I Am Sorry for My Last Post!
In doing steem full-time my intention is to be helpful here every day. Today I fell a short on that with making what I see as the worst post I've made so far which is impressive given the competition! In my last post I attempted to help with the problem of Steem account creation. Within 5 hours of creating the post, I listened to feedback and completely removed what I originally posted and replaced it with links to what we already have. If you helped with this, thank you!
The part I am specifically sorry for is taking almost no time before making the post to consider what else we as a community were already doing about this and making my own offensive solution. That was a stupid move and reflects a selfish state of mind with limited awareness of the whole. Selfish can be translated into all of the other undesirable states including greedy, not good enough, better than, etc.
I intend to continue serving here full time each day indefinitely and I intend to learn from each blunder I make to be more effective here.
The Story?
Two weeks ago I received a letter in the mail from Charlotte expressing her frustration with the Steemit account creation system. She said she had tried to sign up 10 days earlier and still not gotten any confirmation email. She asked if I could help. Naturally my first thought was to make something myself to completely fix not only her problem but what must surely be the tip of the iceberg on a much bigger problem that is the Steemit account creation system.
Where the stupidity came in was not even thinking first to see if anyone else had already tried it to help with this. What I have learned today since making the post is that releasing a more sustainable account creation system is one of Steemit's top priorities. In the meantime, several of members of our community already have working solutions that such as https://anon.steem.network/.
During the last two weeks, I spent hours planning out the perfect account creation service that would meet everyone's objectives using my incredibly limited knowledge of how to make an account with the Vessel wallet. The service would get the account created fast, it would have a great customer support, it would accept payment with Steem as well as PayPal/Stripe, and it would pay for itself with tips.
After hours of planning, I first dedicated a day of work and video production to this and shared the idea on YouTube after delegating 30 of my Steem to the new account to be used for creation. Up until this afternoon, I thought every account had to have 30 Steem power delegated to be created which fortunately is incorrect. Next I paid for a transcription which cost about $30. Then I paid my friend to edit the transcription and make a blog post out of it which cost another $30 or so. Finally, I put another hour or so this morning into getting the post prepared for Steem and published it. In other words, I invested hours and dollars into making a service that mostly drew criticism and not one person will ever use. Face-palm.
With my intention to help solve a problem that was posing a big frustration to at least one person, I was shocked to discovered the most critical feedback I've ever seen on one of my Steem posts come rolling in. Fortunately after reading tens of thousands of what might be viewed as hateful and critical comments online in response to what I have created along with about the same amount of "OMG YOU ARE THE BEST" comments, I realized quickly I needed to make an adjustment instead of just thinking everyone else was out to get me. As the steemit.chat witness channel conversation focused on the service a few hours after I made the post, I read the comments there and completely removed my service within 5 hours of making the post on Steem. Instead of doing a "DELETE" post, I placed links to the existing services we have running already which were shared in the witness chat. It is no longer possible to order the service and not one person attempted to use it.
The Mistake
Shortly editing my post, the humbling realization came of the mistake I had made to which I had been blind before. In the middle of mostly comments centered on my character including how disgusting I was for offering my account creation service and all of the repercussions I would face for my post and what a faker I am, I found a comment saying "maybe he just did not take the time to even look." As soon as I read that, I could finally see the issue because the truth always stands out for better or worse.
I had not even taken 10 seconds to Google "Steemit account creation service" because if I had I also would have seen the first search result which is https://anon.steem.network/. With it costing just a few Steem to create an account there, planning a service that cost $50 and showed in the video tutorial how I was delegating 30 Steem to make the account would have been insane.
Had I even thought to look and found this, I would have simply made a post promoting the existing service as I have done with so many other posts in the past showing my favorite Steem services. Usually I do Google and I do ask around before going forward because I have been asked thousands of questions online which just required me Googling and copying/pasting a response. One of my few pet peeves is failing to take the time to Google which I fell face first into this time.
Fortunately today I did show a huge improvement over what I used to do in the past. For most of my six years in business online if I did something stupid I then proceeded to defend it for a long time and/or remove the evidence without ever admitting my mistake or only using admission to get back in the door to do the same thing again. A list of my top 7 painful failures is available at https://jerrybanfield.com/entrepreneur-online-failures/ and that was made before my Udemy ban which is now #1. Today I at least skipped the defensiveness and got straight to doing my best to respond to feedback which meant deleting my service before it ever even did anything and linking to existing services in my post along with communicating in the witness chat.
The Worst Part
What I felt worst about was then being caught up in all of this mentally on a day I spent mostly with my two year old daughter while my wife was with family for the birth of our niece. As my daughter was asking me to put her stuffed animals into diapers, here I was thinking about Steem. Again.
Not being fully present when spending time with my family and friends is one of my top shame triggers because I feel like I'm missing out on the most important parts of life. Fortunately I talked to my wife about this and she said she experiences the same thing on a daily basis for both when things go well or go wrong.
I have hurt over this and cried about it and felt remorseful for hours today all while I was unable to do anything about it at my AA meeting and then being with my family. This is what I do today instead of numbing the pain or doubling down and acting tough only to end up treating my family and friends and strangers like crap.
Why Talk About This?
Why not just sweep it under the rug and say no big deal because most people didn't even see it? In my life I find it extremely helpful to own up to the ways I've acted selfish especially where I have not even considered how other people involved might benefit the most or be hurt by my actions. Thankfully I've learned owning up to my mistakes not only makes me feel better and shows me how I can do better but also guarantees I have strong relationships with my fellow human beings. I also see today that facing the pain immediately helps it go away faster than if it is ignored.
The people I trust the most are the ones who are willing to be transparent with mistakes instead of hiding them. What some of us try to avoid is the uncomfortable truth that all of us do stupid and selfish things. Many of us even devote our entire lives to selfishness and stupidity as I did for years with just enough breaks to be useful enough to survive. Life is a lot easier when we each own up to our mistakes because not only do we then feel better and the people around us don't have to guess at our mistakes but then we can learn from each other's mistakes instead of having to always learn the hard way.
I hope in writing this that you're able to avoid making the mistake of offering something on Steem that already is being offered and acting with self-centered motives when considering what to post. I also hope that it helps provide the courage to fail big because while a lot of us are interested in getting more followers, few of us fantasize about how great it will be to make a stupid mistake in front of those followers.
Forward?
I hope this repairs any damages in our relationship and makes it stronger going forward! I want a real relationship with you and not one that is based on some fake idea of me being perfect or me expecting you to just upvote every post I make and comment with "OMG YOUR POSTS ARE SO AWESOME YOU ARE THE BEST" every time. We each need to know when to adjust what we are doing and when to keep doing what we are doing right. We each need to know that our relationship is not easily thrown away because of one post or one comment. At the same time, we must respect our right to do whatever we want regardless of what anyone says.
You can count on me to keep trying to be helpful here each day and you can also count on me not getting it right sometimes as each new lesson I learn makes room for a new error! Thank you for reading another post and continuing on this journey of life with me!
Love,
Jerry Banfield
And you then said this:
So, you're claiming to have not even known about @anonsteem? That's funny, because I can direct your attention to this post...from you.
Meet Steem's Top 10 Witnesses!
In this post, you wrote the following:
Looks like you knew about this service since at least September 3rd.
It's one thing to "admit a mistake." It's another thing to pretend that you simply made a mistake when it actually appears that you're just trying to do damage control...by lying about what you did or did not know previously. So, which is it? Did you know about @anonsteem back on September 3rd when you wrote about it? Or did you just learn about it today?
Great question! @lexiconical did the research for each of the witnesses in these posts while I did the videos and made edits as is mentioned in each of the posts I have done with him. While @lexiconical did notice @anonsteem and included it in the post, it was one line in a large post which I browsed over and obviously would have benefited a lot from reading in more detail. With everything I knew about @someguy123 already, I had a list of topics I was prepared to discuss for the video based on what I already knew and paid no attention to anything else.
So, @lexiconical does your research for you and writes your posts?
Is it common for you to not pay attention to the information you're posting in your name to your many followers across social media? Is it common for you to make entrepreneurial decisions without researching the product/service you want to sell? Is it common for you to sell such products/services to unsuspecting followers or random people who aren't aware of the free/cheaper alternatives?
I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing that you simply didn't read your own post and knew nothing about @anonsteem prior to yesterday. Why didn't @lexiconical point that out to you?
And I especially don't believe that this was just an innocent "mistake" when you're already selling readily available information about how to become a witness for Steem...for $180.
Given what I know about your history here and on other platforms before joining Steemit, I don't think I can believe a single word that you say. It's a pattern of behavior that appears to be continuing uninterrupted. And quite frankly - it disgusts me that you can still profit from it so easily...which is why you'll keep doing it.
"So, @lexiconical does your research for you and writes your posts?"
I have only ever worked with Jerry on those three Witness posts. The deal was that I would research and compose the entire proofread article and he would handle the video, posting, and anything else. I assured him at each stage of the draft, from rough / rough 2 / etc / up to final and proofread. I guess he trusted me there.
Jerry did state this in each article, but honestly, I don't think too many people saw it.
"Is it common for you to not pay attention to the information you're posting in your name to your many followers across social media"
Jerry and I met once, briefly, at his Steemit meetup. I believe he took a bit of a leap of faith with me after I impressed him, as he did not feel the need to check all my work. Whether that is to any person's particular journalism standard is obviously up for debate, but I will engage in the conceit of ego here and say I don't think Jerry would have posted my work with such "unediting faith" had he not had a chance to vet me for crazy in person.
"Why didn't @lexiconical point that out to you?"
I was never asked before he posted this post. Jerry doesn't consult me for anything other than Witness posts so far.
We did not go over each witness post individually. I don't have Jerry's phone number or even email, or any way to contact him except Discord.
I submitted them in a living document containing all (42 so far) Witness reports. Jerry takes the next set when he has the time to make a video to go with them and posts it.
If you feel this did not sufficiently answer your question, please elaborate and I will try to do the same. I am happy to provide full transparency as much as I know.
Furthermore...
"Is it common for you to not pay attention to the information you're posting in your name to your many followers across social media?"
I would argue that this is the default state of most social media posters in existence. I think we would all agree on this point, although Jerry is not a typical social media user.
We (should) have different standards for witnesses or careers/businesses designed to make a profit.
However, I think this is worth noting as a not-impossible explanation.
for real, right
Just started digging into this situation with Jerry today and, without taking sides, can say that @ats-david is the only person making sense in this conversation. @jerrybanfield Dude...you tried. Let's move on.
Sir i need your upvote
you gotta be joking, right...?
A Priceless Tip For Steemit Newbies Seeking Followers & Upvotes... (The #1 Thing To Do And NOT Do)
I wrote an article a couple of weeks ago about some of the Steemit Etiquette I had learnt in the 3 months I've been here, in particular regarding the self upvoting, but yeah, there are ways to ask for upvotes, like in a good post. But I think the "Sir I need your upvote" might be a simple troll. To be ignored. Though good to note the person in case they begin to abuse and spam upvote requests.
I don't see anything wrong with someone ghost writing your content and then you acting as a presenter, I think people are being a little overzealous, there is no need to attack you on this level...
Whether you knew about AnonSteem or not seems beside the point. The very idea of charging someone new to the platform $50 for instant site creation is not helping them as much as it's helping you.
You could have helped her like I do when someone new asks for my help.
First, I create their account with AnonSteem and fund it myself. Then I show them how to make an intro post and teach them about Steemit etiquette. Then I make a post about them and how we know each other and direct my followers to their account. Once my post pays out I transfer the SBD to their new account so they get a good start. It actually cost me to help them, not the other way around. That's how you truly help someone.
You seem to try to monetize every interaction you have with other Steemians and it comes off as scammy. This post feels like you're just backtracking once the community reacted negatively to your idea of "helping people".
Helping people and trying to monetize a service are two different things. Monetizing a service benefits you as much, or more than it benefits them. Helping people without asking for compensation is really helping them.
"Someguy123 is a well-known developer (top 3% at Bitrated) of third-party applications for both Litecoin and Steem. His skills include python, javascript and PHP, as well as system administration."
"He has been personally vouched for by Charlie Lee, also known as the creator of Litecoin. He’s developed a number of projects, including Lite Vault, Explorer, Steem Center, and the AnonSteem service which allows another vector for registering new users onto the Steemit platform."
For the record, those are indeed my own unedited words. I am not sure if Jerry proofread my work. I promised him that I would do several proof-reading passes myself, so I cannot speak to that.
This was stated in the text of the post, where Jerry notes that the words are my own.
It one thing for him to know about anonsteem and it's another thing for him to know that our phone numbers are email are probably for sell.
Two days ago I found out that our phone numbers is the price we pay for creating a steemit account. T in the FAQ page
Does that make any sense. I have never in my entire surfing(www) life seen a site that does that. So now where is the decentralisation we talking bout.
Your phone numbers are absolutely not for sale and they never will be. In addition, there are many other ways to create a Steem account without providing your phone number one of which is mentioned in this very article: anonsteem. The reason your phone number is required is because everyone who joins steemit.com receives delegated steem power from Steemit and therefore the approval system requires additional information to guarantee that those requesting accounts are not attempting to defraud the system. Other social networks don't ask for phone numbers because they don't care about whether or not accounts are genuine. That just doesn't work for any application that is going to use Steem Power delegation to enable users to create Steem accounts for free.
Community Liaison, Steemit
Below is from the FAQ page.
Am I allowed to create more than one account?
Each user is allowed only one paid-for account created via Steemit.com, however users are allowed to create multiple accounts on the blockchain. Creating additional accounts on the blockchain requires users to pay their own account creation fee for any additional accounts.
What are other ways to create an account on the blockchain besides using Steemit.com?
If you are willing to pay your own signup fee, then there are other ways to create a new account on the blockchain.
There is a third-party tool called AnonSteem that accepts bitcoin, Litecoin, STEEM, or SBD to anonymously create a Steem account. You do not need to have an existing Steem blockchain account to use the service, but there is a charge on top of the blockchain account creation fee for using the service.
There is also a third-party tool called SteemConnect that allows you to create accounts by paying or delegating the account creation fee. There is no additional fee to use the service, but does require an existing Steem blockchain account to pay the account creation fee to create the account.
Why do I need to provide my email and phone number?
To create an account on the blockchain, it costs STEEM tokens. When you create an account through Steemit.com, Steemit Inc. is supplying the tokens to pay the account creation fee. In order to prevent users from abusing the paid-for signup and creating multiple accounts, we need to be able to verify that each user is only signing up for one account.
Who are they paying the account creation fee and there are other ways to verify accounts. selling our details is not the only problem, they can also give fed our details if the are pressurized.
@Andrarchy! Thanks for clearing that up - you just answered the question I was about to ask
Your videos are awesome, btw. Respect!
Hi @andrarchy, I think the efforts Steemit goes to to verify everyone is a real user are great.
(I always had my suspicions when we placed Facebook ads at work that half of facebook's ad traffic was their own fake users.) Having said that, because Steemit does require everyone's phone numbers to verify our accounts is there therefore ever going to be a plan to offer Steemit users who want to opt in the option of having Two Factor Verification?
I know a lot of people want to use Steemit anonymously and that shouldn't be changed for people who want to remain off the radar, but there are a lot of us who also would prefer the security of two factor verification.
Basically all my bank accounts, my facebook, my ISP etc. all offer it and it does help protect against identity and account theft. I was really concerned this week by what happened to @samstonehill. I know Steemit did him a solid and got back his account, but in his example he's a Steemian in his own name anyway, it is his face on his videos and he uses his real identity.
So for those Steemians who aren't so concerned about staying anonymous for whatever reason, wouldn't two factor verification be something that could be offered to help protect our accounts if we wanted to opt into it? It would be a re-assurance for people who want to use Steemit creatively as a blogging platform. A lot of us aren't crypto or security experts, so it would be heartbreaking to put a year or two into building up a Steemit profile and gain lots of followers only to then have some hacker basically steal all of that work and effort.
What is your idea for a second factor? Google Authenticator, SMS, Yubikey?
I think a choice of all of the above would be good. I like SMS verification myself.
Short resume`
@fishmon lol
Jerry Gets Caught
Oh boy...
@ats-david has a Very Valid Point!
I AM NOT a STEEMIT WITNESS, but I have witnessed A LOT STEEMIT VETERANS on the platform...
Keep STEEM N ON @ats-david
Frank
@ats-david What if he again makes a new post titled "I Am Sorry for My Last Post!", because of your comment above. I think Jerry has made 2 mistakes within 24 hours!
He will still get upvoted by the usual suspects.
We're dealing with mostly auto-voting across this platform as a whole right now. It's no surprise many are out of the loop (or don't care).
This is so true. It might be the biggest challenge if we want mass adoption for this platform.
Agreed.
If he makes a new post about this...maybe downvote it? And maybe stop supporting the people who consistently/continually support him, mostly via auto-votes?
I know this isn't the place to rant about this but seriously, I think auto-votes might be able to ruin the system. It's starting to feel like a ghost town in here.
99% of the daily reward pool is delivered by auto-votes from accounts that hold massive amounts of SP (or delegated SP), but how could they possibly read every Steem post to create a more 'fair'distribution based on content?
Steemit ate my last two replies so fuck being eloquent.
I don't care. If you can't read, you don't get to vote. If you don't have time to vote, Steem is a dumb investment for you and you should sell and power down.
Autovote is the antithesis of this platform. Fuck autovote.
u might be forced into it tho...
Maybe that's a bit too straight to the point. But I do understand where you're coming from. Having a bot do the voting directly goes against the concept of 'Proof of Brain', an actual human reflexion on quality and content.
From what I understand, Steem was built on 'Proof of Brain', since Proof of Stake and Proof of Work have serious disadvantages. So yes, I tend to agree that autovote is indeed the antithesis of this platform.
One solution for rewards based on content is those with high SP to hire others by delegating SP . The accounts that have introduceyourself posts with photos of the same person in various posts and original content (verified by cheetah and other hummans) are human and the others are all suspect.
Yep, He probably knew about AnonSteem before posting it!
hand got caught in the cookie jar...
lol
This post has received a 3.3 % upvote from @boomerang thanks to: @alexvan
@boomerang distributes 100% of the SBD and up to 80% of the Curation Rewards to STEEM POWER Delegators. If you want to bid for votes or want to delegate SP please read the @boomerang whitepaper.
Sir please upvote me . i shall be thankful to you.
nice post thanks...
follow me pls thanks..
https://steemit.com/@megavip
Hey! I love this magic or some other game card! Is this your work? Can I use it?
By the way, I think it's a Hearthstone card template. In case you wanted to know!
Actually I was wondering! Thanks Ive been getting into image editing with paint lately.
Ah, yes, MS-Paint - editor of kings and queens among men.
u are a master there
Been thinking to level up to GIMP as well, Steem is such a great community for leveling up skills!
I believe the cards are made by @fishmon and he has written that he does want people to use them. Check 'em out on his blog.
Thank you!
Yes you are correct.
this is amazing LOL!
Hei @ecoinstant,Yes they are free to use. I have a bot that auto-replies, but it has some issues at the moment.
I'm glad to see this post because I was immediately regretting supporting your witness account when I saw your post about this account creation service.
Owning your mistakes is huge. Being a decent, trustworthy human being to avoid them in the first place is even better. No one's perfect. I appreciate how you've owned this and for the work you're doing to promote Steemit. I hope you find the balance you seem to need in your life so these kinds of things done blow up in your face in the future. Steem on, Jerry. Just be a little more chill about it. :)
You going to Steemfest2?
Really great feedback @Lukestokes! We all make mistakes as long as acknowledge them, we take some knowledge with us to hopefully not repeat them. A little encouragement from people in your community goes a long way in helping not repeat them!
Thanks @brandyb. Sometimes I come off a bit too harsh with tough love that's a bit too tough, so I appreciate your feedback.
Some of the things I really enjoy most here is the accountability and encouragement in the community! You pulled off both in your comment and I was impressed!
I've learned a lot here over the past year+. It's amazing how good a community can be when reputation matters and incentives are aligned to be good actors.
I compare it to playing texas hold'em with play money or real money. When it's play money, no one is serious, everyone bluffs with stupid moves, and the game isn't even fun. With some skin in the game, it can be a blast.
"I compare it to playing texas hold'em with play money or real money. When it's play money, no one is serious, everyone bluffs with stupid moves, and the game isn't even fun. With some skin in the game, it can be a blast."
A perfect analogy for some of the big differences between Steemit and Reddit.
You're surprisingly active in this thread. :)
Indeed! As I found out last night, very few people were aware that I was the author of the witness posts almost word-for-word. I had to pop on the MSP radio to clear that up for everyone.
I feel like Kato Kaelin.
Thank you Luke this was just the comment I needed to turn off the computer and go to bed! I will see you at Steemfest2!
Hi Jerry, I am fairly new to Steemit and know who you are already. You are the first Steemit Celeb I know. It is great to see the honesty and owning up to a situation. It shows you have very little ego to flaunt and are focused on being a better person and learning. I already love you. Good night.
Excellent. Sleep well (you better not get a notification on your phone about this comment!). I look forward to meeting you there.
I too am brand new to Steemit and value information from you among others and am glad to see how you make things right. I have not seen the video in question but see how it must have affected others.
@lukestokes, I'd like to remind you of this https://steemit.com/witness/@jerrybanfield/jerrybanfield-witness-update-1 and in particular what you commented on it....
lukestokes · 2 months ago
I'm very glad to see you owning the mistakes you've made in the past. Greed and impatience are some nasty things. Some might ask, is this an apology for getting caught or an actual change in character? The latter are quite rare. I'm hopeful. Time will tell.
Feels like deja-vu?
Thank you @drakos. I'm well aware of it, and thinking about that exact comment was the main reason I was so disappointed and discouraged to see his account creation scheme. I'll say "scheme" instead of "scam" because I do think (in his own mind) he was working to help others while making a nice profit for himself. That's what many successful people do.
His quick response to this seems to indicate to me he is genuinely trying to change. Crying about this issue, going to AA meetings, feeling tormented about time away from his family... well, Jerry doesn't come across as the most stable fellow to me, but that's why I'm looking forward to meeting him in person to better understand where he's coming from. I recognize we're all the product of our inputs up to this point and some of us have an easier time than others. I'm willing to offer the benefit of the doubt because I think encouragement and tough love together is how we can move towards a better world we all want to live in.
In this case, I think he made a stupid mistake and he owned it. He recognized it as a bad pattern, and he's working to improve. If I thought he was outright trying to harm people here or this community, I certainly wouldn't give him my support. We can either get down on people who do that or encourage them along their path towards improvement.
I sure know which I'd prefer if the situation were reversed, and I was the one screwing up.
If he was a regular blogger I wouldn't care what schemes he uses to earn a buck. But being a witness is a different league, which comes with a responsibility toward the platform. Things like that should never happen in the first place. I can forgive it once, twice, but three times? It becomes difficult. Everyone has personal real life challenges and difficulties, but that's not an excuse to mess up over and over hoping that things will be alright. I bust my ass 12 hours a day helping newbies, trying to gain followers and voters. I spend time interacting with people, I don't have whales upvoting me with thousands of dollars a month. So when I see someone trying to swindle people repeatedly, that grinds my gears badly.
"But being a witness is a different league, which comes with a responsibility toward the platform."
An excellent point. The community's votes ultimately draw that line.
It looks like an opportunistic moment grown from genuinely trying to help, as far as it's explained. He clearly tried to do something good while monetising it which took away from the first intention a little. He's extremely stupid, being in the position of a top 30 witness and knowingly offered it or genuinely didn't research/forgot information he clearly already knew. I guess that's for everyone to decide but I'd like to think anyone with half a brain would have done the latter and just didn't think.
I would add, some of the anger seemed to be greater due to a misunderstanding of his offer - some people thought he wanted the full $50, when a portion was to be preloaded as Steem Power, and I merely pointed that out. Where the SP comes from, delegated or actually in there, is another question in my mind!
If there is a service, much like anything else it takes time, unless it can be automated, and it'll take people to do that. I don't find it largely unreasonable to expect some sort of payment for that service especially if you potentially have a higher demand in time. However, when someone else is offering it virtually for free, it of course devalues your proposition and makes you look a bit silly.
Don't kill me, I know I'm a little new here to say this, but perhaps generally you witnesses could do well to consider your actions regarding selling of products and services similar to this or upvote bots if we want to create a trusting community and bring new users to the platform. We need figureheads who are seen to truly care about those who use it and maybe not be seen to try and make money from them...just a thought.
If you followed his blog since he started on Steemit, you'd see that every move he made was money oriented. He constantly preached that witnesses 'make a lot money', and now we have a lot of newbie witnesses, who don't know what they're doing, trying to make it BIG like jerry, because of his false dream selling. I specifically wrote a post to address that: https://steemit.com/witness-category/@drakos/the-witness-business-promises-of-riches
"He constantly preached that witnesses 'make a lot money'"
Objectively true, although it's no path to easy earnings.
"lot of newbie witnesses, who don't know what they're doing, "
They have basically no hope of making it to the top 20, then, right? How much harm is done?
"trying to make it BIG like jerry, because of his false dream selling."
At least he does point out after-the-fact it's not a get rich quick scheme, unlike craig grant.
And yet, how much money is he spending on advertising to promote Steemit? I don't think his motives are completely bad or completely selfish. I agree with your concerns as far as his actions and the expectations of a witness. I'm willing to give him a third chance because I value the real efforts he's putting out there to promote the platform.
And yet on those very same promotional posts, he was crying vote for me as witness. I too recall the comments he made about witnesses and making a lot of money. It was at this point he lost me. It became self evident his "community" activities were self-orientated. There are many other hardworking people on this platform who really put a great deal of effort into services to improve our Steemit experience, yet do it for free, or what they earn in from upvote support.
Yep @drakos I dunno why I'm even writing this to be honest as I don't know the history, but I guess I believe in giving people a chance. Forgive me if that's naïve.
Everyone makes mistakes and it does sound like he's made his fair share. However, putting yourself in the spotlight you'll always get criticised for this and for that, perhaps it's all justified too I'm definitely not trying to defend his actions just being Devil's advocate. Sometimes it's really easy to get the wrong impression of people's intent by their words or their actions. Or you get it right and they're just sneaky bastards!
What I would say is that sometimes a person with his energy and clear commitment can really help create and sustain interest and momentum from the outside - I discovered Steemit through one of his posts, alongside a couple other things. And I did find some stuff he said to be exaggerated, untrue or speculative (when seeming sure) but it still drew me in! I'm not condoning that approach to marketing, but it does work. The flamboyant crazy salesman, while pissing some people off and treading on toes can make the conversion numbers, the content, community and platform should hopefully do the talking after that.
If Jerry is what you think he is then he will hopefully learn to be better or he'll fail sometime soon...
"I discovered Steemit through one of his posts,"
Me too...simply from YT reach, I wasn't a subscriber.
Honestly, he probably even got me with a clickbait-y title...darn it, it worked on me.
It's not a swindle if the vendor gives the buyer what the buyer paid for. I am only talking about this $50/account deal.
"I'll say "scheme" instead of "scam" because..."
Even more importantly, it's not a scam if it delivers what is promised. It can be a bad price but that doesn't make it a scam. I'm always careful to call Genesis Mining an "almost scam".
"Jerry doesn't come across as the most stable fellow to me, but that's why I'm looking forward to meeting him in person to better understand where he's coming from."
I would be interested to hear your thoughts afterward. I know my perception changed.
"I sure know which I'd prefer if the situation were reversed, and I was the one screwing up."
A good point that I used to think was trite.
You would think different if you worked with him on other platforms before steemit and see the same thing over and over. so much so he got himself expelled.
Jerry has serious history with this sort of stuff. serious. and was given time to change and did not. Now I watch intelligent steemains make the same mistakes and fall for the same tricks. You watch, the steemit community will rise together and remove what is not in the best interest of steemit, its history repeating.
By the way, i have worked on other platforms jerry worked on :-) so been there done that and I wont be spending my steem on a tshirt
Thank you for communicating that experience, @paulag. To me, he seems open about his previous failures. Do you think he's hiding them in some way? I like to believe the best about people, and that they are capable of positive change. Personally, I don't think I've been tricked yet other than I did decide to support his witness campaign with my vote (for now) because of what I see to be claims about marketing campaigns he's investing in. Do you think those are fraudulent claims he's making about his marketing campaigns?
This I completely agree with. As part of that, I also think the Steemit community has no need to go on witch hunts or police behavior they don't prefer if there are no victims involved. Are there victims of Jerry's here on Steemit? Is there anyone he hasn't refunded who has requested refunds? These facts are things I'm interested in when making decisions about his actions and whether or not his character is improving as a member of this community. I'm less concerned with whether or not I like him as a personality.
In this specific example, he claims to have shut down the service before anyone used it. Of all the comments here, I don't see any victims who feel taken advantage of in this case. Maybe that's because of our policing efforts and without them there would be many victims. That's quite possible. Ideally, Jerry can do a better job in the future of policing himself like the rest of the adults here. :)
"Maybe that's because of our policing efforts and without them there would be many victims."
I would agree with this statement.
And i would also agree, that if he was good for steemit, it doesnt matter if i, or you like him as a person.
I have called Jerry out as a lair when he proclaims he gave up 10K a month making online courses for steemit.
You might be interested in reading this further comment @lukestokes I left for Jerry with no reply for him. https://steemit.com/story/@jerrybanfield/i-am-sorry-for-my-last-post#@paulag/re-jerrybanfield-re-stellabelle-re-jerrybanfield-i-am-sorry-for-my-last-post-20171010t231442861z
On saying all of that @lukestokes, you are the type of person that shows hope and gives opportunity. You are one of the good guys. It is evident from the compassion you have shown in your post. You have so much more experience on steemit than I have, but I have 6 odd years in the same circle as jerry!
I'm with you on this Luke, you summed up my thoughts on the matter better than I could. Owning up to our mistakes is not easy and Jerry did so here so he has every benefit of the doubt from me. I would add that he never attacks anybody or tries to tear down or destroy, he only tries to create. Some creations are duds, and some are great. That's just how it goes.
I would remove him as a witness @lukestokes, he does not care about the steemit or being a witness. Look at the comment of @ats-david, that did a little research and showed the truth. He bribed most of the top whales to vote him. He is on autovote for a lot of people because his post pay curation. I wonder if the earning per post drop to 20-30$ hew would continue or not.
If he doesn't care about Steemit, it's confusing to me that he'd spend his own money promoting it via advertising campaigns. Compared to what many other witnesses are doing (or not doing, for that matter), it's valuable effort.
You raise some important points, and I don't know who votes up all his points (it's certainly not me). If his payouts went down would he stick around because of a genuine love for this platform? I don't know. I hope so. I'm willing to give him another chance to find out because, again, I think his marketing efforts are useful for the platform.
Hey @lukestokes, thank you for taking the time for answering. That he is paying for the ads is remarkable, but it is not a must and it his free will and choice. Nobody else forced him to do it and we are not supposed to pay for it. If I do something volunteraly, I don't ask after it for a pay. It is common sense.
Maybe I get it wrong: a witness role is to take care of the nodes and keep it runing, also decided and keep the peg of 1USD to the SBD, not outsource it to someone else who is already a witness and who could take care of another server. Once in a while a witness update is good. I see here only a money chaser, not a valuable technical addition.
If I wanted to apologies I would decline payouts from the start of it, not to rape again the reward pool for another 100 bucks, as this 100 bucks are coming automatically from the autovotes. That would be fair, the resulted funds go back into the reward pool. Before Steemit, he was with Dash, but the guys there ignored him and he left and moved here.
I followed him before, but as he attacked some other members like tamim, who is one of the top5 investors in steemit, I posted some questions which got ignored. I think I have a very low SP, some other guys with higher SP he answered, of course it is more lucrative.
Great point on the declining payout. He really should have done that.
" he attacked some other members like tamim,"
That was not an attack. It's disingenuous of you to frame it as such.
Ironic that you'd defend behavior pretty easily arguably worse (per the community) than Jerry's.
We had some discussion some time ago and I always respected your well formed response. Also I admire your loyalty. You try to respond to more people than Jerry, not only for the big influencers and high power steemians. Hat off to that.
Tamim was an example. I will rephrase it, that he pointed out tamim, but tamim stopped 9 days before that post. And also tamim is one of the top10 investors in steemit with over 500k USD worth of deposit, compared to others like dan who took out 2mil USD.
Like said last time, I see Jerry as a valuable marketing machine for steemit. The witness thing is another story and also trying to cash out in every opportunity like the registration service is deplorable. David had a point in here with the post.
Jerry is a big influencer and a high power account on steemit, so a lot of people follow him. Every action has influence on steemit. If he wants to be the guide for steemians he needs to think good if that 100$ are worth the risk of the reputation. It would have been genuine, to decline the payout and admit that he wanted to milk the error. That would offered him so much power. Also the post with the 4 months could have waited a couple of days. It just shows that he did not meet his quota for a given day.
i kno rite, if jerry was doing that theyd explode
Cooler heads will eventually prevail.
Thanks for sharing your perspective. I agree, this post could have been a decline payout post which would have helped in this situation. I also think some responsibility falls on those who are auto voting up all his content. If they think he's providing real value, then that's fine. If they are just wanting to get curation rewards, and they don't care about the long-term impact of rewarding someone who many in the community feel is just here for a money grab, than that's not so fine.
I spent a long time arguing witnesses need to be primarily technology people and even refrained from becoming a witness myself for many, many months (even though I have been programming since 1996 and running my own SaaS) because I prefer coding over DevOps/server maintenance. I later softened my view a bit and now think there is room for those who are helping the community in other ways while also maintaining reliable witness and seed nodes. So far, Jerry's witness isn't missing blocks, so that's a good sign. Whether or not he's outsourcing the service he provides or doing it himself directly is less of a concern to me.
I'm not familiar with Jerry attacking anyone, so I missed that. I see he gets attacked quite a lot himself, and I'd also say a good portion of it is justified based on his poor decisions.
And of course, no one is forcing anyone to do anything here. That goes without saying. But if someone is providing something of value (advertising for steemit) then that's the type of thing I'm happy rewarding, even if I don't agree with them on every other point. If someone else was doing effective marketing for Steemit with a better track record and history, I'd be encouraged to support them even more.
Again, thanks for your perspective. I'm taking in input from all around. If Jerry continues with this track record of making poor decisions, then his marketing contributions obviously won't make up for that, and he'll lose my witness vote as well as that of others. I'm willing to give him time to change because I'm not convinced he has malicious intent. I'd go so far as to say this Steemit environment of reputation and rewards is actually helping him change for the better, and that will take time.
"I'm not familiar with Jerry attacking anyone, so I missed that."
That's probably because it didn't happen.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@jerrybanfield/meet-steem-s-1-author
"Here is what I learned in two sentences: the top author is currently earning $10,000 to $20,000 a month from discrete upvotes directly on comments that are then upvoted at the very last minute! To be more specific, @mindhunter earns about $20,000 a month mostly with comments such as "Me too" which get upvoted for $60 several times every day! See the picture below!"
It only gets more diplomatic from there. That's about the bit closest to an "attack".
Around here, Jerry is subject to a bit of a double standard. Point something out about Jerry, he's malicious. Jerry points something out about mindhunter/tamim...Jerry's malicious.
haters gon hate.
Note: garbage song is garbage.
Thank you again for a well writen reply.
Like said, for me witness needs to be technical and on the spot ready. The guy who is handling his witness is top notch.
His intent is not malicious as I see it, it is only focused on self gain. Like said if he would have been really sorry, he would have declined the payout.
And also would have not brought the latest post with the 4 months in here. Did he not make enough on the other 2?
Thanks again Luke, I will close the topic now even if I might seem rude, as I see it as a time waste. I would rather comment on your posts than in here ;)
He is investing money dude. This is a business to him, his approach is money first comunnity later if he really cares about the community at all, I know how to read People's greed and you know how I know that? Because I was just like him. His apologies aren't sincere in my opinion, just look at his videos, face and bodylanguage, a Changed Person or at least one with good intentions would have balanced things because in the end for many people is about the money, he should give back more to the community that has given him all. I don't tend nor like judging people because we ain't perfect; Nobody's Perfect but this guy is taking his mistakes lightly, how can you trust a person that wrote this two months ago and haven't made adjustments?
"Mistakes
Releasing a video course promoting becoming a Steem witness. Instead of simply putting a video up to explain the benefits of becoming a witness for free, I was consumed by greed and made a $180 video course which I tricked people into buying with a mining title. Several buyers were very upset and demanded refunds. Outrage poured into the comments on YouTube and into the witness chat channels from witnesses frustrated I was charging for information available for free. Since making this course, I have switched to completely free tutorials all of which are now on Steem showing everything I have learned about being a witness. This felt like not enough which prompted me to reconsider my entire business model which I am now switching to devote entirely to giving to Steem first and focus on all sharing to Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter with the goal of bringing reaching as many people as possible with the good news about Steem.
Aggressively going after votes from top upvoters as soon as I launched my witness using wallet tips. In my impatience to grab as votes quickly and start earning blocks, I spent over 1000 Steem sending tips to my top upvoters asking for witness votes. I then further defended this in my post about witness voting and in the chat. What I failed to consider was the amount of votes I would lose from pissing other witnesses and whales off with an approach that was called buying votes in the chat. Since the initial upvotes came in from those that were not put off my method of communication, getting any additional votes has proven extremely difficult as witness after witness has ignored my request to vote for me or responded with a strong no because of the mistakes I made here. I have learned that instead of focusing on getting votes, I need to focus on what I am giving to our community as a witness and trust that I will receive the votes I need. I am giving up directly asking for votes in any method outside of posts and comments.
I own everything I have done, good and bad, here in my first month as a witness. I appreciate the patience the majority of us have shown in not letting my moments of greed and impatience ruin the rest of what I have given that seems to be a positive contribution below!"
He has to earn our respect again or at least my respect again to even consider him as witness. Best Regards!
"how can you trust a person that wrote this two months ago and haven't made adjustments?"
I don't get it, am I missing something here?:
"I have switched to completely free tutorials all of which are now on Steem showing everything I have learned about being a witness. "
"I have learned that instead of focusing on getting votes, I need to focus on what I am giving to our community as a witness and trust that I will receive the votes I need. I am giving up directly asking for votes in any method outside of posts and comments.""
Did he not "make adjustments"?
PS - Howdy poker buddy.
You may be right. He may be through and through a greedy, unrepentant person who can not and will not change. I'm willing to give him some time to find out. His contributions via marketing spends are valuable to the community, regardless of if he personally sees it as a business investment or a service he provides in exchange for his witness pay.
The reason I'm willing to withhold judgement is we are all in it "for the money" on some level. We all act in our own rational self-interests. As I mentioned in another comment, altruism isn't really a thing because even if I do something which is seen as altruistic, it would be to support my desire to create a world I want to live in. On some level or another, it comes back to what I want. This is how our species functions (for the most part). Some do it well in ways that support their communities and some do not. Some learn the hard way and change and some do not.
Clearly Jerry's on thin ice here. I'd like to see some in the community change their autovotes to reward him less so we could all find out for sure if he's here just for the financial rewards or to also be part of a community that's bigger than himself.
"The reason I'm willing to withhold judgement is we are all in it "for the money" on some level."
Isn't it tiresome fighting against the virtue-signalling of those who won't admit this?
"This is how our species functions"
QFT.
"Clearly Jerry's on thin ice here."
Can't argue with you there.
Money is a big motivator of Course, noone can't deny that! But at least be honest about it. I would have respected jerry way too more if he had said "you know what, this my business I charge whathever the hell I want to charge, there are other cheaper options so it's your call" Here we are talking about a guy who is playing nice guy but has the $ Symbol written all over his face. He can at least be honest on who he is and what he really wants!
Not disagree with you, but society can't take much radical honesty!
Don't try it on your girl.
u better not mean me
he is not spending his own money advertising steemit. he is spending steemians money advertising himself. Don't you think he is collecting email addresses, growing the seo on his own site, doing what google and facebook love....spending...
And look at what he is saying about steemit. Do we really want people thinking steemit is a get rich quick platform. Oh look at all the money, the money, the money.....its always about the money, and oh yea give me your email, take my course and I will tell you to ask for follow for follow and have loads of bad habbits. Oh @lukestokes its clever marketing my jerry that is all. designed to make your head spin.
@smartbot tip @lukestokes 1000
Wow, thanks! I've never heard of this and look forward to checking it out.
Tipped @lukestokes
1000 SMART! Comment@smartbot helpto claim. Currently the price of SmartCash in the market is$0.020 USDperSMART. To find out more about SmartCash, please visit https://smartcash.cc.We all make mistakes from time to time. Especially when we get excited about a project. Using a metaphor, sometimes we steam full ahead without seeing the icebergs that might sink us. Many of us realized that was probably the case in this instance.
Your fine Jerry. You made a mistake. Learn from it and move on.
Sincerely from your friend, @sargento
I downvoted this post.
Any credibility behind this 'apology' was gone the moment you decided to accept payment for it.
As a side note -- i can't say for sure what other's problem was with your previous post, but the key point to me isn't that the service is already available, its the exorbitant price youre charging for people to join the platform. Especially coming from someone who has gotten the level of rewards you have i would think any such endeavor would be not-for-profit
Not declining payment was definitely a regrettable "oversight", in this case.
wouldve looked better
I would have to agree on this point.
Well maybe don't unvote witnesses that called you out?
Yes I removed votes for each witness above because each removed votes from me hours before and appeared to not want support from me as a witness voter. If I am wrong about that, I am happy to make votes again.
You also removed a witness vote from me before any of those votes and asked me previously in private message for 10,000 Steem to be an advertiser on your project which I rejected because I do not believe we should endorse paid sponsorships links within Steem. These are very much like ads and could run the user experience.
Yes I did remove you as witness, because I dont believe you're acting in the best interests of new steemians.
As for asking for sponsorship it was a lifetime spot, AND I'm asking people who actually have resources, not the newest, unfunded individuals seeking a new opportunity. So If I'm wrong for that, then so be it.
You made a fair point and I added @drakos back today because he has helped me a lot with witness questions.
Well I do not really know you @jerrybanfield - confirming mistakes is usually a good thing - great for you it makes you some bucks still. Nothing else to add because who I am I to judge anything here or criticize a Steemit Witness that is even a Celeb and far ahead most of the other Steemians. However you could have chose decline payout for that one.
Is normal, you do like 20 post a week ... you help the community always and your are human, not perfect ....
Hey ,
Thanks for the great content
Thank U for the honesty