The Snowball Effect on STEEM.

"Authors are being paid less. Lesser accounts are struggling. No one rewards comments. People are discouraged. HF21 was bad. Steem is declining in both value, content and active users. Steem is not fair."

We've heard all of it before. People complain about various things, and I have seen a wide variety of complaints ever since I joined in July 2016. Nothing is ever good enough. Many users seems to believe that they are entitled to high rewards and they obviously express their feelings whenever something affects them in a negative way, but most of them doesn't say much whenever something positive occurs.

It's easy to talk about a flag (downvote) you receive, but users doesn't talk about that awesome upvote they got from a large account. Whenever things are going south and affects people in a negative way, people complain. It seems to be in our nature.

I was skeptical and I am still not entirely convinced that HF21 was as good as some people claimed it to be, but I am more positive than ever due to many of the great things I have seen so far. I have truly started to believe that HF21 was something good and that we will benefit from it in the long haul. I have seen others who aren't as convinced as me, and I have seen dozens of people talking about how lesser accounts are being punished and that HF21 was something extremely bad.

I hear and read complaints, but I don't really see anything that proves their claims. Some of the users I follow seems to earn just a fraction less than before meanwhile others seems to earn much more. Often due to @smartsteem and/or @ocdb or other large accounts that has started to curate content manually.

Personally, it seems like I earn more or less the same as before, perhaps a few cents less than before, based on the support I've had for a long period of time (including auto-votes). Due to the accounts I mentioned above, (@smartsteem, @ocdb and other users), I have started to earn more than before. Often several hundred percent more than I would've earned before HF21. So this obviously makes me satisfied with my own results.

However, I have also seen many users that benefits from the actions from these exact accounts too. In a very positive way. Many of them had potential payouts of $0.50-$2 before HF21 and I've seen many of them have well-more than $2 and $5 afterwards. Some of them have reached potential rewards of $10 all the way up to ~$20.

• I fail to see how HF21 had a negative impact on these users.

HF21 is about rewarding quality authors. It's about taking away rewards from low quality, spam and bid-bot abuse. It's about redistribution. We don't want to reward low quality content. We want to reward authors who puts in time and effort in an attempt to share high quality.

I know that not all of my content would be considered high quality, but I do my best. I try to bring my "A-Game" so to speak, and I do that for each and every article or post I write.

Some of the users who are feeling the negative impact might not have done so in the past. Perhaps their posts or articles are poorly written or contains loads of spelling errors. HF21 is not about taking away their rewards, it's about rewarding them for their efforts. It's about encouragement and motivation.

Steem is supposed to be fun and rewarding, but that doesn't mean that these things comes without effort. Steem is supposed to take time. It's a steep learning curve for many users and people are supposed to struggle. It should be difficult...

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We often hear that Steem is far from fair, and that well-known authors are being over-paid in comparison to others. We often hear that only the rich can and will succeed.

I can actually relate to some of those feelings and thoughts, but in reality, it's far from true. It's easy to compare ourselves with others, but to compare yourself with an author who has been here for years would only give you false information.

You need to build your brand. You need to get recognition. You need to gain followers and build an audience. Steem is supposed to be a long term commitment. Just like YouTube, Twitter or Instagram.

You won't get hundreds of followers because of one tweet or a photo. You won't get hundreds or thousands of subscribers because you upload a video on YouTube. Success for an influencer takes a long time, requires hard work, blood, sweat and tears. It takes time. It also involves luck.

• Have you heard of PewDiePie?

He struggled for a long time too. He almost gave up on YouTube at one point. He recently reached 100 million subscribers and it took him days to get another million subscribers.

The snowball effect kicked in for Felix a long time ago. He get more followers on his social media profiles and he gets more subscribers on a daily basis. It doesn't matter if he publish new content or not. People subscribe and follow him for who he is, what he has done and what they think he will do in the future.

Many other YouTubers helped him towards the goal of 100 million subscribers. Mr.Beast for instance. He has done wonderful things in an attempt to spread awareness and help Felix, even though some would say that they are "competitors".

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‘Subscribe to PewDiePie’ campaign hits the Super Bowl

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I obviously understand that things are different on Steem, but we have some basic tools to use for these exact purposes too.

• We can upvote content to reward specific authors.
• We can share content on other social medias.
• We can resteem content for others to see.

You shouldn't see other Steemians as competitors, even though you might work towards the same goals. Mr.Beast gained something for all the things he did, just like you will.

Mr.Beast got more recognition. People loved what he did so they were eager to see more. Mr.Beast was able to attract tons of eyeballs and he gained followers and subscribers. He built his brand and his audience simultaneously. He gained something that would benefit him in the future. He thought long-term.

• What do you think a resteem from a well-known author would mean?

In theory, it would give you more exposure, which basically means a larger audience and the possibility to earn more rewards. Both for that specific content that was resteemed, but also on any of your future contributions.

Steem might not feel fair, but how fair would it be if a newcomer that published low quality content earned well-more than an established user who's been here for years? I guess most people would still be somewhat okay with that as long as it happened once or twice.

What if a newcomer would earn more than a well-known author who is known for his hard work and high quality content, and the newcomer started to earn more on a regular basis while his contributions were low quality?

• That wouldn't be fair.

Remember, Steem is supposed to be difficult. It's not until you have reached the top of the mountain things are becoming easier. That's when you'll see the true results of your hard work. That's when your hard work, effort and time truly pays off.

• That's what the snowball effect is all about.