Steemit is Neither FAIR nor EQUITABLE — and Why This Post Will Never Make it to Trending
After some days (or has it been weeks?) of general busy-ness, I finally had a little more time to "explore" random posts, this morning.
I like "wandering randomly," as it gets me a sense of the "pulse" of Steemit.
The Frustration Fandango
Damselfly
Seems like a lot of people are pretty frustrated with the way things are, here on Steemit. Now, I'm pretty willing to be the frustration level would be a lot lower if Steem were still at $7.00... but it's not.
To some degree, I can understand the frustrations of some of the posters I came across today, as well as the frustrations of many who have commented here on my pages.
But the whole entitlement attitude has to go!
I'm tired of reading about how it's "not fair" that you're not making all this money after God knows how many minutes or hours since you joined Steemit.
Nobody owes you anything.
Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.
Permit me to add a perspective we tend to forget.
Social Media is NOT EASY!
When you start an account on twitter, how long does it take before anyone notices you? Before you get 500 followers; 1000 followers? How long does it take before the first person retweets you? Or adds one of your tweets as a "favorite?"
Sunset silhouettes
I don't expect an answer, just think about it.
It took me several years to build a significant organic following, both on twitter and a couple of business Facebook pages.
In fact, I have a Facebook page with near 17,000 likes. Guess what? That took SEVEN YEARS to build.
Now ask yourself this: Why would Steemit be ANY different?
"Well, because.... the REWARDS...!"
The Rewards? What the hell does that mean, when it's at home? And what does that have to do with anything? Cat whiskers, cookies, thumbs up, SBD, SteemPower, attaboys, eprops, handclaps... why would ANY one be any different from any other?
Why on planet Pluto (not a planet!) are we suddenly owed special attention and "fairness" just because there are a few cents involved?
If you know anything at all about social media you also know that "quality content" by itself doesn't guarantee anything. What you need is to "be good at social media."
The Twistedness of Upvote Bots
The one thing I agree is a little twisted around here is the WAY in which upvote bots are used, not so much that they ARE used.
Marigold
One of the reasons I stated that "this post will never make it to Trending" is that I neither have "friends in high places," nor am I going to use upvote bots to promote it. And the chances of organically getting any post on the trending page are pretty close to zero. And I am not "some unknown," I am probably in the top 200 most active Steemit community members. That's not bragging, that's adding perspective.
Anyway, to get back tot he point — anywhere else, if you pay to get your content highlighted, it is clearly marked "PROMOTED CONTENT." It's pretty damned obvious who has paid to put their content in front of you, and who hasn't.
I feel it should be the same here: If you PAY to have your content upvoted, it's basically promoted. And it should be marked as such. Let's call a spade a spade here.
How Much Do People Pay for Upvotes?
Earlier today I played a little game of "how far can you go?" I wanted to see just how crazy people go, in search of upvotes.
Grass in the sun
It was amazing just how many "well rewarded" posts-- some good, some mediocre, some outright useless-- were well-rewarded because they were PAID content.
The record? I actually managed to find a post that had over $100.00 in rewards and 33 comments... EVERY SINGLE ONE OF WHICH was from an upvote bot. Stated differently, the post had a total of three organic upvotes (all below 1 cent) and ZERO organic comments.
I simply shook my head.
The only point of serious annoyance with me is that BECAUSE that post (some totally generic analysis of crypto coin trends) exists in the format it does, with the "purchased rewards" it has... I am slowly watching my own rewards per post (hand written by a human, created specifically to encourage engagement) decline, month over month.
It's not going to make me stop writing here — because I do enjoy the company and interaction of our community — but it does make a total mockery of the idea that Steemit is a "social content site" with any degree of integrity. Just sayin'. It's increasingly just a giant "advertorial."
A Survey of Upvote Bots
Just for grins, I decided to check out @yababmatt's Upvote Bot Tracker, which is a nifty little tool, in and of itself.
Red Poppies in the sun
The most noteworthy thing for me-- since it had been a while since I last looked at it-- wasn't any new features, but the sheer number of bots now listed. There are more than ever, it seems.
That doesn't mean good content isn't out there. There's LOTS of it, and there are still some dedicated souls who spend much effort highlighting quality interesting content.
But on the whole?
The nature of Steemit has changed quite a lot.
I'm not crying for anything "lost," and I still plan to hang around. But it does seem a bit like greed is killing the goose that's been laying golden eggs. I just hope someone wakes up before we're back to 7-cent Steem!
How about YOU? Have you ever used upvote bots? What do you think of them? Does it seem like there's a lot of complaining about "the state of Steemit" these days? What do you think the future of our community look like? Do you think quality and unique content matters? Or is this basically just a "game of upvotes?" Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
Animated banner created by @zord189
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 180316 01:30 PDT
I absolutely despise (paid) upvote bots, and have never used them.
That said, I have an even lower opinion of all the all stars on steemit who have made a big scene of their rage quit of our platform and made huge disparaging comments as they leave.........
AND THEN COME BACK!!!!!
when they realize that there is no other place where they can get even the rewards they do here on steemit. Some of them have gone on to become quite successful (again).
I'm seriously pondering making a post:
THE HALL OF FAME/SHAME OF POSTERS WHO HAVE RAGE-QUIT AND COME BACK TO STEEMIT."
Wouldn't that be a hoot!
I am totally in support of you writing a "Rage Quitters Hall of Fame!" post! That would be brilliant; I'd even buy you a $200 upvote just for the pleasure of seeing the post sit somewhere towards the top of "Trending" for a week... except you'd probably despise me for doing so...
All kidding aside, just the thought amuses me greatly! And "extra sprinkles" to the ones who rage quit when Steem is $0.70 and reappear when Steem is $4.00. "Pardon me, but is that your hypocrisy showing...?"
Good times, good times...
I would read it, just to see all the "you hurt my feelings", "how dare you show the truth about me" crying rampaging blame tossing crying rivers of tears rants back at you for being a truther.
Steemicide to steemresurrection - you should certainly write the post to name and shame the big fish lol 🤗
I am totally agree with @onceuponatime
Well I believe the bots have just made sure there is a monopoly ish system on steemit.
It's not about quality from what I've seen. I just see a person dish out balderdash in his blog and swish! a triple figure amount on the post, while another struggles to write from the heart and spends hours, rigorous hours typing and scrutinizing to make the posts steemit actually need(quality content) only to see a few cents stare him back in the face sadly.
It's really sad and the funniest thing is that it seems uncontrollable. Like who are you to stop anybody else from doing his thing?
Do you provide the money he pumps into the bots to make sure he trends and actually has a mansion at the apex of that trending page??
No! Nahh! Nope! You don't!
So we just have to chill and sit and watch everything happening while we hope things will change for the better in good time.
Maybe it did not reach the trending page, but I did found it on the HOT page.
Correct, people have to leave the idea that Steemit is a quick rich scheme. It you do want to make something of it hard work is required. The most important thing for me is that I will try to be genuine in posting and comments.
Steemit is far in such a way that everybody has the same change. Some people here are ahead but that because or the did invest in the system or joined way ahead of some of us.
The biggest difference according between facebook and Steemit is that on Facebook I know all my friends in real life, on Steemit I have never met anybody before. It does enrich my life my viewpoints, opinion or things I would never thought of!
Considering the bots. They have positive and negative side. Since a few days I'm trying them out. Not to get in the Trending or Hot pages but to increase my rep a little bit faster. I slowly build it up from 25 to 43, now I was trying to see how much faster it would go with upvote bots. After some thought I decided to minimize the bot use and if a use one, I will only use it after 12 or 24 hours. So that they people who genuinely did upvote my post, also get a small share of it.
Figures from @pengiunpablo shows that the usage of bots is a lot less than I had imagined. We do think that they are overly used, but that idea is probably created because all the posts on the trending and hot page (not yours).
Really liked the post, unfortunately I'm running out of voting power again. I always find it hard not to upvote when I do comment. and because I'm reading a lot posts and also want to upvote the few genuine comments on my post, I always ran out. Really need to increase my SP so that I'm able to use the slider.
But I will compensate this a little to become a follower and I will come back to upvote your post, when I do have enough SP again.
Thx for sharing your ideas! We are mainly on the same page.
Peter
Thanks for the thoughtful comment @fullcoverbetting! Voting power is a little low these days due to the slumping crypto markets; I used to be a lot more active when I had a 100% upvote worth almost $2.00... but those are the breaks, I guess.
I built this account 100% "organically," with the only exceptions being upvotes I bought on warning messages concerning scams/phishing (I think I've posted about 4-5 in my time here) on which I just wanted wide distribution, quickly. Back in the earliest days of vote bots I also used randowhale sporadically, but stopped after a month or so.
In 15 months, I think I've had 10-12 posts make it to "Hot" on their own; 2 or 3 to "Trending." It's not something I set as an ambition, mind you. My personal ambitions (in part derived from 20 years of playing with groups/social media online) relate to the level of engagement any given post reaches. For example, I consider this a "successful" post for having a large number of comments, and pageviews being more than double the number of upvotes; that tells me the post succeeded in the sense that people actually read and interacted with the topic.
Steemit is really an interesting "hybrid" in the sense that it draws both "content creators" and "income opportunity seekers" and they are really very different fish with very different objectives.
My primary objective-- ABOVE ALL OTHERS -- Is that I still want to be here, doing this, five years, ten years from now. Whether I will be making 5c or $50 a post by then is really not a big factor. I just had my 12th anniversary on Facebook. Made me ponder... will I HAVE a 12th Anniversary on Steemit?
Yes, I think we're on a similar track!
~Peter (as well)
Wouldn't it be great to be able to give "a 12 year on Steemit party". This requires a lot more effort than being on Facebook.
I can only dream about being on the Hot or Trending page. While it is not an ambition of me, it still would be great.
Have some SP now, you I gave the post the much deserved upvote!
When I first started, @randowhale was a good way for me to send an appreciative tip, as my vote was worth nada. Self up voting in the way described here should be banned, I've seen so many start up vote selling scams that's votes are less than mine selling for 1steem, it's ridiculous.
Well, although I am not fond of these upvote bots, I do believe they can be appropriately used to give SOMEONE ELSE a reward, when warranted.
I have also used them on a couple of my own posts that were scam/phishing warnings that I just wanted to give an instant wide distribution to.
Last but not least, as you can see from the banner at the bottom of my posts, I am part of "Steemit Bloggers" which gives an extra upvote to three "choice" posts every day... again, that's merit based, not self-purchased.
I'm all for the ability to buy an up vote for someone else, rather than oneself. And curation groups like steem bloggers is a wonderful idea that I'm sure garners you searching more across the site to find undiscovered and under appreciated talent. As for using them to promote a post, would it not be more productive to simply hit the promote button, and send your coins to null, than propogating and perpetuating the self 'bot' vote?
The thing that makes upvote bots kind of dumb is that the "human greed gene" (also known as a variation of "capitalist market forces") will automatically render any loophole the appears to be "money for nothing" a zero-sum game.
If I offer to sell dollar bills for 80 cents, I'm going to SWAMPED with people wanting to buy my dollar bills till I readjust the price back towards one dollar. Most people see bots as a way to "get ahead." They are NOT, any more than playing the slots is a way to get ahead. Sure ONCE IN A WHILE you'll win, but most of the time you'll lose. However, the house (aka the upvote bot operators) ALWAYS win. People are actually PAYING them for something (upvotes) the rest of us give away for free.
I just "gave" you a 4c upvote because I'm free to do so, as a "tip" for adding something worthwhile to the dialogue. Or you could PAY 5c for it, somewhere. WTF?
Basically votebots drive down the value of the currency while propagating their founders. And alas our four cents goes down to three😕 I'll troll through a comment section slathered with self 'bot' votes and realize in the vote tally I gave a bigger vote for free than all they had paid for.
As originar author and manual curator I understand your problems and concerns for the future of this platform. The social component of the Steemit-platform is increasingly being replaced by financial interest.
In this case example of the Golos-chain could be indicative for us. This is the Russian fork of Steem-chain, they started more than a year ago with 7 cents for one Golos-token.
But instead of organic development, struggle for quality, supporting original authors and manual curation, they chose a commercial direction, which is expressed in simple moneymaking. 90% users just sell their votes to one strong bid-bot, like the scheme that our Booster or Minnowbooster is trying to implement. None vote by heart, all vote for profit. If you have enough money to make a high bet you can post any shit and be a Trending author. If you don't have, it is unlikely that your post will gain more than a few cents.
What do they have after this one year? few people who accumulated most of the power... 7 cents per one Golos-token (just like a year ago) and no chances for newbies...
I hope that Steemit users are much wiser and will not exchange a long term perspectives for a couple of quick bucks
Well, that's a pretty strong testimonial right there! I have always held that it takes PEOPLE to build a community, not automation. Few people will have interest in joining an automated community in the long run... and so, it is most likely to wither and die.
Just because you CAN accomplish something with a bot doesn't mean that you SHOULD. I am mostly concerned about the well-being of Steemit in the long run.
I think a bunch of people started when SBD was at all time highs and now they think "it's not worth it" if they're not earning that much. Or, people are comparing themselves to people who have been here a year, when they have been here a month.
Either way, I say: has Facebook ever paid you a penny?
Agree 100%! Nobody ever earned anything on Facebook. And thus, even $1 earned on Steemit makes it better than Farcebook. People always tend to have a rather myopic perspective... more likely to believe what they WANT to be true than what actually IS true.
destroy all bots..
Destroy all bots EXCEPT the ones that serve in an administrative capacity: catching plagiarism, copy-pasta, spam, etc.
at the moment the 'administrations" appears to have it's head inserted rectally.
It is difficult to get followers for new users on steemit.I am struggling here to be established.You discussed in details in this post about steemit.Thank you.
The only formula that works in the long term is to create original, engaging, high quality content in some form... and thwn to go out and actively engage other people in the site. There are no easy shortcuts.
Two things that boggle my mind:
That anyone uses upvote bots
That anyone still uses fakebook.
But are you finding Steemit is back to running like a pig this week?
Using bot is somehow useless. It look like a shortcut but i tell you. It is a shortcut to no where.