One Drawback of the Steem Blockchain

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)

If you're as anal-retentive as I can be, an immutable blockchain is not necessarily the be all to end all. You can write a post that's good, bad, or indifferent, but if you want to change something once you've posted, go right ahead and alter it. To your heart's content.

Maybe a little light copy editing to change spiffy to splendiferous. Go for it. Need an extra paragraph to expand/expound (get thee to a dictionary and pick one damnit) a bit on something you kind of glossed over in your first draft? By your leave, have at it. Have you had second thoughts about having submitted the post post in English and decided to do it in Chinese instead? 更改已写入的所有内容。Want to just take a chainsaw to it and start from scratch? Feel free, and since I worked for a tree service company many years ago, let me recommend a Stihl!

But keep an eye on the clock. At midnight, your fine coach turns into a pumpkin. You have exactly seven days to get it right. After that, the cryptographic fairy godmothers wave their wands and the blockchain is carved in stone.

It's Good News, Bad News time. Good news: the Steemit ecosystem just calculated all of the votes that your post accrued and quite possibly deposited some filthy lucre into your wallet. Bad news: your post can now never be edited or deleted. Never is a very long time.

Yes, I do understand that it's a feature, not a bug. Immutability is kind of the whole point of a blockchain. But, still...

Just over two hours ago, I had my first-ever significant payout from an individual post. Well, significant by my standards anyway. Sure, some people can find $21.10 in their couch cushion, but I just checked my sofa and all I found was some hair from my dog that seems to shed half her body weight per fortnight.

Damn proud of myself (pride goes before the fall as they say), I went back to read the post. And found a mistake. This is really embarrassing. It's been many years now, but I used to be employed as a proofreader. Aaaarrrgghhhh. Okay, at least I can post a comment to explain the mistake. Okay, done. Read it one more time just in cas..... damn, there's a typo. Must not post a second comment, or I'll just find a third error. Being literate can sometimes be a curse.

But I've got a friend who's a freelance graphic designer who has a maxim that I should maybe learn to live by:

“The job is not done until it’s got a typo.”

Luckily, this post has several.

images: Pixabay


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This is really embarrassing. It's been many years now, but I used to be employed as a proofreader

a different thing entirely when you do your own proofreading for your writing...your brain is telling you yup, already checked this, it's good

Great post and narrative! Thank you for sharing. ☆☆☆☆☆😎

Lol all mine have typoooos
Do this om my phone 90% of the time lol
And can never find my tlasses .
⚓Cheers

I agree with you 100 % however it's up to the
individual on what they post or reveal.

whois to say our whole life story is not saved on some government hardrive anyways (facebook cough)The block chain is no different. I guess if you're going to be careful about what you post you should do it on all other social media as well.

Bad news: your post can now never be edited or deleted. Never is a very long time.

Oh boy, especially when you become famous from writing the shanghai novel. 300 years from now, they will come across that typo....

I don't like typos even though I've made a few myself. Thanks for a very interesting post!

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