Relegating my blog
This is just a post for ranting. Very negative feeling ahead. **Warning: do not read as it will spoil your breakfast, lunch and dinner depending on which time zone you are.
So today, @anyz posted this article The Steemit Tragedy of The Commons, i must say it is well-written and addressed most of my concerns about steemit's future. In particular, i refer to current steemit's content which is, i believe to be a race to the bottom in content quality.
WHY? Let's break down....
Copy-and-paste science content
Let's see here. this copy-and-paste post here https://steemit.com/news/@nkdk/scientists-have-created-nanorobots-that-can-travel-down-the-bloodstream-and-precisely-target-cancerous-tumors was worth SD 563 before @smooth and several whales downvoted this. But let's face it.
As the number of users grows, even with @smooth's army of curators, how many such copied and pasted content can we catch?
COMPARE THIS WITH several content such as
@justryme90 Science Lesson: DNA (Part 4, What is DNA Damage? SD 10.32
@ben.zimmerman Age-related cognitive decline SD 0.15
@lemouth The bestiary of particle physics - this is how I introduced particle physics to CERN summer students SD 349.19
@nonlinearone @deviedevon on environment @claudiop63
and many other steemians who wrote original content on science, engineering and mathematics alike.
I am just feeling so disheartened and unbalanced about the poorly distributed rewards. You can argue that quality content is subjective blah blah blah. But you do can distinguish a good science post versus copied content like this, isn't it? Obviously, people upvoted randomly and not based on good science.
Is this the kind of rewards scientists are getting for contributing original and quality content which is good science post at steemit?
This is stranger than strange and stranger than fiction. But, actually it is not that strange. It brings me to another point why they are not upvoted enough.
Selfish whales and dolphins
And amidst all this uneven distribution, there are also squabbles and political fights between whales and dolphins. I am a baby dolphin. I joined early June, around the same time line as many other big dolphins. If i had actively wrote on steemit in my blog all the time, i would have become a fat dolphin by now. But, by choice, i did not because i sincerely believe that steemit can be a place for non-steemit content. I also used to think that steemians are sensible and altruistic. HOW WRONG WAS I!!!!
Obviously, i have not been voting "correctly" like them because i really have been upvoting on content i like and not been racing for the curation rewards. We should expect many big dolphins and whales to be upvoting content posted by new steemians and helping new steemians but obviously they are not going to waste their voting power on posts that were not potentially upvoted by whales.
Trending content obviously not written by non-expert in science
I also do have a BIG problem with content on the trending page and obviously not written by non-experts. A few real-life scientists and professionals talk about it briefly here about verification of our advanced degrees at Verify Your Degree #proofofdegree A New Tag For Verification of Advanced Degrees You can see our discussion there.
@business mentioned that scientists should be given more weight than layman here at steemit because c'mon, we are the real scientists who can really endorse. We know, understand and can interpret the state-of-art and landscapes in our respective fields much better than laymen at steemit.
Why do our opinions not carry more weight when it comes to science at steemit?
All in all, Steemit is not stable
Relegate this blog to only post exclusively on #academiaspotlight
I had wanted to write about my research on environment, life cycle assessment and 3dprinting when i wrote about moving my phd research to steemit. It was a great feeling having @ned support. He was the first whale to upvote. But, i worry now that the research content that i am going to upload is going to cost me dearly in the future such as copyright issues and not being able to get fair incentives for original content.
For this reason, i have decided to relegate this blog to blog exclusively on #academiaspotlight issues and not any of my original content on #science #academia because of the following reasons:
- Help and encourage new steemian
- Increase profile of new steemian
- I still get to write on science
- Reserve my own content, be it for my own blog, or for future academic pursuits.
That's it. That's just what i want to say. Enough ranting. The sun will still rise from the east tomorrow as usual. Good night.
P/S: Copied and pasted science content that got way more reward than original science content put me off and has an serious disincentive effect on steemians who blogged on science here. As much as i want to be accountable for my post about moving my phd research to steemit and also to @ned who supported by upvoting it, let's face it that steemit is not a good platform for good science as of now. And we know that science and engineering knowledge are very precious and valuable because they can be turned into IP or papers. A message for all steemians who see this. Please vote wisely.
There's a number of us that already started our curating quite actively. But can't say much if there are others though.. Pretty sure @smooth is leading a team out there too (i remember seeing in some chat). We're currently shooting for maximum diversity, and it also happens to be quite time consuming. Glad to also have spot some of your recommendations recently - which means our method is working out. It's a good rant :p there will be a lot to worry about even if Steemit hits 250k people - that'll be a headache. But doing what we can for now to retain users churning out quality content..
It is clearly unsustainable. The voting algorithm has to change somewhere. I will not hesitate to go to steemit competitors if they have better voting algorithm
I understand and share a bit of your frustration. Scientific posts whose content is questionable and which are sometimes even partially or totally wrong are usually upvoted a lot and get more trendy than good posts...
I am however afraid that I do not see how to change that...
Me neither. But i really think there should really be some kind of mechanism here.
Yeah, try being an actually skilled, and fairly established freelance writer who isn't on Huffpo, or Buzzfeed, which are the gold standard for hiring ghost bloggers these days. LOL I feel your pain. It is, on the one hand an internet problem, it is on the other hand, peculiar to steemit in a way, because the cash rewards are so volatile.
Yes outright painful. The volatile cash rewards is too unjust for anyone who wants to blog here. If voting algorithm is not adjusted, i don't foresee any improvement in content quality here.
Well, then, I will continue, making a few hundred a month, as I see I can readily do, after less than a week, gaining some fans and having a nice little nest egg to cash out of at some future point, if steem remains viable. It's all good.
I would support you actually. Even random grumbles can earn some upvotes
Not everything I have shared here has negative undertones, indeed, some of it has been downright sunny! LOL
It won't improve until we get rid of voting as the relevance and funding metric; and enable a way for specialist coteries to form spontaneously.
Not easy. For sure, i do not want to be a victim and so i chose not to write at all at steemit, other than actions that can help other fellow new steemians. Not that i can guarantee any rewards, but i hope is something.
I think it is a matter of selfawareness. This place is builded for all of us but If we don't effort trying to make it better, injustices will continue existing. We have to try giving genuine votes.
Exactly, minnow, dolphins and whales all alike have to vote wisely
It depends , whether steemit is trying to reach out to the Everyday reader where content are freely shared and read, versus the altruistic notion where content has to be original. I suspect the former. But I agreed , the voting algorithm has to be tweak to encourage original contents.
I belong to the Everyday reader group. I don't post much , but spend time on steemit reading interesting stuffs be it original or not, and up voting those I like. Somewhat like a Wikipedia surfer.
No idea, really. Agree that there are different steemit users. But to encourage user usage at steemit platform which is a get paid to post platform, a certain level of quality in content must be maintained. Otherwise, it will just become a spammy network like tsu which have shut down.
See here https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/16/spammy-social-network-tsu-shuts-down/
Even a dolphin voting for a noob's post can make a big difference. That first $20 payout is amazing to a small blogger.
It is exactly. And they won't. But it goes a long way and huge encouragement for minnow.
The curation rewards are shifting pretty quickly. I think we'll see the landscape change rapidly in the next couple months.
@wingz i sincerely hope so.....
It's also a matter of supply and demand at the moment. A highly niche scientific thesis will be less successful now with fewer users than it would be once Steemit matures.
From your last articles I think you're potentially in a good position to steer Steemit in that direction. I talked about an education hub in the second part of my 'digging deeper into steem' series.
Id be happy to talk further on Steemit.Chat if it's something that you might be interested in.
Thanks for sharing. Happy to discuss with you on steemit.chat
On the supply and demand, I can understand that certain content tend to be more profitable. I, myself, do not read scientific articles all the time. But there got to be some kind of endorsement when it comes to scientific content. Copied and pasted science content that got way more reward than original science content put me off and has an disincentive effect on steemians who write on science here. And we know that science and engineering knowledge are very precious and valuable because they can be turned into IP or papers. Again, this reply is not totally for you but also for many steemians who see this. Please vote wisely.
A typo: @deviedev on environment law
So far I have noticed some of my content being well received by whales and other, i guess, "dolphins" whereas this content generally gets black listed from other social media/community platforms. Its really promising to me and I hope it continues. Cheers.
Good for you