After Cryptonoia, Can We Have ASTEEMgatism, please?
A few weeks ago I wrote about a new term I coined, cryptonoia, or the mild anxiety generated by excessive involvement with cryptocurrencies.
As I was browsing through the latest comments, and evaluating a bit the price of STEEM, I realized we need a new term:
aSTEEMgatism
We all know what astigmatism is: "a common vision problem caused by an error in the shape of the cornea. With astigmatism, the lens of the eye or the cornea, which is the front surface of the eye, has an irregular curve. This can change the way light passes, or refracts, to your retina. This causes blurry, fuzzy, or distorted vision." - source.
But we also have a bit of a problem with this enormous influx of new users in Steemit.com, which all have the same common problem: their vision about what STEEM, SBD, witnesses, rewards, curation are, is very, very blurry. Driven by the potential promise of a quick buck, they jump in on your feed like a bull on a red scarf, asking (sometimes imperatively, lol) to upsteem their posts, to follow them or to support them somehow.
I'm not upset, nor even mildly deranged about that. I'm just observing the phenomenon and now I decided to put a name on it: all these people are suffering from a vision problem: their perception of Steemit is fuzzy, blurry or distorted.
They have asteemgatism.
The good news is that, once they get bored, they will leave.
Some part of them will remain, they will cure the affection, they will eventually understand how the system actually works, and they will start to contribute and to support other members, thus growing the platform.
I'm patiently waiting for that.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
If you're new to Steemit, you may find these articles relevant (that's also part of my witness activity to support new members of the platform):
Seems that the latter will be a growing group though, as the platform keeps increasing. Perhaps the biggest group is yet to come, once Steemit reaches it's first major news items (just like ethereum's quick growth)
Let's wait and see :)
Lately I'm thinking more and more that a lot of new users just need some guidance. Often times they'll say things like "oh I didn't know" if I scold them for blatant promotion in my comments.
IDK - I'm down to play nice the first time and offer constructive criticism, but it seems easy for people to bullshit me by acting naive. At this point it is tempting to simply ignore them altogether, or give mild flags to show it is not welcome.
edit: See I'm so confused I switched my opinion halfway through this comment haha
What are these "manners" of which you speak, and where can I get some?
I agree with you. They will figure it out on their own or leave.
Good post.
There's a valid reason for them behaving like that. They came here because they heard they could make money and now they are frantically trying to make sense of a rather complicated ecosystem.
I'm a new user myself, I went through the FAQ a few times and I actually read the white paper, but hey I'm still kind of blurry about a lot of things.
When the platform involves money and its rewards delegation is not exactly straightforward to understand that's what happens. A lot of confused people running around, trying to make sense of it.
You can't really blame them, at least not without blaming the platform's set up at the same time.
I don't blame the fact that they want to make money. That's ok, as long as you can provide value. But in any ecosystem, coming off too strong is not a very good strategy. That's what is really all about.
If lots of users are coming to Steemit thinking they will make a quick buck, then we have a marketing problem.
They are being told that you get lots of free money for minimal effort, and are disappointed when that doesn't happen.
So we need to change the marketing to correctly align with what we want new users to understand.
Come to Steemit, where the people are nice, the blogs are interesting and the fun is 24/7.
Oh, and if you participate in the platform we'll throw some cash at you, not a lot, but more than nothing.
He he, that's actually a very good marketing approach. By the way, completely unrelated, how's your running going on? I just launched RUNCOIN - it's just a toy for now - but it could be something interesting. Show me some Strava runs and you'll get some :)
Here's the link:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@dragosroua/runcoin-distribution-round-one-post-your-strava-race-and-get-usd1-worth-of-tokens
I'm glad someone finally said it - the stress when the market begins dropping is too great. The feeling when it starts rising again is 10x greater for me though!
I think you did not read the post.
the irony, oh :))
I love this type of guys. They sometimes in the same category as the meep guy :))
I admit, if I don’t understand something I ask directly, but at least I read what I’m asking. It is the least effort I can do. You are completely right with aSTEEMgmatism. I joined it in November for the same reason, quick buck because I needed due to some unfortunate events. I've seen it very fast that it was something else. As everything calmed down and came to a normal pace I returned, because I like the concept, even some of the things need further study.
I actually did - I was just referring to where you said about the "mild anxiety generated by excessive involvement with cryptocurrencies". I'm sorry I didn't reference the rest. I am actually a new user myself, yes. However, if you check out my account, you can see that I am attempting to add real value to the platform - I just posted a 1,800 word article. Although I see your point that it may have appeared I didn't fully read your post
I did read your profile, you're the ugly guy next to the cute girl :) I saw you're doing some stuff and I don't think you were ill intended. Just take it easy and take some time to understand the ins and outs, this is not your average MySpace, Hi5, Facebook or Twitter thing. It's really, really different.
Peace!
Haha that's me mate! Yeah, I'm just learning the differences now. I wasn't trying to just get a few pennies with the comment like a lot of people (hence I didn't upvote my own comment), I just recognised a comment that I agree strongly with and thought I would comment agreeing on it
Ok, you made it back :D
I'm blunt and ask directly the questions. So if you read it or reread it, it is fine ;)
Just to show that you have read the whole post, give him one of your witness votes. You have 30 in total :D
This post has received a 2.60 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @inertia.
I believe annoyance is good because is reminding us that is an ecosystem with values. When someone step on them is good to flag to remind us the intentions :) I dont mean punish but flag to ourselves if the values are still the core of the system