Flag This, Motherfuckers – A Newbie's Perspective on The Experiment
I'm fairly new to Steemit. I've posted about 20 times in the last couple weeks since I joined, with a mix of longer posts and some shorter posts in which I joined meme and writing contests. I've resteemed a few things, commented on some users' posts, upvoted here and there – all in all, exactly what I read newbies are supposed to do.
Before the hard fork, my best-engaged post was one I wrote about Tolkien Reading Day, which got 189 votes and earned me a decent payout — certainly more than I was expecting after only a few days on the site. I continued to post, and though most of my posts did minimally well, I continued to mix it up with book reviews, meme contest entries, and a new thing I wanted to try called Sunday Punday, where I shared puns on Sunday (clever, I know...).
Then the hard fork hit, and I was pretty upset by the extremely low payouts. But everyone was saying the drop in payout potential was only temporary, so I figured I'd continue and see what happens. With that in mind, I spent a decent chunk of time this past Sunday morning (after my punday post) putting together a review of my trip to a nearby bookstore. It's not the longest post I've written, but I took my time crafting it and I even shared two original photos I took especially with the post in mind.
To my delight, the post was quite well received, bringing me my second-highest number of votes since the Tolkien Day one, albeit with much lower rewards. I was pretty proud of myself and mentioned it to a friend of mine — only to learn from him that I had run afoul of something called "The Experiment." In particular, he pointed out that my post had been flagged by @abit and @smooth in an apparent attempt to reduce the payout on my post.
Seriously, What the Fuck?
Comparing the 166 votes I got on my bookstore review post to the 186 votes I got on my Tolkien Day post, it is easy enough to see that I received orders (plural) of magnitude less rewards on the newer post than the older one for approximately the same number of votes. Perhaps this is mostly a function of the hard fork, but certainly being flagged by two assholes with a political axe to grind didn't help.
Look, maybe the system is broken. Maybe there are whales out there abusing their steem power and fucking shit up for everyone else. Maybe it makes complete sense to flag some posts so as to tamp down the amount of rewards some people are getting, because they've partnered up to game the system. Maybe that's all true.
But if your intent is to kill steem, then by all means, keep using newbies who are posting original content as pawns in your stupid-ass political games. I guarantee you there is no better way to get people to drop your system faster than to take away any little rewards they are already receiving — especially after the decimation of rewards brought about by the hard fork.
At this point, I honestly don't know if I'm going to post again here on Steemit. There are a lot of nice and encouraging people here, and I'm glad to have run into them. That said, if the community is going to continue letting assholes like @abit and @smooth ruin it for new people writing original content, then fuck it, I'm out of here.
In other words, if you want to flag something, flag this, motherfuckers:
fuck you too !
I hit you with an upside down flag (full power upvote is the opposite of a full power downvote, how do you like MY pun!)!
I eat and I pee steem soup on you!
Allowing people to depend on income is a bad vision for the platform. It should be focused on engaging casual user who posts occasionally like Reddit. You guys seem more pissed of that you didn't make much on Steemit, think about this way you got some Views and upvotes.
This community only have around 140k++ Users, so don't 2 User ruin your day, it has happen to me stick around and i'm sure you'll like it! Don't invest money, and if you blog outside of Steemit, just copy & paste into the platform. You got nothing to lose and more to gain! stay positive
"Allowing people to depend on income is a bad vision for the platform."
The whole platform is based on the idea of getting income for your posts, so I'm not sure I understand this sentiment. That said, I obviously don't depend on steem as my main source of income – I have a decent-paying daytime job, which I'm certainly not going to quit over some social media platform.
"You guys seem more pissed of that you didn't make much on Steemit, think about this way you got some Views and upvotes."
Nope. Re-read what I wrote. I understood that the payouts were drastically reduced after the hard fork, but I posted anyway.
What I'm pissed about is PEOPLE FLAGGING ME FOR NO GOOD REASON. Or rather, for some dumbass internal political bullshit. Yes, it reduced my payout, but I wasn't expecting a huge payout anyway.
If someone wants to flag my post because they legitimately dislike what I'm doing, so be it. But this automated flagging bullshit is going to drive people away – including the casual reddit-type users you want to engage.
Yeah man, i totally agree with you when it comes to the Flagging @caweyant. I also didn't want come off as rude by saying you should actually expect to make an income from Steemit. Maybe the approach of using this platform is to gain a following! Where you can earn Rewards, this exactly what we trying to get from existing Social Media withouth the Reward Part! We still have a small market, maybe there will me more Whales in the Future that will upvote you! or worse more Whales to downvote you. I hope this project works out, some wealth will definitely spread around! For those living on 1$ a day, any cent would help them through the day. I been a victim of Flags, i also got pretty much pissed off but end of the day, you dont have to invest a single cent, you dont have to post or comment but you can always enjoy the free content. If there is no quality content for you on this platform, give it time and in 5 years or so when we actually have 1million and over... you can expect some sort of free entertainment! We all have good intention with this site, and it's truly of the kind that is possible because Blockchain Technology in the first place! Hoping for the Best, i hope you give us a try. Warn us other that this system is not yet fair and explain to them why! Like Automated Flagging and how Steem Power makes things unbalanced, but also mention the parts you might have liked. Like it being free to join & use or perhaps the possibility of earning some rewards.
and heyy.. Steem you know, uses graphine blockchain. You can send someone Steem Instantly & Free, no blockchain can compete with that... like DASH, Ethereum & Bitcoin. I feel the good outweight the bad! Steem price was already overvalued in the beginning! it has since struggled ! So Whales are hurt the most
Amen to that! Positive vibes people. I just keep saying it, Steemit is still in beta teating phase.
If you dont like it please come back in one year or so, the true Steemians will have figured it out by then :)
Allowing people to depend on income is a bad vision for the platform
changing your tune are you?
You want to drive people away?
That's how you drive people away.
I agree you should never depend on anything cryptocurrency related, it could all go away tomorrow. Money aside I think the psychological and social impact on a social network are things that should be considered above all else.
I know how you feel, @smooth flaged my posts over ans over again even BEFORE some high payout appeared, I mean in 10 minutes after I posted. That's not that I care much about the payout, but I was worried that it could affect my reputation, I really work a lot to create my posts, even if they're not with a long text, but come on, I'm an artist and if I post my original art (and I do so) - it means that I've spended hours creating it. OK, let it be a low payout, no problem at all, but a flag... It just makes me feeling that I've done something wrong :(
Man, I've been looking into steem and steemit for quite a while now today - overall my impression of the whole system can be summed up in one word: sketchy. This whole system does not seem sustainable at all and seems like a 'reddit pyramid scheme' - where a member with more money/steam power basically is higher up on the pyramid and can dictate posts to their liking. One person's vote being 100x more valuable than anothers doesn't sit well with me at all and I'll probably be selling any steem I have quite soon, before this whole ship sinks.
Relax, it's only a function of the hardfork. More here: https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitblog/important-notification
No. Being flagged is a function of someone flagging you.
OK, fair enough, but the low payout is due to the hardfork. Payouts are roughly 1/20th to 1/100th they were earlier, but it'll slowly build back up over the month. As for the flagging, it's part of a no-whale-voting experiment. Might I point out that before this experiment you would have earned much less anyway? Even if a whale counters a rogue whale's upvote, the net effect for you is still positive. Besides, only one of your many posts have received a flag. I can see that you have done exceptionally well with your blog for a newcomer. You have also received a lot of support from @curie. I'd suggest taking it easy, not getting upset about these things beyond any of our control. Just keep writing, do your best, the rest will follow. Keep at it, all the best!
I appreciate your measured response – and I understand that the low payouts are due to the hard fork. I stated as much in my original post.
It's not about earnings, per se. As I said in my post, I realized the payouts were going to be low after the hard fork, and I continued posting anyway. Rather, it's about using newbies as pawns in the internal political games played by these whales. I find it hard to believe that flagging my specific post is somehow making the entire ecosystem of steemit better.
There's no political game. The system has a quirk where whales give out exponentially high payouts that completely crowd out 99% of us. The experiment was an agreement between whales to not vote, and instead give power back to the majority of us. For example, my trail's vote was $0.03 before the experiment, rising to $0.70 after it. You'll notice my trail voted on your first two posts - they would have made $0.03 instead of $0.70 or whatever earlier. Then your Tolkien post was picked up by @curie.
However, some whales have decided not to participate in this experiment, and exploit other whales not voting to completely dominate the rewards pool. So participants of the experiment are sacrificing their voting power to counter these votes. The flags basically neutralize the non-participating whale vote, and the entire amount is distributed back to the reward pool. Likewise, if a non-participating whale flags a post, smooth and abit will upvote it.
Basically there's not much to look at here. There's no political game or anything involved. It's a free market, and whales are doing their best to make it a better place.
The quirk where whales have exponential influence will go away in Hardfork 19, and the experiment will likely stop then. This are just short term pains for a beta platform.
PS: Your "flagged" post is also a @curie vote, and would have made $15-$20 pre-hardfork. There's still time to go before payout, so it'll keep increasing till then. So you haven't lost anything, really.
I appreciate the detailed response.
One point I disagree with you on is that this is not a political game. As you describe, some whales don't want to participate, so other whales are using their power and influence to counteract their votes. That is absolutely a political game.
What I see is people flagging my post because someone else upvoted it. That's like saying "I'm gonna vote for Trump because they voted for Hillary," even though both are terrible candidates and we would've been much better off with Gary Johnson.
At any rate, I'm glad there is a fix planned for the quirk you describe. Thank you for that explanation.
I see your point. Maybe Gary Johnson would have won if all Trump and Clinton voters countered each other :)
I'd upvote this whole exchange, but that seems like a lot of work. :-D
Its a pretty common theme and I cant count the number of times I have been hit. Its all automated and it happens if the bots they employ notice your post getting more like from whales or others with more influence. Its a way for them to protect their own interests and make sure no one gains as much influence as easily as they did. Consider it a badge of honor and welcome to the club!
The automation is exactly what pisses me off about this. It's one thing to be flagged because someone dislikes what I post – fine, whatever. But to be flagged automatically as part of some dumbass internal political dispute because some other person or set of people liked my post is ridiculous.
Yep its an experiment on a social media platform without consideration for the social aspect. It actually has some major flaws that I see being exploited by other smaller savvy whales. Think of it as Judo and a way of misdirecting the automation that will force it to come to a head very soon. Unfortunately many that do not deserve to be down voted will in order to make everyone aware of the issue and its negative psychological and social impact.
yup..flaggin pretty much sux.
I look at your 2 posts and if you ask me 180 vote and 30 views is really low % rigth ? This all is fold of auto vote , in this case you will meet the autoflaging also . Just to ask you are you happy about the 30 vews ? Maybe better you get proud of this post 79 views and 51 votes ? This shows the real amount of people who like or dislike your post right ?