Steemit: The Love And The Hate

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)

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Steemit is amazing when you see the posts with hundreds or even thousands of dollars rewarded for them.

However, the small fish (minnows) need to work so much harder than the big whales who have people voting on them with robots so they reach the trending within an hour!

I understand that many people are in it for the money but where is the heart? It's hidden away behind the logo that the creators decided to make.

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Why Whales Are Discouraged To Vote

I recently read @snowflake's post where he was describing some minnows who had tried very hard on their posts but saw next to nothing.

This is when I expected @snowflake to vote for these minnows, but no.

He continued to explain that he didn't recieve enough returns on his vote when giving them to minnows!

"I like these posts, I think they are undervalued a lot BUT I'm not going to upvote them because I earn way more selling my votes to a bot."

Great community atmosphere from whales these days eh...

This just highlights one example of the Steemit Blockchain being ineffective for newcomers.

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What Is A Gifting Economy

A gift economy, gift culture, or gift exchange is a mode of exchange where valuables are not traded or sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. This contrasts with a barter economy or a market economy, where goods and services are primarily exchanged for value received. Social norms and custom govern gift exchange. Gifts are not given in an explicit exchange of goods or services for money or some other commodity.

According to Wikipedia

When we analyze this definition we can see why people love gifting economies: "valuables are not traded or sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards".

This sounds amazing, we can all gift each other money or commodities without feeling the need to receive anything back.

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How Steemit Is Perceived As A Gifting Economy

After quickly googling: Steemit Gifting Economy.

I found THIS POST by @doctorjohn.

The first line is describing @stellabelle telling @doctorjohn that Steemit is a gifting economy.

@stellabelle first exposed me to the understanding that Steemit is a Gift Economy. This has changed my thinking: another life curve.

Doctor John's Post.

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As you can see above, the gifting economy of Steemit didn't gift this person enough for his amazing words and encouragement for the platform. even @stellabelle didn't vote, though perhaps she didn't notice his post.

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Why This Isn't Working Perfectly On Steemit

$ is valued more than virtue and principle

My above example with @snowflakes emphasizes this very strongly, he would rather earn 6 Steem selling his $10 upvote to a bot rather than receiving 2 Steem giving that upvote to a minnow who worked hard.

Is this all that this Steem world has come to? A bunch of "rich elite" choosing and picking who can make money.

And if it is, they are prioritizing themselves.

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I would call it a Wishing Economy

Minnows hope for upvotes, even begging at times.

Whales do not care for voting people who don't give them money.

You have to tailor your posts to the rich, for example, there are people who exclusively upvote posts which are related to conspiracy, they will only upvote and resteem articles which push that message.

I recently made a meme on Steemit's new Meme Platform, dMania. I only made $0.31

But I still responded to everyone who commented and gave them 100% upvote each, this is because I feel like giving my money to people who take the time to comment on my work. That is a better approach to a gifting economy, in my opinion. This is an example of principle.

Make A Difference Today

If you, the reader, are a whale who is guilty of this, you might feel a bit bad about being greedy.

No problem though, because everyone can leave the person they are today to become a better person tomorrow 😀.

You could start by upvoting 4 minnows you find who are worthy of the vote, they will feel happy and you will feel the same.


I am open to any criticism or comments, I will reply with utmost honesty and sincerity on my front, as well as respecting you for your views.


Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.


Who is @Chron?

@chron is a 16 year old robot-headed Steemer, currently based in Bali, Indonesia.

I am currently working in association with @samstonehill on the following projects:

  • A member of the Steemit Bloggers Community, heading the CHARITY Q&A. Join us on Discord, we don't bite

Here is a list of Steemit Witness I have voted for & recommend you do the same:

@teamsteem @timcliff @jesta @good-karma @someguy123 @blocktrades @pfunk @klye @krnel @blueorgy @ausbitbank & @thecryptodrive

Without them the our beautiful decentralized platform would sink!

Learn what this means HERE and place your vote HERE.

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I agree! To be social is to be human. To be a greedy, self-interested fuck is to be just that...

Yes brother, thanks for the acknowledgements! I would love to see the community change!

Thank you for voicing your opinion, it's all we have these days

Hello, @chron,

I gave you my 100% upvote because I appreciate the truth in what you have said here, and I also was pleased by the gentle way that you said it.

It would be wonderful if somehow Steemit could adjust things so that truly good writing would be better rewarded. Thank you for sharing your thoughts in this fine article.

😄😇😄

@creatr

Hello, @creatr

Thank you for the amazing words, we need more people like you here on Steemit!

I'm gentle eh... Thanks 😃

Yes, I would love to see this happen. It may even be a whole new platform, Steemit does not have to be the only decentralized social media!

I believe in Steemit as a gift economy... and I read @stellabelle's original post on the topic, when it was first published, and it resonated with me.

I guess we have a choice of who to follow... I am a 100% "manual" follower/curator/commenter and I tend to follow people who are the same. By snowflake's metric, I would not be maximizing my return... but I believe I am, because by creating interesting content and interactions, I am helping build the long term attrativeness of Steemit, which in turn would increase the value of the Steem token... but that's a LONG TERM approach.

I DO care about "making money" but I view that in the greater conext of not just "now," but whether I will still be able to get rewarded for contributing on Steemit next year, two years, five years from now.

This is how it should be @denmarkguy, they should somehow ban the bots and let everyone look at each other's posts, possibly even read them (god forbid) and then upvote if it resonates with them.

We all want this to be the system of the future, but it just doesn't look bright right now, does it?

Thank you for your amazing perspective @denmarkguy, glad you enjoyed my ideals 😋

I love the idea of steemit but if this continues te rich gettig richer and deciding who gets the money this will fail.. look what happened o TSU!! Only a select few got the real money.. high made everyone leave. Seriously there is a way we can all be if it from this.. but you are right it starts at the top! I have invest 100 dollars into my steem power.( no much I know) but I want everyone to benefit. Just my two cents

I was also a member on Tsú. If someone/anyone curious, I would like to say the fact that the minimum payout was $100 USD on Tsú and you could receive your earnings only in check (no PayPal and other methods) (as far as I remember, there was no bank transfer either), so that was really hard!
As far as I know, there is no minimum payout on Steemit and the difficulty of the money earning is much easier on Steemit compared to Tsú.
Tsú had advertisements, Steemit currently doesn't have.
Tsú was much more unfair than Steemit.
As far as I remember, I only earned few dollars on Tsú. Not in a month, but during the whole lifetime (few years) (about/approximately 4 years) of Tsú. So I guess reaching the payout minimum was impossible on Tsú for the most of the users.
They are closed the website, before most of the people could even reach the payout minimum once.
So the majority of the users didn't received money from the website at all.
I have donated most of my earnings on Tsú to charities. That was the good side of Tsú. The verified charities.
The Tsú technology is now available for sale by the way. I am just saying, if anyone interested.
I REALLY hope that Steemit will NOT meet the same fate as Tsú!

@xplosive I agree! I really want steemit to work! I mean I invest some money not a lot but still I invest some.. be nice to see it work out like thy said it would.

Very interesting @xplosive, I heard of the site but mostly heard the negative.

I don't want to see that technology emerge again, if we need ads to generate the money it isn't a gifting economy anymore...

Or the elite corporate conglomerates become the ones in power, again!

Thank you for your comment @explosive, I learnt something about TSU!

Amazing words @twofingersshort, I haven't invested into Steem but my rewards from the last few months allow me to give my two cents as well 😉

TSU was a disaster, hopefully it isn't that bad on Steemit, atleast we aren't getting money from ad revenue right?

Thanks for commenting and voicing your opinion!

I like the way you think!

Thank you, I also like the way I think 😜

Just kidding, thank you for your comment @stillwatersart, STEEM ON!

I am also a minnow and I know what are you talking about really well.
Nowadays I rarely write blog posts, because almost no one cares about my posts and I am mostly earning less than $0.10 per posts. I am mostly upvoting other people's posts and resteeming their posts.
I rarely receive human comments on my posts and even if I do, I am receiving a two words spam-like comment and the authors of the comments are upvoting their own comment with like $1 INSTEAD of my post, which have a pending payout like $0.03.
Steemit is so unfair to Minnows. Steemit is full of selfish people.
Maybe (probably?) this is one of the main reasons (or the main reason) behind Steem's low price (1 Steem = $0.870639 USD at the moment).

Yup, this is very true @xplosive, thanks for the resteem, gave your last unappreciated post a little VOTE 🥇

That is the worst, when people vote themselves in a comment and don't vote the post.

I think you should vote for a post before commenting, that's my principle.

Thanks for your comment, STEEM ON!

Very true -and I really like what you are doing with the new Steemit logo while a bunch of numpties are still going around saying anyone who uses the new logo will be arrested and sent to a jail in North Korea!

Yeah, I've gotten that one before but I honestly do not give a fuck (pardon my french).

This should the social media platform that rewards people for making contributions and sharing their art.

Steemit won't sue, so I will use that logo on EVERY ONE of my posts, come and find me, I might not have a robot face in real life though, so it may be difficult 😆

Thank you for your awesome words @sift666, STEEM ON!

North Korea ain't got shit on @chron!

I am a minnow. I made many posts with my original work and still never got paid more than 12 cents, on any of my posts :(
If you visit my blog page you ll understand.
You wrote a great post, this issue really needs attention and it needs to be addressed. Thanks a lot for speaking up for minnows.
All the best.

Upped your last post, cute bird 😀

Thank you for your honesty, STEEM ON!

Thank you. So sweet of you. Upvoted again :) and Started following you now.

No worries, I like being sweet 😉

We where just talking about this @ura-soul @chron There really needs to be a change and how some of these bots or whales are being so needy or greedy and its obvious when seeing what's trending and what is undervalued that should be trending, not that I'm against certain things that do get to trending because there is a lot of good information. But We should share this value more efficiently or change the way the spread of Love is handled. I also understand it is much more than just some value it's about love yes definitely using your heart instead of your wallet so to speak, this is what I have always wanted from a social network, that especially now that has the fuel to pay its users back in a generous manner.

But yes for smaller minnows, myself included it is very hard and it's not that we don't have good content to share or blog about but it is hard, but does take work, work is yes hard, value is what is rewarded for hard work but a lot of people that are doing, or participating in this hard work, with lack of the upvotes compared to trending, I wish I had the power to upvote them more but I as of yet I do not have the power to do more voting but I hope to eventually because then I for sure am going to share that love and I know that there's plenty of people out there doing the best they can, I too try the best I can and and its very therapeutic. I would love to help others and if it pays me back eventually overtime then I want to share that love and spread that love to everyone in my community physically also not just here online. So this is just a sum up of an interesting more positive Viewpoint and I'm glad to hear that other people are thinking or seeing it in the same way. It's all about love, it really is, and love is more powerful than money. Of course. Be well and steem on with LOVE ♨🌱💓

Amazing @krazypoet. We truly need a revolution. I upped your last post, I love HDR photography, I will release my first HDR-Timelapse on Steemit soon 😀

Why can't this change, because people don't like change! Especially a lesser monetary return.

The whales simply think that they have reached a point where they don't need to care because they are raking the Steem in.

Thank you for your honesty and love.

Steem ON 🐳

Awesome bro, i agree, thanks so much oh, I can't wait to see that HDR timelapse that's pretty cool I've done a few here and there but nothing really too extravagant, I might see if I can find the original time lapse that I created I did one of a river it was really cool wasn't that great but it was it was pretty cool and fun to do at the time alright man I'll be looking out for your post to talk to you later.

Thanks @krazypoet, I guess I'll see you in the comments of my time-lapse, have a good one 😀

Really Steemit has taken a great turn. Many things have changed, for example, the bots have flooded the platform (without criticizing the benefits and cons) and removing the empowerment of the whales as was done previously (without criticizing the benefits and cons), these measures and others have harmed and benefited others.

Anyway, I think a great post. Making the difference is what leads a world forward.

Truly, the bots came and everything changed. Thank you for your honest opinion, I upped your last post 👍

Good luck jellyfish 😉

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