None of this is directed toward me, I'm not nearly self centered enough to believe enjoying your posts for 1 month even comes close to what you've shared with other people but I was hoping provide an alternative perspective if you don't mind reading, what I predict will become, a wall of text.
1. The terrorists win.
People see the front page and believe that it's ok to be an arsehole and focus on the money, and worse yet they are lured here by money. I recently did a post (and will continue) trying to convince people they can't get money here (sorry for self promotion but wanted an example to say I'm trying). Working on changing the perception of steemit but for it to work you need to stick around I need you to stick around. You so purely exemplify the beauty of what steemit should be, an anti-Haejin if you will. So simply put if you leave the terrorists win. Even if all you end up doing is posting pictures of cats in precarious situations at least your around, and your presence is a positive influence on steemit. And I don't need to know about your helping people to see that.
2. I love your upvote
It's true, it is the standard I use to gauge a quality post vs the rest of the drivel I produce, you keep me honestish... But I'm less interested in the %, yes the more you like something I do the more you give but even 1% given means I got your attention which is something supremely valuable (to me). You do not give your attention freely, though I suppose a fart song isn't too stimulating, it is funny. To see the quality of your posts, and to know I can produce something that grabs the attention of someone of your caliber means I'm doing something right... admittedly rarely though.
3. I enjoy your posts
I could like and say I've thought more about your dick than I have my own but that's just not true. I think more about my dick than just about anything else, your dick is unique however. For three weeks running I have thought about your dick at least once per week. Which, for good or bad, has made me laugh one all occasions. No one else has been able to make me laugh at their dick as much as you have. Maybe you should change your description, am I an amazing judge? Probably yes.
Your posts are special on steemit, I know you only post the way something drives you, it's quite an emotional experience for you I think. And it's a emotional experience for me to read. But what makes it so good (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) is the reason you post. Some come to post for money, they whither and die, some post for themselves, they invariably find out they are boring and (hopefully) leave, you post for us. For those who will maybe read your post, maybe not. maybe skim through it with a ctrl + f to make sure you don't say dick anywhere so to avoid slowly turning gay, but irrespective of that I get a sense that you post for us, to entertain us, to share with us to steemit with us.
4. You are a reason to stay on steemit
Because of you and other people like you, who will probably never see the front page, I will remain on steemit swapping dick stories with whoever I can get to listen as I regale them with stories of @nonameslefttouse's old fella.
Idi.
I try to view a lot of posts in a day but often run out of time. If my vote isn't there, don't think it's because I didn't like the post. I follow a lot of people. Some days I can't keep up. Even trying to follow up on the comedy stuff while still attempting to support the people I've been trying to help for a long time... it's a lot. I'm pulled in many directions at once, plus I'm always trying to be here to respond. I have over 9000 posts. Majority of that isn't comments, it's responses. 75% I think... all responses.
It is. I post to an audience, like I'm on a stage. I've always treated it that way. I don't really know what to say though. I can't blog the way I do without a viewership. It would be pointless to sit here and do what I do if people weren't entertained. People come and talk after and I get to enjoy everyone's company. Plus I get to show off the art on the side. I dunno, I'm rambling... we all know what I do. You're right and I think I make it obvious enough.
And just to touch on a few more things you said.... So many people are leaving. All that SP is going into a few hands and they sell the votes so now there are far fewer people around to actually vote and view. It's counterproductive and just going to get worse and worse and I see many people taking hits financially here now because of it. It's fucked, to be honest. I've said everything I can say. Those plastic people like fucking Jerry are ruining this place with their fake ass smiles just as much as the self voting whales. The selfish shit is taking over, but they're shooting themselves in the foot. The ones fucking it up have the most to lose... so whatever. I'll just keep doing what I do even though some days it feels like the support is dwindling down to nothing. I'll try to keep finding a reason to stick around. If I think about these problems though.. I can't perform. Here... have a vote for your time. Thanks for the encouragement.
About Jerry, I really don't like him. It's not personal it's his face. Ok maybe it is personal. Yes he runs a bot but let's be honest too much SP is in too few hands and the bots even the playing field. People don't make money with the bots, not anymore but they do help to get attention. I won't convince you bots are good things because I myself am in 2 minds about it but I'm just not as vocal I guess.
But look at what else he does, he created the budget account where people can get delegations and donations for projects that require SP and steem which he funds from the bot and from his witness server. He's working to increase the amount of money witnesses outside the top 20 get. He's paying to build an steem exchange so you can buy steem directly. and a couple of other projects and they are good things. as much as I don't like his face I have to admit he's a positive influence for steem. He will help grow the value of steem (not necessarily price of steem).
You can read Taskmasters post, the SP is actually moving from Whales to smaller accounts. SP isn't in fewer and fewer hands but in more and more hands, it doesn't feel like it because everybody wants the attention of one big account but they don't realize if the person who controls the account goes on holiday they lose their earnings, and then what.
It's not all bleak, despite how it feels, promise. There is a good future for steemit.
Well, I did say people like Jerry. In other words: those selling the votes and using advertising techniques to do it. Creating a problem and offering a solution for a fee. They're paving the way to centralization, with a smile. People fall for it.
If I start buying votes, do you really think all of those people who haven't voted for me in the past will start voting for me just because I bought votes? If I see someone buying votes that tells me they don't need mine, they got it covered, so I look elsewhere. Besides, I don't like being misled into thinking something is popular and it sucks that I have to look at the voter list now before deciding to vote. The money, at one point, was a clear indication of high ratings. Now the money means nothing. If everyone places $50 beside their post, that makes $50 the new zero. It drives the value of the vote down, along with the value of our tokens. Value is based on belief and if $50 means nothing, we're all fucked.
That exchange you speak of has a huge flaw in the design. He said active members with high rep and many posts would qualify to use the service, not realizing people can buy rep and spam comments to exploit that "trust system." He used himself as an example as someone who would qualify and when I pointed out that he buys his reputation and spams blogs every time someone buys a vote, he denied it, but the proof is everywhere, so I wasn't impressed with that and it made me lose trust in him.
New members come along, they blog, they slowly start getting attention but many get sucked in to purchasing a vote and their wallets don't grow. If they do grow, it's at a snail pace. They don't give themselves credit for doing a good job, they think it's the money beside the post that did a good job. They end up feeling worthless because there's no reward feeling, then they quit or worse, they feel scammed and tell their friends. All of that could have been prevented if people would learn to start small and power up their earnings instead of handing it over to a middleman for no reason. We'd see faster account growth that way. People see my account and they don't realize it took a lot of work to get to this point. They just want it now so they look for shortcuts and people like Jerry and the others are there to sell their snake oil quick fix, that doesn't work. It's just watered down nonsense.
Me being here before this chaos means I can see the difference and the damage it's causing. New members can't, they're just products of their environment. They came here to make money and don't realize if you actually work for it, you earn more and you don't need someone pretending to hold your hand. People aren't even being encouraged to improve their performance because they can just give themselves a participation award and carry on feeling a false sense of satisfaction. That's why morale is down around here. The true rewarding feeling of EARNING a vote has been stripped away. I used to be in charge of a sizable staff. If I only paid people to show up to work, the business falls flat on it's face because productivity is low as there's no incentive to work.
Off topic, just dropping you a line.
I was wondering if there could be a way to indicate whether or not a comedyopenmic entry is a gif with a one liner. I don't usually vote for those and it's kind of annoying sifting through the entries trying to find original work. I realize the one liners are original but I can't vote for borrowed physical comedy. It's for the same reasons I won't vote for old jokes being copy/pasted.
Interesting idea. To introduce a short form / long form tag to allow people a prize for best short form comedy and best long form comedy... I don't think it can be so specific as to be one liner gif or something but maybe a short form category of less than 50 words.
Something like that work for you?
Now you're talking. That's what I'm looking for. Not to discourage anyone from sticking to their form, but just a way that makes it easy to find what I'm looking for. Right now it seems people are following the herd, but I know there are others who can offer something different and in a sense that's not really being encouraged. I can yap for 1000 words. Half of that is build up, the other half, laughs. The true comedy writers. There's a lot of us and I do see it... it's just hard to find. I don't want to step on any toes though, know what I mean? I know Punchline has a tag called 'funny-story', but I never use it, maybe I should... but specialized tags limit visibility, so it's hard for me to change, but maybe I should... or maybe I should just shut the fuck up... but yeah. Whatever I said up there. I tied into the wine shortly after sending that message. Don't mind me.
I'll talk with the other judges and see 8f they agree to the idea