RE: STEEM WHISTLEBLOWER: "Hidden Gem" & "Featured" Post Makers May be CROOKS!
Klye, I believe you and I started here around the same time. I love your content and have really enjoyed chatting with you. I follow you and will continue to. But I personally think you are way off on this. I will not speak for anyone else (I wish you would refrain from this as well) but I have been featured by @gavvet several times and I am thrilled with the arrangement. It is completely symbiotic. I am not a "victim" and I am not being "exploited". I am not being scammed. My name is on every single post. I have been given credit. I am extremely happy.
Although it is still in Beta, there is one thing that is completely clear about Steemit... this is a community that relies on teamwork. No one can thrive here completely alone. This teamwork comes in many forms. Maybe it's forming a bond with 30 people who always vote for your content. Perhaps it's getting lucky enough to get noticed by a "whale". Or it could take the form of a publisher/content creator relationship.(I'm sure there are many more.)
I write for enjoyment, but I'm not writing in my personal journal. I'm writing here because I hope others will gain from what I write. I hope that maybe they have a laugh or they go hug their kid after they read my work. I also believe in this site 100% and am excited for what it can offer people who have never had a platform or who could never earn money for their creativity in the "real world". Because of this, I want to help it grow. The best way to do that around here is to provide content that people want to read... and to have enough vesting power for your vote to matter. @gavvet has provided me with a means to reach all of those goals.
You said you spend 3 hours for each hour of creation. It takes me 6 hours to create a post. If I followed your method, I would need to spend 18 hours promoting it. I am a father, a husband, and a teacher. I can't spend that much time on promoting. I am very happy for you that you can (no sarcasm here I'm being sincere.) If I had to spend that much time, I would have to quit writing. I know I'm not the best, but I think my work does add some value to the site.
If I were paying someone half of my proceeds to promote my posts, would you think it's a problem? Would I then be exploiting them?
Thank's @hanshotfirst I absolutely love your stuff, I guess the question now is.....
Does the real eye witness testimony trump the assumed ulterior motivated assumption? or are you now going to be called just one of my many sock puppets?
Thank you Sir for this lengthy and detailed reply. I value your perspective and input on the matter and when I get the time to revise the post above I will be bringing to light some points that you mention here, I failed to properly reflect all angles when I originally wrote this and I see that now.
We are a community here. You're 100% correct in saying that. No person should have to spend the time I do in a day promoting their work to have it be successful (the reason I have to promote my articles so much is because most people write and draw better than I do). If you've been featured in @gavvet posts and he's paid you the amount that was agreed on previously then no scam nor exploitation has gone on in your mind and your deal is mutually beneficial. I can't deny that and I'm glad that @gavvet is able to allow you to achieve your goals on the site and if you're happy with his service that's a good thing.
Originally when writing this I didn't fully grasp the lengths people were willing to accept to have their work validated by their peers. After reading a number of the responses from people I talk to daily here on the site it became apparent I was missing a piece to all of this: Users are infact willing to pay huge sums of their possible rewards just for the chance to have their articles mentioned by these promotion mill accounts. Doesn't sit particularly easy feeling some of the percentages some of these featured authors originally received but it looks like those that were mentioned have answered the call and will hopefully in the future consider greater compensation for their featured stars.
Your question: "If I were paying someone half of my proceeds to promote my posts, would you think it's a problem? Would I then be exploiting them?"
If you both agree on the deal and believe it's mutually beneficial and all amounts are paid in full it's likely not going to be viewed as exploitation. What percentage of SBD and SP one considers fair is completely up to the author and promoter at the end of the day, my opinion or others shouldn't matter if it's good business and all parties feel fufilled.
And thank you for showing your character and editing the original post. You are a good guy. I knew you just were missing part of the picture. Once you had the whole picture, you adjusted your view. That is difficult to do. Pledging to try and see the angles first next time is also a sign of character.
As far as the "paying to promote" question, that was rhetorical. Lol. I was just trying to use it as an analogy to show you a piece of the picture you were missing.
You summed up this entire debate with your answer to that question: "If you both agree on the deal and believe it's mutually beneficial and all amounts are paid in full it's likely not going to be viewed as exploitation. What percentage of SBD and SP one considers fair is completely up to the author and promoter at the end of the day, my opinion or others shouldn't matter if it's good business and all parties feel fulfilled."
Exactly!
You're a good man. I just think that you fell into the "Ready, Fire, Aim" trap.
You did fall into the trap one more time when you assumed my goals involved "being validated". If you want to know my goals, just ask.
I did fail to recognizre that point when I originally wrote the article.
That is where in my opinion I went wrong here. I'm just glad that basically everyone came to reply and did something about the issue when asked (even when I didn't fully view the picture).
Thank you for your kind words.