RE: Standing at the Crossroads: Am I Missing Something... or is it YOU?
Way back in the when, I tried to convey the idea that everyone was grossly underestimating the impact human greed would have on Steemit down the road, and how this would need to be addressed before things got any sort of big around here.
Now we have something not-so-pretty; mostly on account of grassroots marketing and the selling of Steemit as a "make money" venue rather than a "content with rewards" venue. If this had been marketed as a social content site; a social blogging site where the contributors are rewarded by the opportunity to gradually becoming stakeholders? Different picture. Instead you have hundred's of people waving around Jeff Berwick's by now infamous "$30,000 post" as an example of what Steemit has to offer. Well, no shit, Sherlock... what SORT of people will be drawn to that? Bottom feeders by the thousands.
I keep bringing up this stuff because I really like this place, and I see its potential-- but I also see the devastating damage greed can do to it; greed is short sighted: "Make me rich NOW!" and doesn't ever consider the impact in the long run. My "problem" is that I still want to be here blogging and interacting 5-10 years from now. I just worry about the impact the spammers, upvote bots and haejin's of the world will have on that picture.
You don't get to clear cut a forest and then complain that there are no trees anymore...
I'm with you on wanting to be blogging here over the long run. You sure have seen so many platforms come and go over the years. So it has to be a difficult challenge for a platform to be successful over the long run. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with the communities and SMTs.
Unfortunately, the majority of the population tends to be short-term thinkers. I happen to be a long term thinker. Sure, it's nice to know what we're going to have for dinner, but what food will we grow where, next year, and the year after, and the year after that? And how will "clear cutting" the land now impact what we have available three years from now?
It's very hard to get people to sit down and truly look at how their current actions affect the future; most only want to look at how their current actions affect their current life.