A Message to @dantheman, @berniesanders and @smooth

Today was supposed to be spent writing up an article I have been mentally preparing over the last few days. However, every time I sit down in front of my computer with the intention of typing some words, I find myself typing nothing at all. My mind is currently far too distracted by its attempts to make sense of the events of last night, and the growing division among the community.

Last night's discussion seemed to get rather heated-- to say the least. I have since had the opportunity to process things and find some clarity in regards to my thoughts on what has been going on. I briefly considered rejoining the discussion on @dantheman's post, but I decided that it would be a lot more productive to express all of my thoughts in a post. The method of conversation used last night did not get us anywhere, so hopefully this will be a more efficient means of communicating my concerns.

To begin, I will admit that I am unfortunately not as early an adopter as some, so my perspective is somewhat limited in relation to what started all this madness. It is evident however, to me and to any one else who spares a moment of observation, that there has been a long standing animosity between @dantheman and a number of whales, including @berniesanders and @smooth. I am oblivious to what event, or series of events led to this bad blood, so I shall not comment on who is in the right and who is in the wrong. I haven't the basis to make such an assertion.

My perspective is limited to that of one who has been on Steemit for a few months and watched as the lack of unity between the most influential of us, has led to a growing division among those of us who have less influence. Things have gotten so bad that I have had several family members ask me what all this is about. I speak of family members that do not even hold an account on Steemit, but merely view the site on occasion to read my novel and articles.

If this growing tension is visible, even to those that are not yet a part of the community, then it does not seem like much of a stretch to believe that this may be dissuading a fair amount of potential users from joining us. Couple this with members of the community leaving because of flag-abuse, perceived whale-collusion and unrewarded content, and we have a serious problem on our hands.

Whether you are motivated by a desire to attain more wealth, or a hope to see Steemit succeed, you all must realise that those agendas are one in the same. A high value STEEM is a successful Steemit, and will draw an influx of users that will sustain the economy and the community indefinitely. Just as a thriving community and economy, will ensure a high value of STEEM, and increase the already tremendous value of your wallets to a point where you will be able to guarantee your descendants financial support for generations to come.

I regret to say that I'm becoming doubtful that this will come to pass unless a lasting peace can be achieved. I know it is difficult for one to extend an arm to someone who they believe to have wronged them, or to someone who they dislike on a personal level. Considering this, it is a big ask, but I ask it nonetheless: If one of you are able to be the bigger man as they say, and bury any past transgressions and make a true effort to move on for the sake of Steemit and all of us who have come to love it, then I believe that we can begin to rebuild the bonds that have been severed among us, and promote a community of unity that will exhibit a natural magnetism towards attracting new users.

In writing this, I expect that this prior paragraph may provoke a response akin to, "I/We already tried." If this is so, I ask that you try again. Make a public gesture, one that the whole community can see, and then if it is denied, at least we here who have a limited perspective will be enlightened, learning who is really to blame for the division. Perhaps you feel this is not important, but let me share with you why I think that it is.

Steemit changed my life. This statement is not an exaggeration. Before discovering this platform, I was losing the ability to trust in any type of organisation. Not long prior to my discover of the platform, I had taken employment in charity fundraising, as I felt I had some redeeming to do, and this I believed, would be an excellent way to do so.

Having gone into this job, already fully aware of the abuse of corporations, governments and many other seemingly useful organisations, I was rather wounded to find that even this charity fundraising was somewhat of a scam. Whilst the charities were making money, I was making far too much on bonuses, money that should really be going to the alleged causes we were promoting.

After this, I took up employment at an energy company. The scam I found myself involved in this time was even more insidious, and before long I was forced to leave due to my unwillingness to betray my morals in order to eat. I had found myself in a place where I could no longer trust in companies, or businesses of any type, which is a difficult place to be in when you live in this consumer-driven world. Then I discovered Steemit, and everything changed.

I was of course doubtful at first, sure that this must be some sort of scam. But, as I did my research and learned of the transparent nature of the site, I became moderately confident that this place was conceived with the best of intentions. Upon joining, and becoming a part of the community, that confidence began to grow, but it is starting to dwindle as I gain a better understanding of the platform and am beginning to see how the system is being exploited to make the wealthy wealthier, just like the society outside of Steemit.

I still believe that this place can be something great, and that it can do for millions of others what it was able to do for me--show me that it is okay to entertain the possibility of a benevolent system. For this to be achieved, some changes have to be made. Whilst you guys are the ones that hold the most influence in terms of STEEM power, you have to recognize that your influence does not stop there. You influence this community in ways that extend beyond your holdings of STEEM, and it is your examples that will set better ones for everyone else. I hope that you take the steps necessary to find common ground and promote the right message to others who are looking in, wondering whether to join or whether to invest.

On a personal note;

@dantheman. Many have a very strong opinion about you, but I have yet to observe enough of your actions personally to form anything of sustenance. I do find your choice to decline payouts amidst a time of low reward-pools to be very admirable, and some of your writings certainly speak to that of a high moral standard.

Yet, your last post, while I agreed with a lot of what you said, definitely contained some passive-aggressive undertones. The troll image imparticular was an unnecessary addition to the message you were portraying, and I think may have cheapened it somewhat and provoked @smooth and @berniesanders.

I am still trying to make up my mind about you, but am leaning towards your intentions being honourable. But, if they are, and if you are really as moral as your writings suggest, then you can demonstrate that by desisting with the disguised provocation and making a genuine effort to be productive towards re-establishing peace between stakeholders.

I know this is difficult, I have struggled with it in the past, as I am quite a smartarse and when I dislike someone, though that is rare, it is hard not to take a little cheeky jab at them. Nevertheless, the effort must be made if you are true to your word on your hopes for this platform.

I hope that you prove me right here and turn out to be the moral, mature, visionary and role model that I think you can be.

@berniesanders. I think you will agree with me that our conversation last night, if you could call it that, got us nowhere. I still don't agree with the motivations behind the upvoting of your comments to $8, but I am willing to forget about that. I realise that the system here, while a great one, certainly has some vulnerabilities to exploitation and while they are in existence, I am going to choose not judge those who choose to make use of them.

I had mentioned in my comment on @dantheman's post that in spite of hearing a lot of negative things about you, I wanted to make up my own mind, based on my own observations. What I feel is important when it comes to you, is that whether you are genuinely a cunt or not, there is a growing sentiment among the community that you are.

Users are living in fear of your flags and it is silencing the voices and the opinions of too many. Is this actually what you want? Do you want everyone to be afraid of you? It takes a very insecure person to be craving the fear of others, so I would pity you if that was the case. Your actions last night, not your words, gave me a glimpse of you that leads to me believe you may not be the cunt that everyone thinks you are.

You could have easily downvoted my comment about you, with both your accounts or more. You didn't, and that is an action that I did not dismiss. If you're not the person that everyone says you are, and if you do have the community and Steemit's best interests at heart, then I would have to encourage you to be more public in your decrying of the allegations against you.

I imagine that you might feel you have nothing to prove, and that others should think what they want--fuck them. This would be my mental position on the matter, if the situation was of no consequence to the community. However, this situation is of serious consequence.

If you're not who they say you are, and you just have a bad rep for unjust reasons, remaining silent on your innocence is going to hurt the community just as much as if you really were who they claim. You are, whether rightfully or not, the primary source of this ubiquitous fear of being flagged that has overshadowed the community, and so it falls on you, whether it is fair or not, to help negate the fear.

If this means giving your flag a rest for a couple of weeks, except in extreme circumstances, then why not do it? If it means over turning some other flags with your hefty influence, so that others will associate @berniesanders as the man who saved them from a flag, rather than hit them with one, why not do it? You have every right, given the current guidelines and innerworkings of the site, to do with your influence what you please. I am merely asking that you use that influence to restore the community's trust in our whales, and bring a much more inviting atmosphere to Steemit in the process. This will benefit you and your wallet greatly in the long run.

One final thing, @berniesanders. You said to me yesterday, "Open your eyes." You imply that there is something I am not seeing, yet offer me no enlightenment as to what that something I'm missing is. If you disagree with everything I am saying and feel that it's because I am missing a key piece of information, then please, share it with. Either here or on steemit.chat, but throwing riddles at me isn't going to help me find clarity on the situation.

@smooth. For the most part, you seem to keep your emotions in check when discussing issues, and I have respect for you in this regard. That respect takes somewhat of a blow though when I see your actions. Your flagging of @krnel's post the other day was, though within your rights, a cuntish move. What will bring people to Steemit is diversity, and I see very few others posting the likes of what @krnel is sharing. To downvote his post in an effort to hide it from the trending page because it's overvalued, in my opinion, is really backwards thinking.

It's also hypocritical in the sense that you jump to @ozchartart's defense, on request or not, for @dantheman downvoting his posts for essentially the same reason. Out of all the whales I have observed on this site, it is you, @smooth, who I feel most confidently about wanting to see steemit succeed. You seem very passionate about the survival of this platform, and it's a pleasure to see that in all honesty.

However, if you are truly passionate about Steemit, and do truly want to see it succeed, then you have also the need to recognise your role in this society, and the damage that you are doing in regards to depleting the minnows trust in the whales and their intentions. As I said to @berniesanders, whether it's fair or not, if this platform is going to succeed then we need to have trust in those of you with the most influence, so you need to be more mindful of your actions and what message they send in future.

Before you flag a post for, being over-valued, I ask that you consider a few things.

• What message am I sending to the others who have upvoted this post by my downvoting it?
  If there is a lot of complimentary comments on the post and a number of people who valued the content, then your downvote will only lead them to believe that you are another whale abusing the system, lowering payouts on posts so that it can be added to your buddies posts instead. You care about Steemit, so if the community finds value in the post, is that not already enough for you to also to consider it valuable?

• How hard has this author been working to produce content for Steemit?
  As a minnow myself, I can speak to this site(currently) being somewhat like a lottery. I can spend a whole day on a post and receive pennies, repeatedly, until finally I get 50 or so dollars from a useless post that took me minutes. Before being so quick to downvote someones post, consider that they may have had many of their previous posts heavily neglected, and the expected payout on the one you are thinking of downvoting, could be considered recompense for the valuable content they have supplied in the past that was both overlooked and underpaid.

If you do these things, @smooth, I'm sure it will help to bring unity, as well as a much more positive atmosphere to the community.

The road map has finally been released, and I'm very excited about much of what I read in there. In truth though, none of it will matter if we don't start to take steps to heal the wounds of this community.

---

The most important message here, is let's put the bullshit behind us and try and come together, for I expect we are all going to be here for a long time. I love Steemit, and more so what it represents. I think we are underestimating the potential for this platform to make worldwide and lasting change. We owe it to the world to do our best to make this place a success, for when the rest of humanity looks up one day and sees a decentralized block-chain based site and currency doing more for the people than any centralized power system ever has, they will finally realise the abuse of the system that dominates this world, and will force for it to be changed into something more akin to this.

---

---

---

I have declined payout on this post because I do not want to cheapen the message by it seeming like an attempt to cash in. I simply wanted to share my thoughts with a clear mind before having it clouded with emotional discussion, and this was the best way to do that. To any reading this, I do not think any of these three follow me, so if you could give it a resteem so that it finds them, that would be much appreciated.




Now that I got that off my chest, let's see if I can have any luck writing that article...