Almost Dead In The Water

Today I have responded to @runicar’s post about ghost and dead followers.

I have prepared to share a few thoughts about the topic which may or may not be favourably received.

Quite frankly I don’t care because I’m a free agent with nothing left to lose...except bidbot solicitation which is wallet harassment as far as I am concerned.

Case in point, is a picture of the harassment that is currently happening in my wallet every day and has been ongoing for the last year.

(I know that I am not alone in this relentless molestation that feels like Steemit Inc. seems to have turned a blind eye to.)

If you’ve missed @runicar’s original post, please find it here:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@runicar/most-of-your-followers-are-probably-ghosts-or-dead-find-out-how-many-real-followers-you-currently-have#@runicar/re-rebeccaryan-re-runicar-most-of-your-followers-are-probably-ghosts-or-dead-find-out-how-many-real-followers-you-currently-have-20180907t132118727z

@runicar shared a valuable link that measures your followers’ metrics.

http://www.steemspectacles.com/

In my particular case, I have almost 3000 followers (having been active on Steemit almost daily) for 2 years.

Of this, 2517 followers haven’t engaged with me in the last 100 posts that I have written and 1453 are considered dead because they haven’t been active for over a month on the platform.

In addition to this, other Steemians have placed me on autovote. This generally occurs at the 27 minute mark of any of my posts going live. This is so that they can snag the optimal amount of the curation awards that they can receive. All automated.

It doesn't seem to matter what I post. It could be 3 pictures and a sentence or two, OR I may have spent 10 hours and included 20+ decent photos in a post with a 2,000 word count true story.

Regardless of what I do, the outcome is the same.

My average vote count per post is 71 and of that, I am lucky if 20 people actually read or at least look at the original content/photos that I post.

I write in various areas of personal interest and freely share what I have learned from personal experience...all in an effort to help and serve others.

I've never bought votes and refuse to do so...my thinking is that I shouldn't have to pay people to artificially support me...otherwise what's the difference between Steemit's model and buying advertising on Facebook?

In my eyes, one in the same. They are both businesses willing to exploit others for profit.

With all of this said, I've still been showing up everyday on Steemit, creating content from my intellectual property, holding SP and engaging with my fellow Steemians.

My strategy has been to upvote comments so that people will at least receive something for their efforts and also receive a real response back from someone who has actually thought about what they have contributed.

All, while trying to ignore the pillaging that happens to the awards pool everyday by others who hold more SP and can award hundreds of Steem/SBD to the most simplistic of posts or comments OR flag people if THEY think a person has been awarded too much, from the awards pool.

I have also done what I can to encourage others not to commit Steemit suicide out of their own frustration, due to lack of acknowledgement for their own time and effort.

I know that I am not alone. My words will resonate with many who find themselves in the same position.

At this point, it would be relatively easy for me to acknowledge the message that I have received from the Steemit community; that is, that my post aren't quite good enough to achieve a successful grade.

Then, my options become about trying to keep changing what I am doing or, just quietly power down and disappear.

The later accomplishes nothing, except add to the follower death toll, but I do wonder how quickly this current model of Steemit will come to a halt without enough people adding content?

What will the bidbots have to sell? How will anyone have anything to curate?

Signed: One disenchanted Dolphin, trying to decide what direction she should swim in next or if she should even bother...

~ Rebecca