Write good unique content and you will be rewarded
While the Steemit Whales continue their petty squabbles (cashing in along the way), over what is right and wrong with Steemit, the minnows continue to come and go.
Minnows are lured onto this platform, with the hope of earning a few dollars for their words, but what confronts them is something totally different.
The silence is deafening.
The Promise:
Write good unique content and you will be rewarded.
The Reality:
Moments after you click 'post', your writing will get sweep up in a sea of words written by other minnows hoping to get their chance in a flickering spotlight.
The Solution:
Upvote yourself, buy votes, join communities, take advantage of free social upvote bots or do what ever you can to keep you post above the water line.
As a minnow I totally get it, you need to hustle, and try to figure this out.
The current upvote buying squabble is not about you, but rather the whales wanting a bigger slice of the pie. Hell, some whales are the ones selling the upvotes so they can become bigger whales.
It's a total shit storm and definitely shouldn't be on the front page.
And while we are talking about the frontpage, that Trending tab is a total SCAM.
Please ignore it.
It's not working as intended, and will almost always be an indicator on how big your wallet is and not a representation of how the community has upvoted.
In reality that tab should be called 'Promoted' because that's what it is, absolute Self-Promotion.
Now don't get me wrong, the reading isn't bad, but the marketers haven't arrived yet, and when they do this place is going to get a whole lot messier.
I already see a few familiar Marketers lurking around this site, be warned you ain't seen nothing yet.
Marketers ruin everything.
So be prepared and draw your line in the sand.
Define your values, and stick to them.
The people exposing the loopholes in the system are doing this community a favour.
We can either act on the knowledge we've gained or trust petty squabbling will fix the problem.
Only one choice will help to normalise the platform.
Now I haven't begun to do my best work here yet because I'm only a minnow and I'm still testing the platform to see if this community is worthy of my time.
But, here's one example of a whale that could simply delegate his power to Minnow Support Projects to grow this community while he ponders his value on the platform.
But instead the SP wealth lies untouched for the odd occasion he wants to speak up.
Now it's time to release this post into the fast moving waters of Steemit and see if it get's lost amongst the flow of words, but rest assured I value my time and will do what I can to keep it above the water line.
Yeah, I'm not sure the upvote bots are good value... but yes, they might get you some more attention... so there is that benefit.
I honestly wish the Whales would use their SP to grow the platform... apparently 39 accounts own all of Steem and have way more power than half a million accounts combined... that doesn't seem the best way forward for this community. I think they deserve rewards for their investment... I just wish they'd use their power for good instead of hoarding it like you suggested here.
Yeah, @aghunter and @just2random... it's pretty frustrating and I'm sure it absolutely dissuades new adoption... but I don't see an easy way to resolve it. The early whales took a massive risk and it's now paid off... so it's hard to ask them to power down just when things are getting good... but I absolutely agree they should be delegating their SP if they're not using it.
Its the proverbial 1%
Except blockchain was supposed to take power away from the 1%. It seems that Steemit has just shifted the power from one percent to another.
That's exactly what it looks like.
Unfortunately, when money is involved, Greed is the dominating force.
What shits me the most is idle whale accounts, not even delegating SP to those that would use the power wisely.
The sooner the whales' power down the quicker this community will grow.
I see you
I hear you
I read you
And I agree with you
And no, not lost yet from my feed. Not many ppl I followed, online today, it seems. Usually a couple would resteem tons of blogs, and that's when your blog would definitely lost from my feed 😂
Yeah, ain't that the truth. Even if you find a following, it's likely to get lost in that stream too.
And it's only going to get noisier.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my words.
It means the world to know they now have meaning to at least someone other than myself. :-D
Great post. Vote buying and delegation leasing sprung up in response to Minnows struggling - the products aren't evil, it's how they are used. If they are used to ensure adequate rewards on original content then what's the damn problem? Everyone should be free to use their stake (whether mined, bought or leased) as they please, so long as it isn't used to upvote effortless bs/spam.
All this whinging atm is ridiculous, from Whales and Minnows. Posting on Steem is so damn good right now. Was literally 16x less rewarding a couple of months ago. Why's everyone so butthurt? Pop the damn Champagne already!
Post good content -> Network -> Repeat. If you can't make make money right now, your content is either lacking, or you are neglecting your networking game. Simple as that.
Exactly, the majority of whales are early adopters or investors and should be rewarded how they see fit.
I have no problem with the class system here. And will serve my time as a minnow for however long it takes.
The bickering is just a distraction from the real problem, which is how to keep minnows alive and swimming on the platform.
From a minnows perspective, getting a 100% share of nothing is still nothing. So it doesn't matter how the money is split between those willing to game the system, the minnows will continue to struggle regardless.
And you are right, it's just another social media platform, where your network represents your wealth.
Totally agree with you on the latter part of your comment. If you're here to make money shut up and play the rules well. If not, then yeah the amount of spamming by bots and accounts that are just out to reciprocate votes without any content is annoying on some posts. And i think using bots etc. aren't the best way to promote good posts, it just seems to be building a new market rather than leveling the playing field. That's the impression i'm getting from my short time here, counterfactuals welcome!
I totally agree. Some more sophisticated filters and ability of users to find the good content (and there is some fantastic content) would be helpful. It is annoying to see sway that whales have when you see votes vs power on mediocre content with whale support vs great content from minnows.
When this platform goes mainstream, it's only going to get worse.
That's true. I do like that there are some attempts to clean up the plagiarism and really low quality posts though.
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well written and very true. There will need to be some level of control and moderation in future upgrades, but especially now as Steem is actually starting to get valuable, people aren't going to want their slice of the pie.
Its as they always say, the rich are never rich enough, and they will just keep getting richer. Greed is everywhere.
"The rich are never rich enough" - Spot on
Great post @just2random
It seems we share some similar opinions.
This is the biggest problem as a minnow. You can write all the good content you like and it gets lost in a sea of crap.
I hope you decide to hang around. The work you produce is great quality and genuinely contributes to the broader community.
Upvoted and resteeemed.
Hey, I appreciate those kind words.
That sea of crap will only get more polluted as the platform gets more populated. Solving this problem while you can still see the fishes is the key.
Really good post! I totally agree with you about the whales. One vote of them could be so much encouraging for a minnow! I still keep trying tough to raise my sp :)
Ha! They could make 100's of small votes a day and would still make a huge difference to the health of the platform.
Interesting post and comments.
Still relatively new here and putting in the work to gain a little traction - no whining from my corner.
No such thing as a free ride eh but not keen at paying for exposure preferring the old analogy that cream rises to the top...
:)
Except I observe that Steemit is a microcosm metaphor for the big (bad/beautiful) world at large. Wherever there is an opportunity and advantage to be had the less moral will exploit the system for gain with no care for the infastructure or others.
That said I am suitably impressed by the generousity and support of so many toptastic folks here.
Not sure my message will resonate with you - kinda 'Kitchen Sink Spirituality' with a healthy dash of anti establishment. I invite you to pop by mine if you have a mo and would love your thoughts on a recent post of mine: https://steemit.com/spirituality/@ldacey-laforge/searching-for-zen
I wish you joy and success throughout 2018 and beyond.
xox
@just2random payed 1.0 SBD to @minnowbooster to buy a stealth upvote.
transaction-id 0f7fc6a48b0c25b76302a8bc83a6a8076464ebb2
@stealthgoat