RE: Proposing Steem Equality 0.19.0 as the Next Fork
Somehow it makes indeed sense to give the early voters some more rewards. But I still think this is only for a very few who really start seeking for the 'best' posts (with 'best'I mean posts that are expected to get a lot of followon votes which are not necessary the best posts). Also, it may result in those early voters to vote for the posts that are usually in trending page (Steemit Inc / Steem App / Crypto posts). Others may just by luck vote for a post that eventually get a lot of follow-on voters, so once in a while they benefit from the finders fee. Why do I think the Finders Fee is it is only for a few of us? Because this requires a lot of work, reading a lot of posts, or analysing the voting behaviour in good details! Also spread over the day, so these people need to return to Steemit various times a day. Most of us will never do that, Steemit Inc is simply not the most important service we have to take care of to earn our money to pay for our bills, and most of us also have some together things to do in life. Therefore the Finders Fee becomes a game element, and I'm really wondering why a Social Media service requires a game element. Bots will become better and better, taking more data in (maybe the whole blockchain) and start to do more indepth analyses. I therefore suspect that the game, the search for the content that gets a lot of votes and get the Finder Fee will be received mainly by bots. Votes will be casts to posts based on all sort of parameters, but not directly the quality of the post itself, but more on vote behaviour on writers, voting groups (who vote for who mostly), trending page analyses, time of day, maybe elements in the post itself (references included, images included, post with minimum amount of characters included and so on). So, yes Finder Fee may seem a nice idea, but in the end it makes Steemit a game and will reward in general bots and gamers; both have nothing to do with the creativity to create good posts/comments and value good post/comments.
Being received by bots, assuming those bots are doing a good job, does not bother me.
The people developing those bots that are taking in more data and doing in-depth analysis are doing valuable work. It is reasonable they get a return on that investment.
Remember, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have curation. The develop algorithms (aka bots) to do much of it, and have people involved at some level too. And they spend a lot of money on that effort, with goal, to some extent, of presenting fresh and relevant information to their users (also an element of maximizing ad revenue, but that wont work without keeping the service useful and the users coming back)! If they can spend money on it, we can too.
Indeed, IF bots are doing a good job. But reality is that Bots cannot determine quality of the textual part of the post and even the media part of the post other than check if different elements are part of the post, text is a certain length and so on. Maybe IBM and others can do a bit more with there AI, but Steemit bots are far from that intelligent. Therefore, vote bots are to me just to game the system and does not help the quality level of Steemit, and for that purpose the Finder Fee shall not be kept.
Monetisation of work to better analyse Steemit can be done in other ways. Some of the auto voters ask for a fee to the user, that is monetisation in a different way, the Finder Fee shall not be created/kept just to give some monetisation directly from the heart of the system to the Bot owner. BTW, Steemit Inc owns a whole lot of millions in Steem and since they are the owner of the software, and they have such a pile of money, they should spend some of to fund external development, since this type of features shall actually be part of what Steemit is delivering! Outsourcing means, paying the outsourced parties. The Finder Fee is paid for by us the bloggers and users of the platform, while we are not using them. Actually we are funding bots that will 'steal' our potential revenues. Giving direct revenues will actually pushes more engineers to create bots and in the end we have a social network dominated by bots, and some human gamers. I'm really afraid, Steemit will never grow when bots are the dominant factor, and when gamers are taken the revenues. It will also prevent non crypto brands to start using Steemit as a communication channel.
And I can assure you, when we can start onboarding brands using Steemit as another communication channel, this will be fantastic for Steem as a currency. I have some solid ideas what segments of the market I could bring to Steemit. And I can tell you as well; When Steemit is not the right service to bring them, a new one can be created by just another company and Steemit and Steem will be out of the game at all. This is not a threat whatsoever, but just a simple observation from my side looking at the enormous revenue opportunities out there with businesses and I'm looking to startup new companies as well, as I look at Steemit as an interesting concept that may work to actually make a commercial business with (eg working with Steemit Inc directly) or along with it (create a new UI like Busy.org on the Steem blockchain), or just simply start a whole new enterprise and currency. But Steemit and Steem is too complex to bring those companies and therefore revenues onboard; Also some good technical development needs to be done, to the backend but also to the frontend and possible also to the API to integrate the technical systems of the businesses with Steemit/Steem.
Long story short, revenues to 3rd party services must be done in a cleaver way, better to seek them external from Steem, then to collect them directly from Steem/Steemit. Onboarding many users and keep them active as well as onboarding businesses requires simplicity of everything, from technology to revenue generation/distribution. I personally have more than 20 years experience (product management/pre-sales/solution-architect roles) in high end IT and Telco solutions (order sizes of millions) in the software space, so I know what I'm talking about.
Also (but off topic here), the balance in power is too much to some individuals; The constant fights and wars her on Steemit is not good is not professional enough for businesses to want to become part of Steemit. The lack of vision, strategy by Steemit Inc is making this at this stage not the right platform to onboard big revenues. To bring businesses, decentralisation of ideas and engineering work incl interfaces does not work, companies want to work with central organisations. This could be Steemit Inc, or another company like Busy.org, or just a new company working with Steem blockchain....or maybe then better to establish a new currency in the market and create a new Social Media service implementing the right vision, strategy, execution, from business perspective, from technology perspective, from power distribution perspective, and from revenue distribution perspective.
Ow BTW, we all hate Facebook and Twitter and those right? I opt for a different approach, more power to the people to discover, less general channels like hot and trending for all posts, better tools to the writers to promote their posts (inside and outside Steemit), much better UI to the users and future businesses. No, and absolutely NO vote bots, only features to analyses the data, but that is not a bot in my language, that is called an analyses tool and reporting module! Reporting can be created in various ways, use OLAP or whatever it is called today to create instant multi dimensional views of the data and create a big data warehouse with simply SQL type of query possibilities and extend that with a super simpel user interface so everybody can use it. I would even think that someone can create a business out of this, so when not done by Steemit Inc, this could be my next startup company, a detailed reporting and analyses tool that I'll sell to business for FIAT currency to use when starting on Steemit.
Solid @edje! Glad I got you on board here ! You express thoughts I have since day 1 when I joined in June .
(BTW you got votes here in just seconds I saw . I wonder if it's a voting trail because you got the same 8 votes in another comment.)
Personally I feel that gamers have too much advantage to us little fish. I am working hard to get my rewards and reputation while I see the same people trending on and on .
I am not complaining but I am not a pro to express myself clearly enough so I am glad you do so well .
Meanwhile I continue to post hoping some of my 860 followers continue voting for me and also comment. Nothing else to do for minnows.
I started using steemvoters.com adding some of my favourite authors I trust deliver good content and because I don't want to miss out supporting them. I feel it's quite unfair because I am not always reading as I should. I spend so many hours to check on posts but sometimes it's just too time consuming.
Anyways I wish for more fair ways.
Thank you for your comment and kind words.
The 8 votes, is indeed a vote train, gave me 8cts, so I'm not complaining but at the same time I would also be fine when the train did not vote for me, or would not be possible at all. But I wish at least the initiator of the train would read my comment and give me votes based on the quality of it. I don't know this vote train but have the feel this maybe a manual voter, and then nothing is against a vote train, assuming the train initiator is a solid and good curator. On that point I have no complaints, since what I've seen so far is this vote train votes for pretty much solid and valuable comments. BUT still, I opt for a social network without auto voting, so also no vote train possible.
I appreciate you're doing hard work for the community, I even think you do amazing work for the community. Good posts; Reaching out to newbies and helping them at all levels as you did with me. Super super job and an important one for the community. Keep the good work going!
1338 views beside your 8cts :) Your comments are quality up side down and all around and I love your engagement and time you spent for the community with new ideas.
I am blushing ! Thats why I had to create a gross article about some creatures ! I can't get into politics of steemit gamers. I have no idea how to build bots. I have to admit I would get a sweet one myself to help even more. I try my best to hang in there without thinking too much who votes or not and how. Lets hope for more fairness as I mentioned before! I still don't understand why people vote with 1, 2.27 or even 6,66 %. Doesn't make sense to me.
hahahaha, the view count is for the post itself, a bit misleading :) Otherwise I would have to stop commenting, since with that many views and so few votes, well, my comments and contributions must suck big time hahahaha.
The 0,1% or 1% vote I don't understand as well. The 6,66%, well that is for the fun of it :) I actually like that joke :) But yes, would be so cool when voting would come from the heart and minds of Steemians with appropriate value and if that is 0,1%, it is 0,1% but case by case instead of train by train or on almost all post created in Steemit. But hey, I do not oppose anything that is allowed by technology and implementation. But I do hope we all have respect in mind as the top priority in everything we do here solo and together on Steemit.