Are Communities and SMTs Here Yet??..Tired of Bot-Upvoted Shit Dominating, and Fresh Ideas/Writing Sinking.
The thumbnail I used on my very first post here, almost two years ago! This is why I was (and still am) so pumped about the place. Ideas. And money! Money for ideas. Really one and the same in so many ways.
Robot Degeneration of Value.
Not complaining. Not complaining at all. How can you complain when the internet pays you money to post your own passions, ideas, and whatever else?
You can't.
That said, as I visit the Trending pages of whatever different category, I am struck afresh with what a bozo circus much of this place seems to be morphing into.
Affiliation and networking are huge. I get it. I benefit from the same. At some point, though, can it really be good for a platform if the posts that are highlighted to outside, would-be users, are mostly self-promoted, bot-upvoted posts?
Once a blogger here hits a certain level of success, that blogger can then begin to expend large chunks of Steem toward the end of paying for promo bots. This results in a trending page that is not an accurate representation of what users are truly valuing on the platform. This is a problem if success and a diverse and robust userbase are the goal. Why the hell would I sign up for a site that looks like a gigantic goddamn informercial about itself??
This is a place where we share our experiences as a community, and evaluate content from other individuals with actual value.
When I saw @ned give his talk on SMTs, oracles, the upcoming communities feature, and Steemit in general here in Japan recently, I was excited by the prospects he laid out: community customizable voting so that various groups can choose how they wish to reward the content they appreciate, regardless of the existing "big whale pricetag" on a post.
No changes to the system or the blockchain/Steem protocol, no Communistic "spreading of rewards." Just a more individaul user-based experience and incentivization system.
Full disclosure/what I am getting at.
I spend a lot of time upvoting smaller accounts writing great stuff at 100%. I know, I know, pin a rose on my nose. No. My frustration lies in the fact that due to the whirpool effect of the vicious "I-scratch-your-back-you-scratch-mine-and-then-I'll-just-pay-robots-to-scratch-mine" bullshit cycle effectively blocks these high quality accounts from gaining some modicum of success and influence here. I want more power to push those people up, because these are my people. I value what they are saying. They are what I want "my Steemit" to look like. My tribe. My community. When I first signed on here, this type of networking was sort of possible. Mutual support and grinding your way to the top. Now this type of thing seems much harder. Indeed, it seems very few are even reading content.
Do I use promo bots? Yep. When I write something I think is good I will throw a few SBD at @upme in the hopes that I get some engagement. I don't use auto-voting, because I want to be acquainted with the flow of the blogs I follow and their content production. I wanna actually know what they are saying, and take what spare moments I have to be enriched and stimulated by their ideas.
Hey, I'm in it for the money, too. Never trust anyone who says they aren't. Seriously. My whole thing here is that even the money will be gone if true evaluating power is degenerated by mass automation replacing organic engagement. It's a human market, and this human market for ideas can only tolerate so much phony shit before it topples in on itself.
@ned, bring on the communities!
Complaint/rant over. Thanks for engaging!
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as DLive and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
Agree with all but my approach here is a lil different:
I use auto-voting services and the setup is pretty cool. I wake up in the morning, check the dashboard and see the posts my account voted on and then read those posts.
It's like a daily digest for me as (I wish I could) I can't sit down and manually browse steemit for hours (it's bedlam...finding posts is a nightmare and I use other tools to help me organize steemit.com because on it's on it's shit). Anyways, without bots I wouldn't even use this platform in it's current raw, beta state,and you were the single person responsible for making me stick around initially. I try to do the same now too, curating stuff I find interesting to me and once I do it's on my auto-upvote list.
Just like in real life, it's about who you know - I've been helped greatly and for that I'm thankful - I feel like I now have some influence and can help others in the same boat I was in some time ago. But yeah, some variations in how we curate (setup) but def. wishing things were different, as you pointed out, the trending page is sickening (again just like in real life - everything trending is literally garbage, iphone, fashion, behavior, other bs etc etc) and I'm glad I'm not forced to explore for content there. Musashi, always walks straight, even if there's a burning village to his left, he will stick to his path and only his path - that is the road ahead.
👍👍👍🔥
What you said about auto-voting makes sense. That makes it sounds really nice. The only thing that would remain as an issue for me is I like
to give votes depending on the value each post has for me (time-consuming, to be sure) and couldn’t do that with that system unless I removed the auto vote and revoted.
Anywho, I appreciate the fresh perspective.
I hear you Graham, there is so much amazing content being put on here, the amount of people sharing ideas and skills is really great, yet from the outside looking in you don't see that because they are just not getting the exposure they deserve. I really really appreciate the support you have given me, that to me is what community is all about, we should be focusing on building one another up for sure, building up the ones that really are sharing quality content and actually doing their bit to help make positive things happen. Great post, thanks for speaking your truth and the truth of steemit.
Thanks always, @trucklife-family.
Hi @kafkanarchy84,
I love your honesty. I don’t think individuals should be judged for using bots, and I’m also really excited to see what sort of communities grow from the SMT’s.
Do you know much about what oracles is? I have heard it mentioned but am not sure what it’s about?
Thanks, yeah, oracles are part of a new system that is set to accompany SMT’s. I wrote about it more in-depth and Ned himself talks about it here.
Pretty exciting stuff!
Thanks for commenting, @bec-on-the-block :)
Thanks for the link - I just realised that was the post I heard about oracles in (and what made me start following you) ... obviously I didn’t process all the information properly! :)
how are "oracles" different from "moderators"?
Check out the link to Ned’s talk in the article.
yeah I saw that when it came out, assuming I clicked on the right link from your duck duck go search link. Sounded to me like they would be a lot like moderators on other sites and then that things would devolve into a Discus like situation.
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This is the part of this that jumped out at me. We each have our own visions for Steemit and I hope that communities will allow us to enjoy our own Steemits.
Absolutely right my friend. How can we complain, there is no reason to complain but instead we should be grateful to steem and steemit.
Getting to the point , I agree with your about the auto voting stuff, I have some followers too and I m truly grateful to you for upvoting my posts. I have seen you among only a few people who upvote smaller account and I thank you for that.
Thanks, @wa2qr. I'm glad you understand about the no complaints thing.
Well, I upvote stuff that I value, and so I want to see those people do well, because I appreciate the ideas!
Thanks for your kind words.
I hardly visit the trending page these days, what's the point? I don't blame those who use bots though, it's tough getting noticed on steemit despite your quality posts. I don't support bots, even though I've tried using them once before, but a lot of people against it are those who already have massive steem power and may have even benefited from them in the past.
You're right to express your concerns about the future of the platform. At a point we'll all be sick of it and move to a better alternative if something isn't done to address it.
Haha. You know what? That is a very good point.
The first thing here is writing great content and building relationships with other steemians. Yes, it's true that a lot of steemians are not even trying to make a bond with others because they are bonding with auto-bots only! It's great that you bring it up.
You've nailed it. Thank you!
The credit goes to you as you tried to open the eyes! 😇😇
this is the first article i read till the end nice post men bots make us lose the meaning of why we use steemit other than facebook or other platforms but again it feel like the only simple way to the top
Thanks for reading. I appreciate it. Yeah, I agree that the bots can be helpful. Like I said, I use them sometimes as well. I just think it has gotten out of balance in a sense. I prefer actual human networking, interaction, and exchange of value as the best means to grind and get that money!
I recently started using bots every now and then but got to where I am organically. Actually I mostly use it since powering up isnt an option with the current SBD/Steem ratio.
Buy I agree on the implication when it comes to the trending page.