Steemit! Can you just relax for a moment?
If I may call you "Steemiters", I'm one of you, I would like for Steemit to succeed, But in the current state of things, I think somethings need to be fixed first for it to reach the mainstream.
I think that the idea of up-voting something that you may think other people would up-vote for too is flawed, this will turn users to vote for big names only, they'll start predicting what most people would like instead of just up-voting what they themselves like.
Also this will concentrate power among small number of users (which has already happened), users that other people think their posts have a chance to show up in front page, not because their posts are great, but because they have a big fat account.
Steemit currently have more than 60k users, but the front page is more or less full of posts from the same users everyday. So If nothing changes, I predict that new users will give-up as soon as they admit to themselves that they don't stand a chance playing the game with the already established big players.
What the system should promote is equal chance to all users not just big whales. I agree that users with fat accounts should get rewarded more, that's just an economic fact, but giving them more voting power is just plain wrong.
So come on "Steemiters", just relax, browse steemit and up-vote whatever you enjoyed reading, let's keep it fun because otherwise no one will enjoy the journey.
Curator rewards currently form an artificially high barrier of entry for new competition. Curation rewards need to be inversely proportional to the content creators average performance. The incentive scheme for the first upvotes functions as the censorship mechanic of steemit. Curators, especially ones that are bots form a soft censorship in favor of incumbents because they are paid to do so.
Both quality and reputation are more accurate for each user if subjectively tailored to them. Most people still have the vendors shop mentality. The vendor puts on display what ever items are netting the most profit. Yet if the vendor were to move locations to a different culture, the items best to put on display would change drastically. If the vendor were able to effortlessly swap inventory, they would change out the items on the shelves every time a customer walks in, tailored just for them. The customer would be the most happy, and the vendor would make the most money. If the vendors primary product was art, as is the content on steemit, the benefit of personalization would be even stronger, as art is far more subjective than toothpaste.
Here we are in the age of the internet, where swapping out the items on the shelves and guessing what customers want is more frictionless than ever before in human history, yet everyone is stuck thinking profit and popularity are king. Objective ratings of posts and users are only useful to the customer when you know nothing about your customer. Once you know your customer, and have predictive algorithms, customers might get the chance to see an indie band they like on the home page instead the bands that @ned likes. Steemit does not have to be a global vendor with a static offering on the shelves, it has the liberty and technology to be customer focused.
"Hey, look at this crowd. You guys gotta try the pasta. It's got a real nice profit margin" - Elzar & Steemit
Something bubbles up in my brain.
How can the foodchain be changed in a positive way?
Can little fish chew on oversized whales without killing the whales?
Should big trucks pay more, lets call it 'tax', and the smaller couriers on rollerskates get an advantage in traffic? (without causing traffic jams)
What about old age? Once we go deaf and blind will our data then be able to fund our retirement?
About blind: does anyone know if there are blind people on board, and how they experience the platform? It it possible for blind people to publish withouth hurdles? ...just wondering