The entitlement complex
Although the title is probably a bit overdramatic as the real entitlement complex is linked to something like narcissism I have to admit I keep seeing it quite often here on Steem and in many different ways.
Before I go on writing this post I want to mention that this is not aimed at any one or a group of people, it's just things I remember having seen where I thought to myself that this was such a case.
The entitlement for upvotes.
This one is probably one we have seen before quite often, but it is not talked about as much. From my understanding it stems from users making it to the platform, seeing how much votes others are getting either on the hot or trending list and expecting their content to make the same rewards just because they create similar content. What they fail to understand is that building up your account takes a lot of time and commitment, it's just not about providing content but also about making connections and showing that you bring a positive effect to the blockchain and users value not just your content but your presence too. Sure it can become blurry and you may be called out for vote-trading here and there but I see so many who come here, give it a couple tries with posts and then give up forever because they do not receive any votes.
As baffled as I am of that happening and the entitlement of getting votes while you're still quite unknown, I can't help but think why users expect that to happen when literally no other platform rewards you with anything for your activity. People seem to forget that this advantage that blockchain brings and our reward pool is not something that is supposed to happen automatically to anyone in a stakebased system.
There's this analogy of flags and upvotes. If you complain about receiving flags because another user disagrees with the rewards you are making on posts, why do you never question the upvotes you received to begin with? Of course we all like receiving upvotes for our content and some may be getting more than what seems fair, but that's just the way the system works right now so you've got to either stick with it or try something else. There may be users on your side but you might quickly find yourself being ignored by many others if you constantly complain about flags because the rewards on your posts are too high. It seems as if a lot of users get used to the rewards and have this mentality that "from now on it can only go up" which gets them triggered quickly when prices drop or the auto-votes stop occurring.
This is something we have seen happen now over the past year, both rewards have dropped due to a sinking Steem price and curation has been fading more and more as users have switched to delegating to services that return a ROI or reward you with tokens from their dapp. I personally see it as a way of the "early adoption phase" ending slowly but surely. Not saying curation will cease to exist completely but I don't think it will be increasing any time soon considering the history of authors and how many of them are still around and the value they may or may not have provided for Steem or its most popular front-end.
Again this is all just personal opinion so please don't take it as if its set in stone. That's the beauty of decentralization, there are many views, opinions and people from different cultures, languages and countries sharing their own thoughts everywhere. Will the wisdom of the crowd prevail?
It's kind of exhausting seeing cases where users are very entitled about their rewards. I do wonder where it comes from. I'm not saying that I am an exception to the rule, I do remember that early in Steem's age I was one of them as well. I felt that just cause I was there early and have been involved in crypto for a long time that my posts about crypto, etc, should be receiving more rewards. I believe the majority of the issues comes from comparing with others, it's something that happens all over the world and is a known phenomenon especially when it comes to your neighbors. If you happen to be a Finn reading this you'll understand that feeling better than anyone else.
The line of "what you deserve" seems to be averaging out for most accounts now it seems, it will either depend on your reputation, your consistency in posting because of auto-votes, or actual quality of content and curation projects rewarding you for it. There are of course many other factors but it does look to me as if the "early adopter phase" is coming to an end where curation is not being thrown to users willy-nilly like it happened in the first few years. While I realize that many reading this may regret not having been here when that occurred, imagine how many users are still not here now and will think the same way about the distribution of tokens and early adoption of dapps they will be missing on. It's all in the eyes of the beholder.
I think this statement is important. There are great things about the system (and the not so great things), and that is just how it works (at least at this moment in time). Who knows? It could get better or worse in the future. I hope for the better.
When I first joined the Steem community, I only viewed "quality" posts as a viable reason for earning. Of course, quality is subjective based on the individual.
As I have engaged the community more, I have realized that there are a lot of other categories of people who are trying to get a return on their investment:
Each group of people (and the countless more who will join us) come to the table with different perceptions. And part of the challenge is finding common ground with each other.
We should be thankful for the blessing of earning, stand next to our friends who walk beside us in the community, support new development and progress, and invite others to join.
Upvotes are nice, but there is more. We can't forget that!
The users with that mindset will enjoy the platform a lot more.
Agree. We might have been attracted to Steem because of the (potential of earning) money, but we will stay because of the people/community/engagement.
Thanks for this article and reminding us to not be entitled.
Yeah, unfortunately a lot of people who happened to earn a lot marketed Steem as a way to make "easy money" and that "anyone can earn". Unfortunately I think many forgot what it takes and maybe they often forgot to mention how they got their votes in case it wasn't just from natural curation. I kinda feel sorry for the people that entered with that pitch in mind and got disappointed quickly and will probably never look back and realize what they missed out on because of that.
Oh well, there's still a lot of people in the world that have not heard of Steem yet and I am hopeful people won't make the same mistakes to only mention the advantages of earning through the reward pool.
Great summary to compliment the original post. Thank you.
Thanks for the kind words.
I have always struggled with balancing the interaction with quality content. I am a slow reader/writer so I spend all my time on my posts (currently writers block...haha). This way I don't have much time (or energy) left to read and comment. Also, I don't want to be faking enthusiastic responses... The result is that I mostly "rely" on upvotes from curation like @curie @travelfeed @steemitworldmap and the amazing @ocd (😝). If you spend 8 hours on a blog post that you are proud of, you are just very disappointed when there are no comments and hardly any upvotes. But I am not taking that personal anymore (took me a while). However... It taught me that it currently is pretty hard to discover quality content (that likely interests you) outside your "familiar people" which makes me very happy that projects like @steeveapp and @trufflepig exist. I believe that the success of any social media platform is in the addictive factor of it. The rewards you receive for your work are the addictive factor for the content creators. For the content consumers, it is the ease at which you can consume more content of your personal taste. Both need to be in balance to grow over time. If we look at this in a different way: The entitlement complex in Steem could just be a symptom of a non balanced frustrated social media platform. Because why should we have to focus more on the social aspect than on the media?
Slowish reader here too, I write quite okay at ~80 WPM probably, if my mind can keep up with it than that's another thing. :P
Interactions do take quite a long time though, like in this post for instance. I'm hoping to personally have more time for this in the future than spending all of it on sideprojects and planning and organizing them out. Might need an assistant for that soon.
I love the engagement and interaction on Steem though, even at times like these where the incentives are low I feel good about having been consistent and worked hard to grow my account in followers so there is always some engagement going on, I think more authors should strive towards that than focusing too much on the quality of their content or how much time it took them to create it. Less disappointment may occur then too. :P
That would be therapeutic, allowing yourself to put lower quality content on steem ;)
has anyone ever figured out what he was on while doing this clip? :D
If I remember correctly he wanted to be memed thus filmed it in green screen on purpose. :thinking:
I agree with you. I have to dedicate time to comment and especially respond to those who leave comments on my post. Today is a day that I have set aside for commenting. (:)
I've been trying to tell my family that its all in the way you grow your account. They think this is just a waste of time but they don't understand. It really makes me sad tbh.
Its all about building the account like you have mentioned. I've been trying to tell them this but idk what goes through their mind. I guess the only way to show them is by a change in my life with steemit. If you want to make something happen you can't give up because you're not seeing promising results. You HAVE to keep pushing and grinding for it. Thats all steemit is.
Loved the post acidyo
Yup, especially if your content is not aimed at a specific app or high-staked account with an interest in that arena. Blogging about your breakfast is on the way out for sure.
My entitlement formula is pretty simple: Your own vote x 10 = daily entitlement.
If you are doing better than that then you are fortunate and hopefully adding value here.
I kinda spoke on this in my last post a little bit. About how some of the skills people possess on Steem doesn’t get the credit it deserves because of lack of journalism. It doesn’t make sense that everybody would want a perfect post that was well written to get an upvote, because life doesn’t work like that. Some people are well educated and skilled but since they can’t write it eloquently they get missed.
I really don’t have the answers I’m just a small fry that really only a few people on Steem I’ve connected with gave me attention I deserve, everybody deserves. This is a social environment, where people are expected to behave a certain way, it’s like an unwritten rule. When it comes to Steem however the ball is missed. The rules are changed and you have to play by them.
I just go by what I see for the most part. A lot of condescension towards noobs will turn them around any day. If you been a developer all your damn life, it’s hard to understand where a non developer is coming from. It’s a bunch of simple things like customer service, which should be Steems most important factor. Bezos understands this
I agree with your last part, although Steem attempts to be as simple as possible to use while introducing newcomers to this technology it is still very advanced and difficult as soon as you start digging a little deeper into it. I heard about a few projects in the SOS show last night that are aiming at guiding newcomers and helping them get started which is very important.
i still consider myself a noob, so where can i check something like this out?
True. I had to learn what makes a good blog. I am not a naturally gifted writer. My first blogs were not very good. But over time they have gotten better. I think the key is first to say as clearly as possible what you want to say. Also say it in short sentences. I am still learning.
I feel like we're always going to be on the early adopter curve until this place is mainstream. I am annoyed I didn't find this place in 2016 though, how different life would've been...
I know what it's like making posts and then not getting anywhere close to the kind of response you'd get on reddit for exactly the same post, it's discouraging. And I think the kind of people that stick around at the moment are networkers and the kind of people who are good at working out how to attract attention and make a name for themselves, as well as discovering communities and their niche. My niches for example are comedyopenmic and utopian.
As an avid Redditor who has more karma than SP, it is way more discouraging to get ignored on Reddit than it is on Steem. It might be cause you know how many users there are there that all decided to ignore you, lol. Here at least if you grow your stake or buy in you have a much higher chance at being heard just because of that than what you have to say.
Presciceley the benefits of a stake based system. Steem wouldn't be successful if there wasn't that heigherarchy. At the same time, I think you are right about people who come from other platforms seeing $0.01 next to their post and $10s or $100s next to posts they wouldn't deem valuable, and seeing that as a reflection of how this community value their work, which is why I'm slightly more excited about communities than I am about SMTs.
With manual curation (especially by whales and orcas) on the low, I think vote buying has become a necessity to keep some new users engaged, but sadly some people do tend to overestimate the value of their own work (entitlement, as you said) haha
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I think that a lot of new users underestimate the amount of work that goes into building up an account. There are so many things to it besides just posting content. Like you said, building relationships is a huge one. Also, communicating with other users and leaving quality comments. Not just saying great post, or nice content and then leaving.
Learning how to use different services to help build your account is another one. Minnow support was and still is a huge help to my account. The upvotes May only be a few cents, but that adds up over time.
Posting on other sites that use the steem blockchain makes a difference as well. Posting on DTube and elegance have also made a huge impact on my account and the people I’ve met.
They simply aren’t prepared to put the work in. Took me over a year and a half to get my account to where it is today, and it was a lot of work. I’m grateful for it all though 😁
Hope all is well in your corner and I hope you have a great day. Take care!👋😃
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It is weird considering many other platforms in the past such as Youtube, Instagram, etc require you to put a lot more work into them before you get to see any adrevenue earnings. In that regard Steem is a lot friendlier and is getting easier and easier to earn something from just participating in certain dapps that will reward you for your activity. Being able to grow your account exponentially over time is also a great advantage for those wanting to be here for the long run.
I have fallen prey to this often, and most recently with that post of mine about dTube.
You have constantly got to keep saying to yourself, 'Don't compare yourself to others'. If you do then you will just get all pissed off and want to quit.
The money aspect makes all the difference between 'here' and anywhere else. It breeds jealously, insecurity and longing. All bad things to have going inside your head.
This is the failing of Steemit, the anticipation of people, and then the disappointment.
Yes, it take a LONG time to gain a good following and having a healthy dose of usable STEEM helps a lot.
It may seem as a failing point right now and especially for people that have only witnessed one bull run, but in the long run those that have lasted will see that it will average out to a good reward. Let's see how many come back during the next run and feel entitled to votes cause "everyone else is getting them". :p
It is going to be interesting to see how many of the 'old faces' come back, as well as the new flock that join and expect a huge cut of the rewards.
I guess you have seen all this happen before when STEEM was 7c and started it's rise?
I can say one thing, when Steem was 7c it was way more dead here than it is now. I kind of miss those times as I've been so busy and stressful lately it is insane, hope it will be worth it in the end.
I must admit that in my beginnings I was like this Why does he have this much rewards on his post?
But, I didn't quit, I wanted to know why is that so. Later on, I realized that some people did so much for this blockchain and their reputation is what gets them rewards.
I hope manual curation will not die :(
Nah curation won't die completely. It could grow given the right incentives and custom tokens for manual curation, etc although that is difficult to determine. I realize the changes in the curation curve will put a lot of dapps and services at an disadvantage but that doesn't mean curation has to continue dropping forever as there are a lot of different ways we can encourage them once SMT's are live.
Nice, waiting for those SMT's to finally come then.
I too, hope that it will not die.
I don't mind the using of tools to pre-filter content, but in the end, curation of value requires reading the content and making a personal judgement. This is some thing that computers (at least for now) just can't do well.
I also hate entitlement. I am relatively new here. Instead of immediately jumping to the I deserve it response, people should be looking around and puzzling out how do "they" get so much steem?
What does it take for me to get what the others have.
For me, it seems that the inescapable conclusion is "work hard". This includes comment, invest in my own STEEM, publish, and generally interact. None of these things can be done without some effort on my part. Many of them do not bear fruit when done once. The aggregate of all of these things done diligently will produce results...eventually....maybe.
I look at it this way if I want something and am not willing to work at least a little for it, then I am stealing! Full stop! I don't want to be a thief, so the only way is to wade in a work :-)
Ofcourse @acidyo.. Its a very true fact that the rewards not just based on the quality of content its much more about that how long you are on this platform, how is your connection with others.
In the beginning i also misunderstand it. I feel that one person just saying heyy get so many replies, but i don't get a single reply. So this is all based on your connection with other steemians. Its most important that you make a good relation on this platform.
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