Is Steemit the place to get "something for nothing?"
Is Steemit the place to get
Something for nothing?
Hello Steemians! I wanted to address a viewpoint that many seem to hold, that just by being on Steemit: posting, commenting etc., they ought to be making tons of STEEM/ SBD, even though they don't hold much stake (SP) in the platform. Is this really true? Let me know what you think after I share my perspective! Here are a few common complaints I hear about the operation of the platform (mainly from a minnow's perspective, as this is the highest % of users on the site.)
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- Whales/dolphins are greedy and only support other whales/dolphins.
- There is so much undervalued/overvalued content on the platform.
- It takes too much time/energy to become successful on Steemit.
- The whole thing is a Pyramid/Ponzi scheme!
- The interface doesn't look good/work well enough.
- You have to buy STEEM and power up to have influence.
- I deserve higher payouts because my content is such good quality!
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Responding to these complaints
"Whales/dolphins are greedy and only support other whales/dolphins." - Whales and dolphins are people who are taking a huge risk leaving large amounts of value in Steemit. They are inherently more valuable to the platform (at least economically) because by holding STEEM power, they are showing they believe in the platform and are willing to sacrifice security for future potential. Also, this is a generalization. Some whales/dolphins behave rather selfishly, while others give away insane amounts of value to minnows.
"There is tons of undervalued/overvalued content on the platform." - This is a complaint I can get behind, to a degree. It is painful to visit the trending page of certain tags (I won't name any specifics, go see for yourself) and see abysmal, poorly made posts being upvoted over $100 complete with spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, very short length, and general lack of substance. This is very bad for the platform as a whole because when new users come on the site for the first time it makes it hard to take the site seriously, making it look somewhat scammish. I tend to lean towards the problem being overvaluation by those who made prior agreements to always upvote certain posters, regardless of their quality, using automating tools such as Steemvoter, Streemian, etc.
"It takes too much time/energy to be successful on Steemit." - Becoming successful in anything takes a huge dedication of time and energy. Steemit is no exception. Often the people making this statement have never purchased any STEEM with their own money and they don't really care about the potentially revolutionary aspects of the platform, they just want to get rich quick. That is not what Steemit is for! Other times, it is said by people who haven't found their niche/ passion/ area of expertise. If you find that, you will be determined to do your best each day, until you achieve success.
"The whole thing is a Pyramid/Ponzi scheme!" - What a joke this assertion is! Steemit has very little in common with either of these scams. This is said by people that are uninformed as to what these terms even mean. First of all, there are no multi-tiered "levels" such as Diamond, Gold, Silver, Bronze etc. where Steemians are arbitrarily rewarded disproportionately for their actions (as would be the case with a pyramid scheme.) Instead, the returns of curation and posts are dictated by algorithms and by the decisions of people of where to place value. Of course, the rewards do increase as the user's stake increases, but it has a solid backing in economic theory, because they are holding SP to achieve this, which is dissimilar to a pyramid scheme.
Second of all, there is no aspect of taking new investor's money and returning it to the earlier investors, as there would be with a Ponzi scheme. In fact, no one is required to invest a cent into Steemit and you can still earn (albeit rather slowly and inefficiently.) There are no similarities whatsoever between Steemit and a Ponzi scheme.
"The interface doesn't look good/ work well enough." - Well, the site is in beta, and the focus is not on appearances for the moment, but functionality. Once the underlying mechanics are refined to a point that the development team feels very confident it can handle millions of users, then surely the front end will look equally streamlined to other popular social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. In fact, it could very well end up looking and working much better than any of those sites!
"You have to buy STEEM and power up to have influence." - To a degree, this is true. It is a very good aspect of the system. Only those that care about and believe in the site enough to save up a little extra and put it into STEEM (even if it's only $5) should have prominent voices by default. Now, if this is unfeasible for an individual, yet they have powerful, important, and/or unique contributions to the platforms, they will get recognized and receive assistance by bigger stakeholders eventually. Notice I said eventually. Most people quit before they even get started. Post and engage consistently on Steemit for several months and I can almost guarantee you will get somewhere, whether you can afford to power up out of pocket or not.
"I deserve better payouts because my content is such good quality!" - No one "deserves" anything. Everything we receive in life is a gift! If you keep doing your best consistently, for a long enough period of time, eventually you will receive a response from others/the universe. People in this era are so impatient! Try posting every day on Steemit for 2 years and see what happens with your payouts.
Now I want to know...
What are your thoughts/ feelings about it?
Comment them below. Have an awesome day!Written by @d-pend
10/10/17
Images arefree domain use.
"summa cum laude" @d-pend! What You wrote on point 7 St Paul came to my mind (my favorite sentence, I have to quote here original) : quis enim te discernit quid autem habes quod non accepisti si autem accepisti quid gloriaris quasi non acceperis ( Who made you so important? What have you got that was not given to you? And if it was given to you, why are you boasting as though it were your own?) 1 Corinthians 4.7 My upvote worths 2 cents now, let see it again in 2 years time😉!
Yes @piaristmonk your comment couldn't be more spot on, that's exactly the sentiment/perspective on life I'm referring to! Thanks a lot for leaving the quote in Latin and English. I'm sure I've read it before but it has been a while. Cheers my friend, let's look back on this moment later on and smile! I bet your upvote will be more than 2 cents by then ;)
@d-pend this super quality post is done with great timing. People outside the community need to know how unique STEEMIT is and here you present several valuable aspects. As we everything we do in life, it takes time and efforts to becsuccesful. STEEMIT has evrything to achieve success. We just need to focus on thecareas we like and create quality posts.
This post is very related to the one I was finaly able to finish today about the strong reasons why STEEMIT willmskyrocket sooner or later. I actually mentioned you on the REASON #5: STEEMIT has an IMPORTANT goal that many of us, our parents, grand parents, and much older ancestors have been dreaming and figthing for: FREEDOM. https://steemit.com/steem/@gold84/7-great-reasons-why-we-should-buy-at-least-100-or-1000-steem-today-and-power-up
Looking forward to your opinion on it. Regards, @gold84
I think there are those who work, and those who are envious. The Steemit platform is totally honest, and we can make suggestions and that's good for development. If we want higher profits, then we need to be better bloggers, more persistent. We all have the same chances of success, now it's still steemit in development. Steemit have only 400,000 users , and where is 8 billion people? I don't have nothing to add to your post, thank you for helping me - they took me off from the black list. By the way - Steemit is not place to get something for nothing.
You have the big picture in mind with your input, which is so important. I'm excited to see where the future of blockchain technology in general and Steemit in particular will lead :D
That's great! I was happy to see you were off black list. Just make sure to always cite your sources and keep up the great work Dr. Great Success!!
Thanks my friend and good night from Macedonia
very well written, thank you. i agree it would be nice to find a way to control the over-valuation of weak posts for people who have the resources to dump money into steem and make ten dollars a day just by posting a photo of their lunch. this is the height of mediocrity. it's a lot of work to curie minnow posts, but dolphins need only one good friend to upvote and resteem them to bankroll their account with little input. the question is do we need this kind of pseudo-participation, and if not, how do we address it?
Haha height of mediocrity, indeed. What do you mean by pseudo-participation? I think I misunderstand your question... but I follow you up to there and I agree!
i spose i mean someone who only gets on to post a poor content post for the sole objective of increasing their own lot and does not contribute elsewhere. the in and out mentality.
Ahhh right. Well, I definitely feel like people should be able to use the platform any way they see fit, and some people are better at curating/responding while others lean towards investing a lot of time in their posts. But as you said some seem to put the least possible effort in and have a scarcity/hoarding mentality. That is too bad as they would benefit the platform more if they shared more freely...
Well you have actually touched on something that has been bugging me. Although i will not say that i have any material of interest to draw traffic nor have posted anything special but i wouldn't say that my experience equals the hype that has been made regarding steemit . but of course it may be too early for me to make that assertion considering that i am a newbie. You really have pointed to some glaring facts about certain posts lacking substance yet they have enough SP and SD.
I hope to remain in this platform perhaps i may start getting enough SP and SD too like you the big whales while I become a shark. :D
Thanks for adding your perspective @izge! I think it all depends on the person whether Steemit lives up to the hype, depends on what you're looking for. I've been blogging here for 4 months and I'm still loving it, but of course it's not perfect. Best of luck and enjoy your time here :D
You got a point, but these guys invested everything they have to the platform. While minnows and new comer dont. Its sound very unfair if these little guy post earn big than what they earn. We dont blame them doing it. They just want there money back. For us just keep going, theres always a sun after storm and light at the end of the tunnel.
Yep, I agree. It only makes sense for larger stakeholders to have a bigger say and bigger payout. Dedication brings us there, for those of us who aren't yet whales! Thanks for stopping by @cloudspyder.
I think my only critique of the platform is the overvaluation of garbage posts that I see. However the more familiar I become with Steemit the less I see because I'm kind of finding what I'm looking for now and hopefully that will catch on.
I've been on here about 6 weeks and made a $100 for just posting stuff I enjoy or find funny/interesting , not massive amounts but I'm not looking at a career here just enjoying the diversity and the silly side of Steemit.
Yeah that's probably what bothers me the most too, makes it obvious people have prior agreements to "dogpile" SP onto certain posters automatically regardless of quality.
That's definitely the beauty of Steemit, that you don't have to see what you don't like though, lol. I've talked to a lot of people that never look at trending because they see it as stale.
I sometimes use the hot section to see what posts have had a lot of recent activity, but it's a mixed bag; Some are artificially buffed with autobots/ autocuration, and some are more organic.
That's good to not look at it as a career. I think that perspective makes people burn out quickly. Thanks for dropping by and adding your two cents @kevkong!
Very spot on observations. I see my account growing and have gained a lot of followers. My posts don't make a lot but I'm patient.
Yeah, it's a nice feeling to see steady growth. It will be interesting to look back on this time period in a couple years. Who knows what will happen! Thanks for your input @wandrnrose7 :)
I agree. I think this will become amazing. I'm glad we met here!
My pleasure. I enjoy your posts.
Very very good Post ! Upvoted full speed.
Steemit is for you to grab but you have to love it and wrk your way up!
Like it anything honestly...
everyone can do it but it takes dedication and work.
Yes!! It's so true... thanks for stopping by @vlemon, all the best :)
The best in steemit platform is to get Large steem power . ur valuable post can just give u few Steem Dollar with few steem power.
Yes that's true, it is certainly easier with more SP! Thanks @cryptonewslight.