RE: Steem - Why Originality and Openness are the Pillars of this Community
OK, so I'm finding my way round the interface and drafting an Intoductory post, it seems to me to be pretty original. But the make-up posts are a bit off-putting: what they seem to be saying is 'mass appeal' trumps 'original', I think that's the crux of the problem. They aren't mutually exclusive of course but they do tend to be.
Once you break the terms down, brainstorm their qualities, it becomes clear: eg in a contest between 'challenging and difficult' vs 'accessible and sexy'. The good is that there is pressure to make 'challenging' originality 'accessible', the bad seems to be so it would be easier to just go for the lowest common denominator . To be fair this just reflects 'real life' but it would be interesting to see if Steem finds a way round it.
That is an interesting analysis.
You are absolutely right, it does reflect real life. I think that it would be hard for Steem to find its way around it because as you said
We will just have to wait and see.
Funny thing is blockchain is the opposite. Effort is spent solving difficult problems for which you are rewarded. Can't help speculating why can't a social media platform, which is actually based on blockchain, do the equivalent for enriching culture ?
You could argue that not everybody is young pretty and female and this is highly prized , or that Blockchains problems are fairly mundane and easy to define.
However, the phenomenon of 'click-bait' is well understood - it doesn't exclude 'originality' or 'quality' but thats not its purpose. Would be a shame then if Steem just ends up being a laboratory for click-bait.