What I am afraid of in Steem release 0.19.0
Hello Steemers, I just thought that I share my views regarding one critical change in the next release of Steemit, that is Steem 0.19.0. The full list of changes can be read here and here.
Steem updating on 20th June
The change which I particularly want to discuss in this post is code named as #1053.
It's brief description says that,
" Each vote's impact has been increased by 4x."
It actually feels good to read this short description that our vote's impact increases by 4x, but then I read the full description.
" A 100% vote should use 4x as much voting power as it does today (2% total VP instead of 0.5%). "
And well, this is what I am afraid of. This basically means that we will have less votes in our hands to upvote the posts we like on Steemit.
What does this mean?
1) Minnows getting even lesser votes:
Most minnows were already getting less votes and now the votes have been reduced so much, that you actually need to be lucky to get votes from other Steemers. It would also mean that less content will be produced, meaning a certain fall in Steemit's organic traffic and Alexa ranking.
2) Concentration of Steem in even less hands:
The competition will reach new heights and it will become insanely difficult to reach the hot and trending pages. And once some dolphins and whales reach here, it will mean that they will be the ones to profit continuously. This is so because in order to reap the maximum curation rewards, other members will give priority to their posts to upvote next time. And not to mention, that these authors will actually make much more earnings due to the 4x voting power consumption of the upvoters!!
3) Lesser community engagement:
Less votes in hands would mean that authors can't upvote most of their commenters. This would lead to even lesser comments and finally lesser community engagement over time. And slowly it might drive members away from the Steemit, as many of them earn their reputation and rewards from their comments, rather than their posts.
4) Increase in groupism, politics and dirty tricks:
Already some members are known to use dirty tricks to push their posts to the trending page. This will increase further as the competition for attention will rise. And then we also know that there are some communities which are limited to their domain and are not even a bit interested in anyone outside their communities. After this update, more such communities will arise. Meaning that loners would totally be eliminated from the system. And even though several communities which don't interact with other communities or members is not something that bad, but the inherent politics will make things go bad.
5) All these points will lead to a drop in the Steem price:
As you can understand that when there will be less active members on steemit and even less signups, then circulation of Steem will decline. Meaning that it's price may go down! Although the opposite could also happen, that is people stocking more Steem Power to stay in the competition and push ahead of others. This is what we will know only after the change has been implemented.
What should be the ideal update then?
Personally I believe that ideally we should increase the number of votes available with each member and instead of increasing the voting impact by x4, we should divide it by 2 or 4. This will lead to members casting votes on many posts to earn the same curation rewards. And obviously, it will also increase the community engagement.
What are the alternatives?
I think if Steemit team is not ready to implement the ideal update, then they should at least consider allowing the vote slider available to all members, irrespective of their Steem power. This will help to mitigate the losses which I mentioned above.
These were my viewpoints regarding the specific update (#1053) of Steem 0.19.0. I may be wrong in my assessment, so surely not saying that this update should not be released. What I want to say is that the Steemit team should probably reconsider this update. But if my viewpoints don't suit you, then sure go ahead. I believe experimentation is really necessary and many times the results are different than the theory. I hope my viewpoints are wrong and this update helps to increase the community interaction.
What do you all feel regarding this particular update? Please post your comments. I would highly appreciate some community engagement over this post! :)
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Thanks
Siddartha
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I'm thinking and hoping that Steem, inc. will give all users a slider bar, no matter what their current Steam Power is. So to still have the 40 votes a day that you do now, if you have the slider bar you would just place 40 votes at 25% instead to still have the same rate of decline and regeneration to your steam power.
[posted from @jesta 's https://beta.chainbb.com - a forum on top of the Steem blockchain, direct link:
https://beta.chainbb.com/steemit/@siddartha/what-i-am-afraid-of-in-steem-release-0-19-0 ]
Thanks for your comment. I also hope that they give slider to everyone, to mitigate the negative consequences of this update.
I've got to say I like your clear concise point by point style in the post.
Can't say I'm happy about what I'm reading. 4 days of little to no sleep trying to just get noticed here is a steep price to pay in one's health for what's sounding more like a chance to bang your head up against another brick wall in life.
Not very attractive...and I don't think a sliding bar is going to fix the problem. It is as it ever was it seems...the powerful feign compassion...while laughing among themselves how little skin it cost them to play the game...and win.
Let them have their whale pond...they can never really steal the dreams of the big hearted...and there are still many here @steemit...
"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." ~ Frederick Douglass
~may all hatred cease...let there be peace~
Don't be disappointed, there are still more ways you can work out to be on top here! Just keep updated and be a part of some community like minnowsupport!
Really interesting post.
I'm still kind of new to Steemit, so I can't give you a really strong and well formed opinion about this update, but here's what I think - while what you said may be true, especially about people not being interested in interacting with other posts any more, not commenting and not creating more content, I also believe that the people who will do these kind of things may get better rewards from it.
Upvoting and commenting aren't exactly the best ways to get money from this website. I mean, it is a way, but it surely isn't the best. Content creation is the main income opportunity, at least that's what I think from what I saw on this website in such a short amount of time.
For me, personally, commenting and upvoting are two ways of interacting with people and making them interested in me, by giving them my opinions and trying to form a relationship between me and himthem
So even if your predictions will be true, I strongly believe that the way to succeed on this website is by creating content, and commenting and upvoting are by far the best way to promote yourself, at least at the present moment. Even if upvotes will become rare, people will still hope to make money by creating content, since it's the best way to do it. Steemit presents a huge opportunity especially when it comes to money, and that can be a really huge motivator, even if the amount you can make is pretty small.
But that's only my personal opinion, and since I'm a new user, I may be just wrong.
Anyway, great post, and I wish you good luck!
Thanks for your opinion. I agree with your point that content creation is the main earning method here, but it's just when votes will become less, minnows will also get much less votes and it may not motivate them to post better quality content. But as I said, who knows, maybe this update is for the better!!
I totally agree. We don't need more incentive to compete, the situation is resembling more and more the wealth inequality in most of the world now and the solution is not more competition, it's wider allocation of resources and power. If our votes are reduced our overall voting power is essentially the same as it was before.
I really hope the exponential growth change will balance this one out, it's hard for me to imagine that it will.
I'm less worried for me and more worried for the environment. I like the cooperation and trust that can form now. If we all hoard votes that's going to disappear.
Yes, lets hope this does not turn disastrous!
great work nicely presented ...:)
Thank you. :)
Interesting post thanks for sharing. Enjoy your day.
You too!