HF21 Took STEEM To The Next Level
I know that a lot of people were skeptical about HF21 and how it would have a very negative impact on all the lesser accounts. To see and hear that authors would earn less for their contributions felt devastating and on top of that, we also heard that content that earned less than 20 Steem prior to HF21 would make less afterwards. This obviously lead to a bunch of assumptions and it filled content creators with fear and anxiety.
Many users felt like HF21 was the perfect thing to make the rich even richer, and that they would become richer on the expense on all the lesser accounts due to these new changes, and especially due to the new curation rewards.
I admit that I were one of them. I was skeptical before HF21, and even though I am still somewhat skeptical, I am not as concerned as I was prior to HF21. It's still early, but what I have seen so far looks really, really good.
My biggest concern with HF21 was that authors would earn less, and that newcomers and lesser accounts would ultimately give up because it would be too difficult to grow. I was also worried that flag wars would increase, as it felt like giving bad people more powers to use for bad things...
I got even more worried when I noticed how some people started to use their flags immediately. Some of them talked about flagging well-known authors who had been here for years... I was worried, and even though I still have some of those feelings, things seems to have worked out very well. Far better than what I expected.
The trending pages does no longer consist of low quality content that has bought their way to the top. Flags are being used to counter bid-bot abuse and we seem to have a trending page that looks real and legit. It might be logical to see Steem-related posts on the trending pages, especially this early on, but I hope that will change in the near future, so we can see more variety.
That being said, it was amazing to see my own content on the hot pages for the first time in a long period of time. The hot pages are filled with awesome content, we see lots of variety and due to the amount of new content being produced, due to the changes in curation rewards, and due to the whole #newsteem approach, we see new content being brought to the hot pages frequently. I love it!
As the use of bid-bots have decreased, we have also seen manual curation from these bots instead. I have been lucky enough to receive upvotes from both smartsteem and @ocdb, and I have also received upvotes from large accounts long after the new "5-minute rule".
This has obviously had a great impact on my potential rewards, but it does more than that. It gives me hope and it fills me with motivation and encouragement. These things have so far proved that I was wrong in many of my early assumptions regarding HF21.
I was worried that these things would be used to only reward well-known authors that has published quality content for a long period of time, but I have followed many of these initiatives relatively closely and I am truly satisfied with the results so far. Content from all types of people are being rewarded, and it's fantastic to see.
The icing on the cake, that also proves that manual curation is truly back, is the fact that many users and initiatives seems to upvote content regardless of the new "5-minute rule", which was one of my other concerns. I almost took for granted that most people would basically ignore content that was older than 5 minutes, so getting an upvote on content that is 16+ hours old feels amazing!
Sharing Is Caring
@ocd recently told us that "sharing is caring", and they have started to reward users that shares content outside of Steem. ~6 hours ago, they announced that they have expanded to Twitter, so users can now earn rewards for sharing content on both Reddit and Twitter.
Not only do you help to promote Steem and specific authors, you will also be rewarded for your efforts. - How cool is that?
There are many similar- and other really cool things going on. #Newsteem seems to be exactly what many of us have been waiting for. It's still very early, so we have a lot of ground to cover, but things are looking really good so far. My skepticism is being reduced for each day, and I truly hope that things will continue in this direction...
It certainly feels like HF21 took us to the next level.
- What are your thoughts so far?
- Have you seen results you are satisfied with?
- Is there anything you are worried about?
Assuming that some people are earning more money, that sounds like good news.
I agree. It looks like hard working people are having a higher chance to earn nowadays, which I love to see. It's a bit unfortunate that these changes seems to affect lesser accounts more than others though, but I have started to see the real benefits.
That is how the free market works.
I also noticed people using downvotes quickly, mainly the big people to combat abuse. It's good that poor quality content authors are not using bidbots as much and trending looks nicer with the content.
I am glad manual curation and bigger votes are being used a lot more for quality content due to them being able to make more from curation, while giving the quality posts more for their hard work if they previously didn't get heaps.
Steemit and steem might be heading in a much more positive direction now and it's refreshing to see.
I definitely agree with you. I don't want low quality posts to earn, so even though these changes might affect lesser accounts, I still think it's a good thing. Long-term.
👍
~Smartsteem Curation Team
🙏
I am glad that you are seeing and feeling these improvements as intended as it is well deserved given your journey. I am not ready to decide yet but I wish I was more positive.
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Thank you, I appreciate it. Yeah, I have seen some very good things since HF21, and even though I am not yet fully convinced that this was the "right thing to do" so to speak, I have definitely seen many, many great things so far. I just hope it continues like this.
What is your major concern?
I fear that what I most enjoy doing which is engaging has less incentive after the Hard Fork. I love rewarding those who engage on my posts but despite my Steem Power I can no longer make it worth it for them or myself. It feels as it will be more towards the great content creators which is fine but I will miss engaging. I know I can still leverage my stake but it just feels different for me. However, still to early to tell!
I agree with you, because this is how I saw things too at first. However, with time, I have started to think that engagement is still as important as ever before, perhaps even more nowadays, as it's a good way to get recognition, which ultimately can increase the chances to get upvotes on posts.
I don't think that everyone will realize that though, or even agree with that statement.
I miss a lot of content since I work 9-5 just like many other steemians and if its good, it gets an upvote regardless of the time :D
I do have people on autoupvote just so my vp never idles :D
This is basically the only thing I like with auto-votes. It allows me to vote on content and earn curation rewards even though I'm not online. That's a very good thing, but I don't like how some people seems to rely on auto-votes and never curates manually though.
Same. Its so I dont waste vp, but it still climbs daily if I dont manual curate :D
Yeah, it looks like I am in the same boat.
We soon see how this all works out :) ... but yes it is cool to see how steemit try make all more strong here :)
Yeah, for sure. It will be an interesting future.
The Hf21 took the steem to this level..
Congratulations!
I disagree. The price of Steem was already declining long before HF21. Hopefully, with HF21 in full effect, the price will climb again.
Yes and when will that long-awaited steem rise happen? So far with the new HF I do not see anything positive, the authors are discouraged with the reduction of their rewards, the only beneficiaries are the whales that this time can make more money than before, meanwhile the authors who are those who fill with excellent content Steem with a lot of effort are the harmed ones.
The only way that this is profitable is that the steem exceeds $ 1 and we are very far from that, because for that to happen many investors are needed and after everything that has happened in steem since the end of last year, investors do not They trust steem, they are afraid of losing their money!
So what should we expect? Could it be that the price is manipulated by the big steem holders? Or will we have to wait for the SMT and that will be our last salvation?
Conclusion: the rich get richer and the poor poorer!
I do not see positive changes during this HF only war of negative votes and more payments to bidbots.
I can totally see your concerns, because I was pretty much thinking in the same lines until I noticed how often smartsteem, ocd and a bunch of larger accounts had started to reward lesser accounts and quality content. I got even more convinced that this was for the greater good so to speak, when I noticed that many of them doesn't care about the "5-minute rule", and they upvote older content as well.
We don't want actifit or appics posts to earn massive rewards for instance, as they are not considered to be of high quality. Those posts are considered content, but not high quality. I do agree that investors in general might have stayed away because of how Steem worked previously, with low quality posts being bid-botted to massive rewards, large accounts self-voting to rake in hundreds of Steem etc. But those days are gone. Perhaps not entirely, but most of the low quality content we saw previously, that had tons of bid-bot votes, those have vanished.
Users has started to reward hard work and effort in a much larger scale than previously, which I think is exactly what we should have done from the start. I mean, Steem is not supposed to be some sort of charity. Steem is about rewarding quality content, and even though we haven't reached the finish line yet, I defintely think that we are on the right path.
That being said, these changes are good for the larger accounts, just like you said, but that also means that it will be perfect for other investors too, so it should basically increase the chances of getting more investors on board. And, it should ultimately make people more eager to grow their accounts instead of cashing out everything they earn, which is exactly what we want.
That is how the price of Steem will increase, eventually.
However, this is not something that will happen overnight. It will take time, but I personally have started to believe that we are on the right path. What I don't like though, is that comments aren't being upvoted anymore. I think that is a bad thing in terms of engagement. Hopefully, people will realize that comments will get them exposure, which ultimately will increase their chances of getting upvotes on their content too.