Feet on ground, head in cloud

Browsing through my Saturday feed I came across a Wordcloud post by @meno which uses a feature on Steem reports to produce a picture like the one below on most used words by an account. You can find the tool here.

I had never used this on Steem but, I have used the wordclouds for teaching purposes to show how much people repeat words and what kinds of words get repeated. People are often quite surprised by their range or lack thereof but mostly, by what it tends to tell about them.

I don't know how far back it looks but it says at the most recent posts. Here is mine:

As @meno mentioned:

if there is someone you don't appreciate on this platform, someone who you believe would benefit this blockchain by leaving it, it might be valuable to see if their language has similarities to yours.

The vocabulary people choose really can tell a lot because for the most part, people don't choose their words consciously, even when writing them. Also, because their are gaps in time between posts, there is generally a lot of overlap in the expressions used as most people's language works on habit.

What may be a surprise in the view given by mine isn't the words that are there, it is the words that are not. Considering what I tend to write about and from which perspectives I approach them, there is very little representation of negative, it is almost exclusively positive. The top 7 words might betray the direction of my mind.

| People | Community | Steem | Life | Better | World | Future |

 
It seems that even though I find a lot of challenges and negatives on the platform and in life in general, I tend to be positive about the future and its improvement. this is good considering this is what I am working toward with each step, a better position, not only for myself but for all others too. I am not saying I am actually capable of making a significant difference on a global level but, I do think we are capable together.

This sounds like a lot of positive Steem shill but, six of the seven words I use near daily in my IRL work life and, it works. Focusing on the right people builds strong communities and it is through this that healthier communication tales place, more cooperation and by default, improved life. Slowly, the world really does get better in the future. What slows us down is rewarding the wrong people and not discussing what needs to be discussed.

We tend to avoid the difficult discussions that lead to a better world but the problem is that the people willing to have those discussions are the ones who should be incentivized to keep going as they are the ones who will build the community infrastructure for change. Instead we turn our focus and reward the people who take our minds off of the challenges even though they are rarely the ones who are willing to get their hands dirty and build bridges.

People talk about misaligned incentives but, our own processes are not aligned with where we want the future to be. We ourselves as individuals are not incentivizing the right people. Not everyone is the right person to build a community around them but, everyone is the right person to support those who do build communities by either through gathering people or, removing the roadblocks to gathering people. Supporting the network nodes is going to raise the network.

I used to think autovoters are bad for the environment but, I have changed my mind under certain conditions. If stake is used to back a community builder who is not going to become complacent or entitled, then do it. If Rancho had backed ten invested community dolphins every day for the last 6 months instead of one poor trade analyst, this place would look different. If the circlejerkers had done similar, this place would look different. If Steemit delegated more to manual curation teams, this place would look different.

It looks the way it is because of who people have chosen to support with their stake. Even the bidbots could have been a positive force if they were more discerning with not only the content they voted, but who they voted upon. At this point, they don't care much about the first and nothing about the second.

The problem is that the wrong people are growing because the community builders see the damage being caused. The irony is, we could have had more influence if we had been part of causing the damage from the start. Now it is a game of catch up or be cut down whilst waiting for The code to change.

There is so much complexity to this platform that it is impossible to continually make the right moves to both satisfy personal goals and needs and support the community growth for future strength. Track record is a pretty good indicator though as to how someone is likely to act in the future. There are new platform/coin shills who have always shilled, ther are maximisers who ahve always maximized, circlejerkers who have always operated in that way and scammers who have always scammed.

The issue is it is the community builders who have always built community who are being left behind on a platform that is reliant on a strong community. It is they who are left filling hands, pockets and wallets while their own opportunities to grow go begging. The people the community would rely on in the future, will have very little influence in that future as they do not have the stake to wield and make a difference.

But, like the wordcloud indicated, there is positive to be had and the community is not lost. It is just going to take a change in who is, and what they are incentivized for. The future of Steem looks bright but it is going to be the community that supercharges and stabilizes it in the future. What is going to really make Steem very valuable in the future isn't just SMTs and all the applications that will arrive, it will be that those that hold it, just won't want to let it go as it is their investment into the community they care about.

We are where we are, the code is what the code is, do your best to earn whatever way you can but, don't lose the long-term benefits because of the short gains. The future is in the community you are a part of and your place is to support it, not harm it. Cross your fingers that the community builders and supporters power up and, the extractors keep selling. The price will be down because of it but, once they are out of stake and cut off from the community, Steem can fulfill its potentials.

Just like the words you use, choose those you support carefully.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]