RE: Game Theory #5 – Steemit Bots
We could think that poor content, even massively boosted, would disappear in the medium/long term since it couldn't attract genuine followers who would make it sustainable. The problem is that many people upvote almost like bots. They are not concerned with the quality of the content, they just know that author is gonna have tons of upvotes and they want to ride the wave. As long as this pays out, I am concerned that it may destroy the fundamental purpose of steemit. It's frustrating to see people literally copying and pasting photos from the internet, or putting random cryptocurrencies' charts with prices and not even at least an analysis, just a mere and uninteresting description, getting a considerable amount of reward, while good and original content struggles.
It is pretty bad right now in terms of poor content. Like you said, in the medium/long term, this problem will clear up. There are several people fighting poor content creators and scammers. Steemit only has a future if quality content prevails or else people who write great content will stop posting here.
I think the rigged nature of the game already prevents a lot of highly talented people from getting interested in posting the first place, because the payout to effort ratio is not worth it at first, if at all (not including if they invest big money) for a lot of highly skilled persons in developed economies who are less enticed by the struggle to make the payouts worth their time. And people who just want good information to get out to as large an audience as possible will see the audience is very small here and probably take their content elsewhere.
At the moment Steemit favours the investor rather than the content creator. In the long-run content creators can really thrive here but it takes patience. Steemit is a far better place to earn than any many other platforms. To make it on YouTube requires hundreds of thousands of subscribers. If you can get up to 5000 + genuine followers on Steemit, I say you are in a very good position. It just takes times. I know many people do not have the time to spare. This year will be very interesting.
Cryptonomics make this place very, very profitable to do anything opposed to attempting to start fresh on any other social media platform, yes. I don't disagree with that at all. This year certainly will be.
Bots aren't the only issue though, whales that are cashed up can upvote themselves or their aquaintances for a decent profit for average or even poor quality posts. And a minnows that is new to the platform can post fantastic content and get little to no exposure or reward.
I think that there needs to be a vast improvement in the area of content discovery. A Reddit style subscription model is needed, so I can choose my tags of interest and easily be able to see posts across all of those tags. I've been saying this pretty much since the day I joined, which wasn't all that long ago.
Also, one thing I find to be very beneficial, and for me, enjoyable, is commenting. Not only in response to comments on my own posts, but also other posts that I feel I can engage with (ie. This one). That can also be quite rewarding and can help build a follower base. Very underrated strategy.
I agree with you @farq. The whales are causing the biggest problems on Steemit. It is quite disturbing how one line comments, very short, and poor quality posts receive upvotes worth over 100 SBD. There are a few good whales that help promote minnow content. @curie is great example. Unfortunately, once above a certain reputation, I can't remember what it is, you are basically on your own.
yeah, and as a result, that's why people use bots - it's the most effective way for a minnow to accelerate their growth.
posting good content only goes so far if it doesn't get seen.