RE: AskSteem: What are your thoughts on ghostwriters?
Its kind of a double entendre to call it "ghost writing" and then reveal who actually wrote it lol.
I've actually ghost written for a few account on Steem that professionalism demands I keep anonymous and when I see those posts in the account and the fact that the autovotes and bid bots(before new steem) take it to trending page, I feel both happy and sad.
Happy because I go through the comments and people accept the quality as being good enough to trend but sad because I know that if I posted it with my account, I'd never get that much traction and votes.
Your point about making the real author a beneficiary is valid but it won't fly because the people who use ghost writers are trying to build a "reputation". So they pay a few bucks to people like me, get their posts written, look awesome and you'd be surprised how big a few dollars is to a Nigerian.
The whole debacle reminds me of a quote that goes " the end justifies the means". The game is the game, after all.
That's what I mean though and what I feel is unfair, the author takes advantage of people in need to get "free rewards" for not doing any work. Not what Steem is about in my eyes as I want it to remove the borders and imbalance that already exists in this world and reward people for the value they bring to the platform, not what the amount means to them depending on their location.
Your idea is noble and ideal but it'll take more than one person to do so. I spend time going through steem and observe how certain authors always get big upvotes(keep in mind that big is relative) irrespective of what they post. I observe how their quality have largely remained the same in months but always and I mean always get big upvotes. I compare that to mine that to my content that I try to improve regularly and have to go the long way round to get upvotes. It pains me.
The reward system is inconsistent, it seems to protect the interest of the big fish and ignores the small fish. The only time I ever get big upvotes is when I win contests, else I get my regular tiny votes.
So if a John Doe comes to me and says "Hey man, I love the way you write, I'd pay you $x to write something similar or even better for me. That's a lot better than you get", I'd say that is both flattering and rewarding, and I'd gladly take the job. Would you say it is unfair to me considering I've been creating content for more than two years now?
It also steps into the "just because you have connections or were here early you're getting rewards for free".
This is also a fact that cannot be erased. People with connection and those that got in in 2016 have it better than the rest of us