STEEMIT the GOOD, the BAD and the UGLY
It's been over a week since I started using Steemit. In this post, I will describe my experience so far and also describe the GOOD, the BAD and the UGLY of this platform.
The GOOD
Steemit is encouraging people to write more and get paid for it. Most Internet users are passive receivers of information and content. This means we never produce anything. We just consume what other people did. However, Steemit is encouraging people to produce content and get rewarded for their efforts. We the users are creating. No matter what you do, some people write, others paint, make videos, play music, cook, etc. Steemit is encouraging users of this platform to be more active and creative and that's what social media should be about. I will go as far as to claim Steemit is the intelligent social media.
Unlike Facebook or Instagram that dumb people down, Steemit actually requires you to use your brain. You can't get away with posting a picture and writing a few words to get likes. You need to write something that provides value and that requires way more brain power than simply posting a picture and a few words.
While there are several other social networks and messaging apps, Steemit is the only place where you can actually communicate ideas and experiences like nowhere else. Steemit gives us a voice on the Internet and offers you a growing network of readers who want to find quality content to like and share. The best of all is Steemit does not censor your voice. That's right you can talk about anything, you do not need to fear to get your account banned or suspended. Heck, you can even post porn if you wish. Steemit is a revolution as there is no censorship of information. It is a decentralized platform where content distribution is not ruled to favor the financial interests of a giant corporation.
Steemit is easy to use. You can see the metrics of your post very easily. There are people of all ages using it from children to grandparents. It makes it easier for all people to participate and be part of this great community. Furthermore, it gives you the opportunity to be rewarded for your content
The BAD
You don't get paid at all for your content. While there are several reasons for this, the major problem is due to the BOTS and WHALES that are holding those rewards your rightfully deserve for your good quality content. Some users, including myself, have hundreds of likes in our posts and we can barely make a few cents. One of my most popular posts got 180 likes, comments and 1,408 views and it only earned 0.95 cents.
On the other hand if you go to the trending page, you can see posts with 43 likes, 25 comments and 71 views earn 112.78 dollars. How can this be possible? Well the reason why this is possible is because the rewards system is broken.
Yes, that's right, the way that Steemit rewards its users it is completely broken and only benefits those at the top.
You see, if you have more steempower then your vote becomes more valuable. The problem in the reward system is due to the fact BOTS and WHALES are selling their votes. Therefore, Steemit becomes a pay to earn platform. Where if you want to earn you must pay BOTS and WHALES to get valuable votes. This creates incentives for powers users AKA Whales to upvote themselves only as they get a valuable uplike for a valuable uplike. This is great for them as they can continue earning big profits by milking the platform. However, for the community at large it is not. New users who produce quality content do not see rewards because Whales don't upvote their posts. This damages the credibility and reputation of the whole platform.
This leaves new users no other alternative than to pay BOTS in the hope of getting more readers and hopefully some rewards. The other problem is that most bots are owned by Whales so they get rewarded even more. This broken system creates the conditions so that those at the top remain at the top while new users remain at the bottom. In other words the system is designed so that Whales can keep growing and eating all profits. New users are only here for the benefit of Whales.
Views are worthless, the number of views your post gets are not relevant. Number of views should be valuable and part of rewards should come from the number of views a post generates. If views were counted new users would be able to get better rewards for their content. Unfortunately only upvotes are relevant and as I explained above upvotes are not distributed fairly
The UGLY
Whales just upvote other whales posts, regardless of content value. Unless you pay them or you belong to the circle of power users. Your posts will not generate any revenue despite how many likes, comments and views you get.
Whales with several accounts to upvote their own posts. It is no secret that Whales have several accounts with large steempower that are exclusively used to vote themselves. There are several of these examples where a random user without posts or comments will vote for the posts of one user, everytime that users makes a posts. It is so obvious that all those accounts are owned by the same person. Even the most dedicated fan will forget to upvote from time to time but this guys never miss. Hence, I have certainty they all belong to them same users.
Power users can actually silence your voice. Yes, if the do not like what you say they can flag you. You can have hundreds of likes but if you get flagged by power users your reputation will drop and also any earning that you may have. This means that Steemit is not a democratic community as the vote of a Wealthy power player can outweight the votes of hundreds of new users.
Bots with negative return on investment. You finally decided to give a try to those bots to find out whether a boost will help you reach more peole. In the best case scenario you will back your investment. In most cases the bot will just take your SBD and give you nothing in return.
Conclusions
Steemit is a great idea, it is a game changer in terms of what social media can be. Furthermore, it is great practical application to the blockchain. It also creates awareness about the cryptospace and provides useful information to its users. The problems arise due to the greedy nature of people in power who will always use their power and influence to benefit themselves. In a way, Steemit is no different from the real world where politicians and companies will use their position to abuse the system in order to get more wealth. I believe the survival and long term success of the platform is not possible unless changes are made. In my opinion, BOTS need to be BANNED from the platform and one account per users must be enforced. This way, the platform will give a fair opportunity to all its members and will get mainstream credibility. If Steemit can gain credibility I can see this platform being very succesful and eventually overtaking Facebook.
Let me know your opinion on the comment section below and if you like this content do not forget to Like and Resteem
What can be done to improve Steemit?
Do you think the rewards system is broken?
What are your experiences with BOTS in the platform?
Actually, it's impossible to make a profit via this type of promotion schemes anymore with the new reward pool distribution formula. Those people are either getting upvotes by others than their own promotion team or their promotion team is actually losing money.
You have already mentioned, that paying the vote bots doesn't give much in return in your post.
I've written a post called Steemit Reward Pool Abuse, Myth or Fact? that explains this. I'd be glad to answer any questions about this issue if you have any.
So, you can calm down, the situation is not as bad as you think it is.
I dunno, his post is pretty accurate and matches my experience. Steemit will fail.
You are right @stevekelly.
Steemit is unlike the others.
As a steemian over the months, i've come to find out that you are been watched and can't get away with errors or inappropriation of contents. @arthur.grafo prove that just recently. I was really humbled,and even when i know i ain't perfect, i try to put into consideration what will not get irritated at my contents.
I like your oratory skills.
I followed you already....I'll check your blog more often.
A well written post and the points made mirror my experience as a 111 day Steemit noob. It is no wonder that Steemit has not reached mainstream adoption. From the Steemit 1-Year Anniversary posts, it becomes clear that less than 10% of new Steemians last beyond a year. What this means is that Steem based tokens will face a challenge to grow in value over time unless the broken and corrupt model is fixed.
The number one flaw is each user's vote is weight differently. It's not much different that why governments are broken... a few rich lobbyists get what they want, while average everyday joes get to pay for it through taxes.
Crypto mirrors the real world. On a related note, did you read the detailed expose by @walden on sweetsssj?
These are some interesting viewpoints I haven't considered before. I think that introducing features that run independently of steem power would be useful like polls on twitter. That way it allows users to actually gain interest for a post and have the whales and any alt accounts have minimal influence.
Great Idea. Yes, I think polls would be a good way to establish what the community really wants. My guess is the majority of users want the BOTS Banned from Steemit
I think you have hit the nail right on the head.
I love the idea of steemit and having a platform to share my opinions and showcase my works with the possibility of earning from it.
But it's not as simple as I envisioned it to be. Quality of a post does not matter while posts that add absolutely no value get all the votes and earnings because they are not above gaming the system or profiting from someone else's work. Not to mention the flags that completely negate any earnings just because someone didn't like the way you responded to them or disagree with your stance.
I hope something gets done but dare I say I'm not holding my breath.
Exactly and there some bullies that will red flag you for no reason other than they disagree with what you say. The power players in this platform are so entitled that believe they deserve to rape the rewards despite the fact they have several accounts upvoting themselves and pay BOTS for likes and comments. We need to stop giving our support to these people and create a community where new users can be rewarded for the quality of their content and not being forced to pay for upvotes and comments
You have my full support in that :)
great article, completely agree👍👍👍
great article, im new at steemit and im trying to learn everything i can in order to be SUCCESSFUL here, thank you for sharing your experience.
GOOD WORK, greetings from Venezuela.
BUEN TRABAJO!!!!!!
PS (i hope i win the massive giveaway you are making, thank you again)
I do agree with your statements here. I'm not of the mind bidding system is such a bad implementation for votes, if there were more stringent policies in place to protect the minnow users. Limiting accounts, and certain types of bots would cut down on the abuse. It is really hard to argue with your logic, but it's very possible, that successful users now, will have more of a voice later, if their allowed that is. Take care man. Great post.
You made a great job explaining this problem in this article. Indeed users with great stakes are milking the system and Steemit is bleeding cash.
Unfortunately, the problem cannot be solved by banning bots. If you ban bots, they'll find another way to circumvent this ban.
The problem is in the algorithm level, in the way the rewards are distributed. The algorithm favors the whales and that results in the reward pool abuse that we experience.
That problem in the algorithm can easily be solved, but we need to raise awareness about this issue to bring it to the attention of the developers.
Otherwise, I'm afraid that Steemit won't be a long lasting project.
Please ignore my comment above. In the mean time, I have learned that the formula I mention above is already corrected.
Insightful post! I’ve been using Steemit consistently for about a week now and I have to agree that it is a little discouraging seeing the sheer number of bots on this platform. In addition I agree that’s it’s way to easy for whales to abuse their power.