Even though I agree with everything you write there is a part where I disagree. But that’s what makes Steemit great. That as you mentioned everyone should feel free to speak their mind.
And that part is this
Go upvote some new content, give to an upvote bot that really cares about our platform and performs rigorous whitelisting to assure great content is being seen and appreciated. We all don't have time to effectively use our steempower to ensure it goes to good and not bad (sitting on the sidelines is as good as dangerous). We just need to make sure these powerful upvote bots are helping find deserving content, this is a massive win for everyone.
Although I feel that delegating to a bot is probably the most profitable solution for an investor which is fine by me, And even though every now and then I spend a fee dollars to promote my writings if I think they worth to be read, I am pretty sure that bots don’t search to find valuable content. It’s people who search for bots and usually we end up with a shitty trending page.
I know that time is a valuable thing and people with high stakes probably have lots of obligations too, therefore no time to curate. In my humble opinion it is way better to delegate to 2 /3 /10 people of whom you are certain that they will produce something valuable and that they will also help others to grow.
But that’s just me...And by know I assume you know that I enjoy your writings and your vlogs too. Happy steeming man
I was conflicted about bots for a long time. The fact that they are here and does not look like will be going away is something that weighed heavily in my thinking. That is where the community needs to step up and make sure if a person is running a bot, that they are putting in a lot of work to make sure that the steem is going to the right people, aka good content creators. Now, if big whales sit back and do not delegate or make use of their SP (and I like your idea of delegating to even single people who are just regular users) then the steempower can be going to greedy whales who don't share. I look at it like a war, if the steem isn't used for good then it is used potentially for bad. I plan to hodl upvote bots accountable to the highest standard, I am still new to this aspect but will be growing my awareness and asking questions. But I completely understand your view, and honestly I still don't know a perfect solution.
The truth is that since bots are here, and are not going to go away, there is not a perfect solution. And everyone is free to use his stake the way he wants. I just think it is kinda weird to view post with potential payouts 1500$ just because of bots. I mean wtf when steem climbs to 10$ these posts will have payouts at 15K. I would love to see a post with such a payout but only because community voted massively and not because some people have money to spend. Anyway it is very controversial... I am totally sure that you’ll use your stake wisely even though you don’t really have to explain yourself to anyone. And that’s because it is non of our business.
PS I like the fact that you also make a discussion through your comment section. It is great and I keep doing the same since the way things are it is the only way to interact with your audience
I agree with you. I have the confidence that when more people join the payouts won't be concentrated in that form, and if they are, we should all start throwing tomatoes at the upvote bots in charge. It is incentives, upvote bots only make money if the price of steem doesn't go to zero. They are sorta of like miners in this sense, instead of producing blocks, there are allocating steem to the people in need. If they fuck this up and just give to crap content, I would assume, and hope, that people would stop using that service. Obviously, the best answer is to manually upvote as much as possible on content you genuinely like. But there are also investors who don't have much time but believe in the project, these people need an outlet for their steem. I guess we could just burn the steem that would have been allocated to that person, instead of it being socialized. Right now, IMO, it is better to give to a trusted party that will use your steem for good, then it simply not use it at all. The reason is that it is socialized allocation, and if you don't use yours, someone else will and that someone may be using it in a way that is a detriment to steem. This is what ultimately made up my mind, but I was on the fence for a while with it, still kinda am TBH.
Consider a program like @curie, which has a wide net of top curators and a literal spiderweb of 'feeder' curators. They really do the work to make sure the top content is upvoted, but they do not charge anyone for that.
There are many good programs. I look forward to hearing your impressions as you continue to learn more about what we have all been building around here! If I may ask, what sold you on @smartsteem? That's one that I do not know much about....
Thanks, will check out curie
@curie is one of the few orca sized accounts that have been curating good content from the beginning I think. And from what I have seen @curie has been doing an excellent job. It doesn't have any whales delegating to it though which is a shame.
I believe @curie also has curators that get paid in STEEM by @curie if they find posts that meet @curie's criteria of a good post. It's an interesting concept.