_{First let me put a disclaimer in here, yes my opinions may need to come with disclaimers from now on.}
The following are only my opinions and my views and should NOT reflect or speak for any project or individuals I may be associated with. Please take them as such.

Ok here comes my overly opinionated opinion...

I don't like many aspects of the new changes that come along with the EIP, especially that of how it affects the dust threshold and what that means for small accounts - and I have been pretty vocal about that. Shocking, I know.. because I usually am so quiet and just smile and nod, without giving those loud opinions.. but it's true.

I don't like them, but I also don't like the price of STEEM currently, where we sit on CMC or the high levels of abuse and milking I see daily. I understand that something had to change. I personally feel we could have settled for a change in culture and behavior that could have been done with downvotes and large stakeholders stepping up, but here we are.

But...

I am proud of what I am seeing. I am proud to see our stake holders out protecting their investments. I am proud that my stubborn, cynical ass may actually have to admit that I was wrong when I said "You all will never change your behaviors and therefore this will fail", holy hell I am proud of that.

Is it perfect?

No, not at all. Trending looks better than plagiarized one photo posts, but yeah it's not perfect.. and may never be. BUT, for a couple days in.. it's an improvement in my opinion.


"But It's all STEEM related stuff"
It's not actually, I see quite a lot of topics there.. but yes the top ones are Steem related.. and well, maybe they always will be.. not sure that is so bad actually.... but yes still room for improvement.


"Trending Page" Alternative
Have you seen the steempeak.com general page? It actually is a selection of hand curated content by fellow authors... imagine that. I think the frustration is more with vote value currently, but just incase anyone is looking for an alternative to trending.. it's a good one.


To be honest I think "trending" is just broken in the way it is currently designed and to me the best "trending" would show what is "hot" or content that is getting high engagement in multiple different topics/communities/genres etc. without necessarily having to rely on curation group votes. AND THAT IS COMING! Steemit.com as well as many other front ends are already working on this and the upcoming Communities in my opinion will be a game changer for this.. but change takes time.


Can we all just take a damn deep breath and realize that change takes time? It's been only a couple days and we are already raging.. can we give it time?

Or does me saying so make me an enemy?

To me this is one step, and we have many more to go... #newsteem is an opportunity to make this place what we want it to be

So what about those votes?

Yes, with the new "curve" how our votes look on a post are different. While our rshares on each vote are the same, the vote value is fluid in a way. This is no longer a platform about "one vote", it is a platform about "consensus of the crowd."

Now before I get yelled at (again) about HOW DARE YOU RUIN INDIVIDUALISM!!! CROWDS ARE COMMUNISM!!! - Calm your tits people. Seriously, calm down.

What social media platform out there is not about a "crowd?" You want social, right? Or did I miss something?

"Just one vote"

I know this is a concern right now - "My vote doesn't count", and I understand that. Actually it was something I was pretty concerned about when the discussion of the EIP was being had... BUT how often is one vote the only one on a post at the end of the payout window? I mean, I know it happens, I have seen it.. but it is pretty rare.

So while we may find a post that hasn't been found yet, we place our vote.. and then as more of the community votes it then that vote we casts counts more. We may not see this of course, but we could if we wanted.

Many may see this as "well that means a small group is deciding what is voted".. ok and that is fair to an extent.. but we see posts all day, everywhere that are not voted by these "few accounts deciding it all".. right? So maybe us smaller accounts can't put a post on trending with our one vote, but should we be able to?

And what would happen if we worked together more to make our votes count.. more?

There is no reason that we as a community cannot have a say in what is being rewarded, and there is absolutely NO reason that our vote should be the only vote that ends up on a post we find valuable, and if so... that is our fault.

Yep, hurts don't it? But it is in our hands here.. we can work together in our communities to lift up the content we want, that is up to us.

A possible solution - @C-Squared

C-Squared is an open curation group focused on community curation. Which means everyone is a curator, everything is open, and many eyes are looking at posts to judge said "value."

It is no one small group saying what is valuable, it is community members saying what is valuable.. all of them. Everyone has a say in C-Squared, as the goal was always to Crowdsource Curation to ensure that the community, all of it, was represented.

Anyone in the community can bring a post forward that they think deserves more love. Other community members review it and cast a vote from the @c-squared account. The post is also resteemed on that account in hopes that the post will get more eyes.

It isn't about the "Best Quality" as quality is subjective, it is about supporting authors who add value.. in many different ways. What adds value to me, and what adds value to you could be very different, and that is why this set up is so beneficial.

Let's say you drop a post, I don't really care for it so I just pass over it. Then some other community member sees it and sees the value, they vote it. This results in a more balanced look at the content that is supported, as we all have our own tastes. It is not up to a few people, it is up to many... with many different tastes... aka crowdsourcing.

What won't be voted?

Our guidelines are pretty relaxed and due to the fact that each vote requires two indivduals (one curator, one community voter) to "agree" that it is deserving helps make this doable. But we are pretty strict on a few things -

No Plagarism- we expect those bringing posts in to take a few moments to ensure they are not supporting stolen works. The second set of eyes on each post helps do a second check. We will remove votes from posts that are found to be plagiarized and curator will be notified.

No Spam- We don't support spam. Done and done.

No Self Promotion- C-squared is about uplifting our fellow community members and therefore curators are expected to bring in only other authors works. We do have a self promotion channel which we prescreen (must request the role), that individuals own posts can be dropped in, but that is not the main purpose of the server.

Even more support

The C-squared curation group is really about helping the community come together to support authors, and many times posts brought into the server go on to get larger votes by the other curation groups on the platform.

The main idea is to be a place that all curation groups can work together to help lift authors more, as well as opening up curation to the community rather than a closed group of curators.

In fact we are home to many small curation groups and offer them assistance in not only voting the posts they curate with @c-squared, but helping them streamline their manual curation efforts with our intuitive curation system built within the server. Letting manual curation be done on a large scale.

This means that all us small curation groups can come together to really showcase more authors.. pretty great right?

@C-Cubed

In our effort to also help lift authors more, we also set up the @c-cubed account. This is a "showcase" of the top ten posts brought into @c-squared by the community. These go on to be featured on the @C-Cubed blog as well as recieve a vote from that account at it's trail.

These posts are hand selected by a group of voters and anyone can suggest their picks as well. This is just another effort to support great authors more, and get them more attention.

How does it work?

It's simple, you join the C-squared Discord Server and read the pinned message. Then tag one of the admin to request the role of curator. That's it.

Then we can work together as a community to ensure our votes count, as they will never be "just one vote."

Curation - ain't nobody got time for that

Too busy to curate yourself but find the idea of community curation beneficial? That's fair, and there are still ways you can help.

Trailing someone you trust votes is one way to do so, or a curation trail that you agree with. We personally have a few options at @c-squared -

• Vote Trail @C-Squared account -

This account casts many votes a day on a large variety of content, so be sure to set your vote accordingly.

Follow @C-Squared Trail HERE

• Vote Trail @C-Cubed

This account casts only 10 (100%) votes per day. This may be ideal for those who don't have as much time to curate as they want but want to be selective of what their vote ends up on.

Trail @C-Cubed HERE

• Vote for the @C-Squared community witness

We run a community witness (find more information HERE) with @markangeltrueman (and his 15+yrs of experience) at the wheel. All witness profits (after server fees) go back to the community through engagement contests. No member of C-Squared receives compensation.

Vote for our witness HERE

Final Thoughts

This is just one possible solution, and it's just an idea of how to help us all get through these new aspects of the platform while ensuring our votes go further. Many may have other ideas, the point is we as a community can work together and that I believe is the way it was intended.

We don't all have to agree, and seriously who wants that? But that doesn't mean we can't work together to make this place better... As we are all in this together.

Much Love and Steem On,

Justine