Repost after 94 upvotes and $4.72 cents
Whales and Minnows have very different taste in content. You can see by the value of this post vs. the amount of votes it has received. As I see more and more of the same circle jerking, its only a matter of time before anything less than Steemit Tattoos on your face wont be worth the time. We've got a girl who has been paid $8000 for littering Steemit balloons all over a beautiful beach. We've got hackers who "claim" to have used dictionary attacks to change passwords who were rewarded without asking for proof. I have yet to see a woman with small breasts at the top of Steemit. We've got more bots here than craigslist already, and I see the most powerful curators doing virtually nothing to re balance things. Its only a matter of time before this becomes a little clubhouse.
- Corporate sponsored littering is valued at $8,000 on steemit today. Yesterday, it was an announcement for billboard ad.
I am just not the type of person who wants to be associated with such shameless corporate shilling. It represents many things that don't believe in. And worse, its boring!
True intellectual thought is suppressed here while every half-baked home-made Steemit marketing ploy is valued far beyond realism. I understand the need for corporate branding and promotion, but I am a firm believer that content speaks for itsself.
I will be powering down as I no longer want to be associated with a community that supports these kind of environmentally blind corporate cult activities. I was one of the first members of the community and I deserve my voice to be heard in protest. I do not think that we should endorse such behavior. I know whales hate me, but my minnows vote is steadily increasing. We are the many. You are the few.
As an artist and a creator of original content, I no longer feel value (or valued) on this platform. I foresee the price of Steem dropping quickly as others realize that curators have such singular interests which most people will be out of touch with. I was hoping that this would be a melding pot of diversity. Now I see that as more time passes, the presence of 1: real people and 2: diverse content is decreasing.
Lots of new and interesting people are getting back into the slacks and groups and btctalks with a disenchanted view of Steemit. Some say its lacking diversity and not rewarding contributors of unique content which doesn't fit immediately into the Steemit marketing mold. For example, there is very little Ethereum support here. Not much of a bitcoin crowd either. One of the powerful whales may even be anti-bitcoin. It seems a bit like a feedback loop. I posted an introduction for my little sister, trying to garner some youthful enthusiasm but got no response.</>
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There dont appear to be many gamers here either, which is a huge demographic of youth that is already tech-savvy and I believe would contribute a lot of energy to this platform. Twitch streamers could support their endeavors by having viewers give an upvote. I was suprised to see no response to my inquiry about Twitch broadcasts. #music doesnt have a lot of support either. And apparently its more profitable to [throw a fit] than it is to contribute valuable upvotes to #photography.
I even attempted to find a fellow #drinking friend amongt the mass our 30,000 Steemers. I even made a post for #beer.
If we are to increase our user base and the value of the platform, we need to increase support for a greater number of interests.
We have to change this perception:
If, Then procedure =
If we are curating our own interests, then we must claim responsibility for the limits of those topics as well. We, as curators, stand to benefit from an increase in Steem Value by consciously trying to increase diversity on here on Steemit. I was very happy to see a #marijuana post at the top of Steemit the other day. Lets keep up the funny fight :)
I look forward to the next evolution of social media, be it here, or elsewhere. I am not attempting to incite a civil war, but I believe that further dialogue on this topic needs to happen.
Here is the saddest piano sonata since Beethoven's Fur Elise... I wrote and performed it. Sorry its not a Steemit marketing song, but its appropriate for my mood: https://soundcloud.com/jupitermusic/the-power-of-limits?in=jupitermusic/sets/beyond-the-sky
Don't you think it's too soon to call it either way? It's going to take a couple years for Steemit to really mature into whatever exactly it will become. Stick around. Be part of the solution. Of course, powering down takes a couple of years anyway. Maybe you'll be stoked with the results by then. :)
I can understand what you are saying,and agree on a few of your points. I am just taking the attitude of "Rome was not built in a day."
i can understand your frustration. minnows are mostly new users and i would love to know what the steemit retention rate is.
I have similar concerns and have noticed a distinguishable lack of originality and quality among many of the trending posts. I'm wondering what the purpose of the whales are. If they are simply going to upvote the most popular personalities, regardless of whether the content is actually unique and offers great value to the platform, then they are essentially going to guarantee a social club mentality. I hope that this isn't the case and that their attention is more evenly distributed to those who can contribute better content.
It seems like there are tons of posts about Steemit itself that end up trending, which makes me question how the quality and value of a platform can be sustained when the most attention-grabbing content is about the platform itself. As you said - it's basically a circle-jerk if the whales don't wise up and figure that part out. There's no better way to sink your value than to push away those most willing and able to create valuable content. This platform should be less about personalities and more about substance - and not just Steemit-related substance.