Troubles Introducing Prospects To Steemit
With all the commotion going on, let me explain my position. Many of you been seeing my comments as so called "rants and trolling." I am speaking out to present information that is being continuously swept under the rug and something needed to be said... again. Apparently by speaking the truth and being honest is trolling so if that's how you perceive it then so be it.
@timcliff explained quite accurately how the potential payouts and flagging work.
https://steemit.com/payout/@timcliff/everything-you-need-to-know-about-potential-payouts-and-flagging-for-new-users
Many suggested solutions and even one by the creator of Steemit(that I agree with) has been rejected by the supposed community.
We seen all the explanations on how the platform works and yes I get that the larger stakeholders get to decide how the reward pool is distributed. We have stake concentration and voting concentration that exists and that gives a large stakeholder the ability to decided if a post is "over rewarded" and redistribute to other deserving authors on the platform.
There's more to Steemit than just money and I have been around on Steemit for a few months trying to learn the ins and out and attempt to on board new users from a list of prospects I had but when I was thinking about how to explain to them about Steemit, I had a bit of a trouble. Some of my prospects are friends and family, some are investors. Here's where I get stuck...
"Earn while blogging....but there's a limit you can earn..."
That is a tough thing to sell and would make anyone wonder why to even bother. Yes I can change the words or explain things differently, but I am not going to sugar coat things to mislead others.
This does not seem to incentivize much of those that I have already spoken to because of this very issue. Here's some of the questions I've gotten:
Prospect:
What happens if I get popular and start trending all the time?
My answer: You will most likely be seen as earning too much and too popular so you can't expect to continue earning large rewards consistently. That's based on the large stakeholder's opinion on whether you deserve it, or someone else does.
Prospect:
So why should I blog and build followers? At a certain point, a large stakeholder will eventually disagree on my reward and that wouldn't motivate me to blog and create content.
My answer: That's how the system is designed. Large stakeholders determine where the piece of the pie goes.
Prospect:
So the large stakeholders are the one's determining what ends up trending?
My answer: Essentially, yes
Prospect:
So the trending page is filled with posts that are basically a large stakeholders preference on posts and it is not trending based on the community?
My answer: Yes... So if you want to have more influence on that, you need to invest in more STEEM.
Prospect:
So if I invest in more STEEM, I will be able to blog and earn more?
My answer: Not neccessarily... If a larger stakeholder disagrees on your reward all the time, then you are limited to how much you will earn.
Prospect:
So if I can't invest to have more STEEM than the largest stakeholder, why should I invest at all if there is someone limiting a user's earnings?
My answer: The price of STEEM could go up.
This is where I lose my prospects as I'm sure many of you can understand. Usually it's good to be popular on social media platforms and the current design of Steemit make it quite the opposite. These are basically the same answers that we've been hearing on posts lately.
I will continue to post but not like I have in recent weeks and will post every so often to update the community. I have started my power down process and will be focusing more on trading STEEM and continue to learn more on blockchain technologies. I will still be involved in the community but not much with content creation.
I am working on setting up a full public node for the community to use in the near future so be on the lookout for that.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post.
Image source: Pixabay
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Well put from this perspective. 🙂
On the one hand I'm glad that the platform isn't something that someone can come in and corner because they have great stuff, a celebrity or are (up to a point) well funded. Otherwise there'd be nothing to stop some random person with a little power at Nike, or a pop star to come in on a whim and make a killing.
Maybe that thinking is quite short-sighted. A lot of people are calling for people like that to come, and I think it could be great too, but they would be a like a super whale with space lasers in terms of societal capital already.
So on the other hand, wouldn't that bring up the value of Steem, and the tide would raise everyone else up too? I don't think that's clear cut, but if it is then it's obviously in everyone's interest.
What's interesting is that what you have described above is the exact situation the platform was designed to create. From the whitepaper, pg 16
"Long-term vested interest" biases against new investors. It seems this was never envisaged as a platform that would make getting into very quick and easy, or that would allow anyone to dominate daily reward pool shares (though actually this does seem to happen in favor of early investors).
Here's an alternative for regular investors: buy Steem coin and don't get involved in the platform. This also would raise the price of Steem if I'm not mistaken, if it happened a lot. It's low now so it's the time (unless this actually means is junk 😭). If they want to take a risk on investing, they can see how the social network aspect plays out from afar, and let us do the hard work of trying to raise the profile, etc. etc. It would be perfectly reasonable.
However I think your critique of it as a blogging platform which pays is valid. At this time, with the system we have, it may not work for that in the traditional sense of good work = good pay.
The fact that there's a lot of discussion about the issue, from a lot of different people, is good and there's a lot of reasonable voices here. It's not for certain that it won't change. They could gamble on that. Probably a lot of people are at this stage.
Thanks for getting my brain going! 😄
This was actual questions by actual prospects I had conversations with in person. I am just sharing some of their questions. All of the prospects I discussed with didn't like what they saw on steemit.chat
Yeah I try to avoid steemit.chat except some rare cases where I get an email saying someone asked for me. I prefer to be transparent and have my conversations on the blockchain.
Well my prospects didn't like it. There's even people that are trying to get information from me posing as someone else. I just go along and with the conversation. You may hear about a perverted chat I had and that I have no money to invest :P
Yes, Steemit can be a tricky sell. I'm finding this all the time, and getting some of the same questions and concerns. But in general, digital currency and bitcoin is a sell where I live. People do not want to invest or deal with digital currency, better yet use a blogging platform that pays in digital currency.
I know it's not like that everywhere.
I think that if you truly believe in the platform or if you are going to blog for the sake of blogging, Steemit is a great place. You can do what you love to do already, and you can earn. You can invest in what you love already for better results.
Great read! Followed and upvoted.
Nope, I cannot support the blogging part. There's not much point if a large stakeholder will affect how the content is viewed. I thought the point was to be popular and gain followers but you can lose rewards and reputation simply by blogging.
Some of us are trying to reason with them so hopefully something we say will make sense to them and they might change. Yet I'm sure you have noticed some of them made up their mind long ago and will hear no different, and some of them don't even read the attempts to reason with them. They might read the title and a sentence or two, and then they flag or they comment.
Yet this is the only avenue those with less power have to try to reach them. If it has no chance of success then I agree with you. Some people have changed their mind. We have had some success, yet some of the most powerful continue.
EDIT: Also there is nothing to stop some wealthy celebrity from coming along buying a bunch of steem and us ending right back in this same situation.
But don't you think as the platform grows the amount of steem will become more distributed? Whales control a large portion of influence that can affect you. But the flip side to that is that ANYONE CAN BECOME A WHALE. Whales will power down when the price is right for them, the platform will continuously re-distribute the balances of steem between users. I see the whale influence as an early byproduct of investing. As long as everyone has the power to earn steem, or buy steem, they can gain influence. The great thing about the free market, is there will be incentive for whales to drain their steem power. Eventually it can and will balance out if the platform grows. Someone will always hold more influence than others, but one day, it will be more equally distributed, no?
That's the speculation yes. I will be involved with trading and doing witness stuff. I just won't be creating the similar content I used to or posting as much. Can't get very far with it atm.
I appreciate the little pep talk :)
As a content creator, I came here to "give it a try" for 30 days. Those 30 days expire the day after tomorrow... and part of that 30-day test period was about whether I was prepared to start singing the virtues of Steemit to a broader audience, as a censorship-free social blogging platform.
Whereas I will probably continue posting my own content, I'm having some reservations about presenting the site to a broader audience. Too many "arbitrary" and "unanswerable" questions, in the current format. And don't get me wrong... I was a dedicated follower of the social blogging format that was really popular before Facebook.
Steemit has SO MUCH potential, on several levels... from just the social blogging format to serving as a "soft entry" for people new to cryptocurrencies. I'd really hate to see the site self-destruct...
I'm sorry you feel that way and and I agree with everything you're saying. The community can prevent it from self-destructing. Just need to come to consensus on a solution.
When I click on the reward for this post it says "Payout declined". Is that what the author was talking about? Who gets to decide if the payout is declined? Say for example this post received 1000 votes and 100 comments and was due a payout of $100 could the payout be cancelled by a single large stakeholder?
No I declined the payout. If created this post with a payout, A single large stakeholder or multiple large stakeholders will not cancel the payout completely but it can reduce the reward of the post.
I agree, great information is coming in like a tidal wave. Love it. The only problem is remembering all of it. Jeez. I'm glad you care so much my good fellows. Thank you.
Thanks for the post.
Are you, at any point implying, that the reward destruction, whale flagging is in any proportion being done to entice, provoke, or cajole Steemians to become larger investors? I don't think that will help increase the attractiveness of Steemit as a platform.
I don't think the sell job of "If you want to be a god then put up a lot of money into a crypto that's crashing into the toilet, so you can demean other people while adding no value", is going to attract a very classy group of people, or create an atmosphere where it's going to be any fun to hang out.
Well guess the money I put up for running a witness and seed node or even running them at all doesn't bring value. Creating a post that helps others run nodes I guess doesn't bring value. I can clearly see that even me posting what I want has large stakeholders and even one's that aren't to attack others on the platform that talks against the concentration of power.
Edit: It seemed like you were implying I was demeaning other people but I may have misread that.
I wasn't picking on you. I was describing the trolls who don't add value. It sounds like you are contributing quite a lot. I don't have lots of money, so the best investment I can make here is to try and post the best information I can, and hope someone sees it.
My apologies.
Yes I was simply sharing an experience with some prospects and gave them the answers I got from the one's with the most influence on the platform.
Yes I see that investing your time to post is a huge investment. There are some on the platform that care that you do.
The parameters of this place are too imbalanced. This would not be a fun game. The incentives are twisted out of proportion. I'll bet they didn't even hire a game designer to play test it before it was released in beta. At this rate, Steemit is not going to last as long as World of Warcraft. Let the Warcraft game theory loose on Steemit, game testers would have sorted this power imbalance, first.