Speaking into the VOID... Nope, just commenting on some high reps.
I just read a relatively poor post by a very high-rep user complaining about the lack of value his posts are garnering and as a result, he is going to use voting bots. Great, the 'system allows it', as so many keep repeating as if that makes it okay. But, I was handed this post by a couple of people as some kind of proof of how hard it is and it interested me.
He had complained that he was no longer getting support from his whales that he has become accustomed to and hopes that he can attract more whales with bidbot visibility. So, I went on a very shallow rummage through the account's content and indeed, support is pretty low.
Do you know the first thing I checked on his account? Comments. 30-40 comments from his followers but, almost zero replies from him on almost every post I checked. Is that what is called engaging with the audience? How can one expect consistent support when one treats the audience with apparent disdain? I would suggest people stop bothering wasting their time commenting unless they just like to type.
Smells of entitlement.
I understand that it is difficult to answer all comments from the audience but considering that this person 'lives off Steem' you'd think that they would be spending a good deal of their time building a strong foundation. Perhaps he only answers if the Steem power of the user is high enough.
I have mentioned this a lot lately that living off Steem is risky but do you know what the riskiest position is, living off Steem when it requires the upvotes of other people. In my opinion, if when things go south you can't look after yourself, you have not prepared well enough to live off anything as you become a charity case. Charity recipient isn't a job, people need to wake up.
Yes, I complain about a lot of things on and off this platform but this is quite rich coming from someone who has been getting a lot of support over the last 2 years. Yes, I understand that times are tough but a rep in the mid 70s complaining about getting the kind of support that many thousands of others might kill for?
This is the same problem with many of the people here who want to make a living from Steemit, they only want to do the things that they want to do. Obviously, commenting is not one of them for this guy. People need to take a step back and actually look at all of their processes from time to time and see which do and which do not support their requirements.
If you want to be a professional, you need to make sure you have the skills necessary and one of those skills at Steemit is audience engagement. 'Reliance on whale friends' is not a skill. Acting like a petulant child shouldn't be a skill either but, apparently it is.
Btw, from what I have noticed so far, bumping the post for engineered visibility seems to have very little impact on gaining high quality followers. I think for the most part, those whale types are unlikely to find content based on trending because if they did, that Brazilian guy with the guitar would no longer need to buy votes right? No. Take away the bidbots and he is back to close to zero. Zero once the frontrunners stop voting trying for increased curation.
Quality followers come through organic development, not bidbots and that requires a great deal of work to develop. The 2016'ers need to start to recognise that the platform is changing and whether they like it or not, they are going to have to start to do some actual work to compete in the space. People are going to have to start taking 'building a community' a little more seriously.
Many seem to have decided that autovoters are going to autovote forever and friends are going to continue to support regardless. Nope, what many have found is that some of the whales who previously supported them didn't actually care so much for their content after all. What they are doing now however is selling their vote to the highest bidder. Perhaps this guy can actually get his whale friends back, he just has to pay for them.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
I actually like these rant posts as it is somewhat cathartic. Should I do more?
Weird i think we both read the same post and thought the same thing. I find it funny when reality kinda hits someone and they figure out reality is coming for them. Continue your rants. People need the truth.
It is going to hit many more in time, not just the high reps either.
I like your rants please continue.
About the guy, look, everything has expiration date and I think that guy has just reached his. He has to reinvent and start working hard to create a bigger following. If he stays with the same tactic he will just fade away - hundreds of thousands of new users join Steemit every month and mediocre content without building a community of followers is just isn't enough.
Rather than reinvent, he will turn to the bidbots. what happens when they fail? ;)
Yes , one person's rant is a lesson to others (mine) .
I just finished reading and commenting with @eveuncovered and her " post the-importance-of-the-comment-section " I spend a lot of time with comments . Moreso then post . The comment section does not give you the immediate feedback that a post would . you cant tell the number of views or get the amount of votes that a post would . It is a section that is overlooked the same as a foundation of a building .
I deserve it and want it now without doing anything for it .
I do understand that responding to comments is a task in itself . People should take that into account on their expectation on replies . but the amount of upper level replies is lacking or zero and to make higher then thou remarks on good content is hypicrital .
It does take time but it is time well spent And it is a fabulous source of material as one gets to understand what kinds of issues others really have. I find chat the same.
People ignore the comments section as for example, I upvote comments but don't always get upvoted (I am not complaining, it is the way it should be) so authors say, 'i don't get anything out of it'. BS. That is the audience that supports you, don't be an ass.
Rants are my favourite, as many as you like please :)
I have stopped following some large whales who I was voting for when I first started because no matter the quality of my comments (or anyone anyone elses) the author didn't bother to reply. At which point there is no benefit to trying to engage with that author. They are just sucking up rewards and taking the approach that just because I'm bigger then all you piss ants you should vote for me.
Now I know we've had differing thoughts on the vote bots, but you are starting to win me over I think. My tests haven't proven to be overly productive and the part I wasn't taking into account was the amount of time invested in trying to make sure to get profitable or at least not loose to much on my paid votes.
That time could have been used to create more content or spend more time commenting. Not sure what way to go yet with it, but I am leaning more and more your direction.
When I started, I was the same and the competition was even lower. Some actually did engage back then though but I think it was both that entitlement crept in and the amount of spam increased significantly. Filtering through nonsense is not so fun.
Yeah, the bots do take some time from what I understand. A friend of mine has been running a little experiment and realised that unless you are going to overbid, it is a risky game with less return than organic in the longrun. However, many aren't willing to take the path to build organically.
It's not that I'm unwilling, but if I can play catch up by using capital then I will. Just need to know there are results. As they say you can always make more money, but you can't make more time. So when someone new comes into this game and is trying to catch up to those that had the massive advantage of just being here first it's hard not to look for ways that can make it happen. Because no matter how good of content I produce or how often I produce it there is absolutely no way for me to catch up to the whales without trying to find an edge. At that I don't even think a new member has a way to catch the dolphins without finding an edge like paid bots.
I don't think that the paid bots will get them there either unless they will do it for quite a while and at the lower end, people are already finding that they are being squeezed out. the tower is climbing, as is the buy in.
I'm not sure it's the solution either, but to decide I test things. If I loose a few dollars it's not the end of the world if what I lost it for the right reasons.
Think really the best bots profit wise for an author are a couple that are geared towards smaller members. The profit is not massive, but each .01 SBD will return a minor profit. These bots aren't worth my time, but for someone that is just starting it could be a minor boost to speed up their growth from the lowest levels.
Might be something that would be a worthy cause to have a large enough delegation to allow for plankton and minnow votes only and guarantee a small ROI. Say give a 10% profit on each vote to allow the little guys a chance to make a little something when they first get started to help keep them around. Make it a max vote of 1.0SBD so the most they profit from the vote is 0.10SBD and a max of 1 vote per day. This would be enough to keep some small members interested in steemit and yet not enough that they are able to manipulate the hot page or make any large changes to the reward pool.
For it to work some whales would have to be willing to make less profits and be willing to delegate a large amount of SP at a discounted rate.
I start with the end: Yes, you should do more rants!
I ran into this a while back where a guy started complaining about not getting enough "support" from the community. I think I may have mentioned it before, but he was self-voting at 98% because he didn't feel that anyone else's content was worth his vote. Granted, his content was good, but he did a poor job of networking and engaging with his followers. It's all about relationships. Sometimes relationships change though, so even if you're getting support today, it's not guaranteed tomorrow.
The person I read today has about the same SP as I do but has actually earned enough to be an orca. Living off it has been the issue as perhaps he didn't have a large enough personal base to do so. It is kind of like living off a business loan without actually building the business to support itself.
I have to admit, I have fun while ranting a little ;)
In my opinion, it is a sign of respect to answer sincere comments. Especially if the response shows that your post was actually read by someone. It is also the only way (in my view) to build a relationship with your readers and vice versa. You rant post is very valuable and I like you to do more. They make you think and I can imagine that writing them is somewhat cathartic.
I don't want to do them too often as I think people might be under the impression I am overly negative. I am, but I don't want them to have that impression ;)
It is all about relationships and even though (like I mentioned you in the other post) people don't need to be completely personal, in my opinion, they should put some of themselves into it otherwise there is no relationship. If one is living off steem, investing into the audience is imperative.
I am always here for your rants because they make me laugh. And within the the humor, of course there’s truth. Continue to let your stream of thoughts inspire us, because I was waiting for a long time for someone to address a lot of the engineered promotion going on. I won’t lie, I’ve done some things I’m not proud of to get some attention, but the game hasn’t changed since I started playing. Get creative, get thinking, and actually put out content that’ll engage people. Once that’s done, remaining consistent and engaging those who engage you will bring it all home. God bless Taraz. Preach!
I think most have varying levels of this. For me, it has been more emotional realisation than action. I realised how much I can be affected.
Yes and I look forward to your rants, I think you should host a rant contest so that we can hear people rant as well, you have an amazing blog
A rant contest .. hmmm :)
Yes this will encourage people to rant as well and well there will be visibility you can't imagine people who are also ready to rant sir,
It's a great shot
erm.. ¿What's a rant?
Uhmm, If I knew what a rant is, maybe I would sponsor one of those ranting contests. }:)
I enjoy these rants. I agree, organic friends who you see insightful comments and profiles are the best way to grow. Building friendship and sharing interest builds amazing community and I've met so many brilliant people just by surfing tags. Nice article.
Yes, the comments section is the most important part of the community in many respects. Too many take their support for granted and you can see who they are from how they comment.
thanks :)
My pleasure. Your messages are very gritty and insightful. I love the plain truth.
Have a great day!