"THE SYSTEM IS NOT FAIR AND MAYBE NEVER BE..."
I think steem was an attempt to reward people who are genuinely creating impact and not just content. This goal is far from being achieved and may never be. This is something we all must come to terms with. Steem is a stake-based platform not a Utopia for content creators. The value of your stake determines how much you can pull from the reward pool or your relevance on this platform. And if you ask me, rather than fight this, a better approach would be to find a way around it and make it work for you.
How can you achieve this? Simple, by building your stake and relationships. There is no way around this and you can complain all you want about how unfair steem might be, but the reality is that you are also contributing to this inequality that exists on this platform by not growing your steem-power and selling most of what you make.
Hopefully, sometime in the future, we might not depend solely on the reward pool and find better means of generating revenue for ourselves on steem.
The higher your stake the less work you need to do
Except you're a workaholic like @nathanmars you really do not need to do that much work on steem once you reach a certain level. I currently make as much steem from curation as I would for posting for one week consistently. This is because currently, I have over 12k steem delegation. Funny enough, it's really not that hard to curate, as you can automate things via steemauto. This has reduced the stress of manually curating, which I must say is more preferable, and now I can focus more on creating content and my steem-twitter campaign. The point I am trying to make is that you tend to do less when you have more stake.
Like I've said several times, steem is a more diverse ecosystem at this point and you can earn steem for doing a wide range of things like gaming, vlogging, etc. And yes, the distribution of steem on these various channels might not be fair but you still stand a greater chance of earning than you might have had 7-8months ago on steem.
The system is not fair and may never be. This is not to say that we shouldn't do anything about it. There are many people trying their best to make this an equal playing ground for everyone but this might never be the case if you ask me. What an average minnow earns in a month, a whale can earn in a day. We cannot all automatically become whales overnight (that would be great though), but we can bridge the gap between the smaller and bigger fishes through our investment in steempower.
I remember being on a discord group during one of their live broadcast and the show host said something about steem being a gift. I still see it that way. Where I am from I probably will not stand a chance of earning as much as I do here doing the things I love. But here I am living a dream. I can care less about seeing a shit post with hundreds of dollar while mine struggle between a dollar and a few cents. Every steem earned matters to me. And every day I come here to improve my chances of having a better future and building something worthwhile. It might not be fair but it is certainly worth it. I'm a full-time steemian. I speak, sleep, eat steem. I'm motivated every day to add value to this platform. It might not matter to a lot of people, but that as well doesn't matter. So I would never let it faze me. Looking back and seeing all the progress I have made only indicates that I am on to something. I'm sorry if I have made this article about me, but you can also make this about yourself too. The world might not be a fair place but it can be a better place for you and me through steem as we create our own virtual habitat. By doing that we create the reality we want. And yes it will definitely be a painstaking process. You might have to build and destroy, and then build again; you might learn to fail and fail to learn, but the most important thing is that you're making progress. You might look at this platform and its many shortcomings but you can also be the one to fix some of them in the coming years. This will only be possible if you stay passionate and consistent. Hopefully, you will find people who believe in you like I did and that will make your journey even better. But you need to take that first step and know what you want to achieve here and ask yourself how this said goal will impact the lives of other people and develop the steem ecosystem.
©nonsowrites
Posted using Partiko Android
This is a stake-based system indeed. Is that unfair? How? Should we all have equal stake regardless of anything? The pioneers of Steem have the greatest stake. They are the ones that mined their STEEM. That group includes the shareholders of Steemit Inc and most witnesses. They created the platform in total uncertainty of ever getting paid. To expect those with a large stake to just give without regard to their own profits is too much. This whole project could easily have come to absolutely nothing and resulted only in software engineering work wasted or lots of wear and tear on computers mining STEEM for no purpose. A lot of us are here looking at sub dollar level rewards per day in the expectation that the value of STEEM might go up again with the growth and development of the platform.
And, by the way, impact is a function of your relationships or who you know. Who cares how good your poetry is if you have not developed a readership.
Well, some are of the opinion that this is a platform that rewards quality contents, and they do not earn as much as some steemians with a huge stake who do not provide that same level of quality they give this platform. But like you rightly pointed out, these said individuals paved the way for many of us and if they are making more than the average steemian then it is not necessary a bad thing. Rather than complain I would rather search for alternatives and things that work here and build. Steem is not a perfect system but a workable one, and I can live with that.
Posted using Partiko Android
bam!! great point man. i sat around for the first few months and said to myself...boy do i wish i was here when steem could be mined.
and even wow i wish i could buy steem at a penny.
but the solution is never going to be sit around and wish wish wish....
it’s get our butts moving and do!
it may not be fair. but it is what it is. so you are right. build our stake and build those relationships. best plan forward one can have here.
(edit; apologies for the self upvote. but the whale flag war is hurting me now so for people to see my response i need to boost my comment a little. apologies.)
Yes, we can change the past but definitely, we can define the future and our present experience on steem. And who knows, we might surpass those have been here before us. It is possible. Thanks for stopping by
Posted using Partiko Android
Curation is more poweful organically instead of using automation by steem auto. You might also to never rely on your delegation and work to build your own.
Posted using Partiko Android
Yes, i do agree. However, i have a lot on my plate right now and i am trying to manage my time a d resource.
Posted using Partiko Android
Also, I recommend you to upvote the people who leave your messages on your blog especially with a 12k of delegation. The aim is not to be greedy and do curation with your audience.
If you check I have been doing just that. Only slowed down for the past few days due to my other engagements, and I'm sure they don't mind...or do you?
Posted using Partiko Android
It is your own decision and I am not there to judge you if you vote or not. ;)
Well, thanks for pointing that out, though maybe next time you should work on your tone so you don't come off as judgemental. However, you did make a valid point. I haven't been upvoting comments on my post. This is because I have automated things so I forget I still have to do some things manually.
Posted using Partiko Android
I would say that despite it not seeming so, we are all still considered early adopters and while it may seem to work against us now, imagine when more adoption and Dapps come to the ecosystem. Our seemingly stakes will grow with influence and also diversify as SMTs get deployed and improve the tokenized ecosystem. In the meantime, as you say, make the best of it and hustle to accumulate as much as you can.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Very point. The whole idea is to enjoy the process.
Posted using Partiko Android
Good strategy. I wish you all the best.
Thank you very much
Posted using Partiko Android
Man, you said you'll host a meet-up in Lagos, expecially if it will be in Ikeja, I'll come if it will be around Ikeja
I'm thinking surulere. It's not that far from Ikeja. It will be great if you can attend. But it's still in the planning stage
Posted using Partiko Android
Waoh, I will gladly come, I'll come and say thanks for that 100 SP delegation you gave me a month ago. Thanks so much bro, am forever grateful.
Just a question, there are banks that offer interest if you deposit with them eg bankplethora, which do you think is better, buying steem to power up and earn from curation or putting it in the bank.
Posted using Partiko Android
Well if you have enough to invest I will suggest buying steem power. I have heard about bank plethora, but I have never used their services. Or you can simply buy steem when it is low and sell steem when it goes up. However, I will just invest in steempower if you do understand curation.
Posted using Partiko Android
Definitely I'll like to come, Surulere it is then, so let me know what I can do really to help with the project
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.
Hello! I find your post valuable for the wafrica community! Thanks for the great post! We encourage and support quality contents and projects from the West African region.
Do you have a suggestion, concern or want to appear as a guest author on WAfrica, join our discord server and discuss with a member of our curation team.
Don't forget to join us every Sunday by 20:30GMT for our Sunday WAFRO party on our discord channel. Thank you.
This is just like saying Nigeria will never be great when you compare it to America but that'd not right. Its all a work in progress. I think steemit is just 4 years old and its this good, imagine next 10 years. Even if I didn't join when bigger people on the platform joined, I know one day people will join when I did.
Posted using Partiko Android
Well, personally I think Nigeria can never get better. We are from getting things right. But that aside, steem cannot offer equal opportunities for everyone. Like I said this is a stake based platform. You stake determines what you get from the reward pool. I follow a whale who hasn't made a single post but earns double of what I earn. Is this fair? To some people, it might not be but this said person has over a million steem. They might not have contests here but their money (and a lot of it) is on the blockchain. So it all balls down to perspectives.
Posted using Partiko Android