Not a Ponzi Scheme - seems like a new paradigm - up votes regardless of topic help us all
So at first it can seem like crap posts get up voted. There are a lot of different reasons for why these posts are up voted.
Ultimately it does not matter:
When ANYONE on this platform wins we ALL win. The only way that is not true is if the people who WIN big don't bother voting. If they vote we all win.
So short of envy and jealousy there is actually no reason to be angry about what type of posts get the big votes.
We all win.
Community is important...
A Positive community is more important...
ART ABOVE FROM THIS ARTICLE.
We need to realize this is NOT a Ponzi scheme and trying to fit it into a neat little box. Something like this has never existed before. It is based upon technology that did not exist to make it possible before now.
For this to be a Ponzi scheme you need to have been convinced to spend money. I haven't spent any money and I've only been using this site for a little over a week.
I have NEVER been a big winner, but I've had a few posts do okay in the minnow realm. This still excited me. My account went from $3 valuation when I started to over $1100 today in a little over a week. That does not count the ETH and BITCOIN I now own at places like bittrex.com and coinbase.com. I purchased those other currencies with proceeds from steemit.com.
If this is a Ponzi scheme they are totally doing it wrong. I shouldn't be getting paid if I haven't paid them.
Welcome to a new paradigm...
If you do wish to focus on the negatives rather than looking at the amazing positives, the quality of the posts that ARE making the most tend to make the TRENDING view rather useless to people seeking new things. It becomes important to familiarize yourself with NEW, HOT, RECOMMENDED, etc. If you want to maximize curation rewards then you should be focusing on NEW anyway and hoping your predictions on what is going to be popular are accurate.
I have a request to strengthen our community...
I am uncertain why the steemit developers chose to make the down vote symbol a flag and make it very separate from the UP VOTE button. I have my suspicions why. I suspect they did that so it'd be treated as a FLAG THIS POST rather than as a down vote. Is the post obvious plagiarism of another community member here? Does the post contain GIFs or other material that show pornographic, or graphically violent material without a warning or chance for people to opt in?
Instead I see it lately being used by a down vote brigade. I see them down voting using that FLAG for posts that I can't find anything wrong with other than perhaps it is someone who consistently has high voted posts like @heidistravel, @guerrint (currently 22 downvotes as I post this).
We should NOT be FLAGGING a post due to envy and jealousy. If heidistravel and guerrint (Tara) vote on your posts they will be helping to uplift you faster. By hurting them, you potentially hurt ALL of us, including yourself.
They will be far more likely to do that if they don't view the environment as hostile...
We can foster a community, or we can foster a JOB where they don't view it as a community any longer and don't care about uplifting others. The choice is yours.
You can down vote brigade me if you like. I am a small fry, it will do absolutely nothing to me.
I will tell you IF I notice and start to learn names of people who are going nuts with the down votes on posts that I can't see anything wrong (no plagiarism, no offensive material) then you certainly won't be getting my up votes IF I ever do manage to get enough to move things along.
You still might if you do a really good post.
Even if i agree with you i still think there has to be some kind of punishment for the bots, and this one seems to be working, if they were atleast productive maybe id agree with it in a moderate level.
Well definitely some bots need to be punished. The @wang bot was actually helpful to new people. The @cheetah bot does not post, but it is responsible for dealing with down-voting a lot of these other bots, plagiarism, and other stuff. So there are some good bots. I DO understand what you are saying though.
Wang ended up being good indeed, but by when he got most of his power it was a pure spammer, eitherway yes cheetah is doing a GREAT job even if a couple legit users got affected. They probably got corrected if they were legit :).
That's what I call a win win situation.
That is what I think! We all benefit :)
God damn. Everyone needs to read this. Every time I hear the word Ponzi in relation to Steemit, I go out and find a little kitten and kill it. We need to stop the madness.
I agree. I put off writing something like this. I couldn't take it any longer. I also happened to look and see Tara's latest post that could potentially help steemit and therefore all of us with 22 downvotes. "Straw, meet camel's back."
Nothing like giving people rope, and instead of using it to help everyone climb, they fashion a noose and stick their own head in it.
EDIT: IF I were trying to go for most visibility I certainly would not have posted this on the weekend. I just got tired of it.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@bdavid/why-i-m-trying-to-make-steemit-work-for-me
i would love for the community to give me a hand, i will be around for the long hall, and will be returning the hand many times over.
There are a lot of us that WILL help you if your posts are interesting, informative, fun, etc. Lot's of things could make us up vote your posts. People like me that are not powerful enough to do much for you might only be giving you an increase in the number of votes without actually giving you money, but that should change with time. I post a lot of stuff that ends up making $0.00. I don't mind. It is about community. The effort still bears fruit and I gradually grow in power, and as I grow I also increase the likelihood I can help others. The same will be true with you.
Great post fam. Good to read some of your content seeing as you read some of my mine. Good job! I look forward to reading more from your blog.
Take a fellow minnow's up vote if you will. :)
Thank you. We ALL help each other. Unless some of us are too busy shooting the people most capable of helping us in the feet.
Yeah.. I am trying to help with posts like this : https://steemit.com/steemit/@worstdevever/what-are-curation-rewards-and-how-should-i-be-voting
Your posts are great and informative. I especially like your infographics as they are catchy and eye pleasing. So I've upvoted a few of them including that one (just now).
My votes are pretty weak at the moment. I vote on a lot of stuff. So as my Steem Power increases I'll become more and more helpfull to everyone. My voting power IS greatly diluted though by how frequently I upvote. I'm still trying to find a happy medium where I regenerate as fast as I vote. It isn't happening yet. Ultimately, I don't care as long as I'm helping people with a NUMBER showing someone liked their post, or some money when I can swing it. (it does happen occasionally)
Nice! Yeah it is hard to keep restrained with the up votes I know.
Flagged for not being a crap post.
? Not sure I understand. I don't see a flag anywhere.