RE: Saturday Rant!!! (Don't worry, if you miss this one, there will be more)
Having this post to comment on does feel much better than inadvertently commandeering someone else's, and since I was the one who spurred on that commandeering in the first place, I hope you don't receive any backlash on my account.
That said, I enjoy Eddie Izzard comedy clips every time I see them. Though, I've never understood the get up, and now I think I see him more in a traditional suit anyway.
So, I said in my reply to your latest reply on the post where this all started that I might have more to say here, but since a lot of it is what was already said over there, maybe this won't turn out so long. :)
Thanks for adding in the math, though.
The additional payment in Steem has been happening off an on now since the dip (this is the second time now). So, with the math, you're saying that because they're actually carving out another portion from the SBD value into STEEM, we're losing out.
But aren't we not also getting more in SBD, because it's currently valued more than $1 USD? That should hold true when converting to USD, since $1 SBD would be equal to whatever the market price of SBD is, which is currently $1.93 USD, or close to double what the Steemit system recognizes it as (pegged to the $1 USD).
That's how I thought it was explained to me and how I've been trying to explain it to others.
The point I'm trying to make is, if we want SBD to go back to the peg, then we should be less concerned about what's being paid out in SBD from the rewards on our post.
I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself, but you can tell me if you're understanding my question. :)
I don't think it will be an issue. I don't know that the author gets notifications beyond the first one as subsequent replies are to the other person's "post" and not the author's own. That being said, from what I've seen, Dragos is a standup guy, so shouldn't have an issue with it.
Yes, they're taking a portion of the SBD payout and turning it into Steem while assuming the SBD is valued at $1. I get that we're also getting paid as if SBD were at $1, so if we were due $10 in SBD from the rewards, we really only should get 5.4 or something, so therefore, we're still ahead of the game. The point is that all of this is happening based on assumptions from behind the scenes. It doesn't make sense to an outsider who has come in after all this stuff went crazy. There are patches on patches on patches. It seems like there's a lot of simplification that could take place. If you're going to leave it complicated, then show the math so the people without computer science degrees and 20 years of programming can understand it. If the post says I should get 10 SBD, why would I only get 8.5 SBD. Just spell it out. If you got change at the store and they shorted you $1.50, you'd want to know why the amount you received was different than what was on the receipt, right?
"Yes, we're getting more SBD than we should be. You should just be happy that you're getting extra. The amount you're "losing" is coming from the extra. Stop being greedy and just enjoy that you get any rewards at all." No one has said it yet, but they probably wouldn't be entirely off base if they did. Be grateful for what you do have, not upset about what you don't have. I get it. I try to live it. Sometimes I like the math to add up though.
I'm saying that SBD should go back to the peg, but while it's over the peg, we should still get the "correct" amount of rewards... and it should match the number that it says we're being given.
I think I understand what you're saying. :)
Actually, I think you understood what I was saying better than I understood what I was saying.
Do you follow buggedout? He has a post this evening that talks about SBD and the peg. If you haven't seen it yet, it's worth looking at because the two of you are feeling the same vibes.
I'm with you all the way with the transparency thing. I think way too much is taken for granted around here, and I actually do know there's an attitude of, "It's better than what you'll get elsewhere so accept your shorted rewards" because they all but say that word for word anyone complains about the lack of rewards. It's their go to. Not so much from Steemit Inc—those guys prefer silence—but from people who have been here a while, including witnesses.
I just like information. It helps me make better decisions. It helps me organize my time. It helps me know if I'm actually wasting my time. So, the more I know, the better I function.
And I wholeheartedly agree about the patches. There was a comment somewhere else today that basically laid out that since HF 17, things have been rolled back and can pretty much be pointed to as creating a lot of the issues that exist. So instead of starting from the ground floor up, or going through the process of simplifying things, which sounds like it would take forever, especially now, they've just been adding one bandaid on top of the other.
I don't know about any of that. I just know that things could be and should be better. And they have to be if the masses they keep wanting to bring on board are going to make an honest go of it here.
I do follow him, but had been too busy ranting to read his article. I just read it and I think that it's inspired. I wouldn't bet against him, and I think that's the direction that we should be going.
I think there's a general air of superiority from some of those who have been around longer, or who know the inner-workings of Steem better than the average person. They also seem to be louder voices or larger personalities.
Like you, I like information. I like having a basis for my evaluation. Then I can make an informed decision, not just a wild shot in the dark. (It's illegal to hunt in the dark, isn't it?)
At this point, I don't think Steemit (or Busy or anything on the Steem blockchain) will actually be what makes it big. I think that Steem will be the long-term equivalent of AOL. It was sort of what started the whole thing, but now we've moved on to better since AOL wouldn't adapt, wouldn't listen to the customers' needs.
I'm not bailing or jumping ship, I'm just saying that I believe there's still a short window in which Steem can turn things around... but they're going to have to make changes. If those improvements aren't made, I can see some other platform/service reaching critical mass before Steem, and then Steem will fizzle. It could still carry on, but it would be another equivalent of what happened to Myspace. (Apparently that's still around. I've never heard of anyone who uses it though.)
It's definitely tough being first to market, and possibly second or third to market depending on how quickly you rushed in. I don't know how many blockchains are derived from similar, restrictive technology like Bitcoin, but it sounds like there could be more like Bitcoin currently then there are like Steem.
So, beyond what Steemit and the rest of the STEEM ecosystem is able to become, the underlying blockchain technology is faster and can handle more and keep going.
And, because you can build something on it, like Steemit, that creates an instant attention economy, even a basically two-year old beta version of Steemit, along with some fledgling d-apps, some of which aren't all that great yet compared to their established Social media counterparts, the utility is there and there's up to 65,000 of us active on the site daily. (okay, that may include a bot army.)
The way technology in this field is constantly changing and improving, I have no doubt that there will be something that could eclipse STEEM in the not too distant future. The biggest potential rival that I know of is EOS, at least in the short term, because of what it allows all blockchains to do. That said, though, the older blockchain technology isn't going to keep up with STEEM even with something on top of it, and if there's anyway to further improve on STEEMs performance, that will push things down the road even farther.
So, I think the window is probably a year or more, at the shortest, and all kinds of things can happen in that period of time, including hivemind/communities, HF20 and SMTs, all of which are supposed to be, in varying degrees, game changers.
Or, patches on patches on patches. Take your pick. :)