I'm Sick Of Selfish Whales/Dolphins Who Self-Vote
I think one of the biggest problems facing steemit is that a lot of the whales and dolphins self-vote and stay within their own groups and communities on steemit and only vote for themselves or their friends. and vote on each others' postings making them the only ones doing well on the platform, making it hard for a minnow to grow. And when they do vote on someone who isn't themselves or another whale, they vote for them at 1% or something rediculous like that.
Now don't get me wrong, Steemit is awesome, and yes, you should do it and not worry about the whole money thing, but I think if you aren't growing and your posts aren't making anything but pennies at a time, then your posts will be less visible to your audience. Ther smaller you are, the less visibility your posts have, which isn't good if you are trying to spread a message or are trying to help someone. Whatever the case may be, visibility and exposure (same thing) on steemit means everything.
Keep in mind earnings are a plus, but they are what help you grow bigger on steemit and gain more traction and visibility. And it seems that most of the whales and dolphins self-vote to the point where it is getting ridiculous. If you want steemit to be a better place, you have to spread out the money so people can grow more. Most whale/dolphins if they don't vote for themselves, they mostly vote for other whales/dolphins. So not only are they being extremely selfish, but they are making it to the point to where they are hoarding the steemit rewards pool and are robbing people who spend hours and hours making good and original content who deserve to be making more than they do, but are making pennies at a time.
I would see someone with a really long and thought out post that was a really good, but they didn't make what they deserve from it with the time they put into it. And the sad part is not only they are only making pennies, but they are just getting a bunch of spammers spamming them. Which makes things a whole lot more annoying. And yes, spammers are a growing problem on steemit, but as of now we can't do much about it.
What people vote on is very questionable, especially the whales and dolphins. Not only do they vote for themselves and their homies, but they vote on stuff that took little to no effort, while there are people whoa re writing their hearts out making great content and are trying to convey a message, you have someone voting on a post about a picture or meme with few to none words. Which to be honest makes me kind of mad because people genuinely put in effort on this platform, but doesn't get recognized.
And again, exposure is everything.
I have been trying to build relationships with people who are actually active and engaged on Steemit, I only became active myself a few weeks ago even though I joined months ago. I would much rather vote for others who are producing interesting or informative content than on myself, but you're right, so far I see a lot of frustration from minnows hoping for some form of support from above.
I believe that a lot of minnows are going to have to invest a little into SP and then form schools of minnows who follow and interact with each other in order to have any great success. The Whales made theirs and they are giving back a little at a time, but we minnows are going to have to help each other just a little. After I got active I read that you didn't get a sliding scale on upvotes until you had over 500 SP, so I sold some other investments and turned it into SP to get above that amount. I loved the sliding scale but I was still very limited, so I invested another $1000 into Steemit and now I can actually make a difference. I just upvoted you 100% and it was nice to be able to see the difference that it made.
My wife and I are very poor, we are both disabled and have been for several years. But my investment of $20 a month into Bitcoin paid off big, and now I'm using most of the gain from that investment here on Steemit to try and improve our financial situation. A big part of our daily interaction with others is online on the various social media platforms, so now the advent of Steemit and all of the possibilities it creates is exciting to me because I can be social and not feel guilty about not being out trying to make a dollar here or there so that we can get by.
Not only does this have the potential to add extra income, but I can also help others along the way which is a great feeling. So I'm not disagreeing with you, but I've decided to just let Whales and Dolphins do what they do and try to work towards finding a large group of like minded people who want to school up and swim together. I say invest what you can and come swim with me and others who are on here posting and replying to posts every day, we may take smaller bites but if the numbers are large enough it will eventually add up! Then while we are happily swimming together not paying much attention some Whale might happen along and dump a big load of Steem on us and make our day ;)
mate that was a lovely and well articulated thought process. like you Ive had an account for a couple of months but just started to get active - and on that, how can us minnows pool together? how would we be able to do that considering our reach is limited? I suppose we can start buy following each other :)
What I'm doing is trying to follow and upvote members who upvote and follow me or who I can tell are actively reading and replying to other peoples blogs. I'm giving back to those who supported me early with 100% upvotes, but I know that I can't do that forever. When I get too many to repay or reward everyone I will probably start rationing my votes and try to return upvotes in kind to those who upvote me and at the same time search for others that are active and upvote them. At some point I will also likely clear my following list of those that are not actively posting on blogs and upvoting different people. They don't necessarily have to be posting on my blogs or voting on my posts, but I do want to follow and upvote the people that are active and giving to the community.
Very true. Thanks for your thoughts...A lot of the times it about connects and relationships on here, and if you have good or bad connections or relationships on here, it can really make a difference on how successful you are.
like it................... love it
Indeed. I bust my ass on my posts, and they don't get much visibility at all. And unfortunately, I don't have scores of free time lying around to stay up all day and night crafting posts. And I have never upvoted my own posts. And I see the same thing you see--lazy posts from some "travel blogger" (read: some chick in a bikini showing us the fabulous time she's having vacationing her way through the tropics on her Steemit boob money). It's sickening.
And you are right about there being very very small niches on Steemit...but that's true of just about any social media. And, sadly, the boobs always win.
I guess survival of the pretty
so to sum it up, in order to survive on steemit you need to show your tits and ass...so where does that leave men? I genuinely would like to know.
No, that's the entire world, not just Steemit. As a man, that leaves sports and other "manly" stuff -- or a "girl's" account to exploit like @sweetsssj. Don't think too hard; it gets less upvotes. :D
Your best bet (male and female alike) is to get really knowledgable in cryptocurrencies. Write about them and trade them. You'll make money doing both.
I feel that same way. They are all banking off of dudes who think she is hot, so they gladly vote on her stuff. It's like mild porn, in my opinion. In reality, it is really just selling appearances and sex.
Our society glorifies and glamorizes appearances and sex, so why would you expect Steemit to be any different? There are people on here, after all, not some new alien species. :)
...but so far, you're making $4.33 from this comment. Way to go. :)
That's so funny...I was just at this moment telling my friend "omg! My comment on Alex's post has earned more money for me than any post I ever made! That brake job might just be in reach.."
Well, I added my 5 cents to the brake fund! Big money!! :D
Much appreciated!!! Thank you!
Totally agree and admire your honesty. I never upvote my own posts either; it feels icky!
Following and upvoting. 😊
That particular individual isn't so much receiving upvotes as she has a lot of SP delegated to her. It is not to say that is right or fair but to say that the delegation started a long time ago and has persisted since. What I'm trying to say is this is not the work of the Steemit community as a whole but of one individual.
But why, though? Oh...Ohhhhh ok.. I get it now.. her pimp stacked the deck, and is dealing from the bottom of the deck.
There's no actual reason to be hostile towards her. The delegation was given to her. Her job is to continue the kind of posts that got her that delegation, and she is doing just that.
Understood. I'm not actually being hostile toward her. My hostility is toward her pimp. I'd actually live to see what she has to offer Steemit, other than eating shrimp cocktails in a bikini. I'd like to see something from her: artwork? A poem? A seashell collection? I too have had SP delegated to me,vand I actually did something with it. I even had the person who delegated take it back, because they thought I could take it from here. He lent me the SP, to help me...not to whore me out.
I get what you mean. Men support what we like to see, that's just how we're wired. Everything you're saying can be solved by more self-made women in positions of power to either delegate or vote. Run a witness, create a project, etc then you can be the one to delegate SP and empower another user.
The person who delegates the SP to her is probably the person who writes her posts. I seriously doubt it's her writing the posts. It seems she is only posing in the pictures and living it up in various parts of the world.
Personally, I think that's deceptive and tacky, but he/she/they technically aren't doing anything wrong, I guess.
like it................... love it
Just a fun (or maybe we could use another adjective if we wanted) fact to add to the conversation...The largest payout ever on a steemit post was a little over $30,000 and it was last fall. It was a make-up tutorial by some girl who earned close to 100k in a few months and then took the money and ran. The account is almost all the way powered down now and hasn't been active in about 7 months.
I'd guess there weren't many women on here the first few months and the men, being what we are, piled on the upvotes on that post. The girl and her friend who joined a little later raked it in and then left.
They also did "fundraisers" for charitable causes but I'm skeptical that the money ever reached its stated destination.
I like looking at good looking women just as much as the next guy but I don't usually vote for them just because of looks. I have a beautiful wife who posts here and I like upvoting her stuff and I have another female friend who I upvote her posts too (she's good looking too but that's not why i vote for her content).
And yes it is frustrating to spend an hour or two on a well written and well thought out post and get very little off of it. It's kind of surprising and counterintuitive at times which ones of my posts get good rewards. My best payout ever was a summary of my experience as a newbie here and it got like $70. It seems like when I blog and don't really do so thinking about "how can I maximize my payout", I tend to get surprised with the reward amount.
It is disheartening to see someone post something that takes them all of 3 minutes to create and then get $500 in rewards. @jerrybanfield did a post about the top 50 or 100 users and the % of their votes that they allocate to themselves and it was pretty amazing. Generally most whales self vote between 20 and 80% of the time.
I'm not gonna pass judgment but I found it pretty shocking.
I know how you feel...
This has been said so many times, still though, you should know that steemit is at first a blogging platform, that relies heavily on the community aspect.
YOu say they vote within a circle, yes i agree, but that circle is far bigger than you realise, whales and dolphins go out of their way to look for good posts every day, curation accounts have been set up to help bring good posts to light.
The main problem you should be talking about, is how visibility of posts can be achieved.
With over 300k people currently in steemit, its going to be difficult, whether you like it or not, to see posts.
like a real life ocean, a whale may go a year without visiting a particular minnow.
All you can do, is interacting the community alot, write good posts and generally be a good fellow, youre still new by steemit standards, just over 2 months old. Iv been here 6 now, and things just started going well.
yes good point
Yeah, very true. And what doesn't help is steemit is flooded with spam and over posting which drowns out good content and makes visibility even harder.
Steemit is still a social media platform. You still need to do the things that are required of you to get more visibility and achieve "popularity." If minnows don't put in the same kind of time and effort into marketing themselves as they do when creating their content, then expecting rewards to just fall on their lap is ridiculous.
As far as how whales/dolphins vote - some of them simply follow and upvote the people/posts that they like. It's that simple. If it happens to be a relatively small circle, there's not much to be done about it. This is social media and that's how they have chosen to use it. It's their stake and their prerogative. They have no obligation whatsoever to constantly seek out new users or forgotten content and reward it.
This is a social media platform. Social media rules still apply. The ones who understand that best are the ones most likely to "succeed" (earn money).
Expectations here need to be better managed.
I understand what you're saying. And I do try to put more time and effort into posting.
I did a classic Jane thing and jumped into the deep end of the ocean, and now am fully immersed in MSP Waves radio. Got my own show and am producing others. I'm not saying that whales don't deserve to upvote themselves... It's their money. And like any sound financial advisor, I'll always advocate for making ones personal investment grow.. but...there are plenty of holes to be filled.
I have no visibility on Steem? Ok then. I'll secure 3 hours talk time on MSP Waves radio then.
There is always more than one way.
Of course, I'm not saying they are obligated to go out and vote on peoples' stuff, but I think they need to stop self-voting so much. Theres nothing wrong with it, just as long as you balance it out by helping others out as well. My point is that I feel that steemit is very unbalanced...We have these people posting about their travel adventures mildly showing their boobs for upvotes, or is postings the most effortless and stupid things and are getting rewarded so much for it. And at the other end of the scale, we have people making pennies who are trying their heart out. There is no balance.
What do you think social media is? It's mostly girls showing off their bodies, cat memes, and other trivial crap that entertains. The expectation that Steemit is or ought to be different is a little absurd to me.
The fact that stories, art, essays and other "intellectual" content actually earns anything here is a testament to how well the whales and dolphins really do put in some effort to find and reward "quality" content.
Yeah, no doubt they make quality content. But I think steemit is very unbalanced. Not only that, but the god awful spam is just annoying and discouraging. Steemit isn't easy and I get where you are coming from, but i've never had an expectation. I never expected to get where I am today, because I have gone pretty damn far for a couple of months. But I am speaking from the point of the people who have expectations or feel their stuff is under valued. Exposure is everything. Connections are everything. Steem power is everything (investing in steem power will give u a huge advantage; but Inever invested in it). Steemit is more than social media, it is many other things more than average social media.
And trust me, I've seen so many people like @craig-grant and @yuliana who barely vote for anyone but themselves. May I include @sweetssj in this too? All she does is travel and take photos of her that are mildly sexual. I get it, tits=upvotes. But it is just out of control the amount she is making, and that is why people are flagging her and calling her out, she just self votes and makes loads of money. I mean look at how much SP is delegated to her for her titas. But anyways, I digress.
I get where you are coming from, and you are right. But the unbalance is real on this platform. Have a great day ;)
Yeah, I kinda agree, though I don't think it's totally without reason.
I mean, the whales/dolphins have probably been blogging here for much longer than us, on a daily basis, looking for quality content and they've found some, or a lot, and with time and steemit getting as much as nearly 300,000 people involved, blogging, resteeming and such, things start to get dull and finding something is going to be a chore, some simply don't look much and stick to the quality content the people they already follow make. (Quality is a matter of perspective here.)
I'm pretty new here myself, and i'm not trying to condone for anyone who actually does this sort of thing, just trying to go over some possibilities, neat post eitherways, cheers.
I'm still new at this blog, so maybe I'm looking at things from naive lenses. And my experience here might change my viewpoint in the future. But...
"I think one of the biggest problems facing steemit is that a lot of the whales and dolphins self-vote and stay within their own groups and communities on steemit and only vote for themselves or their friends. and vote on each others' postings making them the only ones doing well on the platform, making it hard for a minnow to grow."
If I was a whale/dolphin, I'd self-vote myself, in fact I upvote some of my posts (although reading through some comments, it looks like it is frown down upon). And staying within your own community is a natural human trait. The communities and society is also artifically structured to keep people within their communities (i.e. there was an issue with search engines bringing up search results that are popular within the communities of the person who are using it).
Just keep it up. As the other guy had said, you've only been here two months. I've been here only a little over a week.
yep...whales and dolphins have their own little clique.
There is a big difference between whales and dolphins. Whales for the most part are individuals who were part of the group who started the entire Steem blockchain project and then Steemit. Dolphins for the most part are individuals who began blogging on the platform when it came out and either made it through perseverance, delegation, buying in or otherwise.
Whales typically follow and vote for users who are participating in something to do with their projects or the projects they're supporting. Dolphins typically vote on their own posts and of those of collaborating accounts, particularly now that VP must be carefully managed.
All of that aside, due to the amount of spam we have on Steemit it is nearly impossible to find quality content. From reading the comments in this thread I've found several great accounts to follow. Otherwise, I wouldn't have seen them. This is exactly why some users and witnesses (like ourselves) are taking it upon themselves to clean up the tags and remove spam.
In short, even if a whale or dolphin or my grandma or anyone else wanted to vote on quality content by new users, they'd have a hell of a hard time finding it. This is the prime reason every Steemit guide advises to give it time. Finding a diamond in a shit pile doesn't happen at first glance.
I've only been active on this platform for a coulple of months (created an account and didn't use it last year) and I can feel your frustration. I have found if you engage in some of the contest and initiatives on steemit then it will bring you more exposure. More so for artist than "regular" bloggers. I also noticed that if you pick up a camera and start vloging then you will also increase your audience and payout. @mrviquez started with nothing and has built somthing. He even lost his job because somone showed his boss his videi vlogs. Now he is making more than what his job was paying.
it takes time and effort to establish yourself on this or any other platform. Those whales and dolphins you are complaining about --- a lot of them are supporting programs that are designed to locate minnows doing quality work and give them some support.
There are a few who engage in self-voting themselves more than they vote for others. It's not good but you need to remember, it is their stake and their right to make use of the Steem Power.
In among the spam and crap that is swamping the site, there are good posts. Posts that it would be nice to see get some recognition but you need to be clear.. no one 'deserves' rewards. They need to earn them.
I feel ya man, for sure. It reminds me of a dog licking his own junk & talking about the great head he got.
Upvoted, because this made me laugh out loud.
I'm glad, it was one of those moments where I was like... Do I dare hit send? :P