I also appreciate that he has brought quite a few people to steemit. Yes, there are issues and the lack of replying is one of them, but I don't think they necessarily out weigh the positives.
I was also a supporter of his posts in the early days for that reason. However you feel about his philosophy or business practices, he sure as hell knows how to promote to a certain audience and he was actively promoting Steem/it not only on his own channels but elsewhere in media appearances as well. It was effective and it brought in users.
Once the Steem price dropped and his earnings from Steem/it did as well, he tossed it aside. He is no longer doing any of the work that adds value here and is just autoposting on autopilot as passive (parasitic) income.
To be fair, it's still content that he created, regardless of whether he created it exclusively for Steem or not. Why shouldn't he be rewarded for bringing his original content to the platform? Do you fault him for posting his content in multiple places? Do you fault him for not taking the time to reply to comments? It's original content that he brought to the platform; I see nothing remotely parasitic in that.
Moreover, he continues to promote Steem on Anarchast. Just yesterday he posted a new episode in which he promoted Steem. Here's a link to the relevant part of the video. His comments were brief, and not glowing with fanboyism, but they were nevertheless positive in nature and context. And he's name-dropped Steem, and even described it on air, on a lot of episodes of Anarchast, since he first discovered it. So to say "he tossed it aside" when his earnings went down is, in my opinion, grossly misleading.
I don't believe that reposting content that already exists on the internet adds much value. Google and web browsers already exist. Also sticking it on a blockchain is just spam. Why not just post it as a link (which would at least avoid wasting space on the blockchain)? Because it would then be more obvious that it is not adding much value.
If he were here participating in the discussion, or if the posts actually sparked discussion at all then yes I could support it (as I did, by the way, when he was here and was participating, and was actively promoting Steem elsewhere). Link posts, which is essentially what they are, are conversation starters. Nothing wrong with them, but their naked value proposition is not high.
The only discussion sparked by these posts seems to be about what degree of abuse they constitute.
To be fair, it's still content that he created
Yes, I never claimed it was plagiarism
Do you fault him for not taking the time to reply to comments?
It is not faulting him at all to believe that one post or another does not add value for Steem stakeholders, or adds minimal value that does not justify a particular degree of continuous income.
Moreover, he continues to promote Steem on Anarchast.
I don't believe that reposting content that already exists on the internet adds much value. Google and web browsers already exist.
As you pointed out, the footer seems to claim that the content is exclusive to Steem, which it is not, so I concede that point. Nevertheless, it is perfectly legitimate to post original content far and wide, and the purpose of social media platforms is to be a venue for that kind of posting.
Also sticking it on a blockchain is just spam. Why not just post it as a link (which would at least avoid wasting space on the blockchain)?
Because it's vastly more convenient to readers? Maybe because he wants to post the content on a blockchain so there is a permanent record of it (one of the primary reasons Steem was created)? Because the biggest reasons to post a link back to his site would be to drive traffic to his site to earn ad revenue, gather analytics, etc. and one of the primary reasons Steem exists is to give authors an option to monetize content without relying on ads and tracking users?
It sounds like you're complaining that he's using Steem correctly, rather than double-dipping by sending users back to his site to be tracked and used as ad revenue fodder!
Because it would then be more obvious that it is not adding much value.
Posting the full content on Steem is a gift to the Steem community, and is considered an anti-pattern in online marketing and SEO because it means he can't track his users (to optimize his site or sell their behavior analytics), show them ads (which pay him), or keep the full text of his posts exclusive to his own website (which earns his domain SEO points; by posting it on Steem, he's giving steemit.com those SEO points).
He's breaking every rule in the book in favor of Steem. If he had merely dropped a link to his site, that would've been much closer to the abuse you describe, though it would've been more abusive to Steem's users than to Steem itself.
Finally, according to the rules of the blockchain, he is, as a registered user, entitled to post this data to the blockchain. He is entitled to. It is a privilege explicitly granted to him in the smart contract. Even if he were posting random garbage, he is entitled to do that by contract. And this is far from random garbage; I personally found this post quite informative and useful.
Finally, according to the rules of the blockchain, he is, as a registered user, entitled to post this data to the blockchain. He is entitled to. It is a privilege explicitly granted to him in the smart contract. Even if he were posting random garbage, he is entitled to do that by contract. And this is far from random garbage; I personally found this post quite informative and useful.
Yes, and according to the same rules, I'm entitled to vote on whether his post is adding value to Steem stakeholders (the steemit.com web site doesn't particularly count). Personally I find that it adds marginally more value than random garbage, but not a lot given that anyone can view it on a web site, and not much else seems to be happening with this content other than people debating its value (or lack thereof). I concede the point that he may still be promoting Steem externally and as I said I will evaluate that.
As for SEO and such, I don't particularly care. That is his benefit or problem and doesn't particularly (if at all) bear any relevance to whether paying these rewards adds value to Steem stakeholders.
He is certainly welcome to post on the blockchain as a parmanent record whether or not he gets any rewards for doing so, but I am going to consider as a voter the costs of doing so relative to the benefits that accrue to Steem stakeholders as a result. I do not believe that it is beneficial to Steem stakeholders for any and/or every web site in the world to post their content on the blockchain (and do nothing else) as the costs of doing so would be enormous and the benefits (again, to stakeholders) few.
Note that I'm not challenging your downvote. Like I said before, it's your stake; use it as you will. My goal here is to understand your perspective, in case you've seen something I've missed, and to share mine in case of the reverse. :)
You keep citing your voting criteria as being whether the post brings value to the stakeholders. I've pointed out that the posts are valuable to some readers (and all readers are stakeholders, and more readers equates to demand for STEEM, which is directly beneficial to the stakeholders); that by posting the full content on Steem, it contributes to a world of media which isn't incentivized by ads or tracking, which is a primary design goal of Steem (meeting goals drives interest and speculation); and that by posting full content on Steem, it improves steemit.com's SEO ranking, which means all steemit.com links rank higher in search results, and more users are sent to the site.
That is three independent, direct value-adds directly to the stakeholders.
As for SEO and such, I don't particularly care. That is his benefit or problem and doesn't particularly (if at all) bear any relevance to whether paying these rewards adds value to Steem stakeholders.
I just explained to you exactly why it bears direct relevance and adds value to the stakeholders. You may not care, but if that's the case, don't claim to be acting in the interest of the stakeholders.
That is three independent, direct value-adds directly to the stakeholders.
By the literal definition of the word those are, at best, indirect value-adds to the stakeholders. I do not believe they compete favorably when compared to other forms of activity which are competing for earnings, if they actually provide any value to stakeholders at all, which I question.
don't claim to be acting in the interest of the stakeholders.
I am acting in the interest of stakeholders (most notably myself) as I subjectively view those interests. My opinion does not value highly things like SEO ranking of the steemit.com web site (and especially not of TDV's web site) nor, necessarily, the design goals of the Steem system except to the extent that I see those goals as bringing value to the Steem stakeholders.
Again, I won't claim with certainty there is zero value here, but all voted posts and comments must compete with all others. I consider reposted content such as this to be of relatively low value.
I totally agree with that. He is not bringing value as a curator, tho some as a content creator. It's not original exclusive content for steemit, but it does add a bit to the diversity of info here.
I believe his motivations for posting it here are more for revenue generation as a sales funnel than to provide content value to the Steemit platform. But that's just my subjective opionion of another man's motives based on the actions I observe here. I would be the last one to ban him from the platform based on what I know right now.
Afaik(and I might be wrong in this) he stoped responding after a bunch of morons continuously started to attack him, having too many followers and lowering the "income" of every other shit poster definetly makes you a target.
I agree. However, there are some serious allegations being made about Mr. Berwick. I looked into them briefly and find some of them credible, at least from the "victims" perspective. I have not heard Berwicks side of the story, so I am not so quick to believe what all those victims say. I'm not defending him, he may be guilty as charged, I can't say one way or another.
When it comes to second passports I'm sure it's not an easy process, and someone trying to provide that service probably needs to have plenty of disclaimers and CYA clauses in place. If the agreement is no refunds, no promises then people don't have a fair basis to call him a scam artist. Nevertheless, there's no excuse for a failure to communicate, even if it's just to say, "I told you, no guarantees, no refunds, and you agreed". He wouldn't have many repeat customers or referrals doing business that way, not for long at least.
I had a serious run in with a pair of psychopaths almost 10 years ago now. They were also well known in the freedom movement. I got lucky and prevailed in court and got what was due me. One of them is dead now, the other not far behind. The planet is better off without them.
If Berwick turns out to be another such animal his reputation will take care of him in due time.
If I didn't have the experience I just described I would find it very difficult to believe Berwick could be a psychopath. Not saying he is, but he is showing all the same signs of one I saw up close and personal. People like that endear themselves in a variety of ways and take advantage of people's willingness to trust, especially when they align themselves (you think you're aligning with their principles - ha!) with high moral principles.
Religion is another arena where this happens, and it happens often. It can utterly destroy lives when such deep trust is shattered.
I also appreciate that he has brought quite a few people to steemit. Yes, there are issues and the lack of replying is one of them, but I don't think they necessarily out weigh the positives.
I was also a supporter of his posts in the early days for that reason. However you feel about his philosophy or business practices, he sure as hell knows how to promote to a certain audience and he was actively promoting Steem/it not only on his own channels but elsewhere in media appearances as well. It was effective and it brought in users.
Once the Steem price dropped and his earnings from Steem/it did as well, he tossed it aside. He is no longer doing any of the work that adds value here and is just autoposting on autopilot as passive (parasitic) income.
To be fair, it's still content that he created, regardless of whether he created it exclusively for Steem or not. Why shouldn't he be rewarded for bringing his original content to the platform? Do you fault him for posting his content in multiple places? Do you fault him for not taking the time to reply to comments? It's original content that he brought to the platform; I see nothing remotely parasitic in that.
Moreover, he continues to promote Steem on Anarchast. Just yesterday he posted a new episode in which he promoted Steem. Here's a link to the relevant part of the video. His comments were brief, and not glowing with fanboyism, but they were nevertheless positive in nature and context. And he's name-dropped Steem, and even described it on air, on a lot of episodes of Anarchast, since he first discovered it. So to say "he tossed it aside" when his earnings went down is, in my opinion, grossly misleading.
I don't believe that reposting content that already exists on the internet adds much value. Google and web browsers already exist. Also sticking it on a blockchain is just spam. Why not just post it as a link (which would at least avoid wasting space on the blockchain)? Because it would then be more obvious that it is not adding much value.
If he were here participating in the discussion, or if the posts actually sparked discussion at all then yes I could support it (as I did, by the way, when he was here and was participating, and was actively promoting Steem elsewhere). Link posts, which is essentially what they are, are conversation starters. Nothing wrong with them, but their naked value proposition is not high.
The only discussion sparked by these posts seems to be about what degree of abuse they constitute.
Yes, I never claimed it was plagiarism
It is not faulting him at all to believe that one post or another does not add value for Steem stakeholders, or adds minimal value that does not justify a particular degree of continuous income.
Thank you for that information. I will review it.
As you pointed out, the footer seems to claim that the content is exclusive to Steem, which it is not, so I concede that point. Nevertheless, it is perfectly legitimate to post original content far and wide, and the purpose of social media platforms is to be a venue for that kind of posting.
Because it's vastly more convenient to readers? Maybe because he wants to post the content on a blockchain so there is a permanent record of it (one of the primary reasons Steem was created)? Because the biggest reasons to post a link back to his site would be to drive traffic to his site to earn ad revenue, gather analytics, etc. and one of the primary reasons Steem exists is to give authors an option to monetize content without relying on ads and tracking users?
It sounds like you're complaining that he's using Steem correctly, rather than double-dipping by sending users back to his site to be tracked and used as ad revenue fodder!
Posting the full content on Steem is a gift to the Steem community, and is considered an anti-pattern in online marketing and SEO because it means he can't track his users (to optimize his site or sell their behavior analytics), show them ads (which pay him), or keep the full text of his posts exclusive to his own website (which earns his domain SEO points; by posting it on Steem, he's giving steemit.com those SEO points).
He's breaking every rule in the book in favor of Steem. If he had merely dropped a link to his site, that would've been much closer to the abuse you describe, though it would've been more abusive to Steem's users than to Steem itself.
Finally, according to the rules of the blockchain, he is, as a registered user, entitled to post this data to the blockchain. He is entitled to. It is a privilege explicitly granted to him in the smart contract. Even if he were posting random garbage, he is entitled to do that by contract. And this is far from random garbage; I personally found this post quite informative and useful.
Agreed. :)
[nesting]
Yes, and according to the same rules, I'm entitled to vote on whether his post is adding value to Steem stakeholders (the steemit.com web site doesn't particularly count). Personally I find that it adds marginally more value than random garbage, but not a lot given that anyone can view it on a web site, and not much else seems to be happening with this content other than people debating its value (or lack thereof). I concede the point that he may still be promoting Steem externally and as I said I will evaluate that.
As for SEO and such, I don't particularly care. That is his benefit or problem and doesn't particularly (if at all) bear any relevance to whether paying these rewards adds value to Steem stakeholders.
He is certainly welcome to post on the blockchain as a parmanent record whether or not he gets any rewards for doing so, but I am going to consider as a voter the costs of doing so relative to the benefits that accrue to Steem stakeholders as a result. I do not believe that it is beneficial to Steem stakeholders for any and/or every web site in the world to post their content on the blockchain (and do nothing else) as the costs of doing so would be enormous and the benefits (again, to stakeholders) few.
Note that I'm not challenging your downvote. Like I said before, it's your stake; use it as you will. My goal here is to understand your perspective, in case you've seen something I've missed, and to share mine in case of the reverse. :)
You keep citing your voting criteria as being whether the post brings value to the stakeholders. I've pointed out that the posts are valuable to some readers (and all readers are stakeholders, and more readers equates to demand for STEEM, which is directly beneficial to the stakeholders); that by posting the full content on Steem, it contributes to a world of media which isn't incentivized by ads or tracking, which is a primary design goal of Steem (meeting goals drives interest and speculation); and that by posting full content on Steem, it improves steemit.com's SEO ranking, which means all steemit.com links rank higher in search results, and more users are sent to the site.
That is three independent, direct value-adds directly to the stakeholders.
I just explained to you exactly why it bears direct relevance and adds value to the stakeholders. You may not care, but if that's the case, don't claim to be acting in the interest of the stakeholders.
By the literal definition of the word those are, at best, indirect value-adds to the stakeholders. I do not believe they compete favorably when compared to other forms of activity which are competing for earnings, if they actually provide any value to stakeholders at all, which I question.
I am acting in the interest of stakeholders (most notably myself) as I subjectively view those interests. My opinion does not value highly things like SEO ranking of the steemit.com web site (and especially not of TDV's web site) nor, necessarily, the design goals of the Steem system except to the extent that I see those goals as bringing value to the Steem stakeholders.
Again, I won't claim with certainty there is zero value here, but all voted posts and comments must compete with all others. I consider reposted content such as this to be of relatively low value.
I totally agree with that. He is not bringing value as a curator, tho some as a content creator. It's not original exclusive content for steemit, but it does add a bit to the diversity of info here.
I believe his motivations for posting it here are more for revenue generation as a sales funnel than to provide content value to the Steemit platform. But that's just my subjective opionion of another man's motives based on the actions I observe here. I would be the last one to ban him from the platform based on what I know right now.
I never proposed a ban. I don't support the autogenerated rewards flowing as passive income.
I never claimed or inferred you said that. I was speaking for myself. Your comment is unnecessarily defensive.
Afaik(and I might be wrong in this) he stoped responding after a bunch of morons continuously started to attack him, having too many followers and lowering the "income" of every other shit poster definetly makes you a target.
I agree. However, there are some serious allegations being made about Mr. Berwick. I looked into them briefly and find some of them credible, at least from the "victims" perspective. I have not heard Berwicks side of the story, so I am not so quick to believe what all those victims say. I'm not defending him, he may be guilty as charged, I can't say one way or another.
When it comes to second passports I'm sure it's not an easy process, and someone trying to provide that service probably needs to have plenty of disclaimers and CYA clauses in place. If the agreement is no refunds, no promises then people don't have a fair basis to call him a scam artist. Nevertheless, there's no excuse for a failure to communicate, even if it's just to say, "I told you, no guarantees, no refunds, and you agreed". He wouldn't have many repeat customers or referrals doing business that way, not for long at least.
I had a serious run in with a pair of psychopaths almost 10 years ago now. They were also well known in the freedom movement. I got lucky and prevailed in court and got what was due me. One of them is dead now, the other not far behind. The planet is better off without them.
If Berwick turns out to be another such animal his reputation will take care of him in due time.
If I didn't have the experience I just described I would find it very difficult to believe Berwick could be a psychopath. Not saying he is, but he is showing all the same signs of one I saw up close and personal. People like that endear themselves in a variety of ways and take advantage of people's willingness to trust, especially when they align themselves (you think you're aligning with their principles - ha!) with high moral principles.
Religion is another arena where this happens, and it happens often. It can utterly destroy lives when such deep trust is shattered.
Coveat Emptor
This is truly possible.
So true. I was one of the people that learned about Steemit because of Jeff.
He was replying, tho not much. He replied last month on a few posts.