RE: Steemit: The Whale Gossip Column Of Privileged Authors Competing for Whale Nipple
While as an author, I publish my content for the love of publishing and writing, I would LOVE to receive more interactions from people. I know that I am not some low-grade author, and I know that I have many interesting topics to cover, but there just isn't much interaction. The money aspect is really great, but its a bonus to me where I seek to enliven people's days with a great poem or story, or to enrich their thoughts with knowledge and to hear feedback in the form of questions and criticism. I've noticed that with just upvoting creating the rewards (if your comments get upvotes you get rewards too) it tends to have many people just upvoting and not even reading. Any ideas on how to eliminate that and create a community that is more involved with itself? I know that some authors, like yourself, receive much interaction - but its also because of how much their posts are making giving people incentive to post "Great article, thanks!" while receiving some legitimate input from interested readers, but largely I do not see that happening - perhaps its just my perspective, its my experience certainly.
author can set a test question that relate to the content, and the voter must answer the question to vote
I dig this idea. That way you would have to read the whole article and understand it.
something a bot can't do
Exactly!!
That's a great idea, but I'm afraid that curators would simply choose to not vote and move to the next post with trending potential. As a result, authors would simply stop posting a test question because they'd be afraid of getting no votes and not being seen...still.
I've been saying this since my first real view of the system: It all starts with the whales. If they don't take it upon themselves to more equitably distribute the rewards to quality writers, then it won't happen. As it stands right now, even if it's not true, the perception is that they'd rather use their bots and reward a select few users...and themselves for what most people are apparently seeing as sub-par content. They have the ability to make or break this platform. Right now, there are a lot of people who think it's broken. I'm not one of them - yet - but I'm not going to say that it isn't trending that way. Because I think it is.
Just look at the top trending posts right now. Five of the top 10 are directly about Steemit, and a couple others are closely related. That's a real problem.
Upvoted your comment because I like this discussion. Not sure if I agree or not, but it's a nifty idea.
That's a pretty good idea, I like that.
You're a good writer @alchemage. And your comments here are spot on.
I started just upvoting friends for a bit, but started to realize it's not really a way to continue with integrity. Now, if I upvote, it's because I read it and appreciate the content, even if I disagree. In some cases, I read and appreciate the content, but also think that the article has already been paid as much or more than it's worth. In that case, I might comment without upvoting, which, in my mind, is a personal upvote as well. I do upvote my own comments too, because I can. :P
Thank you @anotherjoe.
When I first came to #Steemit, I operated in the same manner that you mentioned. I had a two week break of madness IRL that I had to deal with and when I came back I realized that I need to expand my sights and have been consciously seeking new authors of good content. Like yourself, I too upvote only on those articles which I have read and appreciate, and I do my best to comment on the ones I upvote as well - though sometimes the content is not of such that I have a vast knowledge on, or cannot fully wrap my head around, and have nothing to say other than "Great article, thanks!" (hahaha) so I just stay silent.
This small article is the proof to the main argument of his article. He just received over 500$ in just under an hour for a few words that many and many people have already said before. @barrycooper I am not trying to take off any credit that you might have earned, but if this article made it up to 500$+ in under an hour and A story I've spent many hours on building brought me less then 3$ https://steemit.com/fiction/@kuriko/in-the-eyes-of-danger-chapter-2-looking-into-the-eyes-of-a-monster
I can't seem to see how we are going in the right direction. I am not really into complaining but I hardly understand if people even read what they upvote. In any case your article is the living proof of the issue you seem to point, I am barely motivated to continue on steemit myself and I am sure i'm not the only one. It all goes back to whales running after known people.
I enjoyed this article of you https://steemit.com/barrycooper/@barrycooper/how-to-bust-cops-free-a-mother-from-federal-prison-and-escape-the-united-states I though you did deserve the reward to such a unique story, but a lot of whales are still exclusively running after big names like you and this is mostly why , I won't make it far in here.
I have a post that took me 3 months to complete (Here), and really is still in progress as the experiment is still in works, and it only made $0.18. Frankly, as an author, I am more upset that only one person commented than only making $0.18. I think that the more that you worry about making money off of your posts the more you are going to stress and the more it is going to appear in not only your content but in your curation and comments. If you focus on creating a community that fully interacts with itself then the funding will follow. Don't let others making money and you not making money discourage you to continue on, as others have pointed out - this site is very new, its still in its beta phasing even! I'll be sure to check out your articles. :)
I think a big problem with the platform now is discover-ability. This platform is literally flooded with information at an increasing rate, yet short of feeds it is kind of all dumped in one bucket. If they add being able to subscribe to tags and do something similar to feeds I think it could help. I am sure I've missed some really good posts just because I looked at them and realized I couldn't commit time to be objective about their piece at that time. The majority though it is because I simply never discovered them. It is in beta and I do know this will improve, and any platform with a lot of content coming up with discover-ability algorithms is tough. Think about how youtube, Amazon, and other places make suggestions to you of things you might like. This platform will likely have content flowing onto it way faster than either of those sites. This is a very tricky problem, and I do think that is why you didn't get more comments. YET Qualifier added as I am off to read your article now.
I really like your ideas about discoverability. And I absolutely agree, I've lost a few great articles for not having the energy or time to devote to the article I feel is necessary, then to think of how many I've just never even crossed is almost unfathomable. #betawillgetbetter Thank you for your input. I personally do not know much about developing algorithms, though I can assume it takes time to really zero it in.
I agree with you, yet there is also some value that people like you and I also get to comment and our comments are easier to see and perhaps get people reading them that normally wouldn't due to the extra visibility of @barrycooper's post. I do think it needs to spread around and I've seen people write some great things that got $0.00 or perhaps the $0.01 my vote was worth. I get it. Yet there are often other factors involved that can be beneficial as well. I tend to vote on small posts for people like @barrycooper because I know they have a bigger voice than I do (analogy). My vote is not worth much, if it were I'd still vote for people like Barry unless it was a crappy post, but I would use the slider and likely not award my max amount. As each of us get more power we further spread out the ability to find an uplift more great content. It is slow, but causing this redistribution in a non-organic natural way would be putting power into someones hands to decide who gets this. To some degree whale upvoting already is this, yet they are largely the creators and earliest adopters of the platform so I am uncertain how they could have completely avoided that without nerfing and potentially corrupting the entire system. I do think this problem we are describing is going to improve. I've been here a month and I've already seen quite a few changes.
@Kuriko You read my post so you know I admitted it's unfair that unknown authors are not being rewarded for good content. This does not mean I am being overpaid and you should not judge me for making the money I deserve. You should judge the unfair platform of Steem. I spent more than an hour on this post. I spent 11 years blogging, producing films and busting cops. During this time, I built a brand and fan base that made me popular. Because of my choice to be a humanitarian, I lost everything I had...including my family. Last year, I was alone in Mexico sleeping on a floor for a month. I am rebuilding and just now back on my feet. It's wrong to decide if payouts are the proper amount or not. It's proper to be upset if others are not paid the same. That's what's happening on Steem. I read the article you posted above and I am tenderly and sincerely trying to help you when I say there is another reason your writing is not doing well. It's fiction bro. You have to know this isn't a site where fiction will do good. Perhaps you should write an ebook and offer it for sale. Peace to you and I hope you find a platform where people want to read fiction. You are a good fiction writer.
@barrycooper I agree with the premise of your article and most definitely that no one should be able to judge if what you make on a piece is appropriate or not. As you know, writing is a craft and one that you clearly have been working at for years. Some fiction on here is doing well, but like anywhere else, it must be well crafted.
When I don't do well on an article and I've not done spectacular on any of them, I take into account my newness on the platform. I also take a hard look at the writing style I've used and the writing style of those who do better. I know full well that I can have a thousand people read, but they have to actually like it to get the majority of upvotes.
Some may upvote cause they sort of like it and have seen me around. An act of kindness. If I don't write well, I need to own up and take some ownership of the need to improve.
@shadowspub, I am impressed with our attitude and willingness to adjust and adapt. With a positive and sincere personality, I'm positive you will find your rhythm here. Thanks for the maturity. Big love.
I've actually been working on good commenting and I'm starting to see better interactions with those users where I post. I'm trying to build a community with my own followers and those that I follow. I think it might be working. The last few days have gone fairly well overall - gained quite a few followers and I'm starting to get better feedback on posts.
Nice! I hope the trend continues for you!
I get great interactions on the posts on where I am commenting, heh, but few of them reciprocate. Perhaps I need to be more consistent? :P
I'm fortunate to have @anotherjoe on my follow list, so he certainly helps with the interactions. A lot of my posts are centered around my business relationships (with coffee farmers), so that could be a factor as well. About 60% or more of adults drink it. But yeah - I hope the trend does continue. It's good to know that at least some people have read my posts and enjoy the subject matter and my delivery of it.
I think I was in a dialog with you (perhaps related to religion and science). I do engage in those sometimes. I can tell you when I am posting on a topic like that I need to be in the right frame of mind as it often tends to be that anyone coming at it from a religious perspective gets a ton of up votes, while I am likely sitting there at zero. I do have some great discussions, but that gives the strong impression of talking to people that absolutely 100% have made up their mind. I am not such a person. I debate in civility with people I disagree with because that is when I learn the most. I don't change my views on faith, that will not sway me, but my views do change with such discussions. I respect the freedom of religion and I am certain I had some dialog with you. I wanted you to know I probably will again, but I can only handle talking to people that have an unwavering viewpoint when I am in the right frame of mind. I am not saying that was you, that simply was the type of discussing where I believe our paths crossed.
Hang in there. Steem / Steemit is a very great creation. I believe you'll have more and more dialog as time goes on. We are small in numbers at the moment when you compare us to existing social media. This is not a bad thing while it is in beta. It also gives you a head start on building up steem power and followers.
Yes, we did have such a conversation. :)
I too debate with an open mind, but there has to be new information or a new perspective presented for me to even think about changing my stance. In our conversation I felt no new information was presented and that we were talking about the same things using different words, so I agreed to disagree. I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation though, a healthy debate between two or a group of people allows for wondrous amounts of growth - even if its not on the topic discussed.
I appreciate your support very much.
I agree there does need to be different information. It was my hope that for others that there was some new perspectives. :) Anyway, hang in there... you've got a good mind and were civil. Those are two great things. You will have other good dialogs, and some of them may even be with me. :)
Great point. I've started to make a conscious effort to properly engage with the fiction that people are posting because, otherwise, there isn't going to be a community, there isn't going to be a genuine audience for real writing and authors will drift elsewhere.
I will follow you