A "Share" Button--Is it Really a Good Idea?
If I really like someone's post, and I think it should be front-page, I make my own post to feature their story so others will go to it. This is my best attempt at "sharing." I do this because I don't have much power in my vote currently, and I wish I did. Because I don't, I do the next best thing--my version of "sharing." (image source)
Here's what a good old-fashioned "share" button would accomplish on this platform:
1. It would completely undermine the voting system as it is. Currently, votes make it to the trending page because of popularity, not necessarily because of quality. Curation rewards as they are tend to create a “steem-rolling” effect, where users vote on an item quickly because they think the story might trend and bring them some cash or curation points.
A "share" button would not change this altogether. People can still curate for trend alone. And “shared” content will also sometimes be ridiculous and low-quality. And that's OK. We are allowed to be amused by things that are NOT important and life-altering. Why else would the magazine rack at checkout be so full of nonsense? Because nonsense sells.
Shared content could also trend for trend alone.
That being said, a share button would pull the voting power away from whales and bring it back to the masses in viral form.
The share function would inherently put more emphasis on stories that people love and are attached to and feel strongly about…stories they want to SHARE with others. More promotion and exposure would lead to more votes, obviously. So shared content would be on trending pages more often—giving the platform a more authentic feel because the stories that were making it came up from the ranks.
Success will no longer be dependent on whether a whale dumps votes into it or not. Stories will more frequently "make it" because they are good. And peers liked them.
Worst case scenario, stories will trend because we decided they would trend. But WE did it, not the whales. It would pull the power away from the whales and distribute steem more evenly among the masses.
2. This is a problem
Why on EARTH would whales want to develop a share button and divvy up their pie? That’s ludicrous.
Well, short-term, you’re right. It is. Especially for the whale! And why shouldn't it be ludicrous?
Currently, "the top 3 (smooth, blocktrades, berniesanders consist of 35.5% of influences, for instance, if daily author reward is $20,000, about $7,000 is from these three's voting activities." -@clayop's statistics here.
But long term, from a self-sustaining perspective, this would be the SMARTEST move they could make. Giving strength to the people, allowing the market to dictate what is important, decentralizing steem, diversifying thought, and rewarding the masses for their decisions, are all EXACTLY what will keep this place humming for decades to come.
Or....it will be the total undoing of this platform.
One Idea
One idea is that the whales will still make a killing because they can inflate STEEM each year based on MORE stories being produced and MORE new investors coming in. It just won’t be as MUCH of a killing because the trending page will be more diverse—whale sock-puppet accounts will get less attention than they currently do, and their hand-picked trending posts will take up a smaller percentage of the main page.
But their holdings will still increase in interest. And their posts will still generate a healthy revenue. Just not as big of one. More of the ROI will go to potential investors like you and me. But at least there will still be a platform to invest in!
Another Idea
Another idea is that minnows will completely annihilate the platform because we will take away all of the power from the whales too quickly--and the trending stories will only make a FRACTION of what they make now because the whales will have less to invest into them.
Lower dollar amounts on trending articles (and in general) might discourage investors from investing, and fewer users will contribute to the platform because they will not have as much incentive to do so. Fewer stories means less inflation. Less inflation and less investment means no interest to divvy up, and the whole thing dies.
A Happy Medium
A happy medium would be a regulated share button. You could only share a certain number of times per day, shares would not be considered votes, and shares might even be discouraged somehow--such as they might use up voting power or something.
But at the current 20% decline, and the powering down we are seeing, new investors are gun-shy. Why should they invest when there is little potential return for them? This is not good. More users are signing up and not investing, then cashing out, and then leaving. Or signing up, investing and then leaving.
We want new users to sign up, invest, and STAY. Or at least, sign up, and stay.
Inflation might be enough to pay the new-comers, but it's not enough to pay the whales...and the whales are groping for the cash via sock-puppet accounts and gang-upvoting, and then powering down.
Leaving nothing for the minnows, and no incentive to grow long-term.
It will run itself dry unless whales decide to divvy up a bit and stop powering down. The SHARE button would resolve this issue, relegating more shares to the common folk, and forcing decentralization.
That will never happen. If whales are going to decentralize, it’s going to be on their terms. I know if I were a whale, I certainly wouldn't want a share button.
In the meantime, share this story if you like it! And follow me for more great content!
Doesn't much of your post depend upon the assumption that so-called 'whales' are only in it for the money and if their cash reward were to drop they would have no reason to continue submitting content? But maybe they are like most of us, happy to submit content to social networking sites whether it receives a large reward or not (sure they may be pleased that their content does receive substantial rewards, I just don't believe that is all that motivates our most popular contributors).
That depends on the whale. Some of them are contributing great content, like @smooth. And curating and commenting often. Others are not. They game it. And there is no rule against it, so there is no balance.
Isn't everyone here for the money? That's the single largest draw to this platform. Get paid to post and vote. In that regard, whales and minnows are the same.
yup. Everyone goes about things differently, values different things, associates differently, and wants a different kind of experience here. But money IS the draw.