RE: The Shit Post Diaries 1/12/18 (#2)
I read this post a few hours ago but decided to think about it before I replied. I see your point from a, for want of a better word, "moral" standpoint. However I think you may be missing the big picture here.
I don't see a way to link directly to a particular comment on this site but @valued-customer makes a very pertinent point in a comment to the post below. (It's roughly half way down the page, if you want to read the full thing, he explains himself better than I perhaps)
https://steemit.com/steemit/@themarkymark/the-future-of-steemit
He claims that 99% of the rewards from the pool go to around 1500 accounts, mainly to something like 39 whales. The remaining 1% shared among the roughly 50k minnows with <6000 Steampower. Now I have to admit, I have neither the time nor the inclination to check his numbers but even if he is off by several orders of magnitude it makes little practical difference to what I will say next.
On that basis if this "shit poster" has taken 1k USD from the reward pool as you have calculated, only around 10USD of that has come from the part of the pool available to minnows. Divide that 10USD by 30000 and you get 1/3000th of a cent being taken from each of us. The rest comes from the whales and other bigger accounts...but then it is these accounts that are both enabling him AND taking the SBD he is returning to them via their upvoting bots. Also if his complaint is accurate, they are actually screwing him in the process, at least on occasion. Have you calculated his SBD outgoings into this 1k USD figure btw?
Add to that the fact that these accounts could force a change to the rewards mechanism if they choose, so I can only assume that they feel the current system is in their best interests.
With that in mind, taking on this little pinprick is analogous to you being prepared to risk taking a bullet to throw a glass of water on a forest fire.
If you downvote, risking a mini flag war, it benefits no one but the 99%. A certain whale, who shall remain nameless, has alluded to this in comments related to a certain high profile flag war. In fact a self upvote or an upvote to another minnow is 99 times more effective at what you are trying to achieve than any downvote. I would consider letting the big accounts do their own dirty work, if I were you.
It's the system that is broken, not the shit posters imho.
I agree, with your points to a degree. That said their is no conceivable way to go after the whales or those that operate the vote bots so long as dickheads as mentioned above continue to provide them with $$$ for upvoting their content. As I have stated before the only solution at this level is to go after the individual minnows the feed the whales and dissuade them from contributing to the vote bots through negative reinforcement. Goes to what I have said before about avoiding a superior army and instead going after the farmers that grow the wheat to feed it, attack the infrastructure, the factories that refine the fuel etc. It will take time but as my influence grows over the next year or so I will be able to make a bigger and bigger difference. Also I have to consider the cumulative effect of 1000 users like the one I mentioned above over a prolonged period of time. Regardless I will due my part toward the betterment of the community regardless of the consequences.
Your work and/or investment gathered your steem power, so it is entirely up to you what you do with your voting power of course.
However a large part of my point was that you are actually benefiting the whales regardless with any down vote because for every dollar you return to the reward pool, 99c of it goes to them. Whereas as a 1 dollar upvote for a minnow pays the minnow 75c (if we ignore the value of SBD for simplicity) and 25c goes to you. Plus if you use your 25c to power up it will compound over time, allowing you to divert a larger amount of power away from the whales. So if we assume that you only use your voting power for good, then "good" is a 24.75c better off with an upvote. Whereas taking 1USD from users like the one your spoke of benefits "good" by just 0.25c. It doesn't matter whether it's 1 or 1000, you only play into the hands of the whales, especially considering their bots get the SBD anyway (at least initially) and a true scammer will just power down and change accounts and/or use multiple small accounts to stay below the radar. Deserving minnows will not do that.
Of course the whales (or at least the "bad" ones) are playing that game too but such is life.
That is the double edged sword of steemit. I think a platform change is in order, or upgrade to say the least and one that eliminates vote bots all together. However, it will never occur as the whales are essentially the once operating the bots... sigh.. best course of action in terms of long term profitability over time is to just get to whale status and start selling votes.. if you can't beat them join them.. I think that when elevating your power so as you can sell it and make more is the more profitable route, then the platform has an issue of sorts..
There is another option.
Rather than compromising your principles just so that you can profit from the system in place, adhere to your principles, form associations with like-minded folk, and be prepared for either a repaired Steemit, or the inevitable fork.
I can't guarantee this will payoff in our lifetime, but I'm not as interested in payoff as I am lifetime. I reckon payoff is inevitable. Timeline isn't in my power to either create or predict.
Thanks!
Indeed, my argument is more against what I see as ineffective down votes than anything else. If I was as pessimistic about steem as my post may sound, I would not keep reinvesting my rewards. In fact I would probably power down, 13 weeks is a very long time to keep an investment tied up in the crypto space.
True, true.. explain the ramifications of the fork?
The code that forms the blockchain is FOSS, and there have been attempts to fork the blockchain to eliminate the plutocratic stakes that centralize power, and create a truly decentralized blockchain.
So far, I haven't seen an attempt succeed, but the software is FOSS, and there will be more.
The ramifications depend on the forkers.
So essentially fork of and create a different Steemit of sorts?
That's probably the likeliest scenario that would meet the needs you appear to share with most of us.
I remain confident that progress is inevitable, that forks will create it, and will eventually work out for the best.
I am not convinced I will see that happen from my present meat prison. Things are absolutely malleable, and I am incompetent to weigh the actors and their hidden goals to arrive at confident near term predictions.
Regardless of how things shake out, I'm certain that I will continue to act on principle, and so far I find other values of Steemit more rewarding than mere financial concerns.
I would be pretty surprised to find that changed.
I agree this platform is broken. If they don't fix it, it will go the way of myspace.
I agree and projects like synero Amp or wildspark will be the Facebook...https://www.wildspark.me/
I have no problem switching teams and will be all over synero once it goes live.. to that end AMP may be a somewhat interesting Alt to keep an eye on.. only a month till synero goes live.. just sayin..
I'll take a look :)
Probably make a post about it..
I'll give you a down payment on the time you will save my lazy ass then :)
Thanks.. here is a rebate..