RE: A Suggestion For Ending The Vote Buying Era On Steemit!
so they have decided to reward themselves by buying votes from someone else. There is no need for you to reward them or give them a complimentary pat on the back since they have already done so themselves.
I might support something like this if there would be a way for you to prove it to be true. I personally have waned back and forth between vote buying and not (mostly not), but recently started checking it out again. The fact is that the vast majority of those who buy votes do so at a net loss. So that particular statement would be wrong most of the time. If I buy a vote, I plan it out and do so with the expectation to lose on my investment. I do it because it is extremely difficult to break into the trending page because Steemit tends to reward those who upvote the authors who typically trend. This creates the vicious cycle that generates demand for vote selling services. So perhaps a better, more direct way to deal with the problem would be to suggest a better algorithm to raise quality content to trending.
Please consider saving your vote for someone who has more confidence in you.’
Chances are the people reading the boosted post would not be doing so if it had not been boosted. So maybe if there was a way to filter this from anyone who came to the post from the trending and/or hot I might agree, because if they are seeing it on those pages, it is probably because it was boosted. That is also an indication that the lack of confidence was justified. If people simply browse the trending pages, you can have 100% confidence that they will not see your stuff. They are not interested in it, regardless of the quality of the content it contains.
Now, I do think there should be a question right next to the voting button which asks if you feel the post deserves more, less, the same as it has already earned. Then have that selection affect the post payout appropriately.
So you want to make it to the trending pages, I understand that. I've never been there myself and it would be nice because then you actually get a chance of some people who don't already know you seeing your work and maybe earning some good rewards but if you get there having bought a vote, no matter what the environment, then it must take some of the shine off it I would imagine, at least for me. Better to struggle through adversity and make it there offf your own back, especially so in this environment. That would make it even more of an achievement.
I mentioned in my post that those who buy votes should give it more consideration because it may actually be costing them in the long run so I did mention the fact that some votes bought mean a net loss, which makes it even harder for me to understand why so many support the behaviour.
Personally, I've never bought a vote. I don't even upvote my own posts and yet, while many have come after me and would appear to be more successful in terms of rewards earned, reputation attained and followers gained, I would consider myself to be more successful than they because I know that every vote that has beeen given to me has been given freely and my rep score is a truer reflection of my time here than theirs.
While I'd like to be more successful as everyone else would, if and when I reach the trending pages, I don't want it to be because I paid somoene to be there but rather because I deserve to be.
Thanks a lot for the great comment @moeknows and for sharing your thoughts on the matter. I hope you have a great day my friend! :)
It's not about shine. It is about exposure, and no matter how you slice it, the ones getting the most exposure are not the ones creating the best content. They are usually folks with millions of dollars invested in Steem (or friends with millions of dollars). So, vote buying gives a method for folks to temporarily level that playing field.
Because it is often a net loss, one cannot simply purchase upvotes for all of their posts. In my case, I saved rewards for 3 very active weeks and one of my biggest payouts ever (not bought) in order to save enough SBD to purchase upvotes to get me to the trending page. Even then, I did not profit off of that post. I have never invested any outside money in Steem. I have, however, put a ton of time into it (sweat equity). If that's not making it there off my own back, I don't know what is.
That is a reflection of the assumption that posts on the trending page "deserve" to be there. In my experience and that of many others, that hasn't been the case. I actually boycott the trending page myself for that reason and don't see getting there as an achievement at all.
Thanks for the great conversation.
You make some excellent points which highlights the fact that this is a complicated issue and there are other issues besides this one that need a lot more discussion around them as well.
Thank you as well mate. Best of luck in future. I look forward to checking out your posts. :)