How about unflagging my posts?
Back in the beginning of Steemit.com (April 2016-ish) I had no notion of the site. I didn't join until August and I missed out on the MASSIVE earnings that some of the very early adopters received for their work. I also doubt I'd have got into the mining thing because I just didn't know enough about it - so that's TWO bites of the cherry I missed.
I arrived with the notion that this was a blogging site where I could share my work and potentially get paid for it.
It took a while - a GOOD while to earn anything.
I made posts that made nothing. I made posts that made a fair bit and once or twice, my earnings went over the $100 Steem mark. WOOHOO!
Just recently, I've made a concerted effort in getting my head together and really get down to writing. I was earning quite a good amount of Steem - but then again, I was also putting in quite a bit of work - even on the stories I'd already written.
You see, I don't just take a piece of my writing, cut and paste it into Steemit.com and run off to do something else. I read through the piece again with my trained Editor's eye and I seek out things that shouldn't be there. I seek out things that could be improved and I change stuff.
Then, I look for a few pictures that suit the topic I've written about and I slide them in there too... you know, just to bulk-out the post and make it attractive to the eye.
I can't possibly tell you how I do all this editing stuff, after all, I've spent years learning it all.
Because I've spent years learning the editing stuff, the writing stuff and the storytelling stuff, I mistakenly believed that time-served in apprenticeship would have value. I've invested time into my chosen career and try as you might to find a purveyor of time, you can't - there's no one selling time - yet.
@lukestokes made a point:
What if...
Hundreds of professional authors come to Steemit and bring expectations to get paid for their work. All their fans get angry when their posts aren't being voted up enough. Everyone's frustrated.
Here's what I see in that statement:
Hundreds of Authors - professional writers, people who can actually craft stories, worlds, characters - all coming to Steemit.com, bringing their fans - Thousands of fans - SOME of whom are so invested in their author that they are prepared to invest their own money in Steem in order to 'pay' their favourite author in Steem.
If every author brought with them 10 fans, followers and readers, that would increase the user-base massively and look even better for potential investors... wouldn't it? What if one author brought more than 10 people - would that add value or not?
Now, what would that do to the price of Steem? All those fans buying Steem to favour their pet Author? Why! The price would go up, wouldn't it?
What about if those fans Powerup their acquired Steem so they can upvote their Author? Again... Price going up.
And then, when someone decides that all those Howk-spit minnows (Ugh, we have actual minnows touching our steem! How ghastly!) and their vests don't have the right to say where the Steem goes to and starts downvoting said author.
What happens then?
I wonder... I wonder how many authors have to be told, No, fuck off! We don't want your sort here! We only want people to write about what we want to read and anyone else can go and fuck right off! before you have no authors of stories left?
It's a shame someone didn't just move the fuck along if they didn't like the fact that a talented and prolific author had decided to make her home here at Steemit.com.
It's a shame someone didn't see that said author was investing everything earned straight back into Steemit.com and therefore the earnings were still on the platform, circulating - in a small, minnowish way, but circulating, nonetheless. And so were the people she brought to Steemit.com.
It's a shame that someone has decided that his weight in Steem is to be used to brow-beat and bully people rather than encourage and uplift people using the platform - especially people who have promoted the platform in many ways. And then to break his own arm slapping himself on the back for doing so and then bragging about it Here OOOH! What a fucking hero!
@transisto downvote @michelle.gent/not-posting-exclusive-excerpts-of-m… (-48%)
Yep, he downvoted 12 of my posts now, but that one wasn't because it was a serialisation.
It's a shame that someone believes that making a living from Steemit.com is somehow a dingy, tawdry little job, so far beneath him that he can spit on one and splatter hundreds.
We must learn from history or we are doomed to repeat it.
I also noticed @transisto just couldn't be bothered with writing a response to everyone that replied to him on the flagging post addition: Here
So he just copied and pasted - adding value in his own little way. /sarc
Dear @michelle.gent,
I have nothing against your work and to be honest I even read it myself. However, I see some logic in @transisto actions too. I will explain why.
First of all, as you know we have a little war going on here in Steemit. @Berniesanders started it against @minnowbooster, but then at some point made it more general - against unfair rewards and exploit of reward pool. As we can see, now he is not alone, more people are supporting his vision.
Now if take writing category and explore it a little bit deeper, we will see that you are almost the only author (together with @suesa) who is getting Daily up to $100 with a ratio of 100 views. As we know nothing is illegal here, but from the proportional point of view - it is more than 1$ per view.
Probably you will say "hey that's the point and difference of Steemit comparing to other platforms, you can earn here and I was working hard for one year to get these results. "
Well, maybe but if we take a closer look again, we will see that you get so high rewards only because @blocktrades supports you on a daily basis.
I can't blame you, you got used to it and now you think this is standard.
Personally, I see several problems here:
You have all rights to defend yourself, but this is not so much about you, the whole system of Steemit works poorly. We have so many people leaving platform because of the cases like this, they see potential, they work hard but then they see that a group of people are liking each other and they leave. So from my personal point of view something should be chnaged and this is a good start.
And I think you should not be sad, as you can see this post got you already 80$ without @blocktrades support. People are feeling you and all you need to do know is get their interest in your novels :)
I think we should use the idea of diminishing returns to make it less attractive to upvote oneself (including own multiple accounts) or 'buddies' again and again. I described it like this:
"How about if after each vote on a specific account (including ones own account) each further vote on the same account would lead to significantly less curation reward for the voter and less profit for the upvoted account? Thus, when upvoting an account which I had already upvoted before, my voting power would be smaller than in case I upvote an account which I didn't upvote before."
Maybe other ideas like the one of @scipio would work as well.
As long as the system is designed to be exploited it will be exploited ... so in my opinion not the ones who exploit the system are to 'blame' but the system should be improved.
Okay so four books are available to vote on:
Now if I happen to be a fan of Cat In The Hat, and I happen to think that Karl Marx was the most ignorant person on the earth at the time he was alive, that eventually you are going to force me to support his book? That is what I got out of your post.
Then you didn't get it. You could still vote on everything you like as often as you want. However, if you upvote the one and same author within a certain time frame several times, every upvote would be significantly weaker than the previous one.
There are accounts here who upvote themselves (or their own multiple accounts) or the same friends again and again, several times per day. They are not to blame as system allows it. But it is not useful for the communication within the platform. It is not helpful for very new account holders who still have no connections but produce good content. My idea would help to spread votes within the platform instead to concentrate them on a few authors.
Then the system will die. It is that simple. If I like a person's content because I feel it meets my standard of content, why should my vote be worth less and less and less if I continue to find their content valuable? Why should a content provider even try to develope a fan base if the votes and rewards from that fan base is less and less and less with each piece of quality content they provide. Believe me I get it. I understand, that there are going to be people that game the system, so since that is possible let's make it voting on content that people like worthless. I do not know Michelle Gent. have never met her, most likely will never meet her. I like her writing I voted on her stories as I read them. I commented on her stories as I read them. Sometimes that was 3 or 4 votes a day. You want to devalue my input it is as simple as that. I also read and vote on several other Authors works a day. You want to devalue my vote on their work also. Your system will only drive people away, and decrease the quality of the content on steemit, because there would be no, none, zero reason to be a consistent quality content provider when your work is devalued because your fans votes have been devalued. End of story, possible end of the steemit dream of having Quality Content.
We agree to disagree. I say the opposite is the case: the system will die if selfvoting and solely upvoting friends prevents new unknown users from enjoying the platform and being successful. Maybe you are not aware about many big accounts which are just writing about 10 'short stories' per day just to upvote themselves. By upvoting oneself there is no need anymore to produce quality content (there will be upvotes anyway). There is no need to communicate with others anymore: completely unattractive for potential investors.
If you upvote yourself and your best buddies once or twice a day that is more than enough: you just can't tell me that there is any need to do that several times per day(!). My system would still allow it but make it less attractive. (By the way I want to see that author who writes more than two quality articles per day ...)
Yes I suppose we will have to agree to disagree.
The way you phrased that it seems as if you do not think it happens, quality is subjective, always has been always will be Here are two Authors:
1.@michelle.gent
2@everittdmickey
I, (I don't expect everyone does or will agree), find their stories to be Quality work. Michelle was posting 3 of her stories, editing one story and writing the continuation on two of them. Thats a lot of work, and I enjoyed the stories.
Everitt also has been posting multiple stories, two of which I have been reading and enjoying. So for me these two Authors post multiple Quality stories.
I do a small steemag, trying to bring readers and Authors/Storytellers together. We all have differing opinions on what is fun to read, and what is quality.
So there is an example of two quality authors making multiple post in a day.
Sorry, I think - depending on the topic - I can evaluate 'quality' very well. In my eyes this "quality is subjective" is often used as an excuse to defend non-quality stuff.
For example concerning science articles there are many criteria to evaluate 'quality'. It is important to be accurate, to argue in a logical way, to present the topic understandable, to cite your sources, to use instructive images and decent formatting.
I have the impression you want to defend @michelle.gent. That is nice of you, but actually I don't want to attack her anyway - I even haven't read any of her articles. :)
I am thinking about the development of the platform (and the Steem price) in general and from my point of view there are worse things thinkable than upvoting your favorite author only (let's say) twice per day with full voting power.
There will be always people who exploit the system, that's why the system should change and grow with a time.
Regarding diminishing returns, I agree it might be actually a good idea. I saw something similar in "Steemit Roadmap 2018: Community Input Requested" post. In fact, there were many good ideas, let's see if any of them will come to life.
Imo one of the biggest problems we have on Steem is that there is too much intellect and not enough passion.
I don't agree, I think it is the other way around. Steemit is broken, because of bots and collisions. Minnow's posts are getting lost without any possibility to get seen.
Some bots help minnows to be seen.
On this point I agree, but it happens only because algorithm of hot and trending posts does not work efficiently. Moreover, they are obliged to use bots, because others do that and they have 0 chance to get noticed without bots. Personally, I would prefer to have a society without bots, with a better visibility and reward opportunities for minnows, where you grow your fan base and get rewarded proportionally for that. I use bots myself, minnowbooster was favorite for a while btw :) but I was doing that for the same reasons as other minnows - obliged.
That opinion is wrong. Plain and Simple wrong. People can and do get visibility without the use of bots. People can and do grow without the use of bots. I do not use bots. I learned to use the orig works bot to show my wife. I have tried pribra's croupier bot to see how it worked for rewarding people. That is all of the bots I have used. Resteem bot/people are a scam, I have, (I think) all of the minnow help bots on mute. In 3 months I reached 53.4 Rep and 157SP.
Not a great success, but done without bots or vote buying or minnowboosting scheme's.
I, on the other hand, haven't used bots. I decided to let the Steemit community decide whether my work was worth upvoting and apparently, a few people thought it was.
Then one decided they were all wrong and here we are...
This post is currently hidden due to the author's low reputation or low post rating.
The Writers' Block has responded officially to this situation HERE, and while we don't have a major financial stake in this issue, our team of writers and editors have several lifetimes of experience in publishing that gives our opinions value. I want to point out one thing, not to be arbitrary, but hopefully to bring a little real-world balance to table.
This is a pretty accurate summary of brick and mortar publishing as well. It's a reality all authors face if they hope to be picked up by one of the Top Five, or even a reputable small press. Many of us look at the success of authors like E.L James and even James Patterson, and scratch the hide off our scalp trying to figure out how in the hell they make millions, when much more talented and relevant writers make virtually nothing. Not getting noticed by people with the money is a fact of life in publishing. It also puts the onus squarely on the authors to write better. Promote harder. Invest in their own dreams. I definitely see your point that many writers coming to Steemit get into a twist over the dynamic here, but more because they failed to "manage their expectations" (hat tip to @lukestokes) than because the system is broken.
Now, before people start yelling over my last remark, I'm not saying the system isn't broken. It has quite a basketful of issues. But to think the dynamic addressed above is unique to the Steemit economy is not quite accurate. Just my two cents worth. --@rhondak
The power of unintended consequences. You were doing well before. You'll do ok, and probably even better from this. I've resteemed this post to 6700 people. I encourage you to continue writing.
I share some of Transisto's opinion that as a platform we really shouldn't be rewarding low view count posts with high amounts of steem. So, I've resteemed your post in hope of getting the view count up higher and also in support of fiction on the blockchain. It has a place. I hope that place is trending.
I do think he's right that we should be working to share our material on other media as well. I'll start working on that some too.
Chin up, hang in there, life will be better after if you stick with it.
I would like to thank you for reviewing this issue.
I am one of Michelle's fans. I do not think 123 views, 12 comments and 110 votes is a post that is really skewered weight wise. And this was from one of her flagged post.
I have many times mentioned that views and comments are what make a post valuable, not the number of votes, or the amount of the reward. We know that one person's vote can make a huge reward difference, (@curie comes to mid), but the number of views, I don't think I have noticed a bot capable of increasing view amounts yet.
@aggroed, you are spot-on about sharing our material on other media as well. As a direct result of last night's dialogue with @transisto, we established a presence for the Writers' Block on several other social media platforms as well, with that very purpose in mind. Facebook tends to shadow ban Steemit posts, but with Steemshelves, we have a nifty workaround. There is just no way for us, as writers looking for an audience, to disagree with his rationale about that.
I'm so sorry. I forgot to thank you for the resteem and the kind words.
Thank you!
I've just about decided to stick with it but no more novels, no more stories. I might get researching crypto and start blogging about that... I mean, how hard can a lot of copy/paste and link-condensing be?
Michelle, I love your work, please keep focused on bringing your quality work to Steem. Don't focus on the rewards, they say very little. Let the whales fight out their systemic battle with their game theories and their perspectives on what's 'good' or 'right' for the platform. I fully understand what impact this could have on your motivation and attitude towards this platform, but please:
Try to stay out of this discussion and simply ignore it. Please just keep bringing your writing to Steem.
Yours truly,
A reader.
(yes a real human reader)
Thank you. I'm always pleased when someone posts to say they like my work.
I'm a stubborn person and I gave up bowing to bullies a long time ago - long story.
I enjoy writing here, I think I'll stay 😉
Steemit as a whole provides a very unusual relation between views and rewards, it's earning that are pretty much impossible on any other platform with the same amount of views. So in a way his criticism is fair, but I don't think one can reasonable expect to find all posts that have an unreasonable relation between views and rewards because it's pretty much all of them. Additionally, it seems likely that there is a very strong bias towards this exact type of content heavily influencing his reaction, not just the mathematical relationship between the rewards and the views. But big rewards and low views are surely unsustainable.
Of course it's unsustainable. Maybe something to counter that? Something that prevents an upvote unless you're actually on the blog page itself?
That would also put a stop to bot voting too perhaps.
No, this would not stop bot voting, it wouldn't even make it more difficult and there is no practical way to implement it.
Perhaps taking away the vote button on the list pages would implement it? Then in order to vote, the account would have to visit the post.
This has no bearing on bots. Remember, this is just one interface, not the blockchain. Bots are interacting with the STEEM blockchain, not with the steemit interface.
Fair enough, I was looking at killing two birds with one stone.
I get loads of ideas. Some are really odd and way off into left-field and I make those ideas into stories. The other, more normal ideas sometimes help solve problems. Sometimes not.
That's how ideas work for most of use too :P
@michelle.gent thank you for pulling back the curtain in Steemit Oz Land. As the say when the curtain is pulled back in the Wizard of Oz: "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain' from the Wizard of Oz."
Stay.. and be a part of this, play and create.
I am just doing fun things now. I see lots of funds go to posts of countless photos of travels or words as long as it is long, they say job well done.
Now we all know it is not about the content but the investors. We always knew that but finally the man behind the curtain stepped out and said so and I want to thank you for that.
Gotta love this clip says it all. Lots of Laughs!
Hahaha!
I'm flagging this because I don't like what she's saying! She's making me look like I'm a mean person! Flag-Flag-Flag!
@michelle.gent Now, remember it turned out the Wizard wasn't such a bad guy, after all, he helped everyone get what they wanted.
Yeah... but he didn't want to and tried to get them to all go away - it was only when his hand was forced that he actually did anything of note.
yes...you are right ... and I think he was a happier character because of the turn of events...
There's hope yet, then ;)
Please don't leave. You are an inspiration to many authors on this platform. I was very upset yesterday, but I have hope yet. You have many people supporting you michelle.
I'm so sorry you were upset by all this. I was upset too and my husband became exceptionally angry because I had been upset.
I'm sticking around, but maybe not posting my stories because someone doesn't like them and flags them.
I secretly believe that's not the actual reason 12 of my posts got flagged, but that's his story and he's sticking to it...
I love your work. You were one of the first people I started following when I joined because I recognised quality content when I see it.
No memes.
No cut-n-paste.
No short, bullshit messages with no thought.
Lots of creativity. Imagination. And hard work!!!!!
Love your work and support you. You’re an inspiration.
Fuck the troll!!!
Thank you!
This is really gratifying. Not the money - that can be made again if I lost it all - it's the connections, the people who say 'I like your work', 'I come here every day just to read your stories' and my favourite...
Thank you!
Wow, taking it too hard. In the end the platform should be open and free. Everybody, anyone do whatever they feel is worth doing, we have the choice to up vote it , re-steem it or not. No need to classify, to make one right and the other wrong, that is what fascists does. The world is all about diversity!
Do we really, if when we upvote something we like and then someone comes by and negates our vote, did we really and honestly get to vote. It's like going into a voting booth for an important election, sign your name make your vote, then watch as you hand your vote to the vote clerk and they put it in the shredder or light it on fire. Then you demand to vote again and they say sorry, but you have already voted. Your vote really made a difference.
Even if when we upvote something we like and then someone comes by and negates our vote, those actions are still human flair of this polarization we all presence ourselves . Different opinions . The problem to me bashadow avatar puppy is upvote bot which is a machine that's upvote content for cash. At least when one upvote and the other negates it, it is still human interactions (people likes to disagree, don't they?). If we get to the point of a bot to upvote and another bot to negates the vote, it will definetely be the end of steemit.
What a piece of work he/she is! I am the cavalry has arrived!
I've just been looking at the steemit white paper and it says there are two entry ways into steemit, investing or working (blogging). Also the reward pool is there for writers and curator, doesn't say anything about self appointed accounts policing it.
But... he's a WHALE he gets to tell everyone else how they should vote and everything and if they don't do as he tells them, he flags them to make them see just how mighty and powerful he is! RAWRRR!
So we the steemians needs to tell how to vote? Is this decentralize efforts?
Well... a version of it...
Hi Michelle, I also joinned in Aug and I know what you mean about the grind it takes to grow your account.
I am not an Author, so I tip my hat to your success.
I am going to leave one thought here you can ignore it entirely and I will not be offended.
Just keep writing and posting transisto is one whale, he doesn't want to spend the rest of his voting power long term on flagging you, you may also get some support from your fans in helping you stay above the line.
Call his bluff.
If you have been around that long you know we have lost others to the flag battle it will not change, don't take yourself and your blog down trying to fight this.. (unless it is that important to you)
So, I am not telling you what to do. If it were me I would suck it up and post a shit load more. Let's see what he's got. :)
I wish you luck whatever you decide. :) Take care.
Thanks for your advice. I appreciate it and I'm taking every comment and reply on board.
I've decided to stay but with some provisos (self-imposed).
No more of my novels or stories. Sorry, I'm not risking getting flagged again - 12 flags from a whale is enough (I still think it's a shame he's come in with the big stick rather than encouragement and guidance, but there you go - big sticks don't bother me. I was taught how to take a beating and roll with the punches from a very early age and his stick isn't that big anyway).
I'll curate more and as my powerdown comes in, I'll take it and re-invest it elsewhere - that adds value to the platform, doesn't it? Or have I got that the wrong way around...?
I'll put on hold all the plans I had for the multi-million dollar (US dollar) investment proposals I have and seek other avenues and investment potential for my ideas - you see, I can't help getting these ideas and one day, the idea I do get will be the one (or two) that actually does make it - it will be here sooner or later.
@michelle, I don't comment too often because most of my work creative work for steemit takes isolation. I don't need all those voices getting in the way of my focus. To paint I need to be centered and quiet, no distraction.
But when I take my breaks through the day I read interesting post and your posts have been some of the best original content around Steemit and also around the big worldwide net. I loved your editing series! For me I suck at writing and you set an excellent example on how to write a good story.
Steemit would be the big loser if you left. We already lost so many good creators, like one of my favorites @chessmonster. He quietly left and didn't tell anyone. I noticed his posts weren't showing up in my feed.
Please keep writing your stories!
Much love Lisa
FYI re chessmonster: we exchanged a few emails and he is doing fine ("never better", he said, IIRC.). A pity he's left Steemit, I liked his work.
I miss him I feel bad for neglecting his bog, I learned a lesson. Pay more attention through comments when voting for my favorites. I am also voting more too. I am glad he is doing well. I figure he didn't depend on steemit for his painting sales ;-)
Thank you!
That is worth more than money - the fact that someone finds and even makes time to read my work is invaluable.
We've been through flag wars before, we can make it through this one too!