RE: The Bane of Bidbots ... An Intelligent & Civil Discourse
An absolutely right on the money post! I've only been active on Steem since October and a blind man could see the rigged system brought on by buying bots and upvoting your own content. It is absolutely infuriating to look at Trending or Hot and see the shitposts with hundreds of $$$ payouts. And your analysis of the Curie vote was spot on. The heart is in the right place and the idea is good, but it does exactly what you said, stops dead in its tracks. I like to receive a Curie vote, but it's actually just an acknowledgement that someone recognized that you were attempting to create quality content. I'm astounded if ever one of my post makes $10. I post in Actifit daily just because I love the app and I love the community, but there is a guy in Trending every day with the same Actifit post, no better, and most times inferior, to most, yet reaches between $50-$100 every day. (Just an example, not trying to single anyone out, but facts are facts.) It's sad that the whole idea behind Steem is being sold out to the highest bot bidder. Thanks for putting this post together.
@blueeyes8960,
I've seen that, or an, Actifit post in Trending too. And that's the thing ... when the game-rigging becomes this cavalier, sooner of later, it will trigger a reaction. It may be a rebellion or a mass exodus once a viable competitor arrives.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Nothing's free.
Scroll through these comments ... these are not reactionary whiners and complainers. These are the very bloggers that an eventual Steemit competitor will BEG to acquire. The Internet has NEVER had a problem with quantity of content ... it has ALWAYS had a problem with quality. Without a functional creation/curation/compensation system, Steemit has nothing to distinguish itself from a hundred other platforms.
The fat wallets have convinced themselves that, somehow, the situation will magically right itself ... that the "transcendent power of the blockchain" will magically "evolve a solution." This is the delusional thinking, typical of ideologues, that I keep railing on about.
Problems get solved because people roll up their sleeves and solve them. But, they argue, that that would stink of "centralization" ... the most blasphemous concept in cryptoworld. Anarchy ... utter chaos ... is much preferable. No amount of organization is too small not to be deemed a communist, fascist, dictatorial conspiracy orchestrated by the Bilderberg Illuminati.
The insight that these anarcho-techies can't seem to grasp is that the code, in and of itself, is utterly worthless. Its ONLY value derives from the fact that it facilitates an endeavor in which a large number of human beings wish to engage. STEEM/Steemit is about PEOPLE ... not COMPUTERS. If you do things that sufficiently offend human sensibilities ... they'll leave ... and then the true value of your code becomes apparent. People DO NOT like it when others make fools of them.
I'm feeling like a fool and it's pissing me off ... and making me articulate. Read your history ... find a revolution that did not start with poets and writers first stirring the pot.
Quill