RE: Steemit is all about the Money!
I know what you mean on one level but I have been here for 3 months now and have had quite a different experience on it. There are issues here on steemit (mostly around the trending page and vote sharing/buying) but at the same time I have had more true interaction here on this platform with other photographers than I have had on other platforms for years. So much so that I just wrote about the experience on a recent post about it here ( https://steemit.com/photofeed/@intrepidphotos/touched-by-the-moon ) .
The issue with begging up-votes is a problem here; but I have experienced nothing like the old V+F comments that one used to get on 500px in its early days or the constant bot spam comments that one gets on Instagram. It's hard for any platform to get rid of them however its hard in particular for platforms that have the potential to reward as that $0.03 vote is actually important for some people in the third world. This is going to be a problem for appics also and will be interesting to see how they deal with it. Once you have some steem power you can always just downvote the comments and hide them, otherwise you can report them to steemcleaners ( https://steemcleaners.org/abuse-report/ ) and they will punish them appropriately.
The main difference for me is that I would never get interesting well thought out comments like this one (or the others here in response to your post) on Instagram. I would rarely get any constructive feedback on the other platforms. Just a whole bunch of "Great post" "Love it" "Nice" one line comments. Steemit being a long form platform encourages a more in-depth level of discussion. I agree that it needs a messenger app, and they are working on that (need to remind ourselves sometimes that it still has beta under Steemit on top of the page). In the mean time people talk on discord channels, or via IG messenger, telegram, or the alpha Steemit Chat.
You have some beautiful work and its been nice to get to know you a little. So I hope you stick around!
I have some thoughts that I formed overnight, and I can connect some of those thoughts to this response. Thank you @intrepidphotos!
I have never really blogged consistently before, and have primarily used Instagram which encourages only short form comment, and very basic conversation. I believe I am learning how to transition from short form content to long form content. I have had the thought that this platform in comparison to Instagram may be the perfect place to post experimental work, learning processes, and requests for feedback. For several years I have largely viewed my Instagram as a fluid and current portfolio of my best work. My initial thought was to transition that mentality to Steemit. I am seeing however that this platform may be better utilized to serve a different purpose. I'm not sure what all that entails, but I am excited about the potential.
I wrote the blog post above with a heavy dose of sarcasm and cynicism, which comes naturally to me in my personality, and as a result I believe the post came across as more negative than I really feel. I really do appreciate the conversation that occurs on here, and I believe I'm learning how to adapt to this sort of platform. It's new to me, and I'm finding my sea legs.
Thanks for your thoughtful response.
I think your on the money there. Steemit is a great place to experiment a bit more outside ones comfort zone to get real feedback. On Instagram if I post something outside of my normal theme the first few people like it a little less as it's not what they expect and then it gets crimped by the algorithm so that no one ends up seeing it. I range from from a reach of 25,000k people down to 6,000 people depending on the shot. So people feeds become narrower, and they end up being shown almost the same thing over and over again as the likes are self reinforcing. This is the main problem with algorithm based social media as it is self reinforcing of a given style or ideology. Chronological media on the other hand shows you everything in your feed; so the apparent quality might be slightly down, but you see things that would otherwise be screened out, and occasionally you see things that come from a different perspective that broaden your mindset and might just change your world view slightly. I think appics will be more of a direct IG copy when it comes out and complement steemit
This is a great post and opens up a wonderful conversation. I really like your response @intrepidphotos .
I decided some time back never to like for like or follow for follow on social media. Only to like what I actually like and connect with in some way and only to follow people whose work I love or who I feel a connection with. I refused to play the IG game. I have recently become quite cantankerous about people being measured and measuring themselves by their number of followers. People as numbers has never ended well for the human race.
I have taken an enormous step back from Instagram because the economy of people as numbers does not sit well. As @intrepidphotos said there is a more authentic conversation here. Sure there is a lot of low quality content as across all social media but provided there is no plagarism I try to remember that everyone has a story and people who appear to be making a money grab might really need money. For the one's falling foul of ethical behaviour I think Steemit has far better systems in place to crack down on them than IG.
IG is a free for all in using other humans for personal gain and contributing little back to them in connection and authenticity. That said there are also many outstanding human beings on IG doing wonderful things. They just often get so lost in the algorithm which is a real shame. I love curations here like @curie and @photofeed @steemitworldmap and so many more that give those great humans doing wonderfully creative things a chance to rise to the top some. I have only reached a relevant audience on my writing account @onethousandwords because of them. And I have found fantastic authors and photographers thanks to them.
Lots of good points made in this! I hadn't heard of Steemit Worldmap so I have it open in a new tab as I type this. I would agree with most of what you said about Instagram. It is deceiving to think of follower numbers as any kind of personal worth, both for yourself and others. You also bring up a decent point about some people possibly really needing the money. I'm not in that situation so I hadn't considered that. But this is a platform without borders which makes it pretty neat! I appreciate the thoughts.
Enjoy the world map. It is one of my favourite curations.