We Could Be Great Already
Someone asked me today why all my posts are flagged. I found this question a little disheartening because I've written about this several times, and I don't want to keep writing about it. It means that this person, hasn't seen any of my posts about it, either because they don't actually read my posts, or .. who knows.
I have noticed a fatigue following the highs felt after the declaration of #newSteem. I think the energy has just withered away slowly to where it was before the hard fork.
Steem, the network, the blockchain, is ready for great things. The systems are in, the tech is already better than the vast majority of other networks out there. Steemians, on the other hand, are very far from ready for greatness.
On average, we are fickle, lazy, and non-committal.
A lot of people here wonder when Steem will "moon". My answer is, that's up to you! You see, if we were truly ready to be great, we would be great already!
In terms of the Steem price, the all time high of $8 or so is actually quite low for what Steem could have been even during a bear market! Yes, even in a bear market.
I think Steem is where it is today because most Steemians don't truly believe in Steem. Most of the whales just want to get their money back - the ones sitting on a loss that is. Many of the minnows that were making some coin here and there when the times were good just simply jumped ship when the going got tough.
I went searching through some of the old communities that were thriving here when Steem was over 5 dollars. They all look like the digital equivalence of a ghost town. Where did everyone go?
Then I started finding some of them elsewhere. I found some "communities" on EOS. Mind you, there is no real way of being a community on EOS. They are really Facebook, Discord or Telegram communities. I saw the same level of energy and excitement about some EOS daps that promised to "support content creators". Most of them are based on the hope for donations - basically charity.
Soon enough, people will realise there is really nothing out there like Steem. EOS is not Steem, and Voice wont give you payouts you can buy food from. Not in the same way anyway. I think many of these people think Voice will be like the good days of Steem. Boy are they in for a big disappointment.
I'm not knocking EOS. I actually think EOS is great and will succeed. It just won't support the small guy the same way Steem does/did. You need to have money, to make money. Besides, the minuscule amount of EOS or BTC that most of these people have, they made directly from the Steem reward pool. Go figure.
I read some crypto "tutorials" that suggested ways to "make crypto".. and without fail, they always mention Steem as a way to "make your first crypto coins". The recommendation being, to then sell it for their shytecoin, because without having some initial shytecoin, you can't benefit from any of the airdrops, or whatever.
Anyway, back to Steem. We await SMTs and Communities eagerly, but I honestly don't think they will make any difference. Steem is already good enough the way it is I think. It's Steemians that's the problem.
Peace and Love ✌🏿
Adé
All copy and photos are original content by me.
© adetorrent.com
Some things just take more time and patience than others. I am here because I believe in Steem’s long term viability. To get there we are going to need some critical mass — more people who find this platform to be a worthwhile place to spend their precious time and energy, in addition to believing in it as an investment.
I do hope that communities will be part of that recipe. Another ingredient, I believe, is simplified sign-up and on-boarding. It needs to be fast and painless to create a Steem account, and we somehow need to make it possible to be successful here without having a fricking Ph.D in Steemology.
Regarding downvoting, I am personally not a fan. Someone dear to me is being ritually downvoted, because he dared to use the downvote mechanism precisely as it was designed — to bring out-of-line rewards back in line, and enable those who are producing quality content to earn their rightful share of the reward pool.
The trouble with it is that it turns individuals into judge and jury. And it gives people with a lot of power an inordinate ability to retaliate. Not only that, but as you are seeing, those who get down voted very often feel hurt by it. It may even be justified in some of those cases, but it comes down to individual opinions about what quality is; individual metrics for what kind of content deserves what type of rewards.
Creating equity is a very worthwhile goal. I’m just not sure that downvoting is the correct mechanism. The net effect could very well be that people who have put heart and soul into their content and are doing the very best they can will be downloaded off the platform, because it feels like they got slapped. And many people also experience it as a type of theft. They saw rewards that then disappeared, because someone made a determination that they didn’t deserve that. I wish it was working as planned, but I see a lot of frustration and sadness and distrust and abuse.
I believe the only way to right things, where rewards are concerned, is to do so algorithmically, like Google does. Now, I am not a developer, and my understanding of what’s possible may be skewed. But as long as individuals can stack the odds in their favor for upvotes and use their power to retaliate against those who attempt to create fairness, the system isn’t going to support the goal of mass adoption on this platform.
That is my humble opinion.
On the matter of people jumping ship when the price dropped, I couldn’t agree more. There were thriving communities back when the value was sweet and on the rise that are gone now. I hope and believe that will happen again. But, because this platform is about earning rewards and/or about investment (depending on the mindset of the individual), those who are in it for short term gain are not going to weather the ups and downs. It is unfortunate. The antidote may simply be that Steem needs to start showing steady growth. I am hoping we will never see a sharp rise, because it will encourage more of that “jump in and get my share” mentality, when what we need is a lot of HODLers.
Thanks for your thoughtful post, @adetorrent.
"Regarding downvoting, I am personally not a fan. Someone dear to me is being ritually downvoted, because he dared to use the downvote mechanism precisely as it was designed — to bring out-of-line rewards back in line, and enable those who are producing quality content to earn their rightful share of the reward pool."
I just came back on Steem yesterday after almost a year absence, for varied life reasons, and was a little excited to get back to creating some content. My post yesterday afternoon had a potential payout of around $10. Then someone with lots of voting power, that I will not mention here, down voted it.
Ok, so you don't like the post, so you screw someone because of your personal tastes were offended? Then I go to this persons profile and they have not created in content or contributed much in the last two years on Steemit.
I appreciate @adetorrent and his commitment to Steem. He is a great ambassador for the platform, but if this is the way it is going to be, I am not going to waste my time writing and sharing content for nothing. I can do that on Facebook or a personal blog and get a much better return.
Yeah, I might stop in for the occasional tid bit of information and stay in contact with peeps, but man...what a welcome back!....pffff
Exactly!!!
It's not that he didn't like your post, he downvoted it just because. He's lashing out because the community disagreed that posting screenshots 12 times a day and upvoting himself at 100%, and nobody else, was a good thing.
Following HF21/22, the community have free downvotes, so we used it to put a stop to the years of reward pool raiding. He now targets a few of us for constant downvotes, and he randomly hits posts that the community have upovted to a good amount. He also upvotes shitposts randomly, just to be a troll.
Free down votes? That's ridiculous!! If one feels so strongly that content is crap, and wants everyone to know it, then they should be willing to pay for the down vote.
I am was just working on writing another post and was almost done until I saw this reply. Not wasting my time posting it if ass hats are doing that stuff.
As it is now, there are many tribes you can post on that have their own token. For instance, there's Palnet or SteemLeo for different communities. You can post on there or use their tag, and you'll get the tokens. If you look at
http://www.palnet.io/@adetorrent, you will see all my posts just fine, even if greyed out on Steemit. The earned tokens on there are not affected either by downvoting on Steem.
When SMTs arrive, this will be even more important. I think many people might stop posting on Steem directly and focus more on their tribe/community.
Thanks for sharing. Where do I look to find existing communities like coin collecting (fiat type), fishing, computers etc...
Hmm. Good question. I'm not really that much of an expert on which tribes are what. I'm part of RaggaeSteem, Palnet and CreativeCoin.
Best bet is to check out SteemEngine - all the coins are there. If you click on the (information icon) "i", it will display some info about the coin/community
Thanks my friend, I’ll check it out.
This is a great response. I’m catching up after a few days of life madness and wanted to let you know I really appreciate this perspective, @adetorrent.
First of all
That should be a thing haha. You're so right there!
I also agree with the hope for a slow rise and not a sharp one - it will benefit the platform better. However, I won't say no to a $10 Steem price tonight, all of a sudden. :)
Well yeah, we wouldn’t turn that down, right? But would you power down or hold? Tough philosophical question. For better or for worse, I would hold.
I applaud you for keeping grinding even though some bastard tries to take you down. You keep being you and doing you and it'll be all fine soon, I hope.
LOL. Thanks. It's ok really. I'm like one of those people that can't be bullied :)
You are strong and carefree!
I was read it in other post that you did this.. that it can happen :)))
I hope all is soon ok :)) And how is there day ... lot rain ? here is all day very dark and rainy .
haha. yeah. oh well, it doesn't matter much :)
It's raining every day here and its very wet :) :)
Ah 😄👌 it is same then .
Too f’ing true my friend. Steemians are a fickle sad bunch in many ways. Not across the board, plenty of good peeps for sure, but generally you hit the nail on the douche head!
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You wordsmith! <3<3
This was one of my worries all a long! Steemians have this thing where we get excited about a new change for a minute before we move onto the other one. So unfortunate. Perhaps a time will come where true fanatics discover this platorm and take it to the heights we all so desire, as it stands, I don't a lot of people currently on the platform strongly believe in it enough to go down with the ship. Everyone is just out for their own gain, sad but true.
100%
Lol I don't think those big YouTubers who got on in 2005 - 2010 knew where it would be today and how it will change their lives. I'm pretty sure with some digging you could see the same on that platform of people who ditched it and moved on while others made a success of it, it's like that with every platform. I think that there is far more room for this place to move up than down and even if its only 1% of Facebook in the next few years thats still pretty huge
SMT's sound very promising, I'd even like to add it to my business one day. I think that crypto alts, in general, are all feeling the pitch and the drive is gone for now. It takes a large amount of education to get to the ideals we hold as steemians today but for those who do get it eventually, they don't really leave that easily. They will be the base for what we eventually have one day.
I hope to see this place soldier on for many more years
I share your optimism for the platform. I think it's unfair that Steem is grouped as an "altcoin" when it really is its own different thing.
I get what you mean, the world alt coin is so dismissive of the actual product like a bitcoin rip off which sadly is what most alts are or some shitty money raise for a poor product
I think products with merit like this one will eventually break through the clutter with time!
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