RE: Do you want the platform to be friendly to dolphins and minnows? Then @smooth and @abit are not your enemy!
There's a lot of missing data here to propose only two sides to this die.
A certain number of whales got together and dictated how things would proceed. That doesn't mean it's a bad idea. It does mean that it was dictated and pursued regardless of how anyone else might feel about it.
There were certain criteria that seemed apparent when they started, but after a bit those obviously became more subjective to at least a couple of whales.
At least one whale was getting payout from his posts stating that he was downvoting in order to reduce payout.
From what I've seen and heard, most people seem to think it was a great idea. Execution was terrible. Lack of inclusion was terrible. Consistency was terrible. Downvoting new users into watermarks was terrible.
The community in general seems to see it this way. Most that I've talked to agree that it's a good idea. Almost all of them resent being experimented on like some GI.
I agree with the goal. And I would agree with the downvotes if the parameters had been shared and followed consistently. They clearly were not shared and consistency seems to indicate that if any were laid out, they were treated as suggestions.
I do not agree with seeing people work hard only to end up on the whale experimentation table. It's wrong in more ways than I care to take the time to even try to list.
I agree that the communication and roll-out were terrible. There are humans behind the accounts though, and from what I understand they are doing the best that they can. It was a bumpy take-off, but as they continue they are ironing out more of the kinks.
Of course, understood.
There were many more humans behind the accounts adversely affected. How many will never come back? How many are ready to throw in the towel now?
I'm not one of those people, obviously. But I try hard to help those people. This has crushed moral for a huge portion of the users here.
Unfortunately, independent of the experiment - users do need to understand that the "pending rewards" are not 'theirs' and they can go up and down until the payout period is over. I think a lot of this is lack of education, which I am trying to help with (see post). While it is unfortunate that some users have been upset and even left over this, it should not stop us from making the hard choices that are needed to advance the platform forward.
You know I respect you a lot Tim. At least I hope so. On this one, I see you as very myopic.
First, we agree that it was a good experiment, in terms of goals. And it may have accomplished them for now. It seems like it.
Second, there's no way to defend how it was executed. It was absolutely terrible. There's no excuse for it whatsoever, other than excessive pride perhaps. This isn't about education. It's about treating people like human beings rather than lab rats.
Hard choices need to involve the community, rather than dictators. I heard one very well respected member of this "community" expressing how much like the fascism of his country this looks like. Decentralized? Community?
Also note that you have never heard me dog the actions of witnesses or whales on this platform, ever. I've never gotten worked up over all the shenanigans and nonsense that happens here. It's their vote to do with as they please.
I don't like drama and I try to stay out of it. It's generally pointless. And, in light of recent actions, it seems pretty apparent that this discussion is pretty pointless, because those who have the power to do so will prod the cattle and behave however they want, regardless of how wicked that may be.
Having said that, I do not know abit. He may be a great guy (or she may be a great gal, for all I know). And I have immense respect for Smooth. He's done some fantastic work here. We all blow it sometimes. They blew execution epically. Not every experiment that achieves its goals is successful. And we can't discuss how others were affected callously like mongers discussing collateral damage as they move battle toys on their maps of war. These are people. Put yourself in their shoes. Feel what they felt.
Ironically, the goal of all this is to give control of the platform to the actual users. There was a lot of room for improvement with the rollout and implementation, but most likely there was not going to be a way to get to the destination without the downvotes.
I won the whale vote contest - watch out! Good things coming!
I won the whale vote contest - watch out! Good things coming!