My fellow Steemians

in #steemian7 years ago

My fellow Steemians,

I have had a bit of a rocky history with Steemit. When I was first convinced to join two years ago, people were showing me Jeff Berwick’s famous introduction post that earned him $15k. People told me that because my online following was bigger, I could make even more money on Steemit. By then I had already been demonetized and censored so much on YouTube and Facebook, I was ready for an alternative. At first I was skeptical. It seemed like it had to be too good to be true.

But because of my support for blockchain technology in general and enthusiasm for decentralized social media (anyone else remember Diaspora?) I jumped in anyway. I put a lot of thought and effort into my Steemit introduction post and boy was I pissed off when I made only a tiny fraction of the money that Berwick earned with his. “Holy shit, life is unfair, and Steemit is even more unfair!”

I wish I could say that my ego has no sway over me, but when it takes a beating like that, it certainly can influence me! One of my good friends and someone whose opinion I value highly, John Light, told me it was a kind of pump and dump scheme and I wouldn’t want to be associated with it. I don’t want to be an expert on blockchain technology so much as a cheerleader for it. I want to focus on waking people up and spreading a message of peace, love and freedom. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are a huge part of that, but I don’t need to be an expert to convince people to embrace them.

I was really torn. I wanted it to be true, but the unfairness of it really made it look like a scam to me so I took John’s advice and backed off of the platform for a while. It wasn’t until about a year later that I started to take a serious look at the undeniable community that has formed up here. I had to think long and hard about what it represented despite the undeniable unfairness of it. Of course in one sense, there’s nothing unfair about a voluntary system that you can opt out of at any time that isn’t forced on anyone, but the imbalance of power was undeniable.

I spoke at length with my friend Barry Cooper about his success on the platform and how it was mainly due to his directly appealing to whales who control a lot of the upvoting power because they were the early investors in the platform. We can complain all day about the imbalance of power, but the people who invested early are the ones who helped make this platform what it is. Ultimately, I came to be grateful for their contributions and realized that while it may be “unfair” it is also a just market reward for their foresight.

I slowly began to get back into Steemit but only in a half-hearted way for quite a while. I thought of Steemit as another place to post my content that at least pays better than YouTube, but didn’t really get into it. I didn’t realize that there really is a unique value to the community around this platform. That all changed on January 13th when AggroEd invited me to speak on a virtual panel about “The Steemification of Social Media.” I listened a lot more than I talked and I learned a lot. It dawned on me what an opportunity I had squandered by not engaging on Steemit sooner. I made a commitment then to make a concerted effort to get my following off of YouTube and Twitter and Facebook and onto Steemit.

I found happiness when I left Facebook. I was able to leave Facebook because there was a vibrant community and conversation here. It wasn’t until I felt like there was a real conversation here that I was able to pry my brain away from the unhealthy addiction of Facebook. Since then I have been a champion of Steemit everywhere I go. I tell people at Libertarian Party gatherings to get on Steemit. I recorded an outro for my YouTube videos that tells people to get on Steemit. I just very recently decided to #leaveloudly on Facebook and have an autopost that goes up every 24 hours telling people that if they want to find me, I’ll be on Steemit.

I have been well-rewarded for my cheerleading for Steemit. I am able to fund a lot of my activism with money earned on Steemit. I have been able to help many underemployed and unemployable activists find regular income through their content here in a way that would never be possible on any other platform. Even more recently, I have been delegated an immense amount of Steem Power and I do my best to use it to encourage others to participate in the platform. At least every third post on my feed is from someone else and I try to distribute my upvoting as much as possible. I upvote nearly every meaningful comment on my posts. I want to get new people onto the platform and turn minnows into dolphins.

As I was once resentful of the imbalance of power, I have noticed I am now the subject of the same sentiment. And of course I have had my screw ups and my ego driven mistakes. I don’t particularly care if you forgive me or not, but I do care about this community and what it represents for the future of social media and the future of humanity. I care if you help me become a better member of the community. I want everyone on this platform to know that I value your input. I read most of your comments. If you ever think I’ve missed something, please email me at adam@adamvstheman.com. If you have content that my audience would enjoy, email me the link and I’ll probably RS it. I welcome your feedback, I read your comments, and I cherish your trolling. There’s a lot of love and a lot of light here. There’s a lot of passion and a lot of power. There’s a lot of brilliance and a lot of brainpower. There’s a lot of money involved so of course there’s a lot of controversy. There’s jealousy, and ego, and insecurity too - and that’s just from my posts! I’ll take the good with the bad knowing that Steemit represents a major leap forward for humanity. There’s a different kind of community here and a different kind of conversation here. Let’s keep it that way. Steem on!

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Image courtesy of @joshsigurdson

I am the author of FREEDOM!, a book endorsed (I mean banned) by the US Department of “Justice.” You can get a copy here. I’m running for Not-President in 2020 on the platform of the peaceful, orderly, and responsible dissolution of the United States federal government. You can find out more here. You can find an event near you here. Whoever has the top comment on this post after 24 hours can claim a free signed copy of FREEDOM! by sending me an email at adam@thefreedomline.com with their address.

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Yes, this is something like the pattern I went through here too (minus the massive delegation :) ). Any system that uses currency on a planet with a massive wealth gap is going to find itself reflecting the wealth gap too. All such gaps must be healed now and to do so is a process of emotional healing and enlightenment that replaces unlovingness with lovingness. Technology alone cannot do this healing for us and truly it starts in the hearts of each individual. Steem is, for me, a great marker and tool in this transformation, since it allows us to participate in the transformation by communicating and sharing understanding... while also allowing us to directly observe the wealth gap and even adjust it as we go. In some ways this is a bit like the way that technologically evolved fitness gyms now often have ways of carefully monitoring the fitness of each visitor. ;)

Actually, to that end, I have created Steem Ocean which is a site that monitors the Steem blockchain and provides stats (and will also gradually provide new features that are missing from steemit.com). One of the features is a voter ranking table that displays voting behaviours and ranks all active voters relative to each other, attempting to display their level of altruism (It's just a rough guide). Currently your account is #2 on the whole platform for the amount of money paid out in self votes and as a result your account is near the bottom in terms of it's altruism ranking.. I'm curious as to what your comment on that may be. I am in no way judging you here and I'm sure that most people, given a large delegation, would be using it to upvote themselves.. Do you feel that I should change the algorithm in some way? Maybe accounting for how much resteeming each account does to promote other accounts would be a good idea? You can learn more about how the voter ranking algorithm is calculated here.

Wishing you well!

With some careful thought and input from you and others, this is the formula we're going to be trying for the next week and if it works, make a post about it. Please let me know what you think!

ADAM VS THE MAN - Steemit & Production Protocol

7 days a week
@adamkokesh
1 interview of a specific person from an event
1 man-on-the-street video
1 podcast video (podcast will be just 1/week but very long, up to three hours, covering all the news of the week and answering email questions)
1 audio podcast production/forgotten freedom fighter post/written blog post/special announcement/old video when relevant to the current conversation/special event video
We will limit to four posts per day on the @adamkokesh Steemit account.

@adamkokesh-pics
up to 2 original memes
up to 2 candid photos
These will each get a 5% upvote and one will get RSed every day until that channel has built up some following and then scale back to once every few days.

Six full upvotes minimum per day to the rest of the community (we will do as many as we can so long as our voting power stays up above the 80% threshold), they will be distributed as follows:
1 for comments - we will try to upvote as many as 100 comments/per day at 1-3% strength until it adds up to a 100% upvote
1 in 10% upvotes for good content across the platform
4 (minimum) in full upvotes and RSs for four best posts of the day and introduction posts

Excellent! Thanks for giving the issue such careful attention - I imagine you will gain a great deal of support as a result of your engagement with the community, which is ultimately worth more than money in many ways. :)

Oh there's an adamkokesh-pics? Maybe I'll check on that and follow it too. Yay!

In regards to the number of self upvoted posts, we have made adjustments to our protocol and will be reducing that amount per day, along with joining some curation trails to help share the love even more and a few other things. Thank you again for the feedback and your work on Steem Ocean, a great tool we can use to help utilize the platform better.

Excellent news. Thanks for replying! If you don't mind, could you also address why you are heavily upvoting accounts (even here on this very post) who you are now aware have issued death threats (even if he is a crazy old man) and called for your former staff members to be murdered? @fundposhprincess is the account. This account has also stated that @larkenrose and I are gay Jewish "Zionazis." Lol. Wondering why you are still heavily rewarding this violent (if inane and sort of crazy) individual, now that you have been made fully aware of the explicit threats which have been made. Cheers!

Thank you for the response and for creating Steem Ocean! I will take a more in depth look here in a bit, but at first glance I think accounting for resteems would be a great way to encourage users to do them even more!

@adamkokesh stated:

I try to distribute my upvoting as much as possible.

@ura-soul provided some stats:

Currently your account is #2 on the whole platform for the amount of money paid out in self votes and as a result your account is near the bottom in terms of it's altruism ranking.. I'm curious as to what your comment on that may be.

@adamkokesh, if you have a second, could you address @ura-soul's comment a little bit more specifically? Maybe you missed this part of his thoughtful comment.

Very nice post. I think steemit and the steem platforms are a major learning experience for everyone. I think steemit is clearly WAY better than Facebook. Tou do need to do some research and learning if you are serious about being successful on steemit but a lot if not most of that is because steemit has an actual earnings system.

And of course I have had my screw ups and my ego driven mistakes. I don’t particularly care if you forgive me or not, but I do care about this community and what it represents for the future of social media and the future of humanity. I care if you help me become a better member of the community.

Correct me if I am wrong here, or out of line, but this basically just sounds like a non-apology for shitting on everyone with your newfound SP delegation. More power to you, and do whatever you want, but you should not be surprised when Steemians begin to notice self-upvoted single comments at 20 to 100 dollars, and memes at 80. On top of this, you upvote every single post of your own with the SP at around 70 -80 bucks. This is the free market. It is your right to do so. This doesn't mean it is a good thing for this platform, though. You've scaled back a tad on the meme upvotes recently because a few bigger players became aware and called you out.

I upvote nearly every meaningful comment on my posts.

Most of your posts (usually old YouTube vids/blogs) are full of spam comments and very little engagement.

I want everyone on this platform to know that I value your input. I read most of your comments.

Then why aren't you addressing the death threats happening on your blog's comment sections?

Just be honest. You got a huge SP delegation. That's great. You abused it. Non-apologies don't make that okay. You can do whatever you want. The market is paying attention though. Those of us who were blogging away when Steem was 12 cents (while you were "pissed" at making a thousand bucks from your intro post and pretty much left the platform) can see pretty clearly that this SP delegation is a big boon for your political platform, and not a whole lot more. I invite anyone who thinks I am off base here to go back through this blog and decide if there is a sense of giving a shit about the folks here.

It's great that you promote and fund some folks on here. Not so great that it has also been copy/pasted YouTube vids of chickens with no text, or your friends bragging about how you "crushed" some other anarchist in a debate.

Stop ignoring the death threats. Considering letting your posts stand a little bit more on their own without boosting them all, every day, to the 90 dollar level immediately, and actually put out some new, engaging stuff with an active comment section.

Of course, you can do what you want. This is just one market actor's subjective evaluation. Strangely, though, more and more folks are telling me that the story reads about the same to them as well.

EDIT: This quote is funny:

and boy was I pissed off when I made only a tiny fraction of the money that Berwick earned with his.
Screen Shot 2018-04-18 at 17.30.40.png

I guess it is just a fraction of 15Gs, but...c'mon. Really? Pissed at a cool G for saying "hi"?

I was unaware of the death threats. For something as serious as that, please email me. If they are credible, a response outside of Steemit is warranted.

You voted under the post where I mentioned them. It was in the title, so how were you not aware? You upvoted this comment on that very same post:




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The whole comment thread on your own post, where you were voting, is full of them.

Like the top commenter here, I cannot really expect any kind of detailed, direct, or substantial answer from you. You haven’t addressed any of the other points in my comment, either, conveniently, though you say you “care” and want to be corrected.

As for mailing you, I tried to email you, by the way, at the email we had been conversing regularly on prior to our debate, adam@thefreedomline.com, about another issue but have yet to receive a response. You know this, but by all means, keep up the show.

EDIT: Now the top commenter has changed, as per your large vote. The top commenter is now the fellow that called for a “hit” to be put out on a woman, and was specifically describing how he was going to kill people. You know this, because you both upvoted and downvoted the “hit” comment. If you would like to see screenshots I can help you with that.

p.s.....which if I recall right between yourself and I on one of your blogs you never gave me the opportunity to do, you just said don't come back here or else.

See this. He's got time to upvote comments like these at a dollar. But not to address actual concerns raised by @ura-soul or myself. Or anyone else for that matter. After all this syrupy stuff about caring for the Steem community and wanting to know what people think. Dude's a jackass. Please feel free to message me on Steem chat if you really want to talk seriously and in more depth about this stuff.

Now we know he has read this stuff, and is aware, and has still giving a 2 dollar upvote to the crazy old man calling for violent hits and threatening to kill people. Lol. To call Kokesh a Steemian is a fucking insult to this place. Wah, wah, my intro post only made a grand, wah wah. It's almost surreal.

Like I said he's good for some late night laughs with some of that stuff he puts out there, even funnier sometimes is the comments....depends on who also is hitting up his site and thinks he's lost his mind. That video he posted yesterday of that interview with that college student out on the street was comedy gold for this place. He knows he don't stand a chance in hell of getting elected, this is a gig for him that he's found a way to make a living off, way to many people out there who aren't going to waste a vote on a third party candidate, me being one of them.

I totally agree with you on the self upvoting of poor quality stuff...like his less than two minute video he's making money off right now declaring that Weld is going to discuss dissolving the federal
government with him. Everything he does in that manner is no worse then what he puts down our own government for, taking a bribe (delegation) and using it for his own self interest instead of serving his constituents.

Sometimes these people running campaigns don't address all their social media content themselves. They have people running it for them so they can be out campaigning. You know sometimes paid help don't always do the job the way they are suppose to be doing it, they probably just skipped over reading the stuff and automatically upvoted it. I am not saying that is what happened but it's plausible. I think Posh Princess gets a little ahead of the gate sometimes and just blurts out stuff they really don't mean....he/she called me a name one day, I told them it wasn't worth all that...basically trying to say calm down dude, leaving the door open to come back another day and see if we can agree on something.

Sometimes these people running campaigns don't address all their social media content themselves.

He just wrote a whole post here about how he wants feedback, and now has ignored the actual questions asked both by myself and @ura-soul. And regarding whether or not he was aware of the threatening commentary, he was active on those posts. Thanks.

I am sure Trump answers all his FB post too, Brittney Spears, Tom Cruise, Senators, Governors, etc.

I think Posh Princess gets a little ahead of the gate sometimes and just blurts out stuff they really don't mean

He repeated that he was serious several
times and described in detail how a “hit” against the “thieving bitch” might be carried done. Then went on to say he’d kill me as well. Yes, he is a crazy old man. Still, there’s really no excuse.

Well I must have missed where he said he'd kill you, I did see where he said a hit could mean anything, not that justifies any sort of violence of any means. Some people troll sites just to get people all stirred up, like in another post he/she said she had been banned from my other blog sites on a number of different blog sites over there, that tells me they just like stirring people up more so then actually doing them any harm...but you never know, on a local network blog here on a immigration debate where we were forced to start using FB to blog this guy looked up my property and posted a pic of my house and address and told people to come demonstrate outside my house. I called the station and they took it down but I had to worry for days to what lengths this guy would go because he was upset with me that I wasn't a open borders person. With Posh it could just be someone showing the true bones of how ridiculous it would be to say that the whole world could be trusted to be on their best behavior towards each other without city/government law enforcement....you never really know online how serious you can take people...some just have a strange sense of humor.

I can relate to your experience brother, I think most like minded people that got into Steemit had similar experiences. A lot of people I know would do GREAT things on Steemit, but it seems hard to convince them to actually open an account. What is the best way you have found to convince people that would fit well in this platform to join Steemit? It seems I have hit a road block with my rhetoric in this regard. I love this post, strait from the heart. Blessings.

What works best for me is promising that I will upvote and resteem their content. One of the big barriers is that whatever following you have on another platform, it takes a while to move it to Steemit, especially with the approval delay. Telling people that I want to share my following with them and make sure they're not starting from scratch is the most effective approach from my thus far limited experience. Great question!

You have to remember though that this is a different type of platform. Your followers just can't follow you....people who are seen working the system to make money off the platform by just upvoting and not writing content are eventually banned. I am a blogger for the most part, it's my strong point, granted it would be a hard uphill battle to get rich like a whale just upvoting but it's even harder to get anything other then a penny or two from spending hours writing something...but it's basically a requirement so I do it once, twice a week. Your followers come over here and see you putting up a meme and getting a hundred bucks while they can't make two cents writing a article isn't going to keep them around. Hey if you ain't going to get jack nothing for posting a meme by all means post it but posting it knowing you are going to make hundreds it just taking money away from people sharing in the same pool of money your money is coming from.

@sunlit7, I definitely understand people's frustration seeing others post nonsense and get $80 or $100+ for it, while many other people's quality posts, that took them hours or days, barely makes a few pennies. I know most of us have experienced this on Steemit, one good example I will mention is a fellow Steemian and personal friend @brutledge. She puts time and love into her posts, but it seems no matter what I personally do to help her, I still don't think she has been able to clear 40 cents on any one post. I would say her average payout is about 3-10 cents per post. She deserves more, but I do not know how else to help besides to keep promoting her in any way I can.

In the end, we all have to let go of the jealousy, and instead ask for help from the people we would have otherwise been jealous of (dolphins/whales). We all have to keep pushing, even when payouts are continuously disconcerting, and hold reserve, patience, and perseverance. Creative collaborations and contests are also a good idea to help advance. I will be posting my first contest giveaway later today or tomorrow.

I am not jealous, I don't know why people keep saying that. This is a hobby not a money maker, I knew it wasn't going to fan out like the way someone described it, anything that sounds to good to be true usually is. Getting paid for a hobby?....lol. In every system in life there is always the upper tier, the middle tier and the lower tier....decentralization isn't any different even though they claim to be.

I wasn't trying to imply that you specifically were jealous, I was saying that I and many others have had those feelings in relation to what we are discussing here. Many "decentralized" platforms do have a hierarchy, you are correct, however some are in fact TRULY decentralized. You have to find the ones that align most with what you believe in and will likely be successful. I can see Steemit as a hobby for some, and a strait up career for others. Its all what you make of it and how much effort you want to put into promoting yourself and your projects on this platform. It also depends on how much "free time" your lifestyle delegates you to post here frequently.

Also, if you are having trouble getting truly quality content noticed, reach out to @adamkokesh. He is always willing to help support the progression and growth of minnows, he has said so many times in his posts. Especially if your posts are of positive benefit to the Earth and/or mankind, or support the freedom movement in any way. He helped promote my #introduceyourself post and I did not even ask him to. Blessings my friend.

@elamental, tell @brutledge to post again and I will upvote and resteem her as much as I can!

See, and once again i didn't even have to ask him directly. Thanks for being an awesome person and supporting the little guys @adamkokesh. @brutledge should be posting something later this evening. I will coordinate with her and you when i get back from work. Blessings brother.

@adamkokesh, @brutledge posted again about her experience with CPS and the false accusations made against her family, and also about their philosophies of parenting and her family's lifestyle. I will email you about it in case you don't see this reply. Blessings brother, thank you again for everything you do!

Thanks for the advise @adamkokesh. I have tried this tactic with no avail so far. A few of these people would be great for #tribesteemup, maybe that will be the final factor that convinces them to join. I will make a few recommendations to @keenyskitchen and see what he thinks. Blessings my friend, and thank you for your continued support.

If you use whatever money you earn in here to facilitate getting your book in front of every American's eyes (or ears) no one will complain about how the wealth is distributed in here.

To all those criticizing Adam for abusing the platform, I'd like to ask: How many people have YOU reached through spreading the message of liberty and freedom? How many times have YOU physically endangered yourself, or perhaps risked your life, to spread the message of freedom? Would you even be willing to face jail time, or perhaps death, to stand by your principles and spread the message?

The way I see it is that Adam has done more than 99 percent of the people on this platform to spread the message of liberty and freedom. So when I see Adam, or another libertarian powerhouse like Adam, earning good dollar on Steemit, I don't see unfairness. I see just rewards.

It is my belief that people like Adam, Mark Passio, Larken Rose, and other prominent activists in the freedom community, some of whom have physically risked their lives in the name of freedom, should be BILLIONAIRES.

Yes, you heard that right.

If someone like Mark Passio joined this platform and copied all of his What on Earth is happening podcasts over to Dsound/Steem, I would LOVE to see him rewarded with thousands, millions, potentially BILLIONS.

You know why?

Because people like Mark, and Adam, have done more than many of us to spread the message, and their work is of immense value.

So, instead of pointing the finger at other prominent activists, take a look in the mirror and ask yourself if you have even reached a FRACTION of their audience over the years? Let's be honest, most of us, the vast majority of us, haven't.

If a Kokesh, Passio, or O'Keefe became a millionaire through steemit, I would tip my hat and congratulate them. Anyone who has been tirelessly spreading the message of freedom over the years, sometimes at a detriment to their health and physical livelihood, has my FULL RESPECT and SUPPORT.

Before you criticize anyone, it is always important to take a look in the mirror and criticize, or evaluate, your own contribution to the Great Work.

I agree. It’s also
big of you to back Rose. He is opposed to
Adam’s platform like many of us.

Adam and these guys do deserve billions. Now it makes more sense to me why Adam left the platform after his first post only made $1,000.

Thank you.

Big of me to back Rose?

I'm not sure what you mean, or whether you were being sarcastic?

I support anyone who has been instrumental in spreading the message of freedom, even if I disagree with them on certain details.

Hell, I will even support leftists if they are against the war on Syria. Whilst I obviously vehemently oppose their leftist political views, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with ANYONE who opposes war.

I agree. I am glad you guys can stand with us even though we are pointing out these abuses. It takes a lot of character.

No system is perfect. No social organization is perfect. No system of compensation/rewards is perfect. It comes down to choosing to engage what you believe are the best systems/organizations given the options. I could bitch about SteemIt (and I have), but show me something better at this point in time. I'm willing to continue to post my hard work up to SteemIt because the platform (in what it aims to accomplish) is aligned with my ideals, my values. In practice, sure, it hasn't achieved its vision yet (it is still in beta). But I'm going to hitch my wagon here and keep an eye on SteemIt's evolution because the potential for paradigm shift coming from this platform is huge.

That is like saying you go to some guy offering to pay you to do some work. You do way more work then he does but when you are done the guy who did less work got more pay because he has a influential uncle who made that possible.

Nobody is asking me to do anything. Nobody is expecting anything from me either. There have been no contracts, arrangements or prices established as compensation for whatever I decide to do here. I'm in no work-sharing arrangements with anyone as all of my work is mine (and verifiable). Everything I'm doing is of my own volition and I know the time risk and potential benefits. I'm showing up because I want to show up. Your analogy is a little weak. I don't say this to be a jerk, I'm sure there is a better analogy to be made to highlight the shortcomings of the platform in its current state.

SteemIt is not perfect, it has it's fair share of problems. I'm hopeful for improvements as these are early days. I sort of feel like I'm repeating myself here.

There is plenty to critique here on SteemIt and I applaud those people who keep pushing for improvement. I myself hope I am one of those folks seeding change as I roam around here. best-

But you are in a work sharing arrangement whether you realize it or not. Everyday the value of steem is different but what remains the same is this fact: 10% of the rewards pool goes to witnesses, 15% goes to the owners, that leaves 75% left over which 25% gets divided among curators and 50% goes to authors. So if a author slaps up a meme he takes 75% cut from the left over rewards pool after everybody above is mentioned above is paid off. That 75% varies according to the price of steem and how much his post made. Now if he does this three or four times a day or more each time he takes 75% more from the pool. Lets say he does four post a day, two really good post that he put a lot of effort into and two that he did that didn't amount to any type of quality effort at all. Basically he just took his hand and pulled out a big wade of money from the cookie jar for nothing, that same cookie jar that determines what your 25% stake will be based on after what's left ....now your return for your comments is a lot less, not only that but YOUR 75% stake in a post you spent six hours on is also now worth a lot less because he made two additional worthless post that drained an 150% based on what those two post made more out of the pool. AND in most instances it's not even that people voted that money to him it's that he voted that money to himself by self upvoting. What's even sadder is in this case is that he, unlike thousands of others on here, was given his voting power...he didn't have to earn it....then to show his gratitude for the gift he has been given he turns around and uses it to post poor quality stuff like a meme just to pull more money easily out of the pot that everyone has to share from. Now if he had taken that meme the other day and wrote something about how it could be seen as breaking a glass ceiling so to speak that would have been different but evidently that was way to hard of work for the hundred(s) bucks he got.

As far as saying no one makes you do anything I've seen people flagged and keep getting flagged for just running around the system up voting. They don't put effort into reading people's post and most say a small sentence then up vote. Somewhere wherever on here who tracks these things notices this person making money curating but not contributing, checks it out and starts flagging them. Once you get someone running around flagging you you might as well consider it a ban unless you start being productive in a more constructive manner.

Ok to your first point, I guess we just have perception differences with respect to the relationship we think we are in.

I disagree with you that, if say I was in charge of things, I would code into the system different percentages, some different posting rules, etc. SteemIt has plenty of issues. Any software company that I've worked for in the past always has issues with their products, especially when they are in early stages. The entirety of crypto is nascent tech, a social/blogging network atop a crypto economy makes the whole experiment even more cutting edge/nascent/new. Plenty of bugs to work out. We should all continue to bitch, complain, raise awareness. Hopefully the devs and bigs are paying attention (they certainly have incentive to do so!) and working as diligently as they can to improve the platform. I'm hopeful that progress will be made. And in the meantime, I'm doing my best to focus on the best points of steemit...the legit community building that is going on, the excellent curation projects (curie, ocd, etc), the whales that are pretty clear-eyed about the issues and actively playing a positive role to make things better. So, we'll see...improvements will come along and the platform will steadily improve, or, maybe it will shake itself apart. I'm hoping for and putting my energy (and doing my best to be patient) to the former because I think SteemIt has the potential to be something great.

you brought me to Steemit, hope things are going well!!

I really like your posts and I think it is great that people like you are taking a leadership role in having these discussions about the platform. As someone who just enjoys writing, reading great posts and engaging in intelligent dialogue, I am 100% satisfied with Steemit but I am thankful to those like you who have larger voices who will attract users and help keep it a viable platform.

Steemit is the future. Those who are often bullied and repressed for their views on mainstream social platforms have a bigger voice on steemit. You are a good person Mr Kokesh. You've supported my comments severally even when you absolutely didn't have to