While no one has yet been willing to really challenge my point that we have a problem in terms of new membership distribution, many are willing to call me a racist for merely pointing out a fact. For the life of me, I don't know how discussing that we have a preponderance of new membership from certain countries makes me a racist-- especially when I have several close minority friends and have no racist inklings in my entire body or soul. But they seem to equate noticing that these countries are in poorer sections of the world with a "hate crime," or something.
Not that the poverty element is that important, really. I would be nearly as concerned if five richer countries were so vastly over-represented among our new memberships, although that would dent the likelihood that the real racists inside the beltway and many corporate boardrooms (where decisions are made about things like finance capital, major banking/wealth-creating ventures, what startups are worth supporting and/or commenting upon favorably, etc.)..i.e. many people who have already calling Steemit a "scam," etc.,...would be as likely to do so.
It's getting so bad in here now, that people are trying to tell me that Nigeria is not (fairly or unfairly) known as a haven for scammers, and that the countries I have called "poor" aren't really poor but rich. They are attacking my minor premise because they have no argument against my major premise. In other words, because anybody can go to the "introduceyourself" tag and see for themselves that I am telling the truth about my major premise (dominant distribution from a few places) they will instead attack my minor premise (that these places happen to be among the poorest in the world.)
While it is true that Venezuela has the potential to be a rich nation, the Communist policies there have made for a hyper inflation that has impoverished all but the very top percentages of people in the government. Venezuela currently ranks 125th in per capita income, but that study is a bit dated, and the distribution of wealth is so heavily skewed against the majority of the people, that they are probably as poor in purchasing power as the poorest nations on Earth.
(source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html)
Indonesia ranks one spot ahead of Venezuela (#124) but the poverty by region there is very unevenly distributed. As it turns out, Aceh is 5th poorest among all of Indonesia's provinces with a per capita income of just $2,011, which would rank the province far, far lower, were it a country.
(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indonesian_provinces_by_GRP_per_capita)
The Phillipines come in at #152, Nigeria at #163, and Bangladesh at #176.
Now, rather than shooting the messenger, can we not work together to find out the reasons for this uneven distribution of new members, and work to improve the situation? Steemit is NOT a scam, but any casual observer who hasn't been here and seen what this platform is capable of would be supported in the worldwide court of public opinion (except for among the worst of the race baiters among us) in saying our current new membership distribution looks like we are preying on the poor in some sort of "get-rich-quick" scheme. NOT TRUE, I know. But we aren't the ones who have to be convinced of Steemit's potential, and we aren't the ones making influential judgment calls about the various cryptocurreny options and talking to potential investors on a regular basis.
Flagging because I explained why the membership numbers are up for those regions yet you want to keep grandstanding.
Your question was answered. You just dont want to listen and instead insist on going down this route.
At this point Im more concerned that there are people like yourself joining the platform, giving all of us a bad name.
Flagging is for:
Which are you claiming?
I already told you. Again youre not reading. Im starting to think you dont really want to know the answer and just want attention.
This is not the way to get attention on Steemit.
Your "reason" is not mentioned as a justification for downvoting. So, I will ask one more time...under which category of the ALLOWABLE REASONS FOR DOWNVOTING ARE YOU DOWNVOTING?
P.S. Just because someone chooses to not accept your explanations does NOT mean they haven't read them.
You can ask all day long mate. Go for your life! Have fun with that!
Oh, I am. But, for the record, you have not answered the question as to why you are downvoting me.
And fyi newbie
What are the valid reasons for downvoting?
Users are allowed to downvote for any reason that they want. There are many users in the community who recommend only using the downvote on posts that are abusive. It is up to you if you want to follow this etiquette.
What is the difference between a downvote and a flag?
With the current implementation, there is no difference between a downvote and a flag. They are treated the same at the blockchain level.
Add this to your reading list
https://steemit.com/faq.html#What_are_the_valid_reasons_for_downvoting
You will notice that I have not downvoted you. I do not downvote for differences of opinion. You go right ahead and keep violating the site's etiquette. That's not for me. Thanks for the link.
Youre a great troll! Well done! Good luck to you.
Thanks. Same to you. I really hold no ill will toward you (or anyone else on this blog post,) and am sorry you took offense when none was intended.
Word of advice. Take a good long look at yourself. There is a serious problem if you can't see you are offending a lot of people.
You may not agree, but the fact remains.
Your action has resulted in a lot of comments protesting your words. Yet you remain defiant and cannot see the negative impact you made.
This is not the essence of Steemit. For someone so new, you need to watch and learn about the platform and the people before you start posting about things you know nothing about.
I will pray that God will soften your heart so that you can see that just because someone doesn't agree with you doesn't make them a racist. There is not one word in anything I have written that is racist. I know who the real racists are. I have dealt with them on the air many times when I had an AM-radio show, and on other forums in cyberspace. I have always criticized them harshly as they deserve.
But I am no racist, and my thread is not racist. If people are offended, as I have said ten times, and will say again..I am sorry..there has been no intent to offend here, but merely to address what I see as a potential weakness of Steemit, currently. Namely, not doing a good job recruiting new members except in a very few areas.
'sigh'
... that you posit views is great. You have a mind and you are using it.
You acknowledge that you are addressing a "newbie" - and condescendingly repeat this on various occasions. And yet you do not appear interested in exhibiting the level of patience that such an acknowledgment entails.
You have chosen to be offended by the words of this individual, (whose words I have heard to similar effect over the months from far more experienced and connected users than both you and I, incidentally (and I frankly never got involved on either side of such discussions before now).
You certainly have a choice to be outraged at his/their views - but one thing that I notice, in spite of reading all your responses on this thread, is a notable lack of a true counter to his views. The closest was noting that there are recruitment/ meetups for your zone. I would have hoped to see a counterpoint on his suggestion that having users from some parts of the World is somehow a bad thing.
As in, you have chosen to express outrage at his view but have not posited any point of substance to counter that view.
If I might have missed such substance then do kindly point it out include a keyphrase (such as "posited substance to counter") so anybody can simply Ctrl+F the essential post that I would thereby have missed.
My point. Shaming a user ("newbie" or otherwise) for having a view is not going to change that person's views. Such can be called a lot of things but "a victory of perspective" is not one of them.
In order to achieve such (which based upon the energy with which you have 'addressed' the user, suggests that you do wish for such) I would recommend posing very valid counterpoints to punch holes in the perspective (as differing from the user, who is not your enemy unless you choose such to be so... and to designate such to be so from the comfort of a higher reputation score and vote weight, is little different in principle from choices given at gunpoint.
Of course, I presume that you are actually interested in taking the higher ground.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
I didnt see any point in countering. I have read other peoples comments on this thread and agree with their points and my counter would only echo their sentiments.
My comment's aim was to provide an answer as to why there are more sign ups from those regions. I believe that was the root of his question.
Yes I made the choice to take offense. From where I am sitting he is highly offensive.
We all make choices. Just like he made the choice to write this post the way he did, and just like you made the choice to reply to me.
I'm not here to change anyone's mind about anything. I'm here to let him know I don't agree with his views and the way in which he chooses to persist with the matter. Just like youre here letting me know you dont agree with my ways.
There is no victory here.
Instead I remain appalled. The countries he named are some of the countries that need our support the most. Yet they are painted in this way.
Is this good for Steemit? Who knows? But Steemit could mean real, lasting change for those countries.
P.S. You'll notice that the only people who are equating the poverty of those regions with race are the detractors who have no real facts at all except their innate biases.
What? Like yourself?
Again.. better check yourself. Better yet. Just stop.
Please just stop. If you cant see you are offending soo many races here then youre either the biggest idiot I've ever encounted or you're trolling.
Im going to take your replies as a YES you are trolling.
You need to stop and check yourself before you wreck yourself.
Threat noted.
Threat, suggestion, advice.. its all up to you how you want to see things. That much has been clear throughout this post.