RE: Tags of Broken Dreams :: A Curation Observation
Yes to all that. It hurts to see it happening (sub-par content getting rewarded while great content languishes) and it hurts to be one of the people putting blood, sweat and tears into content that sometimes goes unnoticed.
I love the concept behind Steemit, and the ideals around great content being rewarded. But we live in a world where people who have the smarts, the technical savvy and the motivation to game the system will do so.
Funny thing is that it didn’t bother me that much until just a few days ago. I had long ago decided to ignore the crappy practices and focus all of my Steemit time on writing, curating and commenting on good content and building community, in the hope that my strong moral fiber and support of others will ultimately pay off. And then my frustration about all the things you talked about in this post hit me a couple of days ago like a ton of bricks, along with sadness about plagiarism and wars and flagging. It’s like thinking you’re in the Garden of Eden and then coming to your senses and realizing it’s Lord of the Flies. I considered quitting.
I’m climbing back out of my personal sink hole. It is what it is. I will keep on keeping on.
It's a weird thing, I've heard that from a couple different/unrelated people lately. I'm not sure what it is about steemit, but it does seem to drain you more than you'd expect. I know it's mostly the money side of it that does it, but also the absurdly unfair nature that is constantly in your face, and the ongoing need to attend to your account and posts, and to be attentive to others' accounts and posts. And of course, the work of creating a post just to watch it be ignored.
I've considered quitting more than once too, and I think that's a natural roller coaster, from what I've seen from other folks that are long-time members.
At the moment, I've settled into backing off on weekends, posting mild non-fiction (such as this post) and photos during the week, and just enjoying fiction writing in general on its own merits.
Hopefully you can find your own level too @jayna.
It really is a roller coaster. I think like all things in life, the more you can find that elusive balance you spoke of, the better able you will be to ride the ups and downs. Thanks for writing about this. It made me realize I’m probably not cray cray. 😊