it daily) in my top five — for sure we have great applications like steepshot with it’s slick interface and we have utopia which is helping open source coders get paid for their awesome work but for me as a creator these are my top three.

When looking for projects to support it can be easy to just go on what you see but you really need to get to know the people behind the product, what they are trying to achieve, where they are taking it too, what they stand for, what their work rate and passions are — what they bring to the table way passed the product.

Both @tabris and @project7 are very skilled in their particular skill areas and just the wealth of knowledge and people flocking around the project in discord and telegram tell you a lot about the frequency of where this project (and the others that will spawn of it) are heading — roll on SMT! :)

life as a moderator and a hunter

I’ve had a pretty mental last few weeks what with moving around and birthdays and just general MAY madness — I have a lot of bills, timescale demand in the analog day to day and it’s been difficult at times getting adjusted to ‘single-person’ logistics after @dayleeo had to head back after six months here in the uk.

Moderation has been a nice addition to do everyday alongside making my hunts and it’s certainly changed the way I interact with the platform — it’s my aim to really increase the quality of my posts and be an inspiration and advisor to those new people coming onboard.

it’s been a really interesting couple of weeks as we all debate what’s cool and quality but I’m confident that the moderation team in place alongside the steady hand of the top table team will make the site build from strength to strength.

I’m going to be doing a separate ‘review’ type show of random hunters that I see on the platform with my own opinion and breaking down how things can improve and eventually once I’ve built my steem power back up do some live curation events as well.

But mostly, I’m excited to see where this train heads too. .. ;)

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pinterest epic wins pinboard → brand advocate for nokia, 1000heads, verisign → won vloggie for node666 (san fran 2006) → television for time team history hunters 1999 (burton on trent) → sold me.dm to evan williams in april 2011 → went to phil campbell, alabama to help raise money after tornado ripped up the town (was on sky news, bbc news)→ CNN for sxsw 2013 about austin south by southwest event → video chat with robert scoble from rackspace → music video can you spot me? → won the digital derry contest for 5k euros → crowdfunded digital signage concept called pi street → now living life through digital blockchains.

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