What I Shared Today on Social Media and Some Thoughts About Protecting the Rewards Pool
Sevon months ago, I snapped a picture of me working from my hammock in the backyard, and I asked a question about the rewards pool. That post made $140.65 (read it and the conversation it started if you're curious why). Essentially I asked if it makes sense to post as often as you want on Steemit, just like you do on other social media platforms or should you be more conscious of those who vote for you (automated and manual) and restrict your content here for just the "good stuff" (or choose decline payout) in order to preserve the rewards pool.
The consensus seemed to be versions of "You worked hard building a following and providing consistently valued content, so enjoy the rewards you deserve" to "It's all about balance. Post what you want, but go ahead and decline payout for casual stuff now and again."
I'm curious, has anything changed since then? What do you think?
Personally, I'm still posting a lot more on other social media sites. Part of that might be the ease of use of the mobile apps for Twitter and Facebook, but part of it might be that I always want to post quality content here because I have many more followers on Steemit and taking a piece of the rewards pool is a lot different than just getting some likes (though I'm sure advertisers are loving me as the product over there).
On that note, tonight I thought I'd just share some things I also shared on other sites today.
I started off my day listening to the Beyond Bitcoin show in Discord and then stuck around a bit to catch up with @officialfuzzy. We got to hang out for lunch a while back when @adamkokesh was in Nashville, so it was good to connect with him again.
After that, I did some research and had some fun conversations. Then it was time for a break. @corinnestokes found this puzzle for $0.50 at Goodwill, and it's 3D! How cool is that! I didn't even know such a thing existed.
The kids helped sort the pieces, Corinne and I put it together, and the girls enjoyed playing with it (and posing with it) after we were done.
I shared that on Twitter and on Facebook without even thinking about it.
The kids played outside with their friends for much of the day as it was actually quite nice for December weather.
I shared some cryptocurrency thoughts on Facebook and on Twitter also.
Alone on my latop, I also watched this very intense short film In-Shadow which @larkenrose shared on Facebook. I'd embed it here, but it's pretty dark and intense. Some would even say disturbing. I think it's a beautiful artistic expression of angst at the corruption in the world today. Check it out, but be prepared for an intense experience. I shared this video with some specific people on Facebook who I thought might appreciate it.
We then went to dinner together where I had a "monster" margarita (again shared on Facebook and on Twitter) with this caption:
I don't have a banana for size, so this thumbs up will have to do. This thing is massive. My first mango flavored margarita. So good.
After that, the kids and I played with another toy Corinne picked up for just a dollar.
All together, it was a super fun day. As you can see, I shared much of it on other social media sites, but didn't share in real time here on the blockchain. Do you think people should be sharing stuff like that here?
4 days ago I shared a meme on DMania and 2 days ago I shared a Zapp on zappl (which was supposed to be declined payout, but that feature is still broken). Both of those have pending payouts to remove something from the rewards pool. Along the lines of the questions I'm asking here, do I "deserve" those rewards for building a following here? Should I post casual thoughts here more often, as I do on other social media platforms? Even if I decline payout more often, those who support me with votes via steemvoter will use up their voting power without gaining any curation rewards. After a while, I'd imagine they will move to support other authors (which is totally fine and understandable).
I've seen some other authors create separate Steemit accounts for short form content like memes and tweets. Maybe that's an approach I should consider.
So yeah, that was my day today, and I wanted to share it with you to keep the conversation going about how this community feels regarding how we manage the rewards pool, especially for more established users like myself who have been here for over a year and half and have built a large following over that time.
Some may think I (and others) get paid too much from the rewards pool and decide to flag a post. It's just a downvote because that's what the blockchain records. It's not a big deal unless someone makes it a big deal. Nothing displayed as "potential payout" is mine anyway. It belongs to us all, or, more precisely, to the investors and content creators and curators who give the STEEM token value. Maybe if we were all more comfortable downvoting and being downvoted, it wouldn't matter much how often we share, because the community would answer back in real time with their votes.
I'm interested in hearing what you think.
Also, how was your day?
My average on Twitter - social media that lends itself to slapstick - is just 3 tweets a day, and most of that is crap/trolling/cajolling, as I said, to stay in line with the general character of the media. About a third of that is quality though - an average of 1 quality tweet a day. In any event, everything I post is always on topic.
Steemit is different and has higher aspirations. Here we have a reputation to maintain and anything less than quality content is not compatible with that aim. Even if you’re a comedian, you’ve still got to produce here on Steemit.
I never, ever, post anything on Steemit that does not pass my "value added" test: does it share something that is of value to others? That doesn't prohibit "LOLs" and the like by any means though, because even a friendly smile at the right time can be of value, it just means that everything belongs in its proper time and place.
I think a good starting point for quality content is staying on topic, and, of course, staying with what you're expert at.
Here's the link to my last introducemyself post after I powered up for the first time explaining a bit more about my thinking on this.
https://steemit.com/introducemyself/@cryptographic/why-i-powered-up-and-why-you-should-too
Steemit is not just any old social media in my opinion. Steemit is trailblazing quality social media, and that depends on every one of us.
I think you answered your questions yourself. People should get comfortable and welcome downvotes as they do upvotes. Realtime feedback would make the system work as it was designed.
I am not sure if I would enjoy several bits of posts at various times of the day. That's just me, I don't keep up with fb twitter etc for similar reason.
However, when you put them all together in one post like this, it is pretty cool. I think you could combine them all at the end of the day and make it a daily activity report :) Since they are all posted elsewhere, it shouldn't take too much time. Or maybe automate :) Just make sure cheetah doesn't catch you for copy paste lol.
In conclusion, you should do whatever feels natural to you. So should everybody else. After all, this platform will have to be able to handle masses and their social media habits that they already have developed elsewhere.
@lukestokes you can create as much as possible casual post, since you have created a name, loyal followers and also your reputation have also been speaking for you.
Only that the new steemian may get it wrong, trying to follow this step. For example the way @jerrybanfield will create a meme and get alot of conversion is not the way a new steemian will create such meme even it look funny.
To be honest i have really learn alot from your post. When you were explainig in details what steemit mean to you, using your wife as a case study. How build relationship really have great impact to more positive response.
@lukestokes i remove my hat for you 🎩
☺
👕
👖
How i wish i have been seen that post long time, those that read that post 11month ago, must have really benefit from it.
I upvoted this not for the casual family stuff, but because you are asking the questions we want a whole lot more people to be asking. Having someone like you ask them might remind a few more people to think about what they're doing. What I liked about Steemit (which I now know is just a front end to the Steem universe) was the idea that it wasn't just a social media site, but more a site about real content.
Unfortunately, here on Steemit.., we have discovered that many people lack the character to sustain a totally free and decentralized society (or platform). It reminds me of a quote -- "if men were angels no government would be necessary." -- James Madison. It bugs the hell out of me when I see 4-5 posts by the same account within a few hours (because they know the auto-bots will upvote each one), when it all could have gone into one post -- just milking the rewards pool and then posing as a valuable member of the community. Unlike someone, like yourself, who obviously has a great amount of character and vision, that can see the big picture in lieu of short term gains, by adding value to the platform with quality posts. What people don't seem to understand is, that by acting in such a selfish manor, they are dictating that rules be made to counter-act it.., rules we wouldn't need if people could just act responsibly and honorably.
P.S., adorable kids!
Thanks. :)
Maybe the next level to this is to ask those who autovote what you might consider abuses of the rewards pool and ask them why? The reputation of the voters is on the line as well (to me, more so than the content producers). The voters are the ones who are using their stake to support a short-term approach to the value of the platform. I think authors should be free to do whatever they want and the community shouldn't respond accordingly to protect their investment. It also may mean some of those who believe as you do should save some of their voting strength to downvote those posts with a respectful comment about a disagreement in rewards distribution. If that starts a "flag war" then it further demonstrates how some people don't understand the difference between potential rewards and actual rewards. It's an opportunity for education.
We may not need government, not because people are angels, but because threats of violence aren't very productive or effective long term in a healthy society. Protocols, smart contracts, and engaged stake holders may be enough to make it work.
I think the main problem with "short" posts is that, as an ambassador of the platform, many of your followers might deem it ok to do so. That then fills the platform with "low quality" content and reduces the chances to be noticed for those that work hard at putting out quality posts. Yeah, a simple and straight forward view from my side. The same applies to self votes imho.
That's a good point. Then there's also the double whammy of disappointment when they don't have their out-of-whack expectations met. "Hey, my tweet was good too. Why didn't I make any money?" without noticing the 9,500+ posts and comments I've contributed to build a following of 5,400+ accounts. What is rewarded gets repeated, but it's hard to convince people the effort to get here is a year and a half of time, effort, and actually caring enough about other people to engage and add value where you can.
Yeah, many people are quite ignorant and don't look at the bigger picture. With that being said when you join the platform you are excited as well and it takes a while to learn about it. I'm still learning daily. Anyway, the point being that you want to get going with creating content and engaging with people. Therefore you might not be hitting it right in the beginning because those that you started following (follow me I follow you kinda vibes) aren't setting the right example. Thanks for your response and engagement. You are indeed a good whale :):)
Psttt... I think Luke is an advocate, not an ambassador.
Unless Steem Inc. delegates SP to him he advocates. The 5 who had received SP from Ned were ambassadors (all were very active in their own specific locality and that delegated SP was actually a marketing strategy by Ned).
Luke advocates for Steem. Pro bono almost. Which is exactly where the difference is.
Super great points otherwise. I just wanted to differentiate before the selfmade social media gurus come and we forget to differentiate who are the long term advocates and who are the (often shorter term) ambassadors. I doubt many ambassadors will bother with running their own witness server. ;)
Hehe, thanks for the correction :) I didn't realise those with delegated SP from Ned were officially classified as the ambassadors. See, learning something new each day. Perhaps I'll just leave the comment as is, to prove that we are all human and learning as we go along. Thanks, much appreciated!
To be honest, I’m not sure that distinction has made it to Steem yet.
As somebody who has been heavily involved in/with Internet startups, and also had a stint as an Entrepreneur in Residence (for digital) at a Top 10 advertising agency, I can confirm the distinction matters to brands tho.
Ambassadors is marketing. Advocates is the word of mouth every brand/biz wants.
Ahh, ok, cool. Thank you very much for the info :)
Interesting distinction. I wasn't aware of that terminology (or if I was, I forgot). Thanks.
@lukestokes This was a bit of a rambling blog, but enjoyable, as always.
I don’t have the time for most other social media platforms. I tried several, but rarely go back. The big one was WIKIPEDIA. I was one of the first half million users, and many Wikipedia articles were started by me, and all still exist, with some of my original text and photos. I’m quite proud of that.
Most of the Wikipedia topics I started were very serious.
However, some of my articles on Wikipedia were really “tongue-in-cheek”, but somehow they survive today 10+ years later as if the topic was serious.
By the way, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek article on Steemit today -You know you are having a bad day when..... which you already voted on... thanks!
Coming back to your topic. I like consistency of writing. You write long and interesting articles which are worth the time to read. I would hate to see that style spoiled by mixing it up with memes, solitary photos, and one-liners.
So my view is you should keep this account for the serious stuff, and start a new one if you want to do Twitter style short posts of what you had for lunch. - or carry on posting on Facebook and Twitter. Some people love the short “My cat had milk for lunch- again” type of posts. Mobile phone apps are well suited to that kind of mind-numbing routiness.
I'd say you should create another account for the quick easy shares and decline payouts as you see fit. To bad that the decline option isn't working on Zappl yet.
Since I only get to interact with you here, I miss out on all that other short content you're posting elsewhere :)
I enjoy the way you pose questions/provoke conversations and am sure I'd like other content you're sharing elsewhere. I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say that there's also value in your short content shares, you just have to navigate what an accurate reflection of that value is with your internal compass of what you want Steem to be and from what I've seen of you I trust the needle to land in the right spot.
Thanks for your feedback. I've thought about creating multiple accounts, but I kind of also don't want to bother with the hassle of managing them. Maybe as the interfaces improve and it becomes easier to work with multiple accounts, I'll do more of that.
I've also thought about how some people might follow both accounts and vote them all up, which would allocate even more of the rewards pool that way. Hahah.
Thanks for that trust. That is something I work to earn and not abuse.
Yeah, I feel you. Who wants to manage another account with four crazy long keys :) I actually went through the process and created another account just for that reason and then my password manager locked while I was still inputting all my new account keys and I lost them all. At that point I said screw it and decided to just stick with the one.
I too hope that they figure out a way to have the front ends parse the different content.
You've definitely earned the trust and I have no doubt that if you abused it, this place would let you know real quick ;)
I think its kinda nice seeing behind the scenes once in a while. I have you on my steemvoter because of the consistant “value” of the posts and you do not really spam to get rewards anyway
So in my opinion if we do not get 5 pics of cocktails and 10 zappls about it I will keep you on my steemvoter
Getting to know the man behind the witness is also important. Its good to know who is using one of my witness votes
Thanks for your support, I really do appreciate.
Also, noted. 5 cocktail pics and 10 zappls is too much. Got it.
Heheh.
I’m one of those who created an alt account both for things like Zappl and also a ‘different way of resteeming’. A different form of curation, more along the lines of historical online curators like Waxy, Kottke, and Boing Boing.
The main reason for the use of an alt account would be that it on some days it might get loud on that account and personally I don’t think Steemit’s UX is optimised for high volume feeds. Loud because I want to curate/promote/share as I discover things. Not have to set a reminder to self.
For newer members like me some may say that it is a form of dilution but at the same time it also makes sure that I put in the efforts required to build reputation.
Not just on one account but on both, because even when I want to curate with value, it is important to keep the noise to value ratio in check.
Yeah, the noise to value ratio is key. Many think it's mostly about quality over quantity and I agree. I also think casual shares is what keeps "social" media actually social. As we connect with other human beings, we can better understand and appreciate ourselves. Seems it's all about balance. I agree with you, there does seem to be a lot of value in creating multiple accounts.