RE: I Am Sorry for My Last Post!
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.
I think that's a fair assessment. I personally don't believe in pure altruism because I think everyone is motivated both intrinsically and extrinsically by various reward responses within their own brains. For me, I want to create a world I (and my family) want to live in. Even if I did something that appeared altruistic, it would be towards that end which relates to my own existence.
IMO, one of the biggest challenges facing Steemit right now (beyond the UX/UI issues, lack of communication about downtimes, signup verification delays, etc) is the lack of marketing to non-crypto enthusiasts. Jerry, with all his flaws, is doing something practical about that with his advertising campaigns. I'm willing to try him out as a witness for a time because of that effort which costs real money. He's committed 80% of his witness rewards (if he makes the top 20) to be put back into advertising. If lack of effective marketing is a real problem here, having one of the top 20 witnesses actively working on that seems like something that would benefit us all.
". I'm willing to try him out as a witness for a time because of that effort which costs real money. He's committed 80% of his witness rewards (if he makes the top 20) to be put back into advertising. If lack of effective marketing is a real problem here, having one of the top 20 witnesses actively working on that seems like something that would benefit us all."
I agree. It's not like witness positions have terms. There's no "4 more years" happening here.
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.