RE: Introducing UserAuthority (UA), @steem-ua and UA-API !
Hm, I can agree on one term: there are people for who, UA is an extra reinforcement. But this isn't general at all. E.g. haejin seems to have relatively low UA despire his high REP and other metrics that'd rise him to the top.
Self-voting is cancer, I agree, I can't understand how it's not eradicated yet. I'm on the brink of being afraid to spread the word about Steem because of it. Any skeptic would laugh at my face for this.
Human nature is very hard to "fix" and several experiments on that matter have failed spectacularly, hence my focus on content quality. Shallow people stay shallow, you can't do a thing about that - tilting, as you said, towards proactive and engaging people, however, is beneficial.
These, in my view, can all be improved by UA - not that it's a miraculous metric, but a pretty damn good one, considering it's based on an idea that has made Google what it is today. When it comes to supporters: it looks fine by me. I contant them on Discord regularly, they are more on the "good end" of the spectrum, if I can tell such a thing.
Scipio was arrogant, I admit, but truth be told, I was a bit close to that, too. No offense, but your first comment seemed like mindless shitting. Fortunately, respect for me is a default, so often I prefer making a note on inappropriate comments, and keep respect as long as I get the same. Which is the thing right now, fortunately.
It is not anyone's job to fix human nature, certainly not in a platform like this. It is more feasible to aim for an environment where the arrogant bullies are not allowed more and more power - this implies safeguards being place there to limit such anti-social actions. By arrogant bullies, I suggest those who abuse the flag to punish people for actions unrelated to a particular post, those who remain grumpy all day long (and are favored by the same people) who who keep blacklists, and the so-called curators who merely select content which they and their friends agree with. These actions are all familiar (yes, a lot like Google, Facebook, and so on, you are right). These parties all claim to operate on some rational basis, but only the naive accept that a nudge and a wink and secret handshakes are rational in any way shape or form. They are only rationale and objective on the surface. In such an environment, the worst in our nature will certainly rise as a reaction to their bullying. The best we can do is stop supporting bullies, and instead speak out against them and try to limit their power over others by all means at our disposal. This metric aims to remove a lot of the possibilities now open to us. No doubt, when this gains traction, we will work out more ways and they will respond again.
I am a simple person who observes things.
On the haejin issue, she almost never interacts with her horde following (they seldom deserve any attention, imo), so I am not surprised about her scoring low on a metric which thinly pretends to measure interaction. I am sure if she started jerking some of the people behind this project, her score will rise very quickly.Most people are not intellectual whores. All of her weaknesses taken into account, she may be supported by some giants, but she doesn't pander to anyone. That I have always admired about her (more than her posts).
That isn't arrogance on its own, but a good indicator.
Well, even if not fixing nature, what I can see on Steem is a huge experiment going onwards on fixing governance issues about the basic idea behind it. My impression is that many, many crypto/blockchain is flawed because of the way decisions are made. Of course it includes Steem, but because of its very nature, new solutions are tried and implemented all the time. This place is one of a kind.
All the issues you list are in a way or another, the symptoms of what I'm talking about. But, once more, UA is not a symptom on its own.
Reading onwars, I don't think I can convince you, and no offense but the more accusations you do ("a metric which thinly pretends to measure interaction"? Really?) the less I feel like want to.
I just only suggest for you to have a more optimistic attitude. Not an obligation, but would help to make you feel better.