An open letter to folk griping about Steemit. Spammers, Upvote Rings, and Gripers (oh, my!) [Part 1]
Please, can everybody just STOP COMPLAINING that your posts aren't getting enough rewards?
I've seen so many articles about how everything is unfair, their posts aren't getting the rewards they want, and steemit is so bad. It's really starting to get under my skin. To be clear, I'm not talking about people who put a lot of time and effort into researching, contemplating, and working to understand\solve the difficulties of this brand new platform. I'm talking about the baseless complainers. Its as though you think all the whales, the witnesses, and SteemInc are out to EAT you.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/http://i.imgur.com/xyeWSiw.jpg)
Yes, there are issues.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/http://i.imgur.com/ciKpGSu.png)
There are voting bots and voting rings, and self"ish" voting whales. There are spammers, flag wars, and a general lack of understanding what's going on at the top of the blockchain. Yes, I am aware of the problems. I've read quite a few well paid articles addressing them in a thoughtful, technical manner. It's not that there isn't anything to complain about, but a large majority of the complaining is completely counter-productive.
There are plenty of people working hard to bring light to the flaws of this platform, and to solve the problems we face. The issue is that there is no quick fix. It takes a long time to write the code for each new hardfork, and HF20 was already under way when the problems of voting rings and self voters came to the forefront of everyone's consciousness.
A very productive way to change this system for the better, is to vote for the witnesses who care about the issues and will vote for a Hard Fork that they expect to improve the platform.
The STEEM network has many checks and balances to ensure everything is vetted by a decentralized group of trusted (elected) individuals before taking effect. No hardfork will take effect until at least 67% of the active witnesses have upgraded to the latest update.
Just because Steemit Inc. releases a new version of Code does not mean that everyone is forced to upgrade to the new code.
So if you're making that assumption that Steemit Developer Control STEEM , you're Wrong! - (@steemitguide - What exactly is a Steem Witness, and why every user should vote)
If you really care about the issues, find out which witnesses also care. (mind you, I've referenced a number of witnesses in this two part series. They might be a good start of where to look. you can even go to steemd.com/@inquiringtimes to see who I voted for. I've left my reasonings for who I vote for, in this post, and in my posts about the bandwidth crisis.
I was asking @ausbitbank his thoughts on the problems with self-upvoting and upvote rings. He managed to get away from his various responsibilities to help with a well thought out comment on the difficulties we face:
"Yeah, I'd like to see the linear curve removed and some serious thought put into anti-abuse measures.
Something drastic needs to happen here. I think we've made a massive mistake by ignoring the whitepaper warnings and using a linear curve.
The exponential curve required cooperation between stakeholders, for them to agree that a certain piece of content was valuable - despite all of the talk about "whale collusion" this was actually an extremely valuable property of rewards distribution system. Our current spam and self vote abuse problem is a direct result of moving to a linear curve.
My general attitude towards distribution hasn't changed - it's bad, but it's way better then it used to be and is improving all the time as new power players buy up the Steem of the old whales. It's going to be a long process that unfortunately will probably result in a lot of older whales dumping their steem on the market - but an equilibrium point will be found with price and we're seeing new whales appear daily."
(I have to add a HUGE Thank You to @ausbitbank for taking some time with me tonight.)
During the course of this two part series I reference witnesses that you could vote for, if you think they are doing a good job and care about you. Some of them are @reggaemuffin @timcliff @rycharde @ausbitbank @drakos and ...I feel like I've left a few people out, pls lmk or DM me if you are a witness and would like to add some statement about these issues.
Vote for them, and you can even spend some time telling your friends to vote for them.
@timcliff releases weekly editions of "The Reports from the Witnesses"
This is a digest of whatever witness reports have been released in the past week.
@necrophagist does interviews of witnesses, here is a current list of witness interviews:
- Witnesses, the unsung heroes of Steemit, and why you should vote. Interviews with @aggroed, @theprophet0, and @ausbitbank included.
- Interview with @neoxian: Witness awareness
- Interview with @someguy123, Witness Awareness Series
- A moment with @timcliff the steemit sage: a witness awareness interview
- The Steemit Gatekeepers, interview with @followbtcnews, MSP supporter: witness awareness series
- Interview with @reggaemuffin, minnowbooster extraordinaire: Witness awareness series
I love the witness interviews by @necrophagist and cant wait to see more of them.
UBU (Universal Basic Upvotes)
Nobody gets paid to show up, here. Well, actually, we do get paid to sign up. However, there is no universal basic upvote policy here.
There is still, plenty of room for growth here, despite the various kinks in the system. I'd like to see an article about how much is paid out to the self-voting whales and "exploiters", compared to the total payout across the platform. I'll buy an upvote for you if you do it. lol.
If you want rewards, you have to make friends and write stuff that isn't just good, but that people are happy to vote on. This involves finding the communities which you feel comfortable in, and participating with the other Steemers there. You also have to stop comparing your posts to the highest paid people, many of whom have been here a long time to get where they are.
Recently @sift666 shared with me, a post he wrote about complainers, and what it was like when he started on steemit a year ago. It really opened my eyes and my heart to have his perspective. Below is a selection from that article:
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmd9UB7RL1JSptGn6qGk1yqyU7HdLkxVog7bnvA9HvZtPN/U5du7msDqFufeLo9LgLX2FW9cbCDDNB_1680x8400.jpg)
Nobody had any money in their accounts apart from whales. Our votes were totally worthless. In 2016 I did 14 posts that earned nothing at all, and 49 that earned more than 1 cent but less than $1. Many of those posts took me hours to write, and when I go back and look now, I still think a lot of them were pretty good.
So why did I persist? I can’t really explain it, but ever since I first saw Steemit I’ve been obsessed with it. And not getting paid to blog was nothing new. I have a Wordpress blog with over 350 posts on it that has never earned me a cent, and before that I had a Blogger blog that paid similar dividends.
( @sift666 via: Old Time Steemers live in a Different World to Newbs)
How to actually Succeed as a Steemit Blogger. Spammers, Upvote Rings, and Gripers (oh, my!) [Part 2]
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmdpZgvLYPeF5SeERcURdSLXZ8QE5S6Ru8LaYpv5jGWnVE/fractal.jpg)
Unless otherwise noted all of the content created by @inquiringtimes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Additionally, while not required, I am easily contacted if you wish to use these materials for any purpose(excepting a quotation in comments on the Steem Block-chain, where a simple @ tag \ linkback is sufficient).
Refrences and Further Resources:
- @steemitguide - What exactly is a Steem Witness, and why Every user Should Vote
- @drakos - Tips and Guidelines for voting on witnesses
- @drakos - Tips and Guidlines for the Noob Witness Setup
- @inquiringtimes Easy Witness Voting Guide [re: the bandwidth crisis]
- @sift666 - Old Time Steemers live in a Different World to Newbs
- @woodywood143 - Alien Structures
- Charts and interpretation of @calamus056 's comment self-voting user list since HF19 - PART 3 (potential comment abuse)
- How to actually Succeed as a Steemit Blogger. Spammers, Upvote Rings, and Gripers (oh, my!) [Part 2]
Why I don't want to complain:
Of course, it would be awesome to have a lot of Steem power, to be an influencer, to have a lot of publicity. And I understand, that some people come here only because they want to earn money. It is ok to do so. Complaining that one's content does not bring him wealth is like introducing a voluntary tax and complaining that people don't pay it. Make your content worth upvoting or change priorities. Or both.
You don't understand why people complain, it is not about "giff me money" it is about why shit posts get more money than other content that is bad, but at least not shit post?
This feels unfair and when it is unfair people become emotional and guess what they start to complain.
You ever seen someone complaining irl "omg I want all money in world for doing nothing?" but I am sure you've seen complain about people getting crazy money for little to none work.
I mean really when you spent time to write article and reward you get does not cover electricity spent while someone else makes shit post without any effort and makes more how can you not complain?
A side note, I would like to know why chose steemit if not for money, there is facebook where nearly everyone already has friends etc and other platforms so I am really interested why steemit then.
One explanation I can find is that people here try harder when they write articles.
Good point, I have not taken such approach into consideration. It changes nothing in my perspective, but at least I get to know a different point of view.
Why it changes nothing? When I was a kid, we had a currency of our own - pictures of cars from a particular bubble gum. Some were rare and worth more, some common and worth less. For now this is how I treat the reward for publishing my posts - something that has a value, but won't get me anything in the real world. If it changes - cool. If it does not - also cool.
In that case why Steemit:
From the registration I remember two things:
So I don't.
OF COURSE IT"S ABOUT THE MONEY - but for many of us it's about the money we really don't have but want to support certain people or specific content in a genuine and practical way.
I've already attracted an actual world-renowned author, composer, and musical director ( @somtow ) to sign up here- (and I'm absolutely nobody in the world, just a friend who admires his work) because the many, many hours of wonderful content he's GIVEN (in the sense of posting to FB, and YT, etc.) to the world has been almost exclusively monetized by others, and practically not a bit for him. So far, it's only been a few dollars on Steemit- but it could grow to the level of being a major supporter for his work (and it's powerfully positive work he's been doing for decades now).
the monetary incentive definitely drives me to write better and more. More than... I wasn't writing at all before I came here
Excellent post and points... and thanks (as well) for re-steeming my similar piece, the other day!
The point I keep stressing to those who complain is that Steemit not only didn't "hire" you as an employee and agree to pay you, nor are you a "contractor" promised compensation for publishing content. In fact, you were promised ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, aside from a place to park your content and the opportunity to earn a reward if sufficient consensus that your content were "reward worthy" exists.
Are there inequities and problems and issues to be addressed here? Abso-frakking-lutely... but let's call those issues what they really are; identify them properly.
I agree with @ausbitbank's assessment that there is going to be some turnover in the power elite... which is natural; in fact, I recall writing a bit about it, some months back, when @dan took his leave. Startup entrepreneurs and "seeders" are seldom around once an operation is up and running... they leave for new adventures and a group of 2nd generation power players fill their void and go about building on the existing foundation. It's like the Steve Jobs' of the world... they just want to "invent stuff" and care very little about the daily grind of turning their brilliant inventions into long-term gold.
I will be sure to add your link to my references and leave a more thoughtful comment tomorrow.
Thank You!
I have a lot of hope for this world. Steemit, and Crypto-currency is part of that for me. We'll ride it out. Regardless, the skills I'm developing here are useful. Which is really why I came here. To learn to write, and to write as well as I can.
I wonder how many of those who complain vote for witnesses?
I wonder how many of those who complain even KNOW what a witness is?
I've been here almost a year.
I'm tired of hearing it.
So I won't.
I mute the complainers...I'm thinking about flagging the bots.
I've been seeing your thoughtful comments on a lot posts, looks like I should check out your blog.
nice to meetcha
welcome aboard.
thank ya
Partly this is because many people walk away instead of helping. You don't have to tell people what it is, but wouldn't it help?
It is really confusing in the beginning so just keep asking questions and you will eventually find answers. I have about 200 questions and about 70 answers in 7 weeks. I just do what I know how to do and change when I find out I'm wrong. for example, I voted my power down to 40% before I knew to keep it up above 75% - lesson learned :)
I'm not complaining and I have voted for maybe 6-7 wittnesses. I vote for them if they have a good post about what they are doing and seem to care about the future of the platform. I look at at least 50-70 posts a day and see few witness posts randomly. I am new here and do not understand crypto or witnesses or blockchain but I'm learning what I can as I go.
I'm a content creator and I came here solely for the Alexa ranking in hopes I would get my fitinfun message out to more people . That is my goal for about 7 years now. But then! I started making some small but nice money on my posting, and meeting cool people, and learning new topics. This makes it all worth it to me. I can finally markup a post! (sort of - still learning).
I voted for 3 witnesses yesterday after I read posts about the apr issue and found witnesses who support raising it - or having it at all. I don't completely understand it, but I was concerned about the dropping steem price and this is where my research led me.
Now - I'm getting "faucet" money in a few places for steemit and bitcoin. I never heard of this concept before about two weeks ago but I am happy to get free money just for signing up for things. It's amazing really and all I can say to my faucet people is Thank you! even though I have no idea why this is happening.
I've spent unreasonable amounts of time on steemit in 7 weeks and regret none of it. I hope it will only get better with time and I think it will.
Great post and thanks for the shout out!
This idea of looking for stuff that works rather than complaining about stuff that doesn't is bordering on revolutionary.
Maybe this week all the complaining about spam is worse than the spam.
And maybe earning money for blog posts is really pretty awesome even if some people earn more...
thats a really weird and creepy picture....
Great post @inquiringtimes. I'm really excited that someone who's as experienced on the platform as yourself has joined our Deepthink project. I almost wish I had a good Steemit news source to give me the ins and outs of the ideas and politics going on in Steemit. At least a few different opinions of people who have seem a lot of what goes on behind the scenes with the witnesses and such.
Thanks @philosophist I'm still quite a newb, actually. Because of covering the "Bandwidth Crisis" last month, I have gotten a chance to be casually acquainted with a few of the witnesses.
It does seem that I do some journalism here, although I had no intention for that to be the case. I will be trying to bridge the gap a bit between the behind-the-scenes and the front end user. Not in a sensationalist doomy way that some folk seem to be inclined, however.
Sweet! I look forward to it. I myself am a jr level frontend web programmer looking for job experience. I'd have my own projects in motion now except that I'm stuck at the juncture of learning the backend just enough to make my frontend more realized than a post on codepen. If you are backend savvy, I think any explanation of that perspective given to the lay people regarding steemit would be great content.
not a coder, yet... but I can definitely remember to get into that when I do my next interview.
I've had to be careful not to have any posts come off as complaining (not always easy when you're a skeptic at heart), and I agree that it's quite possibly the most toxic way to go through life. Hadn't connected with @sift666 so thanks for the connection to another perspective that hits the bullseye.
<3
A great posts, and I agree with you, getting tired of complaining to. There is always things that does not work very well in all software/tools/sites and I think that that is a reason to make improvements. Which many people seams to be working on with Steemit as well.
I do my part and try to improve my writing, posting and pictures. I make friends in the community and I also vote on witnesses and try to help wherever I can. Which I see as something obvious when being part of a community:-) It's also great fun!
Thanks and keep up the good work!
Excellent post! I couldn't have said it better myself :)
That's a lot of information. The title had me interested, because I am not here to earn money, and certainly not to complain. I find it a really cool platform that is slowly becoming my major one from which I share my posts across my networks. I can only echo what you passed on about @sift666 : I blogged for years on several blogging platforms, and I maintain several websites featuring fellow artists, something that never earned me any money, nor did I expect to. What I do is for the love of it. If I get some rewards here on Steemit, that would be gravy, but it is not the overarching reason I am here!
Must need write :) that's why I'm here. Also I need money, so that would make things easier, lol
Well written!