RE: The Steemit Daily Dose: @mindhunter looks at the darker side of Steemit: GAMEIFICATION #whaledownvoting #rewardpoolrape #krcollusion #whaleshares
This is a really good example of something I come across every day in my job.
you design a wonderful system - it's beautiful, the code is a delight to behold, it's magical and it is the one true thing that will bring peace and prosperity to the world.
And then you let people in, and they bugger it up. ;-)
People will always try to find a way around rules, even when it is to their detriment. They will bully others, they will try to take more than their fair share, they will not play nice.
It's easy to blame the system for not taking all this into account, but I don't think it is the system's fault. The system works - it's the people who can't play nice who are broken.
I think one solution that would go some way towards addressing a bunch of these problems is to remove the level of influence the whales have. Cap their influence at three times the influence of a minnow for example.
Or have the influence work on upvotes, but no on flags - everyone can flag equally and the flagging doesn't take away any money, it just hides the post.
I was here during the flagging wars, and at that time I had just convinced my father @len.george to come on board. Then I had to tell him not to post anything because it would just get flagged and he would be wasting his time.
I too stopped posting for a time because there was no point. Why give bullies a target?
I think what Steemit.inc needs to do now is instead f throwing a bunch of dev hours at trying to stop this and stop that, and write an algorithm to fix the other, is to sit back for a moment and look at the people and how they are (mis) using the system.
What motives them? What dis-incentives them? Why are they doing this?
And then look at developing ways of changing their behaviour so they become, over time, good Steemians.
That way, everybody wins.
People will always try to game and scam any system! We must remember were still in Beta phase, so this is the time we iron out all the mistakes before the Alpha phase starts in 2-5 years times.
Yup. As a kiwi living in the UK (many decades ago now. Wow that's something scary to think about!) there were so many scams going on to get free phone calls back home.
It was fun to try and game Telecom and see if you could get a free phone call (the phone boxes could be made to count upwards if you did it right.)
We never looked at it as stealing profits from the company. We just didn't want to pay for hour long phone calls to our mothers. ;-)
And there will be an element of that here also - if it can be gamed, someone (usually a kiwi) will give it a crack and see if they can do it.
Where this is a little more sinister, is when people start doing this in a way that harms the other users simply to satisfy their own greed.
Greed is not good.
Greed does not work. Despite what a small lizard type person might tell you.
I think placing some sort of limit on influence, maybe earnings, power etc may help with some of the symptoms. But it won't fix the problem.
The problem is people, and fixing them is a little more tricky ;-)
Money doesn't buy happiness, only more choices. The paradox is many don't realise this until they obtain some form of wealth.
Another way to look at it, is that money buys freedom.
If you have money you are free to do what you want to do.
You can go out to dinner.
You can buy the new smartphone.
You can follow your dreams.
I've experienced both sides of this equation - grinding poverty - working my arse off just to pay the rent, with nothing left over. My boss used to bring me in food so I could at least get a couple of good meals in during the week.
And I've had a really good year when I earned a stupid amount of money writing code.
The big difference for me was I could do stuff when I had money. One of my wife's friends (who was a struggling artist) didn't have a raincoat and it was coming into winter - so I bought her a Gortex jacket, and new shoes, and a gym membership at a swanky gym.
It felt really good to be able to do that - to have the freedom to do that and know that I still have my bills covered.
So in that regard I think freedom buys happiness, and money is one of the keys that unlocks freedom.
But for many, that is not so. The pursuit of money itself is their goal. They will never be happy because they will never have enough. Someone else will always have more, and they will always want to try to get more than that person.
They will never be able to enjoy their money and the freedom it can bring. For them, freedom is unobtainable using the money key, because that key only locks the door. It doesn't unlock it.
Interesting personal philosophy on money Trevor. Agreed. I hope your dad joins Steemit! I'll send him some Steem!! ;)
He's already here: @len.george ;-)
And writing lots as well.
What's really fun is finding out a lot more about what he got up to as a boy recruit in the airforce.
How may ways can you get court-marshalled?
I thought I got up to mischief when I was a lad, but it was nothing compared to the stuff he got up to hehehe.
He sounds like a character Trev, I'll check him out soon :)