RE: It's okay to love Steemit, but stop pretending that the platform is healthy.
Hey there @tolkalore, this is a thought provoking post, I don't resteem very often, but I feel like more people need to know how genuine users are feeling about the system. I'm a nobody, part of no "whale circle jerk" but I have hit trending a handful of times since joining the platform.
I agree that some of the faces on Steemit are giving a somewhat falsified view of how easy it is to be successful on Steemit. I do however, consider myself a F2P (free to play) participant on Steemit, as with anything I believe that I could grow as a minnow by simply putting in the work.
There are many good contributors that talk about the work and hustle needed, so not all of it is false advertising. You brought a great point to light, if Steemit is expected to go mainstream (which we all hope it does) the average person using this site is going to get frustrated and give up easily.
I want to know what is being done to counteract this, everyday it seems there are people upset that they don't make more than a couple of cents.
I went through my followers the other day only to find mountains of post with zero votes, sitting between zero to three cents. It like the blind leading the blind here, as even I am still learning.
Ya see, it would be one thing if people were getting upset that they weren't making anything if all was equal, but the people who pour thousands of dollars into Steem, are always going to prosper over the minnow who puts in the hardest work possible.
The system was designed to be funded, and that's what whales do... but don't expect anyone to be around at the bottom for long, which is what you are already seeing via the account attrition rate.
One, because the whales up-vote themselves, and automatically make it to the top. Two, all the major up-vote bots follow them, and them alone, because that's where they get all their money from. And three, all the other whales, follow the other whales, and the cycle continues.
What I'm saying is, that you could get somewhere without money if you're lucky and persistent, but it will never outshine or outperform those who pay to win... no matter what you do.
The system was designed as a pay-to-win platform, but with that being the case... no one should expect anyone to be left at the bottom for long, which we're already seeing via a super high active user account attrition rate.
The sites churn rate putting bringing more people up, the more users being added. I understand the concept, many video games are pay to win. To have a character with all the best items, you need to be buying them in cash shop, however it is still possible to reach it by being F2P. I agree the amount of time/work would be insane in this regard. The system in that sense works perfectly, to go up- buy Steem!
There are many posts that speak about networking, and I would imagine this to be to get regular upvotes. That is good to say that as long as we are using the site as intended everyday, our own accounts will climb in value.
I understand what you're saying, but pay-to-accessorize and pay-to-win are two totally separate things, and in the pay-to-win model, no matter how hard you work, you will never ever get ahead of those who do pay.
Nah fam I do understand. Pay to accessorize like League of Legends, Pay to win is Maplestory and literally any mobile game like Unision League, PAD (puzzles and dragons) other stuff. What I'm trying to say here, is that you can spend money on the games and still suck overall. It really depends on what you do with it. Pay to win definitely have advantages, but just the fact alone that you can pay and still not win, or that you can be F2P and still succeed, just means that you have to focus more towards what you are trying to accomplish.
You're not wrong, but my opinion differs, I feel like grinding can be just as rewarding.
I hear ya, but that's an awful lot of grinding.
Think the way that Grand Theft Auto 5 is now. Sure you could get all the new cool stuff without paying... but it's going to take you a very very very long time to do it.
It sure is! But that's what I feel makes all the effort all the more worth it. Everyday I try to see what I can learn and improve on, and I feel ya that sometimes it feels that only the rich make it to the top. But I like getting frustrated and being like "omg what am I doing wrong?" cause when I figure it out I feel a sense of accomplishment, like I really learned something.
Steemit is going to take me a long time to climb working at it everyday, but I won't know if I can do it if I don't try!
I just want to add that every steem I have was earned by blogging here. I've spent maybe 400$ of my own money. It is a pay to win platform, it is also if you look at my example play to win, or grind to win. One year and three months here for me = 15000 steem. There is no better saying here than Steem on, steem the fuck on. Persistence pays off.
I believe that investing in Steem is wise to those who can afford it. The way that I view it is that if I can't afford to buy my way up, then I better be prepared to put in all the hours and all of the work to get there. I'm in it for the long haul, if I can give it my all for even a year I'll learn if Steemit is for me or not. Thanks for that additional motivation, it's great to know that everyone at one point was a minnow.