Throw me a whale bone - cherry picking quality content
Is there a place that good content can be thrown to the whales? I don't mean by the writer but by a group of experienced and trusted curators/readers who can paste a link to a group that whales can pick to throw a bone.
I understand that for many of the whales, they have their time pulled by their own interest areas and are unlikely to be able to also read content wide. I also understand that they have their bots trained to catch what they miss but often train them to their own interest areas.
There are several guilds to support newer users and specialised guilds for certain areas but some of these guilds and trails do not carry a lot of weight or when past a certain point, support is removed. This is completely understandable as there should be a point where an author can stand on their own two feet without the market subsidies as after all, this is a free market.
The reason I mention this is the free market seems to be swamped swamped by 'dumping' of low quality posts and those that are valid, even established authors, are being buried in the flow.
This is only my opinion but for Steemit to be the high-quality, free-thinking, diversified society envisaged, the free-thinking, high-quality posts, diverse posts need to be brought sharply to the forefront. Doing this sets a standard and role-models for newcomers to benchmark against for their own approach to posting.
When one sees a lot of low-quality posts and the high-quality posts are not earning more, why make the effort to develop quality content? Currently, only way to bring the quality to the front of the market place is to reward it, which is happening but it is happening to only a narrow band of content.
To create the diversity that attracts not only a wider audience but quality content providers, the whales may be needed to be called upon to throw some votes to what they are not interested in personally. But, this cannot be random as that defeats the purpose. It needs to only target good quality content.
The bots can do this to some degree by targeting the authors but not every post by an author, even in a given field, is what is deserving of the rewards. I know for myself that not every post is deserving even though I did my best at the time. There is always variation and a hit and miss process of trial and error and exploration into new areas. I also know that some are very good based on the feedback of people that have the experience and skill to recognise it and may be deserving.
But, for the quality authors that are consistently okay and occasionally brilliant, the brilliant should be pushed high as that helps the author develop their skills and learn what works and does not. This raises the quality of the quality also, not just the quality of the mediocre.
By doing this consistently, the site diversifies content and quality and the quality content drowns out the lesser. Authors are set a benchmark, their better work gets recognised financially and the quality can establish much faster.
The other thing that is likely to happen is that authors, even the good ones, are likely to spend more time developing quality content. This means that posting frequency can go down as the average reward for the quality goes up.
So, if there was a line-up of varied and trusted curators that throw quality links into a pool that the whales can trust isn't nonsense or solely based on friendship, links that if checked will be obvious quality. The whales can vote without viewing them, or can set a small upvote on everything that gets thrown into the pool, or spend some time reading what has been suggested to read outside of their own area.
This way, authors will want to get their content into the pool and boned by a whale as, honestly, it does feel good when it happens and personally makes me want more. But to do so, as long as the trusted curators do their jobs, the only way in is through providing good content.
The curators are kind of like witnesses for quality content and can be adjusted based on their performance or market shifts in what content is seen as valuable.
What do you think?
Sorry for the crude drawings, but I have never managed to photograph a whale throwing a bone :)
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
Oo, I like trying to figure out better curation methods. It's an interesting idea to get whales to vote on things based on some "quality" level as opposed to their own interests.
Many of the Steemit authors I follow came to my attention through manual curation like ocd and curie and others, which I'd definitely like to see more of. So far I've tried recommending others' posts on WhaleShares #minnowsupport discord channel, but I'm not sure it helped.
I haven't looked into those too much. I don't think I qualify as a minnow but I don't know all of these things. I am too busy writing :D
I just wonder what would happen if they threw the value of one of their full votes split into ten or twenty parts per day into a quality pool that is filled by univested, trustworthy curators.
It needs special skills, purple moon, fairies singing and all that magic stuff in one time to shoot a whale throwing a bone. Your drawings are awesome :D
I had it all except the skill... ;)
You need to train more!
Next time you'll get it :)
While it is a nice idea, it is a long swim from minnow hood to whale, I think time is the best thing to ensure quality artists stay. If the money is cheap or easy, then it isn't earned the hard way. A lot of the whales stuck around when Steem was worth 7¢, looking at steemit as a long term investment rather then a new job. Well it would be nice to have a place to set quality content in front of whales, your best bet at the current time is to herd Dolphins. If enough dolphins are up voting your material it is bound to catch a whales eye, but after HF19 I've noticed even the most beloved posters are not topping a grand per post as they were pre fork. Perhaps when communities is fully developed we will see more whales make their affiliations to differing topics rather then focusing only on tech and crypto posts.
Also, it looks like your whales are shooting Steem from their bones
Surprisingly, you are the only one to comment on the steem loads :D
Yes, I understand your point, the pool of course would not just be for whales, it would be for big fish. But I think it would be the bigger fish that throw the content to the whales s they themselves are often supported and trusted by them.
I have no issue with how the whales vote now but I wonder if their early investment would be boosted further by playing an consistent and active role in supporting a range of content. The competition has grown as has the spam and sweat equity may not be enough. This is part of the reason so many people are buying votes and if buying votes is more profitable than doing the content work, what happens?
I think the spam comes in waves, in June we had a huge influx of new steemians, I was a part of this influx. Most of the people who came to spam or for instafame wash out early. It's not lucrative enough to hang on if you don't believe you can make a valuable contribution. A lot of people buy their own randowhale or booster votes because they don't believe that giving them away to others is the better way. But even then, at a dollar for the dollar generally, it isn't a great way to turn profits. I agree the whales should be more proactive in fostering new talent, people like @madgoat who consistently provide humorous, well made social commentary posts are the future backbone of this medium, as long as they don't become disheartened by sometimes making less than a Steem per post.
Fortitude is always important and in some ways, I am glad that there is a high bar to get significant reward as it will separate the wheat from the chaff perhaps. My worry is that before those that can, shine, those that can't, flood. For the spammers/crap posters, the low input cost in time and energy means it becomes a numbers game as they will get some return.
There is so much potential here in my limited view that it would be crazy to take the short gain and kill the long.
The @madgoat doesn't go anywhere thank you very much for the upvote call. I think that is the first I have received and the thought is appreciated.
@themadgoat ... Perhaps it's the 'the holding him back 🤔
There's still a few whales that wander around quashing garbage, steemcleaners and cheetah bot are very good at wiping out most of these people before they can do very much good for themselves. It's hard to police everyone in such an open forum, but I think honesty goes a long way here and trash gets ignored or flagged down quick. The Rep system is a very interesting concept for social media.
You earned that randowhale, if not simply for your circle jerking whales 😆 Personally I'd love to see randowhale conserved only for altruistic purposes, the voting party unable to use it for a personal up vote, but at the same time I realize that will only increase the chance of multi-accounting.
I loved your drawings they are so cute and I agree with you on everything you said that would be great 😊
Looks interesting I will read when I got time But sofar I liked the images :D
:D I did my best.
Check out @steemdeepthink your articles would fit well I think
I have thanks :)
And there are some good support programs out there but I was thinking if a group of whales subscribed to a pool of trusted curators across a wide range of content it may help many in various fields.
I dig the graphic! I'm new here, and not one to judge content, but I try to go through my feed and focus on quality. As far as my own posts, whether they get attention or not, I like to write so I'll just keep on keeping on. Great article!
:)
I am think this could be for all quality content regardless of age of poster or affiliation with any particular group.
I enjoy writing too. It saves my mind.
It certainly is an outlet for me. My partner has dementia, and I tend to write in the little spare time I have to unwind. Have a great day!
That must be hard so I can imagine the outlet is welcome relief.
It's tricky to define 'good content', much harder than poor work. For instance, some folk don't like posts on Steemit about Steemit, but these would be considered worthwhile by others.
A nice post and loving the images!
Yes. This is why a range of manual curators are required. Most whales are early adopters and tech orientated so the 'whale share' go to steemit and tech posts. If whales spread some percentage of their vote to a diverse range of quality they need not even read, it changes tge look of the site completely.
Agreed. I'll continue to post on a variety of topics, including Steemit, and see what happens.
Man I am really depressed at the moment.. I try to put out quality content, spending a lot of time writing but recently there is no visibility and support which made me discouraged and I've lowered the amount of efforts and size of my articles until things get a bit better.. I really want to spend much time into pouring myself into writing, but I only get automated comments and 5 views.
Cheers for the article and all the best.
Goldie
I can understand that. I decided to keep doing what I was doing and kepp moving regardless. If nothing else, at least I can enjoy the process.
I feel the pain too. I've only been a week on this platform trying to keep posts to my standard of quality but I spend over an hour on a single post and it get a few cents and swamped down before its seen. I can throw up an image which I've taken at least half a million in my 17 years of shooting and some quick details within 5-10 mins and earn much more. There's no point in spending a lot of time to write good articles that I would like to post because I would benefit from those on other sites & platforms while almost no reward at all here at least for the time being.
I agree with @tarazkp, the more you get to store ad infinitum to the block chain the better. Try to find people with a similar style who are making $60 a post, speak to them, meaningful comments, don't be afraid to build new friendships. They may see a post you've made and resteem it to their followers and net you a new followers as well as a higher payout. The most important thing you can do here is be social, we are all strangers, but we're all just people. I wish you luck. Starting out isn't easy, choose your tags wisely, don't over resteem, be honest and be yourself. You're on the ground floor of a lofty project, the sky is the limit, but it's still going to take some time.
I know the feels as pretty much most of my posts are long form over 1000 words. I have been here since January though abd have kept it up and gained some supporters along the way.
Keep it up and use it to hone your writing skills and get a few quality followers as in time it will pay off...i hope.
Thanks tarazkp. I guess its also holding off the best photos/contents until there's more following too due to the payout period being for its first 7 days or 6.
I just run with whatever I want to run with regardless. It may be a naive approach but it is more enjoyable than trying to calculate for every optimisation.