30 DAYS OF STEEMIT - Some CRUCIAL criticism and the Steemit "whale blubber" epidemic
If there is one thing that my followers here SHOULD know about me, it is that I embrace the bad just as much as the good. I believe that understanding what is wrong brings us to certain knowledge that only embracing the good does not.
But before I get to that, let me show you my first week...
Here is my current week...
Believe it or not, my post support by "whales" dropped right after my first week. It appeared as if they stayed for the first week just to build me up, to get me hooked, and then they just disappeared.
I know that my content is still the same quality, as I have a pretty big following outside of here, and have been making content almost daily for the last few years, and as much as I hate to toot my own horn, I know that I have some of the most thought provoking posts on this medium. Again, this is not to gloat, but sometimes we have to put it out there, especially in strange situations where people are not paying right attention.
Think not? Here is a post from a few days ago, about to close out at under $12
Now you wouldnt be able to tell anything is wrong by that little picture, until you open the article and see this...
That article went viral. Its being shared everywhere, people are having conversations about it and CREATING NEW ACCOUNTS. Can you imagine the upvotes it would have gotten if just a few thousand of those people were on Steemit?
It was even clear to a random commenter...
It even triggered me to write an article to help Steemit, about the importance of cross platform sharing...
And here is how many people saw it...
Can you blame me for this criticism? After my first amazing week, I kept my promise to deliver thought provoking and strange posts. Ive built a following of 400 people pretty quickly but hardly anyone on here sees my posts.
Aside from sharing quality content, you can see that I tried to help Steemit by sharing articles that support the growth of Steemit itself, just to be ignored by whales who should be promoting them.
Here is just one person from my facebook page...
Now I know that I have personally brought nearly 100 people to create Steemit accounts just from my personal FB page, in which I share many of my Steemit articles. And with that new one reaching 51,963 in no time, all over multiple social media platforms, I wonder how many created accounts.
It really takes the steam out of someone, to know that they are actually delivering so much, but the mechanics of the system are not working for not only their own benefit but the systems benefit as well.
So here is my critique...
I believe that Steemit is oversaturated with people more concerned about steem, promoting articles and videos by people circle jerking one another thinking they are all analysts and experts. I cant tell you how many articles are being upvoted by the same people, making people tons of money merely talking about money. I think this medium lacks the promotion of content that can get peoples minds off of money, especially with the cryptocurrency plumit recently. This platform seems to reward people more for talking about money than actually being interesting or creative.
We need less blubber voting! Upvotes are real money, and some people are being upvoted up to hundreds of dollars automatically, before, and many times Im sure, WITHOUT any actual reading/reflection on the post.
I also believe that there should be some sort of recognition and even an award of steem to people whos articles go viral. There are tons of people creating accounts just because of my articles.
Look at this...
That is over 650 people who viewed that article just during the 20 minutes of writing this post, while Im pretty sure only around 100-200 of the total # are actual Steemians. My creativity is promoting the shit out of Steemit and Im getting no love for it!
Again, I offer this criticism because I dont see any on here, and I know criticism sharpens us. I offer it not only to sharpen the platform, but to expose myself as well. Am I wrong? Is there something more I should be doing?
With love,
Doc
I am very impressed with this post and with your analysis of your first month. This is a very interesting experiment. My own experience has had numerous ups and downs and I've lasted through quite a few Forks and Changes to the platform.
To be blunt, I'd like to say that I ABHORE Steem, the Blockchain that is, and I'm even more disgusted with SteemIt Inc for how they launched and promoted their Frankenstein abomination.
Short of Trolling a few people over, like in your case, I have virtually gotten No ONE to come over to the platform willingly. If they try to, they usually lose interest when their account doesn't get approved or they immediately start getting the Spammy Bot Comments from people with Bad English.
On top of that, there is a community of Flaggots who think they're doing everyone a favor by subjecting people to their Auto Flagging Bots, and decry plagiarism or spam... as if it was their business in the first place.
Now, all that aside... I still prefer this platform over the wasteful FaceBook and Twitter networks. Beside having a mechanism for monetization, there is also the very real advantage of NOT having your work buried, blocked or censored. As a publisher, I have to say that the basic storage of Markdown Language on a Blockchain makes for a useful tool.
Though you may have caught a Whale or two early on, I can say from experience to not rely on it. Whales will come and go, but bringing YOUR network over to the platform is more important. I say this because a journalist I follow was recently kicked from his Twitter account of 30K followers with ZERO recourse. Had he brought a lot of those followers over to SteemIt, even 2-5%, the blow wouldn't be so hard. But that is essentially what he gets for leaving control of his content in the hands of Twitter Inc. I expect many more stories like this about FaceBook as well.
In short, Steem and SteemIt Suck Balz! It's a craptastically weak social network with very strange adopters getting an early start on it. BUT, it's the ONLY ONE right now that can work against the censorship and control that you're going to see getting worse on other social networks as time goes by.
I suggest you focus on building your OWN following from places like FB, which I see that you're doing, and in time, your NEWER following will be able to monetize your content to a higher value.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
SteemON!
your first week numbers directly mirror mine.
your numbers after directly mirror mine.
infuriating and doesn't endear me much to the platform if it's skewed so heavily during one's first week of posting compared to the normal nature of, as you state (and i agree) people self-jerking themselves off topically.
Well hopefully this catches a smart whales eyes and gets some steam behind it.
I agree with your points. It's so annoying putting time an effort into a post, only to see it worth $2 yet some idiot puts three words down and it's instantly worth $100. I by no means think my content is on a par with yours but Its still infuriating. Ive seen articles that take ten mins to read, worth over $100 within seconds of going live!! What's the point.
Exactly. Those votes are real money and people just throw them away on crap, especially shit they havent even read, if it is even a person and not a fucking bot.
It makes sense but what did all the other platforms pay people? 0 ... the money factor on steemit should be just something extra but I do get your point about some crappy data getting votes, but they built relationships with these whales when times were tuff for over a year ago.
I am still new here, still learning :)
Yes this platform does pay, but it can do better obviously, so is it a problem that I offer valid criticism? If this site doesnt evolve for the better, what good is it? Some other platform will come along and do what this one wont if no one offers just criticism.
I believe you are without a doubt onto something here and will find a vast majority 100% agree with you.
With that said, I do believe many big whales within Steemit realize their are plenty of issues with the platform and are trying to rectify them. It is content like this which hopefully they will see, understand, and respect and in turn attempt to make things a bit more viable for individuals like yourself and others. GREAT POST!
Upvoted, resteemed, and followed.
Your first week numbers are amazing! I got no where near that. I do agree with you on the circle jerk thing. Too many people circle jerking....it takes away from legit posts.
Hi, great post ! for a follow and upvote please reply to this message and follow and upvote my latest post @rafkimuhammad
I see what you mean.
I posted articles that literally took me hours to write and few days/weeks to sit before posting only to get .03 cents and then there were posts about market updates etc or a comment on crypto (I write about money, relationships, health and philosophy) which sometimes pays more than an actual article I was vested in!
Also this 7 days cut off is kinda bummer because there are some articles that are not time bound. I understand the need to reward new people and keeping things rolling but that just encourages a short-term mindset!
When you get a minute plz stop by and critique my articles...I want to learn as I grow on this platform and you seemed to be one of those gems who has command on delivering what you intend your words to deliver!
Your experience mirrors mine, though I've not built up anywhere near the following you have. First month, my average pay-out for an article was around $25-30, with the occasional monster hit that went to a couple hundred dollars, and the occasional swing-and-a-miss that garnered somewhere between seven and fifty cents.
July hits, and suddenly I'm struggling to see even 10% of those original returns. I'm not here for the money, but like you, I'm thoroughly confused. The stuff I'm posting remains reasonably well-written, but the upvotes vanished into the ether.
I'm not here for the money (I'd have quit already if that was the case), but I'm with you--what on earth happened? :)
So what @docdelux? Either stay or go - do as you will. Me personally, I have been on here for a year - I have made around $3k in btc more or less. I have cashed out $800 in btc which tripled in value in btc in the wallet. Right now my account is plummeting in value. I have over 400 followers - but my work in the real world has vastly improved by being on here. I am not a "writer" but I am one of the best and most creative visual artists you are going to run into... and I am a much better artist than a lot of artists on here you make tons more money than I do...currently - I am experimenting with practicing "gifting" my custom drawings with readings - because ultimately - what is money anyway? Spiritual currency - "paying" "attention" and "spending" "time" - fortunately Steem is not fiat currency - yes - I agree with you people are addicted to talking about money here - and everywhere because people believe in money. The monetary system is the biggest religion on this earth at the moment - people do not realize that we could just give things to each other and cut out the money middlemen and live peacefully and in harmony with the earth - they may never "get" that - but here is Steemit to help them realize that...Honestly you can bitch about it and leave or stay and see what happens. You might be happily surprised.
That is one shitty, self inflating, no information/help response. "So what...stay or go". Im here talking about specific mechanics that need tuning, and you just saw it as someone who wanted to bitch, and just decided to bitch at the post. Im talking about a lack of people with steem power promoting posts responsibly, taking better care to promote so the medium is interesting, and you respond with "so what"?
I knew you were going to respond this way. Sadly.