Should we still be playing games when we ought to be concentrating on taking STEEMIT to market..??
NIGHTMARE..!!
First of all I want to make something very clear.
I am all for a smoothing of the reward structure and fully understand the logic behind this recent experiment to down vote posts to spread the rewards more evenly.
I don't have a problem with this experiment per se.
The ones that are participating in this experiment have been good to me in the past and for this I am thankful.
However I do have a MASSIVE problem that is now giving me a BIG headache.
For the last 7 months I have working my butt off in the background promoting STEEMIT and just when I was beginning to get the message through this experiment began.
I am being bombarded with questions as to why my posts are being flagged up and down voted and I am struggling to keep the story alive.
FISHING FOR NEW USERS
Ask any Salesperson, promoting a new product is like fishing.
You have to throw out your bait, wait a while, and then slowly hook your target.
I have spent 7 months laying my bait and had started to hook my hard fought targets.
As a result of this experiment these are now leaving with huge doubts in their mind.
RE-HOOKING IS HARDER THAN HOOKING
Ask that same Salesperson what it is like to try and re-hook your target for the second time and they will tell you it takes twice as much effort and in some occasions is damn near impossible.
This is slowly becoming a mammoth task and feels like 7 months hard work and dedication is ebbing away.
TAKING STEEMIT TO MARKET
Like I said earlier, I am all for any experiment that spreads the reward more evenly but question whether this is now the right thing to do when really we should be concentrating all of our efforts in taking STEEMIT to market and then allowing the market to determine the spread of the reward pool.
If not, I fear that the market will recognise this and simply walk away.
Once this happens then this will be a big problem.
Thanks again for reading.
Stephen
I would tend to disagree. I shall try to explain!
In my experience and the experience I have had talking to others, rewards for smaller users have greatly increased or little difference has been noticed. The big loss seems to be in accounts that were occasionally whale struck.
I think that if people are complaining that they have been flagged when what is happening that the flag is part negating other whales votes then these people would have been equally dissatisfied if they earned zero or single figure cents on each post. Perhaps the complaint would have been that instead.
This experiment allows people to build a genuine follower base who will vote for them so that we see less of people getting 200 votes, 5 view yet a forty dollar payout.
I think you do have a point in that perhaps this could have been communicated better or perhaps even built into the code so it wasn't obviously flagging which can put people off.
What i have seen since it began is that very few people have left. If monetary value is all that matters to those now leaving them perhaps this platform is simply just not for them?
"...this could have been communicated better". I agree with everything you say especially this bit. The bit that is really giving me a personal nightmare is not the reward, that is right down on my list, it's the perception that the rewards are being "manipulated", not to existing users who know what is going on, but to new users who have not yest joined. My phone has been red hot again today and people are asking why this is happening. They are extremely wary and feeling very cautious about joining with this sort of shenanigans going on. Thanks again for your comment. Stephen
What you can do as I know you probably are aware of or considered or have been doing even, is to describe the situation before the experiment, tell them about the self sacrifice and effort those doing the experiment are engaged in for example, first by finding the whale voting collusion then flagging/removing rewards based on that and not just wanton flagging, and then tell them about the numerous posts and positive reactions to the experiment leading to more user engagement and appreciation from the community as a whole.
As you know, this all began because the most anticipated change in HF17 was removed without valid reason or logic considering that it was and still is the most immediately demanded change, that of flattening the reward curve, and instead other even more problematic features like the current reward curve, which @krnel has outline in his Review of "Steem 0.17 Change Proposal Introduction", need to be addressed still.
Obviously as these things happen, major disagreements and uncertainty follow, and it's going to require a lot of effort all around, to keep people informed and appreciative to the process of updating the platform. I think that meanwhile, as we understand the effects of a flatter reward curve through the experiment, both at retaining users and engagement, as the sentiment throughout the community is that it is problematic due to communication breakdown and I think it's important therefore, as we go through our growing pains, that the issue be reiterated.
The downvoting followed by a comment from the actor(s) downvoting is not going to be well received, so then maybe what could be done is a group effort where people auto comment on behalf of the actor explaining these things, and even go as far as providing examples of it's effects i.e. "My voting power has increased # fold, I used to vote with # cents for posts and comments, and now I make a larger more impacting vote because whale power is neutralized considerably since the experiment began".
I understand your frustration. But you have to admit that now even the small fish get more rewards before the experiment. I also was being upvoted by whales. A good post earned me 40-50$ now I can't top 10$.
I'm not mad at all. Even now I still get flags on my better posts.
Realize that Steemit is still experimenting, who knows when we get out of beta, and most of us are guinea pigs.
About the marketing side, I don't think it's our job to market the platform. All we can do is to help spread the word.
I enjoy very much your posts. Steem on!
Agreed. The 'experiment' is a double-edged sword. It appeases a section of existing users, at the risk of alienating new users (as well as whales who don't participate).
I had a hard enough time trying to explain the natural ebb and flow of rewards to people I signed up. Sure I can explain why they are getting flagged however it won't stop them looking at me like 'this site is bad-shit crazy!'
There are more elegant solutions that can be implemented to cap voting power, that can be packaged and marketed as a strength of the platform.
NAILED IT..!! Somethings are worth putting in lights. This is exactly the point I am trying to get across. It's not the existing users I am bothered about it's the new potential users that I am more worried about. With this sort of fun and games going on Mitchell's role in marketing the platform and ultimately taking it to market has just got ten times harder..!! Thanks again for your support. I appreciate it. Stephen
I agree + steem need more adwertisment.
Thanks for sharing
I am hoping that this experiment will end soon too.
I haven't been able to bring myself to posting articles for quite a while now. It takes a lot of mental energy and time for me to write a post, and now the whales can't vote plus flags are passed out like candy. I miss the old Steemit.
They aren't wanton voting though @canadian-coconut. I do miss your posts and am dishearten that it affected your posting. I want to express their efforts in a more positive way though. First the flagging happens because some actors don't wish to be part of this experiment, and that is reasonable and understandable.Next though, those flags are always weighed only to affect the whale/collusive voting, not minnows and dolphins per say. Also the people doing the voting on behalf of the experiment aren't getting anything out of it, I know it might be hard to see downvoting as a self sacrifice but they could be spending their voting power on mining steem through curation which with their huge SP it's rivaling a full time job salary. Finally, the actors participating in the experiment have what I consider noble intentions both of allowing us minnows and other small account a much deserved say over reward allocation and also of seeing the effects on engagement and user retention (albeit problematic because of communication breakdown) of a flatter reward curve, as I believe the flatter reward curve's removal from the upcoming HF is the main reason why HF17 has seen such backlash, on top of the issues surrounding it have been meet with disagreement and therefore lack of consensus.
Thanks Baah.
I understand the logic, but it's a mental obstacle that I have to overcome. Actually, someone else just said that they miss my articles too, which is nice to hear. And I've just done some brainstorming on how I may approach a series of posts soon.
I have wanted to post, but lacked inspiration. The flagging and change in the way the Steemit that we knew worked does emotionally impact people, despite all the explanations. Those of us posting for quite some time now, had expectations of how things work. We are now having to adjust our expectations and perhaps grieve their loss for a while. I'll get over it, it just takes time. I'm not angry, just shot down for a while at least.
I consider vaccines to be the most tantamount subject even more than Pizzagate and even as they are getting convicted/plead guilty to these horrific things, and vaccines still trump that because the fraud that has been perpetrated is so ingrained in both science and culture for centuries that is continuing on affecting billions, and I think exposing it is a service that cannot be valued as anything less than the most important one
.
What you are doing is more important than this platform, more important than curing cancer, because a thriving community and a currency/commodity apart from the elite controlled banking cartel or even a cure for cancer wouldn't mean anything or much, because if those things come to pass but it meant that vaccinations remain unchallenged by everyday people and scientists/professionals then it would be negated by the damage and destruction done consciously by the industry of vaccinations/immunizations and unconsciously by the countless health care workers and doctors that continue to superscribe them without assessing the effects, and I believe that it would invalidate any kind of cure for cancer or any benefit this platform could bring to the world. I couldn't express the importance of your work any more than that. You fighting against the massive fraud that is vaccines and as this platform is truly a breath of fresh air in the controlled and manipulated-to-death world we live in, I understand that it affects you and many others to have it compromised in this similar way but I want to assure you that their intentions are noble and that they are working to establishing more fair and just precedents with their callous way of going about it and wish to implore you to focus more on what makes you happy and brings you value, as I am sure you have already, as you are a great example for the community and I truly look up to you, plus the work you do is inspiring in it of itself.
Letting go is natural and time and space will help undoubtedly, I hope that this encouragement and expression of gratitude will help your work to come.
Much love and respect from the trollminator :D
I did it! I posted a new article this morning.
Thanks for your encouragement @baah !
I will check it out right now, I saw it in my feed but didn't get to it before I had to get to work, I'm really glad you're back @canadian-coconut!
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!
That really encourages me to continue, more than you know.
You are very kind, go out there and kick some butt, lovingly and understandingly as you have in the past!
I agree that the turmoil here will confuse and scare away new users.
It's a NIGHTMARE. I am now spending more time explaining to my "hooked" targets and not spending anytime on new targets. I feel like I am peddling like crazy and going backwards..!! Stephen
Well said
Thank you. Stephen
The rewards on Steemit are hard to explain, at the best of times. Content creators who have any experience with sites that pay for content are used to systems that pay fixed amounts "per page view" or "per article." The idea of a reward pool that "floats" until the second before the payout period ends is... not easy to grasp.
The only thing I have been able to do so far is use a "planting seeds" analogy with people. We want to plant a garden, so we sow seeds (blog), but we really have no way to know how many plants will be viable (flag vs no flag), nor what sort of yield each plant (reward per post) will give. But that uncertainty doesn't mean we stop gardening (stop blogging). It's a bit "thin" but it somewhat works...
It's perfect. I like it. Stephen
Another complain and reflexion on this experiment ...
https://steemit.com/steemit/@glitterfart/a-whale-story-my-story-the-whale-experiment-its-downvotes-and-ugly-face