So you think you own your content on steem – Sorry to tell you…..
(Edit: A discussion has been had and steemit inc are looking at the situation. I have faith they will make the right decision for content creators. Until then, the below still stands.)
It has always bothered me that the bigger players such as Youtube & Udemy take such a large cut from content creators. Being a Udemy instructor can be hard at times. Courses are continuously discounted to €10 from which I earn €2.50. Although I did opt into their marketing and I can choose to opt-out at any time.
It’s the same thing on Youtube. If you monetize your content on Youtube, Youtube makes more than you. Its kinda a shit buzz, but content creators like me have been putting up with this for years. They bring traffic and infrastructure. We bring the content. They make loads of money, we make little.
Then I came across Steemit. A blockchain-based website where I could publish content. A place where the middleman didn’t take a cut of my rewards. A place where I had ownership of my content and no third party could remove.
Things have changed a lot since I joined here. So have my feelings about the blockchain and steemit.
Steemit.com is not steem. It is a website ran from the blockchain owned by a private entity. A for-profit private entity. They can do as they please with their website, and you or I have no control. Just like Youtube and just like Udemy.
That might not mean much to everyone, but if you are a content creator like me, that actually makes a living from this sort of stuff, this is important. The changes Steemit.com and steemit inc have made are not in favor of what I thought this blockchain was.
Its been a really busy year on steem. We had the HF and #newsteem arrived. There was a lot of focus on this and it kept people's attention for a long time. Long enough that the changes made and the impact this might have been overlooked by many. It almost feels like these changes were snook in the back door, while steem people were dealing with the other stuff.
What Changes?
First of all the ads. Yes, there was some discussion on this, but it never really went anywhere because at the end of the day, steemit inc own steemit.com. The bigger boys making money from my content, from your content. We cant opt-in and we can't opt-out. Steemit Inc is making money off your content and creations and my content and creations. At least Youtube and Udemy give you a cut.
I already hear you say ‘So don’t post to steemit.com’……..
Steemit.com is a backend for all of steem publications. Not matter where you post from, if it is on steem, it will be on steemit.com. Unless of course, the powers above decide to remove your postings from the condenser, which is possible and we have seen it happen. Therefore as it is possible, should we content creators not have the option to opt-in or out of our posts being published to Steemit.com?
This leads me to a second more recent more pressing change.
Canonical links.
HUH? What's that?
These are links that tell Google where the content originated. It's about ownership. It tells Google where the master copy of the publication is. Google don't tend to worry so much about duplicate content as long as the original can be located and identified.
A few weeks back steemit inc changed the links so that anything published to steemit.com shows as the original master copy. They did this by setting the links to canonical links. steemit.com shows as the original master copy even if posted through a tribe or app interface
Did I just lose ownership of my content? Well, it sure looks that way to me. Google is now ranking my Excel Posts higher on steemit.com than The Excel Club because steemit inc have change the links.
And wait, this is not just a problem for me, but a problem for tribes and anyone publishing to the steem blockchain. After all, if you publish on 3speak it still goes to steemit.com
The proof is in the traffic
I have been working my ass off this year on SEO and traffic. Each month I have outperformed my targets and September was no exception. I will be publishing my usual monthly business report for the month but the last 2 weeks have been a little more challenging than normal.
With the switch to canonical links, I have seen a downturn in my rankings, my traffic, and my impressions.
The chart below is my daily traffic chart. The first 7 days shows a typical pattern, with hardly any traffic at the weekends, and prior to this, it was increasing most weeks.
The chart below shows my impressions and clicks from Google over the last 3 months. Nice steady growth. Bar for the last two weeks. The downturn is not that much. But I am hoping to take action before it becomes a problem.
I know google has changed their algorithm, but that was a few weeks previous and I seemed to be doing well from that. So this is a big kick in the face.
The situation I find myself in is that not only are steemit inc making $$$ of my content, but they are also claiming ownership when it comes to SEO and Google. NOT COOL DUDES.
My Plan
I am hoping this post will raise some awareness of these changes and the impact they have. I understand Steemit inc can do what they like, but I would really like to take back some ownership of my content. As long as steemit,com has linked this way and have no option to opt-out of ads or Canonical links, they are doing what's been done to content creators for years. That kinda ruins the blockchain for me.
For that reason, until the links are changed back again, over the next few weeks I will be removing content posted via @theexcelclub by editing posts and only leaving snippets available. If people want to read it, they can visit my site where I do have control ( and its google add free hehehhehe)
In the meantime, I hope this post reaches the right people. I would like witnesses to consider if these link types should be a feature of the block, or left in control of steemit inc. (I'm not sure if that is even possible). I would like steemit inc to give us some opt-in or opt-out options and I would like you to consider how important content ownership is, and what that entails.
What's your plan? What do you think of these changes by steemit inc? Do you still feel like you own your content on steem? I would love to hear your comments, your feedback, your experiences below. Let's get the conversation started.
I wonder if this can be solved by encrypting the content so it's unintelligible on "unauthorized" front-ends but maybe include some clear-text teaser content that would be available on others.
Now, that you mention it. I'm not incredibly fond of the current arrangement.🤔
I've been talking about encrypted tribes for several months. Hopefully the technical folks can figure out how to get it done.
"I wonder if this can be solved by encrypting the content so it's unintelligible on "unauthorized" front-ends but maybe include some clear-text teaser content that would be available on others."
thats just way too much for me lol
Where there is a will. There is way. 🙂
I would like to explore this further. Power to the people. ✊
That's the way to do it. That way the author could even implement a paywall for their Steem content if they wanted to.
I don't really see paywalls working, obviously depends on what the cost is. You have to use front-end X to view it? You have to upvote it? You have to tip the user for it? Either way it's enough someone does it and instantly releases it for free somewhere else on a copy front-end or whatever.
In some cases, paywalls work fine. It's pretty normal monetization method for online newspapers.
That would be illegal to do without the permission of the author. My main point was, however, that the canonical link issue could be mitigated this way (by only showing a snippet of the original unencrypted).
:D
Imagine decentralized webhosting services, decentralized image storage, decentralized everything. Oh it's illegal? Too bad you can't do shit about it, lol.
But yeah, if there is something to be gained from copying everything someone will do it. Same thing with the Steem blockchain, if witnesses would ever decide they needed to delete something from the chain and continue to do so, it would only take one person to copy the chain live so he'd have the content somewhere in case this would happen again in the future.
Sure, it can be done using those methods. But it works for a lot of publications. I don’t see a lot of material like that easily accessible anywhere.
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I just made a comment about this last night! I think encrypted content would open a lot of interesting doors.
I've actually never accepted SteemIT's ToS. Hmm 🤔 are they allowed to publish it?
Also, you can choose to be blocked from being visible on SteemIT by requesting to be added to GDPRUserList.js (a bit of a pain in the ass)
"Also, you can choose to be blocked from being visible on SteemIT by requesting to be added to GDPRUserList.js"
^^^^ really....thats cool
Yup. They did it to cover their asses for GDPR since accounts can't be deleted.
Link:
https://github.com/steemit/condenser/blob/master/src/app/utils/GDPRUserList.js
If you'd like to join the list, I'm sure their privacy team would like to hear from you:
[email protected]
Although, I don't know if other platforms also use this list?
Tried SteemPeak, nope, they don't use the list!
Source: https://steempeak.com/steemit/@mateja.klaric/go-to-hell-steemit
lol funny it's not used elsewhere. are there t&cs to be signed before you can use steempeak? also thats says you wont be able to log in. is that to steemit.com? like can you still access your wallet? I have a feeling the problem will be fixed and i won't have to take drastic action. I was hoping to use steem to propel my brand, not hamper its growth!
Yeah SteemPeak has T&C's. 😭.
Yeah, that blocks you from logging into SteemIT. They could never lock you out of your account without your private key. Viva la blockchain!
Viva la blockchain!
Here's SteemPeak's TOS & Privacy Policy:
https://steempeak.com/about/terms
https://steempeak.com/about/privacy
You can use the Steem Keychain browser add-on to access your money very easily.
I was unaware of the canonical link issue, but the concept of ownership here has always been rather nebulous. The Steem blockchain has always been an open, public database of uncensored content that anyone can pull from. Anything we post here can be displayed as content on potentially thousands of different websites which may individually monetize as they see fit. Everyone needs to carefully consider their own monetization strategy and goals in light of this landscape.
Yes agreed. Anyone can pull content and monetize it and I am fine with that. Google don't really care about duplicate content, the problem is with the links saying its steemits content and they make money from it. Doing both is unfair and if someone else were to pull the content, google would still see it as steemits. its a combination of both that is annoying me. I have my own monetized website, now google think the content belongs to steemit. I take the seo hit, which in turn will hit my revenue.
The thing is, anybody can build a front end to the Steem blockchain and decorate it however they want, including with ads. It's really no different than if you built a web front end to usenet newsgroups (which was frequently done in the more ancient days of the internet).
You still have ownership of your content but what that means is necessarily limited by the nature of a blockchain. For instance, once something is put on the chain, it can never truly be deleted, ownership or not. You can of course delete a post but all versions are still part of the blockchain and can be accessed.
As far as the use of the canonical tag, what if every front end started using it? Seems like it would negate its value. I'm not even sure the canonical tag even really applies since it is that blockchain that is the true authority. But again, any front-end designer can do whatever they want. There's really no point complaining about it. In theory, a tribe could implement some kind of encryption as has been mentioned and that would probably take care of it. But then you are limiting the audience of your post which may not be desirable. Kind of defeats the point really...
To be honest this is not a surprise to me. They want Steem(it) was promoted was only to attract the writers/bloggers.
They never really cared about plagiarism, originality.
This is business and advertisement is lying, a way to sell.
Steemit inc will not win the game, it is not better as Facebook. They forgot about their users, the bloggers/writers while focussed on their earnings.
I agree there should be opt-out and it is better to post elsewhere first. Many posts contain links so a snippet here with a link to your own side is fine enough. Plus you can mention is was published elsewhere first.
I am sorry to hear your earnings changed drastically. It will be one of the reasons why so many left. @fitinfunfood mentioned something about it in one of her posts.
I only invested here, thanks for waking me up.
Happy Friday 💕
I agree that fraudulently reporting false canonicals is 100% unethical and should stop immediately.
That means you: @elipowell @andrarchy @doxie-tx @gerbino @justinw @roadscape @vandeberg
You are actively committing fraud by representing your site as the original publisher of other works.
STEEM as a blockchain is tricky since the source of the data is a publicly available blockchain. That is why proper canonical references are important to let the world know where the content was initially created and submitted.
If this isn't fixed, users will have to start using DMCA and GDPR legal tools.
going down a legal road is not what I nor most people want to do. I have issued DMCAs before, as my content has been stolen and my courses sold on download sites. However this is a little different in that I published directly to steem my self. Also, to give steemit inc the benefit of the doubt here, I don't think this was malicious, most people dont have their own sites that are posting to steem.
Going legal is definitely a last resort.
This wasn't an accident though. I believe this was the change that overwrote everyone else's canonicals:
https://github.com/steemit/condenser/pull/3515
Whether you are posting to your own custom, wordpress, steempeak, a nitrous site like palnet.io doesn't matter. What does matter is that you are using a site to publish content that is not steemit.com
Good find on github! Yeah, no accident. We discussed this some days ago, but I don't see mention of one issue I noticed: that even if one publishes on a tribe website, the post timestamp shows that the steemit version is one block before the tribe version.
I hadn't noticed that. That's even more diabolical.
What are these tools you are talking bout?
DMCA take down requests and eventual civil suits. I'm not up on GDPR enough to know what is built into that regulation.
@nealmcspadden Thanks for taking the time to answer. I will ask.around a bit snd change my habits a bit more.
I wish you a great weekend ❤️
I'll have to research this because I include my own canonical links when I cross-post from my blog and other platforms. SteemPress automatically includes a "posted from" link at the bottom of my posts back to my blog. I revise those and add rel=canonical tags to my blogs. Are you telling me that Steemit's rel=canonical tag override mine? If so, that's a problem.
from what I understand, if their domain authority is higher then yes, steemits canonical tags do override. If you do explore this a little further can you come back to me and let me know what you find out. SEO is a minefield and I am always intersted in learning more
Yes. I'll try to look into it today.
@paulag, I just searched for 10 of my Steemit posts by title. Only 4 out of 10 ranked better using my web properties or other sites where I posted first. I have two websites that I own where I use SteemPress to cross-post to Steemit on a 10 or 20 minute delay (it started out 20 minutes and I changed it to 10). After it posts on Steemit, I go into the Steemit post and edit, adding a rel=canonical tag to the link pointing back to my domain. It looks like older posts could go either way. A higher percentage of older posts rank my websites higher than Steemit. However, it's the newer posts I'm concerned about--post HF22.
It's possible that my personal search is affecting the results, so this is not conclusive. I've spent more time on Steemit lately than I was spending before HF21.
Another thing I'm seeing is the SERP sometimes shows Steampeak or another front-end above Steemit, and above my own properties. I never use Steampeak. I don't use any of the web-based front ends. I only use SteemPress. Sometimes, I use Steemit's UI, but only because lately eSteem Surfer hasn't been publishing for me. I think that might have something to do with Keychain.
One interesting note, none of the posts I checked where I posted first on Narrative and cross-posted to Steemit have better rankings with Narrative. All the Steemit versions are on top.
Bottom line: This is going to need further investigation.
I’d like to know more about manually adding canonical links to my Steempress articles.... maybe we could DM on discord some time? 😊🙏🏽
Sure, look me up. blockurator#7537
Essentially, though, you don't have to do it in WordPress. You can get a plugin and add canonical links to all of your posts, but you should also come to Steemit and edit your post. All I do is take the URL of the post and create html brackets around "my blog" with that URL, then I add the rel="canonical" tag inside the brackets.
Hmmmm .... tried to find you on Discord, but couldn't @blockurator.
Here's mine just in case I was doing something wrong: Raven [metametheus]#4772
@paulag, I've written two new posts on Steemit where the original appeared elsewhere first. In both cases, the re-publication happened mere minutes later than the original. That's significant as it is unlikely that the original was indexed yet. Also, in both cases, I used the canonical link tag to point to the original article. Thirdly, my title on Steemit was slightly different than my title on Narrative. And fourthly, Narrative is only a few months old so Steemit has a significant head start on domain age. Here's what I found.
In one case, Google ranked the Narrative version on top. In the other, the Steemit version is on top. Still inconclusive.
I'm using the Brave browser with DuckDuckGo as my default search engine. But I conducted my searches using Google. I then conducted the same searches with Microsoft Edge, which I never use and where I am not logged into my Google account. Same results.
It's possible that some of Steemit's posts are outranking canonical content posted elsewhere, but it's also possible that Google is the reason why and not necessarily Steemit's attempt to control the search results. Here are the links to my Steemit posts in case you want to run your own experiment.
Story 1 and Story 2
I'm still testing.
I just created my account here earlier today, hopeful that it could be supplemental & of course fun. I really don't know much about Steemit yet, aside from 1 or 2 people saying "You can make tons of money on there!"
Tons of money? You cannot even earn enough to buy bread. You can invest tons of money that is the idea of Steemit inc.
Well, I guess investing is still really good!
Well, welcome!
Have you ever noticed... no matter what people say, it what was not said that you think would have been more useful when you look back a year from now. (it would not)
Go the the search link / bar at the top of the page. Opens a custom search page. Enter "new user". Start consuming insightful content that you shudder to think you might have overlooked.
There are more roles you can choose to fulfill here than it may appear. Different paths / different views. Go for what you want to do and not for what you might get.
Quite true.
Thank you!
"You can make tons of money on there!"
this is for sure the wrong message to give to people and if you are here for that reason, I wouldn't bother. but if you are here as you are passionate about your creations, or you are looking for a community to join, then this is an awesome place.
Yeah, money is always the selling point for things like this though. I mean, yeah, it's nice to get compensation for all the work put into making videos & such, but that's not the main reason for doing it.
Thanks!
a $trendotoken tip :-)
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I totally agree with you and it's really sad to see Steemit doing the same shit as Facebook and the traditional social media. I've been using Publish0x and so far I'm loving the experience. Have you heard about Publish0x? Do you have a personal opinion?
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I did look at it and it seems to be all about crypto which is not my topic so probably not the platform for me
Actually it's more concentrated about crypto, but I've seen people talking about different things...
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