Whale Ho! The Slippery Facebook Slope
This post is a Public Notice to the founders of Steemit, and all you whales out there.
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Attention:
@ned
@dan
@donkeypong
@cryptoctopus
@stellabelle
@steemship
and the rest.
As a new poster, It is with a certain measure of "facepalming" and commitment, that I write to you now.
At the acceptable risk of committing steemit "hari kari" i hereby fasten my resolve and say unto you in the following:
Are you aware of the cancer that is slowly eating away and rotting the core vision of steemit?
Meaningless Fluff Posts, Cute Puppy & Kitty Pictures, Pictures of Food, and worse; those responsible for upvoting this type of erroneous content devoid of any real substance. Shame on you. (you know who you are whale and profiteering minnow alike)
Really? A post on 7 different types of coffee makers is pushing 4K? What about the guy taking funny pictures of animals who is up 3K?
Oh not enough?
What about the post solely concerning "Farts" that is past 2K. That do it for ya? Can you smell what is in the air?
What am i suggesting? HONOR LADIES & GENTLEMEN.
RETURN STEEMIT TO HONOR.
Reconsider your upvoting procedures, rewards, inter alia. Or perhaps special power-ups for verified quality people.
And consider personally FOLLOWING Quality people, making your time specifically about using your SteemPower to Responsibly Curate. (Ahem, cough cough hint hint, like for me).
Steemit is a garden that must be tended, so we implore you: stop letting it rot or nobody will eat for the winter.
This whole adventure was supposedly premised on the grounds of: Rewarding Responsible Curation and Posting of Original Content No?
Unfortunately, it is Morphing into the baseless and time-wasting realm of Facebook as i write.
The additional task at hand presently then, is for you as founders, and the other whales; to be more selective with your upvotes, and find a way to re-structure the balance of power.
^ The true apple of steemit's eye, in full original color.^
Greed is a powerful force friends.
As to the rest of you here on steemit, there are a number of smart individuals who feel the same and; I challenge you to come up with ideas for incentives that would, discourage those who upvote on the silly animal or fart post making so much money as opposed to a quality and well thought out post.
Not important one would Argue? NIET!
You have the power to checkmate this phenomena right now.
These posts have already set a dangerous trending standard that must be course corrected if steemit is to become anything other than a monetized, profit driven facebook.
In the past few days, myself and a number of friends have written and posted:
Truly one of a kind and well written content, which strikes at the core philosophy of this site. Freedom, Self Determination, Genuineness, Authenticity, etc.
@pierce-the-veil
@frankbacon
The response? Underwhelming.
In conclusion, I will continue to post authentically with no fear of reprisal and do my best to remain in honor and in parity with the founding core principles of steemit; those that originally attracted me to this platform.
AS TO ALL THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR POSTING FLUFF AND PURELY MONETARY DRIVEN CRAP...
I FART IN YOUR GENERAL DIRECTION!
AS TO THE REST OF YOU, KINDLY GOVERN YOURSELVES ACCORDINGLY.
I upvoted this post for a little visibility.
This is 100th rant about whales upvoting content that people disagree with.
What is interesting is that the content you cite, to my mind earned the money it received. It was new fresh and entertaining.
Compare this with my rant a few weeks ago, where I was explaining that we're casting the wrong impression by only voting up titsNtravel type posts.
Which I know you saw because your reply to me is what brought me here.
I think here, you may be off base.
Different people genuinely value different things. But there are now many, many more $1k-$5k posts and the number of winner takes all mega bucks lottery winners has dropped significantly.
Also I'm seeing a lot of comments that earn more than the post they are in. I think that's a really healthy sign. It means that the community in general, minnows and whales alike are starting to enjoy a diversity of opinion and considered, constructive criticism instead of what usually happens in a social media network.
Normally, tribes form and these tribes quickly devolve into a mono-culture focused on a single "leader" with a single mind and view point. Anyone who has a different opinion is quickly ostracized to go form their own "anti" camp. For an example of this see the dynamic between /r/btc & /r/bitcoin
Yet if you look at what is happening here, many people who have never made the front page are making it now.
You may think it's worthless and you are entitled to your opinion. But many of these are fascinating and represent a lot of hardwork by their author especially if you can get past the click bait headlines and keep in mind that the author is forced to appeal as widely as possible if they want to be heard, and thus must try to distill, some very complex topics down into something simpler and more digestible.
My recommendation to any whale who stumbles in here would be to follow @gravvit's lead and highlight quality content in their own blogs, using it as a sounding board to highlight what they consider the best things and why.
While i don't necessarily agree with 100% of your analysis, i definitely gained some insight from your comment.
Thank you for taking the time to write a well thought out response. And for your upvote. :)
Comtrya!