Why Steemit is more civilised than on other social media
I've been on Steemit a couple of months now and one thing I've noticed is that debate seems to be more civilised than on other social media.
I often write about Israel, which can be a controversial topic that raises passions (also a wonderful place to live!).
When I was on Facebook, things would often degenerate into flame wars, even with "friends" and people I knew personally.
Yet on Steemit, there seems to be a more civilised, respectful edge to debate, even though I don't know anyone personally.
I think this arises from two things:
- the principles of freedom of speech and freedom from censorship that Steemit and the crypto ecosystem in general is based upon
- the Steem Power system which means that people with substantial voting power in the system also have substantial investment in it.
The effect is that minnows behave because they don't want to get flagged by whales; while whales behave because they don't want to damage the value of their investment.
I just had an experience where a dolphin flagged my article (which had been published in a major national newspaper) because he strongly disagreed with it. But a few minutes later he realised he shouldn't have and removed it.
I think this shows that the Steemit system works.
The system isn't perfect obviously, but it is a lot better than on Facebook.
Its a good sign for the future growth of Steemit!
I agree - it's a relief to have a space where it is possible talk about difficult subjects with respect for each other's point of view. How are we going to resolve things otherwise? Perhaps another role for steemit.
I'm constantly arguing with people about Israel, usually it ends politely. I hope you can come check out the #informationwar tag, we welcome new contributors.
Yes, I've been following and posting a few articles to the #informationwar tag.
Lots of interesting posts there.
I saw that you were using the tag after I commented, great to have you there!
interesting thing
'The effect is that minnows behave because they don't want to get flagged by whales; while whales behave because they don't want to damage the value of their investment.'
The first statement is true, if you misbehave here, you either wont get rewarded or you may lose other rewards and not get rewarded.
To some extent it does put a gag on you, but I have found that if your perspective is genuine and your not commenting on some bigot's post, it will be OK. I have disagreed before, and have never been flagged, and I haven't flagged anyone else.. yet.
People behave differently when there's $$ involved.