How Much Are @dragonslayer109's Hidden Gems Worth? And To Whom?
I Received An Unexpected Comment On A Post Yesterday
I must admit, I was put off by it right away. For one, I don't like people posting links to their posts in the comments of my blog in general. It's spam, plain and simple.
But also, I've been hearing numerous complaints from authors who felt violated by @dragonslayer109's use of their content for his own personal gain without providing any benefit to them as the authors.
He does not ask permission to feature posts, which bothers many people who view it as disrespectful. He does not share any of the rewards that he earns on his "Hidden Gems" posts, and authors rarely see much benefit from them in the way of increased rewards on their own posts.
@dragonslayer109 has done very well for himself with these "Hidden Gems" posts... But I want to emphasize that it is mostly himself that benefits.
I Broke Down The Payouts From The Post
| Post Author | Post Payout |
|---|---|
| @gargon | $45.46 |
| @bacchist | $20.14 |
| @sauravrungta | $158.56 |
| @hitmeasap | $7.29 |
| @menta | $78.44 |
| @allmonitors | $84.69 |
| @kaylinart | $115.83 |
| ------------ | ------------ |
| TOTAL | $510.41 |
The payout @dragonslayer109 received was nearly as much as all of the authors of his "Hidden Gems" combined.
That's shocking on its own. He is making more off of aggregating the work of others than the value he is adding to their posts. Clearly some of those posts would have had at least a few votes on them by the time he featured them... What they got out of being featured requires a bit more information.
How Much Did Authors Benefit?
A look at the voting on the posts reveals that the posts he featured hardly benefitted at all from his aggregation.
@gargon received one whale vote (@proskynneo, who to his credit voted on every gem post), a few random votes, and several low percentage bot votes:
The story was much the same with @bacchist:
As you might expect from the gem with the highest payout, @sauravrungta's post received the most post-post votes:
Once again, @hitmeasap saw a similar pattern to the first couple posts:
I expected that @menta's post would show a similar pattern as the others, perhaps with little more action. Somewhere between @gargon and @sauravrungta would seem about right.
Boy, was I in for a surprise!
This Is "Hidden"??
@menta's post had already received upvotes from one of the largest and most watched whales... @berniesanders!
As if that wasn't bad enough, the very next post on the "Hidden Gems" had also received similar attention:
What Is Going On Here?
The last author on the list of "Hidden Gems" will be a familiar one to most Steemit users.
@kaylinart has been consistently putting out high quality posts for as long as I can remember. She has earned a following, name recognition, visibility, reputation, and the rewards that come with those accomplishments.
Her reputation score, number of followers, and post count are in the top tiers of those categories.
Just the other week, she had an impressive run of well earning posts that really stand out when you look at her blog.
It begs the question... Why are her posts being included in the "Hidden Gems"??
But it gets worse... @kaylinart was featured in the "Hidden Gems" before. Quite recently, in fact. It was the third time in four days that a post of hers had been featured.
I also noticed @sterlinluxan was featured in at least two of those posts. He has nearly 700 followers!
Should This Be Allowed To Continue?
I have to take him at his word when @dragonslayer109 says that he started the project to help underappreciated authors gain recognition. But it's clearly strayed far from that goal.
As far as I can tell, he's doing as little work as possible in order to get a steady flow of rewards.
In fact, six of the posts from the above list were just taken from a low-volume private post promotion channel on the RocketChat.
Auto-voting from whales ensures every one of his posts gets several hundred dollars. He knows that as well as anyone. It's clear that most of them do not look at the featured posts and vote on them. The only one that did was @proskynneo. (Thank you!!)
The posts he's choosing don't reflect any kind of unique curation service. He's using well established authors and posts that have already received whale votes.
I think we need to hold people up to a higher standard if they are going to be auto-voted. This is simply unacceptable.
Look for future posts, because I have barely scratched the surface here... there is plenty more evidence that I didn't have time or space to address
Personally, I enjoy the series and appreciate that Dragonslayer has brought attention to emerging authors. How they allocate payouts is up to them. If I hear complaints from authors themselves, then maybe I'll re-evaluate, but I have not heard it's an issue. How the community of voters chooses to support these kinds of posts is up to the community.
This is a complaint from an author, for what it's worth. Others commenting in agreement are also authors whose work he has profited off of...
Thanks. I stand corrected on that point. The community can decide.
If some have issues with their post getting promoted by all means message me and tell me you dont want it, (not a direct reply to you donkeypong) thank you for your support.
Hi @donkeypong. Please see this comment from @strangeray, an author who had been featured by @dragonslayer109 https://steemit.com/steemit/@nonlinearone/why-i-gave-the-free-money-usd26-087-from-a-featured-author-post-back#@strangerarray/re-nonlinearone-why-i-gave-the-free-money-usd26-087-from-a-featured-author-post-back-20160824t161026368z
you forget to take into account that it is to help get your posts shown I spend 8-10 hours looking for posts. many thank me for the opportunity to get featured and seen... most posts would get next to nothing without my help so if you didnt like what I have done and didnt want to get featured then say so . and no a link is not a comment spam when it is there to help your post out
I was under the impression that you shared the SBD with the authors, and knowing that you do not changes my perception of what you're doing, to be honest. That's neither good or bad, because what I think about what you're doing doesn't matter.
Keep in mind that if you shared the SBD you'd still be getting Steem Power for yourself, as well as name recognition and increased reputation. If you think that your time putting the post together is worth 100% of the rewards, then that's fine I guess.
It remains to be seen that your efforts consistently bring exposure to the authors featured. If that is the case, then that's great!
This is how it works with the Steemit Photo Challenge. The majority of the SBD, plus donations, are converted to Steem and given away as prizes, upwards of 300 Steem every single week. The rewarded (7 people, usually) do what they want with their prizes, cash out or power up. Much of the time @berniesanders goes and upvotes winning submissions and comments as well to spread the love. I get to keep the Steem Power and I keep a bit of the Steem generated from the rewards for my time. That is the way I choose to do it, give away most of it.
You should be rewarded for highlighting actual hidden gems, but it should also bring direct value and exposure to those featured. There's a happy balance somewhere in there, I think.
You featured me today too. I would be ok with it if you shared all the SBD with the authors, and stopped featuring authors who are not hidden gems. I don't personally want to take the place of another author who could do with the exposure...
There is value to this kind of work, I have seen one of @biophil posts, and that set up seems far more reasonable and fair. If @dragonslayer109 sees this, your success won't continue if you carry with your current set up, however a small change could solidify your place on Steemit for the long haul...
I want every user to find a home on Steemit, there is still a home here for @dragonslayer109.
+1 to this. As @bacchist stated, we believe your intentions were pure when you started, but now it seems you are sloppy and greedy.
Pay out the sbd to the authors, feature posts that haven't picked up steam (pun intended), and everyone will appreciate your work a lot more.
6 of the 8 posts (including mine) were posted to #2000SP. You obviously just took them and slapped your post together.
What is #2000SP?
Is #2000SP some kind of double secret probation chat room for people with 2000SP or more? I have 2,500SP but have never heard of it ... my invite must have gotten lost in the mail ;)
Did you just not see my questions or do you choose to ignore them? Thanks.
Oh hey, I didn't mean to ignore you. It's some private channel on the RocketChat. Somebody just added me to it one day.
No worries, thanks. I think it's one of the symptoms of what's broken with SteemIt that people with 2000SP need to go post their articles in a secret channel that they have to be invited to - instead of people following users with 2000SP and upvoting their stuff. Further, you have to be "in the club" and invited by someone - simply earning your way past 2000SP isn't enough. I mean, it's a blockchain .... the fact that whoever has 2000SP or more is public knowledge and, IMO, it shouldn't be "necessary" to also go pimp your post in a secret channel.
wow - @dragonslayer - thank you for making my post a "hidden gem". It really helped put me on the map. It amazes me how people look for a negative motive - leftover scarcity from the indoctrination, surely.
This article could be a lot less hostile if you had attacked the concept of "hidden gems" more objectively, and kept away from attacking specific users, such as @dragonslayer109.
What you're writing isn't untrue, nor do I completely disagree, but you're making @dragonslayer109 out to be some sort of profiteer.
And that's just rude.
Hello Bacchist,
I understand, that you dont agree with the Idea of someone getting rewards just be "using" the work of others.
Basically I agree with that.
But actually, what dargonslayer does, is one of the essential activities on this plattfoem: he is curating content.
Following your logic, it shoud be forbbiden to get curation rawards just by up-voting content, since you are just "qualifying" someone else's work with your vote.
More over he does more than just qualifying them, he is also bookmarking them based on his criteria as curator.
Beyond that, he is also adding short but insightfull sumaries to every post which are not only useful to the reader but also a prove that he his doing is job: he is reading the posts he issues.
I think dragonslayer's hidden gems are not only an added value for the comunity but also a win-win-win situation. The author get more rewards, the reader, get a pre-filtered pick of interesting articles to read and dragonslayer get also
rewarded for the hours he spend working on it.
Why dont you give a try an write some classification article? I will be more than pleases to dig into your "picks"
(sorry for the typos - writting on the iphone with my kids sleeping at both sides)
Yours sincerely
Pablo Garcia
Are you getting 400$ for curating as it's everyone's duty to do on here?
Well, but is it dragonslayer's post not worth 400$ if to he curators say's so?
You're an effective ombudsman. Nice work.
beautiful word, eeks!
Nice investigation bacchist.
First though is, who has the right to "allow" this to continue or not? Does Steemit really want to go in that direction?
But why would someone be upset about this? If Dragonslayer links one of my posts, the absolute worst that can happen is for none of his readers to go to my article. The next best is for one to go and upvote. I'll take all the help I can get.
If someone goes to his posts and doesn't like it, they don't upvote. If they like but think he's already made plenty on it, they don't have to upvote.
Hopefully those highlighted will get some attention, upvotes and new followers.
I proposed a different model that involved more community participation, but there was little interest. Chances are, hardly anyone saw it. Maybe if Dragonslayer had picked up on it, he could have promoted it and ended up with a little competition. :P
The community at large chooses what to support.... I was making this post to promote discussion and give the community the chance to decide what to do (or not do, as the case may be) with it.
I want to emphasize something: Aggregators like @dragonslayer109 will be some of the most important people on the site once it grows. there will be thousands (if not milllions) of great new authors producing many fantastic articles that gain no traction and would it benefit many people who otherwise wouldn't see them if not for him. There will be increasing demand for whale/dolphin aggregators
The future of Steemit depends on people like @dragonslayer109 and I believe he will come through 😁
I don't agree with this necessarily, but I do agree it is very possible, and the concept of promoters and aggregators shouldn't be dismissed just because they are "evil middlemen making money off the efforts of others".
I don't know whether @dragonslayer109 guide posts are adding value or not. This post raises questions but to make the case they aren't I would suggest more detailed study is needed.
This hidden gems post is actually something of an outlier, because the posts that he featured as hidden gems actually had payouts that were about equal the the rewards he got from his hidden gems post... most of the time, his post receives much more than all of his featured posts combined. As I said at the end of this post, I left out quite a bit of information... Depending on what happens, I'll be following up on this post.
stop sucking the cock @stellabelle would like to have
I much prefer the Lost Content Digest by @biophil. Not only does he give all SBD to the authors, but he features low traction posts AFTER their initial payouts. i think what dragonslayer is doing is past the ethical gray area and we should probably begin to downvote for it.
The biggest thing is not sharing sbd with the gems. Some of those make under 1$ and look baffled as his post make 400$. Just the fact that the hidden gem post made >>> than ALL the gems combined shows that the idea is flawed, that's not even CLOSE to reasonable!
He should give SBD to authors, no question. He gets SP fro crying out loud.
Thank you for raising something that has been on a lot of people's minds!
Obviously it's impossible to tell Dragon to stop, so I think users need to revaluate whether this is something they want to continue to support. If people lose interest, the auto-voters will too.