Haha ... for once we are in agreement ... over mimes at least. But the block chain is doing just fine and growing. If you stopped staring at whale blow holes for just one second, you would get that.
We have fun, we have humor and we have merriment. And no mimes in sight. Really Paul. My experience here is very rewarding and my account is growing and I have plenty of larger accounts upvoting and commenting.
The bidbots are a necessary evil and having ours out in the public for anyone who wants to waste some SP but maybe gain a few followers is a damn sight better than what goes on on other social media platforms. I don't go to the trending page and rarely even see bid-botted posts. My feed is my own and I get to see the people I follow in it. The feed space on other platforms has become staked territory and I see maybe a handful of my friends and mainly boosted and sneaky boosted posts.
It is a pay to be seen world and social media platforms are full of boosted posts and botted likes. We get the flack because we don't hide it with off-site bots.
Steemit is not the worse. It is world's better. It is the BEST. We gotta start singing our praises and not taking ownership of universal problems with the internet. It's NOT good business. But if you are going to continue. MIME it instead.
My own poetic offering on the evils of the world
@prydefoltz,
Hi Pryde. As long as we agree on Mimes, the rest borders upon the insignificant. :-)
For the record though:
With respect, no it's not. It's in terrible shape. Active users have plummeted since you and I first met and their numbers are, at best, currently static. STEEM cannot even maintain a Top 60 cryptocurrency status. Curation has practically no support from Whales & Orcas (85% of SP) who, instead of using their STEEM holdings to curate content as intended, are instead leasing it out to bidbots and endless DApp projects in which they have an interest. The net result is that the "Curation Process," upon which the entire endeavor is predictated, is all-but-dead. @ComedyOpenMic ... dead. @poetsunited ... dead. Even @curie has lost the majority of its finaincial backing. Systemically, this is a disaster as it represents a wholesale misallocation of scarce (upvoting) capital.
People have different objectives and expectations of the organizations to which they belong. For some, earning pennies and postive feedback will be sufficient reward for their efforts to create content. On average, I spend 10-20 hours composing a post. Earning $2.00 is no where near sufficient recompense, especially given the fact that others are earning hundreds of dollars for posting utter crap. This is not a question of "subjective quality" ... it's a question of calling a spade a spade ... Manipulation Is Murdering Merit.
They most assuredly are not and I've writing countless posts, comments and replies detailing precisely how to ban them. The asinine argument: "Technically, bidbots cannot be banned" is, predictably, made by those who own the bidbots.
"Bidbot usage" is not just a personal matter, a choice that solely effects their users. Besides reducing the Reward Pool by a third, bidbots kill curation in its cradle by offering an alternative (and more lucrative) way for large stakeholders to generate Passive Income (instead of earning Curation Awards as intended). As Whales and Orcas own 85% of SP, this inevitably effects everyone.
In the "real world," we have laws prohibiting certain behaviors because such behaviors adversely effect others. In the giant Venn Diagram of life, where our domains overlap, my actions impact your interests and yours, mine. When everyone strives to maximize their own self-interests, irrespective of the consequences to others, the result is a "Tragedy of the Commons." To live together, there have to be some common restraints.
We've got to fix what's broken, not accept it as inevitable. Take a look around you at all the wonders of modern life. Not a single one of those technologies was created by Enthusiasm or the Power of Positivity. Each one was created by a self-critical engineer with an understanding of complex systems and positive/negative feedback loops ... and one who possessed a standard of perfection sufficiently exacting to MAKE all the pieces work in unison. If that sounds tyrannical, so be it.
And to quote my man Aristotle:
In case you're interested, I wrote a Series of Articles on the subject of how to reform the blockchain (all hyperlink off this one):
https://steemit.com/steemit/@quillfire/central-premise-and-proposals-a-series-about-fixing-steemit-part-4
And, respecting bidbots specifically:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@quillfire/the-bane-of-bidbots-an-intelligent-and-civil-discourse
.
I can't believe I missed that Dante allusion. Perfect. :-)
Quill
Who cares what Aristotle thought. He also thought heavy things fall faster than light things. He was not trying to build a blockchain and his advice may be somewhat outdated. Lets not his name pass between us again. LOL
I think you have missed my point. I am not pro-bidbots. I called them a necessary evil that is prevalent across the internet and legal by the way. We are progressive to have them out in the open here. They will be here one way or another. My opinion or preference will have nothing to do with it. If they were off-platform, you would find that profit and attention lands in even fewer hands.
I am not pro-bidbots. I am pro-steem and we are doing better than anyone else. I am pro other steemians and am careful that my belly-aching doesn't hurt the platform. We suffer from poor word of mouth more than anything else. Even if bidbots continue to take 1/3 of the profit, having more profit works in everyone's favor and having less, works in no one's favor. And to be absolutely clear. Bidbots did not cause the bear bitcoin market and that has hurt us more than absolutely anything else by exponential orders of magnitude.
Yes bidbots are not great. They suck. But right now, our worse enemy is ourselves and failure to celebrate what is really great here, while also trying to tweaking the system is killing us. Reality requires constant tweaking. I am tweaking you, Paul. Because you may not realize it but you come across as one negative nelly and considering how clever you are, it is a shame. Ask yourself. Is your OWN behavior helping the platform or driving people away? I appreciate you or wouldn't be here if I didn't. But we got to change the way we talk about ourselves.
I am saying you can grow your blog here like nowhere else, and unlike anywhere else, I have voice and share in the profits. I want to see more engagement and less bidbotting too and I am enacting the change that I see as leading the way. Give folks an alternative to bidbotting and make them understand that growing the price of steem will increase profit and influence in a way bidbots never could.
Here is the thing. I do not know much about business, certainly not as much as you. But I do know how to sell something and not once have I ever sold something, never mind get a higher price, by telling the customer that what I am selling sucks. Sales just don't work that way. The irony is the more bonafide bloggers we can bring on here, the more we will see the change we want. The less power will be in the bidbotters hands. That will be worked through positivity and not complaining.
@prydefoltz,
I do.
That one fooled a lot of people for a long time (and continues to fool a lot of university-level students). The reality is counter-intuitive. Aristotle got some things wrong ... Alexander was ready to hang him over his damnably inaccurate maps. It's an occupational hazard of those delving into things for the first time. His overall track record, though, explains his reverence by intellectuals throughout the ages.
It is not "progressive" to openly tolerate cheating. In any system based upon voting, vote-buying is the very definition of corruption.
They could be banned in a heartbeat (read my Articles). What's lacking is not the capacity to do so, but the willingness.
Me too. The difference between us is that I believe absent reform, the blockchain will implode and that my efforts to reform it, are efforts to save it.
Bingo ... if by that you mean "what's being said about us is negative" as opposed to "no one's talking about us at all." Here's my personal experience with the matter, up close and personal ... this is an extract from a comment I left on a post 9 months ago:
https://steemit.com/advertising/@timcliff/proposal-paid-advertising-on-steem-with-a-twist
Back to the present.
True. But the Bear Market hit all cryptocurrencies. Tellingly, STEEM continues to slide down the rankings of cryptocurrency market caps. This ought to be HUGELY concerning: Why are we so weak relative to others? It's because, I would submit, that the market had weighed us ... and found us wanting.
Indeed, EVERYONE outside of STEEM/Steemit (and a great many inside of it) say exactly the same negative things about the blockchain. Are they all stupid? "Reality Testing" is the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Who's living in fantasy-land?
Name any other organization in existence which not only tolerates systemic cheating (such as bidbots and multiple-account-self-upvoting), but in which the systemic cheating is openly organized by its leaders.
OK, you win, there are some: Venezuela; the Ukraine; the former Soviet Union; etc.
Imploders.
Yes, the unwillingness of the Silent Majority ... to stop being Silent and DEMAND common sense reforms. There will always be those who would take advantage of others. It is up to the others, to stop them.
Alternatively, one could argue that the mindless cheerleading is delusional, couldn't one? My goal has never been to be an optimist or a pessimist, but rather a realist. In any event, if the worst thing anyone ever calls me is "negative" (it's already too late for that), I will die a grateful man.
Incidentally, if you scroll through the comments section of my "blockchain governance" posts, you will find far more concurrence than complaint. And, you should see my DM's.
That old expression, "He could sell ice to an Eskimo" ... is meant to connote a spectacular salesman. But do you know who actually sells ice to an Eskimo ... a conman. A good salesman would sell an Eskimo a stove. "Well anyone could sell an Eskimo a stove."
Exactly. Good salesmen are good explainers, capable of transforming the complex into the self-evident.
A good salesman sells what is, self-evidently, a good idea ... and if the company he/she works for doesn't share his/her ethos, then he/she leaves for a company that does. Because once you've lost your credibility, you're done. People will forgive you for being wrong, they will never forgive you for lying.
As I have repeated a million times, Honesty is the nuclear weapon of Persuasion. But, it also limits that about which one may persuade.
Take you and I. I've known you longer than any other Steemian ... even @old-guy-photos ... if you recall, I met him through you. And, during that time, we've disagreed about everything under the sun. Obviously, we have different worldviews. But, can you not say, with 100% assurance, "Quill's honest?"
I can say that about you. That doesn't mean I don't want to hang you for making me write comments as long as books (thankfully, it's mutual), but I would bet my life that everything you say, you believe. And, given that you have a high IQ, that obligates me to seriously consider whatever you say.
I think we could stipulate that both of us put a very high premium on truthfulness, so let me pose an honest question: Would you encourage a loved one or friend to invest in STEEM? Say, $5,000.
I wouldn't. Indeed, I've highly discouraged a number of people considering doing just that. And I could name off-hand a dozen other Steemians who have done likewise.
Until the wholesale cheating stops, STEEM/Steemit simply is not a "credible idea" ... and therefore I can't "sell" it. And again, the market seems to agree with my assessment. If there is a surprise in any of this, it is that STEEM/Steemit has managed to survive as long as it has ... a fact, I surmise, is the consequence of it having enjoyed a near-monopoly for its entire existence. This fortuitous condition, however, WILL NOT continue for much longer.
@dan just spent $150 million to build and launch "Voice," a "crypto-backed social media platform" ... without the crypto-backing. Well, how stupid was that? And how bloody fortunate for STEEM/Steemit? Divine Intervention, I say.
Make no mistake: I LOVE STEEM/Steemit as much as anyone on this blockchain and my vocal criticism is not meant to drag it down ... it is meant to save it from itself. I lived through all this (as a hedge fund manager) during the dot.com bubble. The words and the arguments are almost verbatim. Youngsters full of fire who were going to re-write the rules of the universe with their code.
Now, as then, we will hit a point of inflection when the market will stop giving a wit about "potential" and start demanding "actual results." And when it does, it will happen as if someone flipped a switch.
And then there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Quill
I am too tired, Quill:) You win:)
@prydefoltz,
God Bless your charitable soul ... my not-as-young-as-they-used-to-be fingers were developing anticipatory arthritic pain.
At roughly 20,000 words apiece, we'll call it a draw ... and damn anyone who tries to stir things up with a clever comment one way or the other. :-)
Quill
No good deed. If I may make one more plea positivity ... you can be a woman of fewer words:)