Steemit: Good or Bad, Remember We're Building a Society Here!
In the month or so I've been here, there's been a lot of great things, and not so great things happening. I'm not here to call anybody out, as I feel just about everyone involved has the shared goal of seeing Steemit survive and thrive! This ranges from discussions on curation, whale bot author lists, dejected minnows, feelings of harassment/lack of safety, other sites like Synereo, to more positive things RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) and the newly launched Robinhood Whale.
I don't want to delve into these specifically, but rather remind everyone that there is more going on than just the issue of the day or week. I completely understand the emotional reactions to seeing things that can be read as an attack on something (even if not intended,) I get these too, and they are NATURAL. However, posting such emotional reactions as an argument isn't always helpful. We need to be willing to give other users (until given direct reason otherwise) the benefit of the doubt to their intentions. We have no way of knowing what goes on in real life, behind closed doors or the full histories behind them. @logic made a great post on Debate and Common Logical Fallacies that we can see happening while being emotionally charged up and shines light on some of these.
Finally...onto my point!
In my eyes Steemit is MORE than making money on a post, MORE than just the whales, MORE than just the code and development. Steemit is a social and economic experiment! We have a chance either through investment, hard work, creativity and/or communication to build ourselves up individually AND as a SOCIETY! Personally, while short term rewards are invaluable for continuing motivation, then long term metric in my mind is both financial/economic sustainability AND a well functioning, communicating, and synergizing COMMUNITY. This is the potential win/win for the individual AND the group as a whole.
We are always going to see what we see as controversial posts, whether over posts for Featured Authors, bringing up current short falls in the Steemit platform, or even seeing a compare/contrast with other platforms. It's important to discuss these things, but please remember there is always another side. Try to give the benefit of the doubt before letting the emotional response be posted. We don't know what is going on outside the blockchain, or even sometimes within it as an example.
If we truly want to see this SOCIETY endure, we have to build up trust and understanding. Often the success or failure of a society are driven by the figureheads and hardest working, and we have seen countless debates spurred by them. It is OUR responsibility to hold ourselves to a higher, maybe even professional standard when interacting with other community members.
In a 'social game' such as this, the player base is just as important as the codebase and development.
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Couldn't agree more. Both the quality of the dev team behind the scenes and the quality of the community are essential.
I wrote a post (unnoticed as often) some days ago saying:
I think your article is just about this idea...
The post is here if you want to read it :)
I loved this from your post:
And this is spot on:
Keep calm and Steem on! :P
Thank you!
I am usually calm and tranquil, also when everything is not working as it should.
This is part of my developer job (maybe the most important) :)
Hehe, I hear ya. Nothing helpful when trying to debug than the drive and I just want to freak out and flail around! lol
Funny, I told a rather successful steemit author that same thing when they asked if they should power down last week....
Being decentralized and without particular "rulers", Steemit just reflects the attitude and behavior of users, so it's up to us to decide what it's going to happen here :)
Thank you for checking my posts BTW :)
Totally agree! If we don't want rulers, we have to effectively be able to rule ourselves. :)
Absolutely, I honestly like what you post!
Thank you so much, I also appreciate your stuff!
I'm not native english speaker, so I struggle a little bit to write good posts.
But I have no expectations, sometimes I write great posts with no reward, other times I see some little rewards here and there... but I am improving my english, at least!
@andrew0
I'd never have guessed english wasn't your first language from your writing! The only criticism I could even give on your posts would just be to center your photos with <'center><'/center> tags (without the 's, just there show this would display)
I really see it as a matter of faith (a word I don't like to use myself) on the longevity of the site. If this doesn't happen here, it's bound to happen somewhere. That much I see as inevitable.
Being the first to show proof of concept and actually bring to market can be a huge benefit. It's not always a guaranty though, Apple was the first to successfully bring PC's to market, but they didn't make the first PC.
Much like the hackers, even the trolls and spammers, even those who complain and whine, even those with the controversial opinions, even those who don't know how to behave when in company of people who know how to use fork and knife, and yes, even the drama queens serve a valuable purpose: testing the idea and principle as early as possible, torture it, push it to the limit, to see how it reacts.
Still, their density is small. There will soon, the gods willing, be hundreds of thousands of them - a small portion of the millions and billions of users envisaged long-term - and we better find out NOW how to deal with it - we owe it to those who come after us.
That's my thinking. If we are the pioneers, we scout the ways, set milestones, walk desirepaths. The next generations will build bridges and highways where we fought our ways through deserts and jungles.
For example,
I'd like if people I follow, or visit on their blogs, don't become greyed out by the flags of people who abused their authority as "steem police". I'd like to curate my own blocklist, thank you very much.
Very well said and so true!
If we can't figure this out while small, I highly doubt well be able to when huge.
Thank you!
I have to say this just might be the best post I've read on SteemIt. It is very important to read this folks.
Thank you @steemitqa!
I've tended to not post much on steemit affairs, but I had to let this little rant out. What can I say, I want steemit to succeed and see what other things it can bring into fruition. :)
Just started today and like any other social media platform there will be ups and down, good and bad, but just because we may not agree with someone, or they may not agree with us, we have to move past that. Thats the beauty of the internet, it brings everyone closer, so we can share our views with one another.
Welcome aboard! :)
Exactly! Adding in potential monetary gains takes it to a whole new level.
And please don't read this as if it's a rampant issue, the steemit community by far is the most engaged, caring and helpful I've ever seen.
Oh, I didn't take it that way at all. I know with any social media there will be trolls, and I just look passed that sort of thing. I have enjoyed my time here, its different, but in a good way.
Absolutely!!! I love participating in this experiment and appreciate you pinning the social building and trust issues out to talk about. Funny, I feel very safe in this environment and really appreciate how folks are interacting with original and authentic posts and comments mostly, not cut and paste rehash of someone else's content. Like real life. thank you, oc
Ty! I felt good posting this one. :) Yea, cut/paste doesn't do terribly wear here.
I still find it amazing how many people bear their soul on here. I'll admit that I never would have posted a lot of my personal stuff anywhere else. This place has that feeling of comfort and camaraderie.
It's exciting to see where this will go :)
Its all about respecting others opinions, great post
I love the picture of @quantumanomoly, @winston-wolfe, and yourself in steempunk attire that you used!
Hehe, ty! They really do look like us :) Steampunk powers activate! :D