WHY ARE SOME OF STEEMIT BEST WRITERS LEAVING? ARE YOU FEELING IGNORED? WHAT CAN WE DO TO INCREASE RETENTION OF CREATIVE WRITERS? DO WE HAVE ROOM FOR SIMPLE SOCIAL POSTS? HOW CAN WE BALANCE BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA AND CREATIVE CONTENT?
A big Thank you to everyone who participated in this discussion. I wanted to mention earlier that your comments should be in question format like Jeopardy, but once I saw how the discussion was going and the amount of sincere replies, I am glad I did not ask for short questions. It will probably take me three days to read and put all the comments into a few important questions without injecting my personal views into them. Then I will forward the questions to pre-selected eight people like I promised and try to get answers from what we all think is opposing viewpoints. Note that the people who will be asked to answer, do not know if they have been selected or not. If you want your question to be put in your own style please contact me on steemit.chat or steemspeak and leave me a PM with your name and question.
Also a big Thank you for those who wished me a happy anniversary and a happy birthday. Sorry I did not reply to each comment, but I assure you I read them all, and will be reading them again when making my shortlist of questions. All your feedback is valuable and appreciated. Never give up on Steemit my friends, because together we can all make it a huge success, do not mind the hurdles, do not quit, if you are frustrated take a little break, I do sometimes and come back feeling better and refreshed. Think of ways we can improve the system overall, we can not fix people, but we can fix the system if we keep on trying and giving our positive insights.
Sorry about the all Caps in the Title, Yes I am SHOUTING to you out there, I want to hear from you, take your questions to get you answers.
A big Thank you to all of you who participated in this discussion. I wanted to mention earlier that your comments should be in question format like Jeopardy, but once I saw how the discussion was going and the amount of sincere replies, I am glad I did not ask for short questions. It will probably take me three days to read and put all the comments into a few important questions without injecting my personal view into them. Then I will forward the questions to eight people like I promised and try to get answers from what we all think is opposing viewpoints.
By now it has become clear there is a lot of frustrations on steemit, enough to make some of our creative writers bag their talent and leave. This makes me really sad, but what are we doing about it other than complain to deaf ears? yes we do make these frustrated posts and quit posts and rant posts. We try to balance our words so we do not insult anyone because deep inside we want leave the olive branch extended.
Yes frustrated writers are not calling it a duck. And there is a good reason for that, inside each of them I can sense that deep love for steemit the idea, the steemit they love and want to hold close to their hearts. They still have hope that the steemit they imagine and adore can still exist and flourish.
Where did we go wrong, are we even listening? did we go so far in asking for content that we alienated the basics of social media success? yes, it's that meme, it's that joke, it's that video I saw that made me laugh and I want to share with fellow steemians, friends, and family.
Heck My 25 year anniversary passed and I posted about it, and no one said " happy anniversary @joseph ". My birthday is coming soon, will my steemit page be full of happy birthday from all my social contacts on steemit?
Yet in our pursuit of content we actually are losing content, why? because people will still vote for people they know, people will vote for friends no matter how tight that circle of friends is. While we are not promoting any real social interaction between steemians, the vote has become a simple business transaction. We started as a reddit competitor and evolved into a medium competitor, then evolved into some sort of social media platform that I can not describe in words without being indecent. We need to protect the basics of social media.
A measure we use is " because he/she is adding value to the platform " , let me tell you something here, I did not vote for $vigilante posts at all, well maybe my curation bot did once or twice based on a dumb algo, but never me in person. I always voted for @charlieshrem posts. No I did not care who added value and who did not. I simply enjoyed the posts about Charlie's true life experience, his honesty in telling us what happened to him in jail, without any discomfort, well maybe he had some, but he was successful at hiding it, if it existed. The doom and gloom posts of $vigilante on the other hand lacked any human feeling to them, it read as an infomercial. If you are a fan of late night network TV infomercials about getting rich with real estate, you will most likely enjoy $vigilante's posts. Do you see how content can be subjective to an individual's taste?
This is starting to sound like a rant? I assure you it's not, I love steemit the idea, the dream, and I love the tech behind it. I know deep inside each one of us we want to see it succeed. So why I mention the two cases about added value? because I want to point out it's not about content, not added value, it's about that enjoyment you get when you read or view a post.
So what's all this about?
I want to hear from you all, want to hear your frustrations in details, want you to ask questions, and voice your concerns. Do not point fingers, we are all one community. Pointing fingers does not work. In the past few weeks I had conversations with a lot of people, and what I know is this, with all the disagreements, everyone wants one thing, for steemit to succeed.
I will take the questions and concerns of people who want to make steemit a better place for everyone. And ask eight people to answer them. I will not tell you who I will ask, I will just bring you their answers. You will be surprised.
Will this change anything? maybe. But I am hoping if I can bring answers from a select few at the top and from people with opposing views, most likely they will be able to see what can be done more clearly. Starting with what we all agree on.
Retention of talent, is a big concern of mine but at the same time making Steemit enjoyable as a social media platform with the basics of social media activities, yes my friends that " Happy Birthday " will mean a lot coming from all of you. And I do enjoy that occasional meme, joke, and YouTube video you post, but I am guilty like anyone else of making some automated votes for stuff I never read :/ , at the same time have a sense of guilt for those leaving. Has curation become our Achilles' heel? Bring your ideas and questions, without insulting anyone, be positive and creative. Let's get some answers.
PS. Please do not address your question to a specific person by name.
Strong hands. This is crypto. It's volatile. People tend to get depressed and cannibalistic when times are tough. Steem could go down to zero tomorrow, but with the number of people who are building layers and apps and other use cases for Steem, it takes someone with a very short-term view to quit now. I understand the rewards are very small for a lot of people who are working hard; we're trying to reward everyone who deserves it, but don't have the bandwidth to cover them all yet. Hopefully, the good ones will remain engaged or come back once the price rises again. Until then, the rest of us will keep building. You can thank us in a couple of years when Steem hits $100! :)
This is not about tough times. I have consistently written well thought-out content creating my own graphics. I contributed massively to almost every project here in Steemit—from Robinhood whale, steemtrail, steemsports, and competitions for the curie project and steem mascot. I created different concepts and suggestions for building different functions on the platform in order to improve its efficiency. 3 months of really hard work with almost no aknowledgement.
Even in "good times" if I didn't have Dan following me I would be earning pennies. 3/4 of all my earnings came from him. I can count the medium-tier votes from whales in one hand. Suddenly, after some posts I created in order to improve the image of Steemit by critisizing it, he even stopped upvoting me.
I also tried to critiize and expose scummers like the TDV who abuse concepts such as anarchy and libertarianism to appeal to their own manipulative interests. Others have come out as personal victims of his endeavour just because some of us dared to speak against the "oil" that runs the machine of Steemit. Most friends of mine left because they are appalled with the close jerk circle Steemit has become with many of these shady images—from convicts to dodgy ex-cops or runnaway scammers. It has become blasphemous to mess with the shilled trending Totems. What do you expect? Your regular folk to see the front page and say "Wow, I am enligted by the tinfoil, i think i will invite my friends over"?
No my friend. It is not the rewards. I almost worked for free to make Steemit better because I cared for it ike it was my own page. I don't believe 80 hours of my work in my last posts over the past couple of weeks are not worth even $50 in total when certain individuals get them with 4 lines of text or a couple of pictures. Let's stop bullshiting each other for the sake of political correctness. I adhere to libertarian, anarchic and crypto ideas but not in the conventional, repackaged, shallow-skin-deep we see trending evryday in the $300-$400 tier. I employ objective anthropological analysis and demonstrate some fallacies that most whales don't seem to entertain because they don't want to accept. Perhaps truth hurts a bit much. Perhaps some want it to be more like "regulated" Facebook rather than a freer platform for different points of view and different forms of expression. TDV calls people murderers and crooks, bashing individuals and is ok because they are "scam" polticians that want to "destroy the world". Kyriacos bashing out TDV or others for being misanthropic and scummy is "bad". Double Standards much?
There is clear favouritism in here and people are not blind. You can shill each other all you want but people are not idiots. Very few people like me layed down their heart and soul giving 100% while getting minimal rewards. Most left for much less. I got 1k In cash total rewards more or less in 3 months. I powered up almost half of my power when your favourite shills where powering down. Talk about turning your back on those who believe in you.
I am even bothering to still explain myself to you. I am sure that one day indeed Steemit can become succesful but discarding those of us who gave so much to the platform does not give much hope to the average writer for even considering to stick around.
Let's not become the next myspace and hi5 for the looming crypto-facebook that will come swip us off our feet by taking advantage of our pedantic mistakes.
@kyriacos You are one of Steemit's best authors. Your posts are as good as any of the top blogs on the Internet, easily several levels of quality above my own. But please do not forget that this is a social network also. When you make negative comments and slam other people repeatedly on Steemit and in chat channels, it is harder to get votes. There are ways to make points constructively without giving in to anger and frustration. I hope you continue writing, since your blog makes Steemit much better.
@donkeypong
Thank you for your kind words. Nonetheless, we both know quality of content is pointless in Steemit. Connections and keeping appearances are all the money. Here is the deal though. I am not good with people, especially scammers and shady individuals.
The content in my posts has nothing to do with my comments. Is this how we vote now? Appearances? Also what kind of messed up double standard is this? TDV and others slam politicians all the time calling them murderers, crooks, frauds with much harsher epithets with little to no arguments making thousands. Pure slander with high rewards. I use sometimes deregatory epithets alongside structured arguments and I get the middle finger?
Also I don't see how I am doing anything bad by exposing a well known fraud that most likely damages our image. I treat the same people who try to manipulate others with cheap psychological tricks, coin scams and any other dishonest and devious behaviour. I am not just running around cursing at random people. All I am doing is trying to clear out the garbage from Steemit.
I am not angry. I am not frustrated. This is how I talk in real life as well. I am blunt and this might appear as "rude". Also, you can't seriously expect me to continue writing for pennies and generating traffic for the network and not getting rewarded because of my "character". Where are we? George's Orwell's 1984?
I thought I came here to escape Facebook's policing not to experience an upgraded version of it through the blockchain. If the people i engage with don't like the comments let them flag me or unfollow me. What I see though is not flagging or unfollowing. Quite the opposite. Some people I fought I even became friends with over time.
who would have thought. Steemit is becoming PC....i am buffled
Inconvenient truths are not well rewarded on this platform. It is perhaps time to create Steemit 2.0 with a hardfork and have real writers run it not shitcoin miners who can barely read. This mess will take years to sort out, if ever. Meanwhile competition is coming that makes Steemit look like hi5, or worse. Critics are needed in order for improvements to occur, fast.
The whales and dolphins and everyone need to wake the fuck up. Seriously. Now. It's getting bad.
By continuing on the same path, we all suffering from tunnel vision. A big reality check is in order. I thought you possessed critical thinking skills, but at this point, I believe I was wrong. If the people who generate real engagement leave (myself, @kyriacos and other critical thinkers), this place will be swallowed up by vile creatures, greed and it will die quickly. Sheep and degenerate whales who don't know what decent writing is cannot create something valuable. Let's get real. One of my posts that had 361 upvotes and 234 comments and that generated a huge amount of community discussion made a whopping $21. While I don't need big payouts like before, it definitely sends a message to real writers who see that and run. It's a big fucking problem. It needs to be fixed fast while there are people who still give a shit about this place.
Stellabelle, looked at it in another way....
Did any of your medium posts every rake in that many engagement? Your writings are great and having people engaged is that not enough?
Your posts on Steemit have on average 20 times as much upvotes as your posts on Medium and about 50 times as much comments.
So would you go back to Medium? I would recommend to sit it out. Yes I am also sad that some Steem is still on my bittrex and worth 'pennies' but hey... it's still more than having earned 0 on my own blog.
Just to compare: Recently (just before Steemit started) I had setup a 'live-webcam' on a popular Kitespot here in The Netherlands. I choose to 'monetize' the live video on Youtube. Guess what?
It "raked in" 24.009 views the past 3 months, with average eyeballs of 11:58 minutes per viewer. Yet the ad rewards are $ 7.13 . But I don't give a shit. I'm happy that 24.009 views where generated and a couple of 1000 people do watch & use this service! That's my main driver.
Still I'm curious, what will be your alternative?
Actually, Medium is jam-packed with talented, pro writers and yes I did gain traction there. I have over 1K followers on Medium, which is a lot considering it's a writing/blogging platform. Some of my articles were also featured by the Editor's picks which means a lot since that is coming directly from the Medium staff. The atmosphere there is full of intellectual critiques and it's very challenging. They are still struggling with how to monetize it. They never figured out that piece. In my opinon, Medium needs to marry with Steemit to produce beautiful children. But if the good writers are not rewarded here, then there would be no reason for them to come here. That's where we are at.
I recommend fixing the algorithm to include a social energy layer aspect. So basically that would result in the algorithm using these measurements to calculate rewards:
plus
there has to be more emphasis on human engagement measurements. Most people will downvote bot comments, so only comments with zero or + status would be recognized and added to calculation for reward system.
Really @stellabelle :D hahahahaha
Looks a lot how TDV write his posts ... You are starting to sound like him in ur quest...
The Steemit-Shemitah
what is this superior competition of which you speak?
I think you're forgetting that it's still early days and that the wealth in this platform is still being distributed from the top. You should be appreciative that you were chosen by @dan to receive some of his own distribution.
Also, I think you have a real problem with @thedollarvigilante. A real anger problem. I understand the favoritism argument but at the same time whales are going to like what they want. You can't control what someone likes. If they like TDV or Charlie Shrem then so be it. Don't hate them because you aint them.
I put in a lot of hours here too but I don't complain. There's no reason too. We're only 6 months in and everyone's expecting the same alpha features as facebook, which has been around for years now.
I think you need to be appreciative for what you have rather than complaining about what you do not.
this sounds like just another pull string doll that only says "are you jelly? are you jelly? are you jelly?" there is clear bias here. there are people raking in huge sums and adding zero content. i have run out of time, myself. honest work, here i come. that will mean leaving steemit to go do crap that at least i can count on for reward for value. there is a clear misunderstanding of value here. the things i have made the most from contain little or no value. things i have worked my ass off for get zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero. 200 votes for a post and not enough for a burger, bias. someone else does fly on leaf photographs with 200 dollar payouts, bias. try to emulate the trending page and zero, zero, zero. goodbye steemit, i wish i could sustain my contributions, but there is too much bias here. if i have time i may come back to upvote the friends that i have made here who are also being crushed by endless bias. am i jelly? no, i'm just not stupid, or at least not stupid enough to waste any more time here than i already have. waiting for some pie in the sky future while i am running out of the ability to feed myself and watching while slackers with the right connections make more in a month than i ever will here at this rate. no thanks. i can make more money for less work at Mcdonalds, and i can get a better job than that, certainly better than steemit.
These "good writers" sound like a bunch of self-entitled children. Just look at these comments. Most of us who haven't received the fortune and fame that people with over 70 rep have, and yes I'm looking directly at you @stellabelle, we haven't complained as much as you guys are now. In every thread I see you guys posting the exact same thing. No body cares. You're preaching to the choir, because the audience doesn't give a shit what you and your 135K Steem Power have to cry about. You guys follow less than 200 people, @kyriacos up there follows 21 people, and yet you're talking about unappreciated authors like you guys know every author out there. I imagine it would be pretty hard to find good writers when you're following less than 1 percent of the community. Sheesh.
Whales and dolphins are people. People do what they want. Take your toxic complaints elsewhere. I received 231 votes on my latest posts, the most votes I've ever received, yet the potential payout is only $6. Am I complaining? Hell no. I don't give a shit. Writing isn't hard work. Saying that writing is harder than working at mcdonalds is fucking ignorant too. I've worked at fast food restaurants and I was turning out meals in 30 secs flat. Try doing that for 12 hours straight. I would rather talk out my ass than go back to manual labor. You people and your entitlement disgust me.
they don't complain just for the sake of themselves. They are pointing out which is actually a disturbing problem for the platform, where fringe politics are dominating the trending page.
Charlie Shrem may have a past associated with crime, but he did hard time for it, and he was quite young (that is really common and relatable to many people). I think that his 'geek in prison' series is unique experience tho, something a lot of people would want to read; mainstream or otherwise. I dont think he deserves to be lumped the TDV.
you must be talking to someone else because i have done lots of manual and skilled and highly skilled labor and been a writer in my 31 years in the job market. i have 134 steem power all of it earned, none of it bought. i follow 159 people and do my damnedest to keep up. most of my followers are people just like me, poor, with low steem power. these "toxic" complaints of mine are merely to point out that most of these whales run around upvoting each other and don't give the rest of us the time of day while they use dummy accounts to funnel huge amounts of money out of the platform. i have seen this directly, myself. i am not going to snitch names, but it is easy enough to find if you just look. the largest i have seen so far is $337,000 transferred to polonex from an account with 25 reputation zero posts, zero followers and zero followed. this is only one of them.
i, have worked at Mcdonalds, years ago before i acquired some skills, and yes, i have worked harder here, for less money than i did there.
i, have done these things in the real world so, talk all you want to, but you, my fellow steemian, are wrong. entitlement, please. you and your permissive of corruption attitude, disgust me. live in denial if you like, but don't you dare call me entitled. you had better go find some ignorant crap head who is going to put up with that shit, because i will not.
"What is your favorite science fiction character" a post with a paragraph and a picture......... you expect a ton of money out of that?
just trying to give the power voters what they want. the most money i've made has been from things that took the least effort. my post what is your favorite science fiction book generated more community interaction than almost any other of my posts. people don't seem to want to learn. they want to be entertained. ipso facto, bug on a leaf photography with $200 payout. if i were talking to people who wanted valuable information then i would give it to them. i spend more time on comments to intelligent individuals than on posts. speaking of which, i'll be moving along now.
A new system would need to be created to address this problem. Using the attention economy is a start. We need to start measuring engagement and reward that. I am really feeling shitty after one of my posts got 361 upvotes and 234 comments. Guess what the payout was? $21. This is insane since right now Steemit is going downhill fast, and you would think that generating massive and i mean MASSIVE ENGAGEMENT would be rewarded. But, no, I am controversial now since I have the habit of uncovering inconvenient truths, and some whales are that stupid, too fucking greedy to see how they are harming everyone by their stupid voting bots. I mean come on...............It's getting too obvious......Your comment says it all actually.
Thats democracy and leftist this is capitalist, money talks and you don't.
I think they are moving towards paying for attention and engagement but it Is taking so long. It will get Interesting if any competitors are better able to pay for attention. That might be needed to spur more rapid change here.
"there are people raking in huge sums and adding zero content. i have run out of time, myself. honest work, here i come. that will mean leaving steemit to go do crap that at least i can count on for reward for value. there is a clear misunderstanding of value here"
Perhaps it is time to build Steemit 2.0 with hardfork. ?
setup a more equitable distribution scheme and count me in!
do you think it would weed out the current scam artists? i don't know enough about the structure of the platform to know yet. i love steemit.. i just can't sustain my current level of effort for mostly zeros in return, it makes it even more difficult while watching people who are adding drivel and can barely lift the rewards they carry away. can it even be remedied?
Hard fork may be a good idea. But ambitious. Aside from blockchain developers, Needs people to run witness nodes, and I think having that done on a different version from Steemit's is a project of it's own. Regular maintenance...certificates, security.
edit: and, most of all, it would need a successful hardfork. **Is that what Golos did? I don't know
I don't want to be associated with scammers and frauds. I adhere to an-cap and voluntarist ideas myself but seeing how he manipulates people through them makes my skin crawl.
In the same way you can't accuse TDV for bashing Hilary because he is jealous of her.
I don't complain about the platform's functionality. I rather designed solutions for it. You are missing my whole point. I explain why others are leaving and you are still cheerleading the popular shilled view.
Level up your arguments mate.
... You're a very narcissistic creature aren't you.
People are always going to be who they're going to be. There's scammers and frauds in every corner of the internet these days so why act surprised that they're here.
I'm not cheerleading I'm putting you back in your place. You're acting as if Steemit has done wrong by you when in reality it's done nothing but give. Seriously, show some grattitude, man the fuck up, and do your thing. Who cares what other people are doing. Hell, if I spent my days caring bout what others were doing I'd be manic.
I love it when someone takes everything I say out of context in order to prove a point, as if breaking it down somehow makes you feel better.
Your rebuttals are unintelligible, like arguing with a semi-intelligent ape. How's that for an ad hominem?
:)
@senseiteekay I should tell u that @kyriacos will never loose, dont try to explain anything to him, he is always right :P ... It is like u can be a
and more but... he is not a narcissist
Wondering why he is still here because he
There is Medium and other places for "good writers" too...
We all want to help to make Steemit a better place (I think, at least I want) but for sure with his way of criticizing (Im always right and everybody is wrong) he will not be going anywhere (followed only for people who like this way but, as far I can see, can not do much to change anything here... like other writers)
Ad hominems don't help your argument...
I left facebook because I want to be associated with a better culture. Is that an argument really? That "shit happens"?
No need to talk out of your ass. You haven't even managed to pull a proper argument yet.
I compare my contribution to others like all people do including you. Indeed it has given much but barely enough.
I did show "some" gratitude. Very few have "manned the fuck up" against whales like I did. check my posts. Your political correctness is overshadowed by a single hair hanging from my balls.
I don't care what others are doing. I explain why we don't have user retention.
You are impressive. You manage to commit at least 5 logical fallacies with each post. Let's see if you brake a record with the next comment.
pathetic-tier like the rest. You need to level up. i don't deal well with sheepled teenagers.
Supporting someone who is and has stolen money from innocent people is so far from the principles on which this platform was built, it's an anathema. I almost cannot believe it is occurring. From the information I have thus gathered, I cannot in my conscience stand to see TDV receiving massive payouts. I will be flagging every single post moving forward as the word "scam" is listed in the definitions of flagging. He's perhaps the biggest scam ever to be on here. It's un-fucking-believable.
This is going nuts, stop this crazy "witch hunting" u are in please... I dont like the way he is doing things too but this is too much... And at the end u all are giving him a lot of publicity because, if is "Bad" or "Good" it does not matter at all, it is still Publicity... If you dont follow him you will do not see his posts, did u know that? Put all this hate behind and be happy, life is to short :)
His ex-partner just joined Steemit and he will be exposing his crimes. Sooner or later the TDV cult will face the truth.
@kyriacos
honestly, I do not care if it come himself in person to say how bad and scammer he is, I even do not follow him... I would love to see all this maybe in a real newspaper as a news with a trial and everything else (if they prove all this scams allegations, etc) but here in Steemit all u can achieve is giving him more publicity as far as I can see it til now and also piss of the people because of your "witch hunting" now everywhere on Steemit... @stellabelle included on all this of course with her new "Steemit Shemittah" with the " everything is really fuck now and we have to do something"... funny that is also using the same language as TDV ;)
Sad to see good writers get bad reputation because of ...
I know about getting less money with more votes but for me this have to do with a change in the algorithm more than if u are famous, friend of, followed by a whale or something like that (it is one of my question for the Steemfest, what they change and did not tell to the people? for example, I know something is not right because I was giving more per vote before and suddenly I can only give 1 cent per vote and I have almost 5000 SP)
Pd: Im also not agree with Charlie Shrem getting a lot of money and everything else only because his name, past or because he was in jail but Im not everywhere bitching about that for example...
Actually yes it is lmao.......ever heard of capitalism?
How am I supporting him when clearly I'm supporting the platform, not him. I don't know what he has or hasn't done with his life, and quite frankly I don't give a shit. I never even heard about him until I came here. Honestly, you guys are creating a problem here when there wasn't one to begin with. If he is what he is then start a band and start singing about it, but don't bring your dirty laundry into my home and expect me to be all cheery about it. I have my own problems to worry about without getting upset over something someone may have done. Create a TDVhateclub channel on steemit.chat and air it out there.
If I had a nickel for everytime I heard this bullshit argument. IT'S NOT EARLY. This is the internet. People have shorter attention spans than a goldfish. The hype is over, the wave has crashed, the Titanic has hit the iceberg. You keep holding out for this new wave of users, please, hold your breath until they get here. The reason we had a spike of new users before was because people were excited by the platform and told people about it. Then a few weeks later they looked around and realized that they were never going to get their content noticed over the constant stream of 60+ rep users writing over and over about how great and revolutionary steemit is, @dollarvigilante and @steemtruth writing absolute garbage piles full of conspiracy theories and occult (which btw was somehow always in the trending section to welcome new users), and the ill-conceived steemfest circle-jerk. Yet users like you (that are still naive enough to believe that this magical wave of new users is just around the corner and we don't need to do anything different to attract them) are still voting for the same garbage hoping for that .001 SP payout.
Yeah, @kyriacos, let's do that. Let's just sing kumbayah in the corner while what was a pretty decent platform continues its descent into internet purgatory.
@senseiteekay, just to be clear, I'm not complaining about what I don't have. I've taken my writing elsewhere and am getting paid regardless. What's frustrating is that this platform could have been (and still could be) something awesome, but it's been mismanaged by the people that, frankly, have the most to lose. I mean think about it. My SP account currently has about 971 SP in it. At one point, that would have been worth almost $2K, now it's worth a tenth of that. In that context, consider the losses that the whales have taken over the last two months. Yet, they continue to do what they've always done.
It blows my mind that you can't see that.
when TDV gets exposed from his x-partner you will be apologizing to me for trying to clean the platform and exposing myself. Don't worry. the best are to come.
You've completely missed the point. We don't care about what the @dollarvigilante is doing, we care about what you're doing, and right now you're bashing Steemit with little evidence to substantiate your claims. You're the problem right now, not him.
Self-entitlement can be a bitch.
I explained the problem methodigally and with examples. I explained why I do what I do and why other people might be leaving. Throwing the "unsubtantiate claims" is ludicrous. My evidence is my public account and everything I wrote is based on that evidence. Everything I wrote is pretty much substatiated. I think you like to use fancy words that suit to ideological debates. Doesn't really cut it.
You don't grasp the magnitude about how TDV kind of types affect negatively someone who would join. Perhaps because you are into the anarcho-libertatian-blockchain mentality way too deep. You don't comprehend how cryptocurrencies are still frowned upon because most people involved are scammers or real criminals in the real world trying to get away. I offer constructive criticism.
I don't know but maybe english comprehension is not your thing. And btw, you haven't even scratched the surface quality wise or contributing anything beneficial for Steemit other than vocal cheerleading or to judge what I did so far. I don't think you are in any position to judge me, but thanks for trying.
Im wondering now why people are still using "fiat currency" like dollars or euros when the majority part of the scammers, "terrorists" or real criminals are using it all the time??? Did u read what u write? ;)
This was kind of.... I do not know how to say it... well, hope you will find someone one day who can be on your level... (sarcasm included)
Btw did u realize that you are only attacking people and nothing more? And, please, can u write the name of the ex-partner from TDV to look in the internet about it... hope I find something more interesting to say about his scams than attack peoples here
I think you've been doing a great job so far. Not sure what you mean by a crypto facebook. I think it's not possible :) I mean, your posts have been earning way more than if you would post them on your own site, instagram, facebook, medium or any other blog site I think...
The question is really: are you in it for the money, or are you in it for the content, features of the blockchain (superfast confirmations / transactions, decentralised content) and the community? There will always be people earning more rewards and people earning less. The fact that the rewards are going down is mostly based on the price of Steem going down.
Still if one earns double digits or even pennies with a post is quite a lot more than one would earn with a post on facebook, medium or twitter right? 300 USD per month is not a bad revenue either I would say...
Yes I had a 5000 SBD post in good times but I am not surprised they are lowered nowadays, it's all due to the price of Steem. (Yes my posts still do rake in quite some SBD but that's because of support for SteemFest, as you can see all those post rewards are transferred to @steemfest immediately)
Remember: Before Steemit there was no such a thing as a decentralised (blogging) platform where your contributions got you tokens of value in return. Now having a lower price of Steem thx to the hype wear-off is of course disappointing, but... what did you do before Steem? One would post on FB, Medium, Twitter. No rewards whatsoever except a like, a heart and a recommend.
Let's all work together to make this a great blockchain and emphasize on the features of 'decentralisation of content' more (no censorship!) instead of about not having that much liquid rewards as before. If this platform grows 1000% you are in a great position.
If I was a regular guy not promoting steemit and just throwing by hasty posts left and right I wouldn't mention it. Whatever lands, lands right?. I mention it because I am not that guy and I haven't been getting reward even in the good days. I craft every post carefully spending hours and hours for making my own graphics as well. Half of my work is designing Steemit stuff. You get to keep the steem power mate. i get to keep a middle finger.
There is a clear bias and I think it has to do my content and my confrontentional stance toward those who are scammers like TDV. I am trying to reach Dan now in order to find out what my future will be here. 3 months in with 100% push for myself I think its enough. I won't be posting any more content until he replies. I treated this like a full time job.
And yes, i think I could make more writing these in my personal blog. I know i produce good content. I don't like hearing this mantra of "at least here you earn money". its getting old and doesn't really apply the way you think it applies. I wrote an article about the basic human psychology.
if it applied like you suggest it does then we would have much higher user retention.
Others like me, who got involved much less with Steemit have already 30K in Steem Power.
I know we have crossed swords over one of your posts, but wow, you're spot-on here.
I always cross swords. Friends are made when we face both the dark and bright side of the individual. Most people maintain shallow relationships because they get to know only one. I treat people like I would my own family. Tough love.
I have added you to my feed. Thanks for sharing.
Ditto
@kyriacos, I am sincerely sorry you consider me a "dodgy" ex-cop...because I'm not. I won't uptalk my character because my record of integrity accounts for that. I will talk about my content. My content is original. I haven't found any stories like it. This is why dozens of legitimate "story publishers" have published my life story...Rolling Stones Magazine, National Public Radio's "This American Life," Texas Observer, Maxim Magazine, How To Make Money Selling Drugs (the hit drug war documentary purchased by Robert Dinero,) and dozens more. I currently received a monthly check from a movie producer for my life story rights. Whether you like me or not and regardless of what you think of my character, my content is original and valuable. You can prove this to yourself by trying to find anything else like it. You can't. So that proves it's original. Brand names paying me and publishing my life story is proof of value. My content belongs on Steemit and so do I. I am happy to be here. Maybe you should lighten up on me a bit. If you knew me personally, I'm positive you would like me. Give me another try.
Once we get a UI over haul and we make it much easier and sexier...things will start to change. This is BETA right now dont forget. We are still building something and I know it is great.
Amen.
I just want to add that we need some more mainstream appeal. It's not just the rewards turning people away, it's the site. It doesn't have the same features as facebook and other social media sites. We're missing profile pictures and other basic implementations. I understand that the blockchain doesn't have the scalibility for that yet but it's something we really need to look at. Mainstreamers don't care about learning, they care about looking good. Not only that, they care about minimal effort. Having to switch to another website to chat is inconvenient as well. If we could somehow implement everything on the same webpage then we'd see a lot more user retention. When I first came here I was lost. I had to search through blog posts to find my way. I'm sorry to say but we need to dumb this down a little bit in order to make it all a bit more user friendly
I agree @senseiteekay really hoping for platform to become streamline and less primitive because it is hard to promote it for those setbacks. I'm sure our efforts will be rewarded for pushing through all of this early stage building, bless
Yeah I find it really hard to promote it too. I'm sure we will. For now I'm appreciative for what we have here. It's a totally new concept and I don't think we should take it for granted.
In saying that, I'm starting to notice that there are a lot of very unappreciative people here, as if making free money(no matter how much) isn't good enough for them...
Please, tell me what other social media sites pay you to blog. Pfft
(rant over) haha
I hope they can start soon they own blog or program they own social network for "serious writers" ;) so they can see how much work it is and stop to talk not sense...
And changing the topic Im agree with u about the "need of more mainstream appeal", chat on the same page, etc. It is necessary for to go really in competition with Facebook, for example
Also would love to see to possibility to post different kind of content, like sentences only, normal post, video only or image only (videos from youtube or vimeo and images from steemIMG for example) wit a side Icon showing what kind of content is.
Challenge accepted!
These social media sites pay you to blog. :)
Even something as simple as implementing an on-board messenger would help tremendously. Having an affiliated chat is awesome for post promotion and what-have-you, but half the time, I'm lucky if I can even communicate with the people I'm following or who are following me directly. It's hit or miss. At least with an on-board messenger linked to the UI, I don't have to sift through my replies on comments or open another window, and I can talk to them directly.
Minnow math.
Nice comment @donkeypong!
I'm still here posting as usual :)
Ha, That's funny. Your like famous here now, I see no reason why you would; Speaking of course from the perspective of if I where in your shoes.
I´m here too @ballinconscious - helping people into steemit more then blogging at the moment, but definitely still here, vesting and buying. Please vote for my witness @fyrst-witness if you have not already. And come to http://discord.steemspeak.com @joseph & @charlieshrem we moved the radio there :)
can't get the sound to work for some weird reason :)
I know you are, Your also on golos :p Good that your helping people out. Yeah I will definitly join the steemspeak and check it out. Thanks.
@joseph, I commend you for doing this. I could write a novel about why real writers are leaving, but I want my point to be condensed and clear. Here is why real writers cannot take Steemit seriously in its current state:
My post generated 361 upvotes and 234 comments had a payout of $21.66.
Here's a visual for you, that only represents half the comments as there were too many and I could not fit it on one jpeg:
And here's a post that generated 168 upvotes and 7 comments with a payout of $222.48.
Everything you need to know and fix is contained in this visual graphic.
Social energy is not being given the proper rewards and shill-backed accounts are given hugely excessive payouts because the whales backing them do not like community-oriented critiques about how to make this platform better. The corruption is destroying trust, which real writers won't tolerate. I know several real writers and they won't touch this place due to the corruption.
When real writers see things such as I show above, they are insulted and instantly view this place as a rigged operation, which it actually is at this point.
By not rewarding those Steemit users who create such an engaged and lively discussion and thought-provoking posts, the whales are sending a clear message: you real writers have very little value here. Basically, anyone who refuses to be bought and sold is out. This quite the opposite of what I thought this platform was trying to accomplish. It's revolting actually. This all needs to change, and change fast before the impression really sets in. Competition is coming. Let's not be foolish. Instead, let's listen to those who are keeping this platform alive, in a way that is honest.
The main thing to do ASAP is redistribute power by either burning Steem or taking my suggestions of redistrubution to the true readers and curators.
My solutions which generated an absurdly enormous community response, from the post with 234 comments (and this was on a slow steemit day) are contained here:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@stellabelle/if-i-ran-steemit-an-open-letter-to-the-steemit-community
@stellabelle your concerns and insights as an early adopter and one of our biggest contributors are very important. I have seen your input on much of what is going on. I agree with you on a lot, but I part way with you one thing, that is the competitors. I do not believe any of the competitors of steemit are ahead at all, and when they launch you will discover they will learn from our ups and downs. We are pioneers in this field and as such we will always be ahead. If one day we become the Netscape of social media on the blockchain I will be really disappointed. We should all work together be the google in this field. I know we are on the verge of upgrading to graphene 2.0, a big move towards a faster leaner tech. Maybe not all the issues we all see now will be fixed but from someone who knows what headaches come with coding and testing, it's a big step forward. We should expect big changes to take place on steemit that will make it a much better place. For that we need to persevere and be patient. I know patience is hard, but with new evolving tech, it pays to be patient. All we can do now is give our input and hope it translates into code. Some solutions although might make sense, they are practically impossible to apply without creating other avenues for abuse. I hope with the voting guilds that @ned was talking about something will come out of it that pleases the community. That also might have it's own issues when it's applied, but the trick is we keep on trying. Thank you for staying around while we go through our ups and downs.
I never complained one bit about the tech. The tech is great. The wallet is great. Those are great things and part of the reason I am still here. I think the void exists in understanding basic human nature. No one is paying attention the most important thing which is value, social energy value. I would tend to disagree on one point that Steemit is ahead. Actually, I don't think it is in its current state. People are continuing to leave. If the attention of minnows is not considered valuable in here, no one will stay. That is human nature. Only the tough ones are left, or the ones who are profiting. The rest have gone.
Steemit Inc I think needs a writer, an anthropologist on staff who can speak for human beings, not bots.
Desigining a system to recognize human comments and social energy is what i would recommend. People recognize bot comments as opposed to human comments. Humans can shut down bot comments easily. That's where I'd focus algorithms. Comments should be thought of as social energy. Social energy needs to be the main driver of the platform.
This is a hard problem, and a lot of it (I think) is just platform immaturity, and hopefully it'll work itself out if we're all patient. But, here are my thoughts that arise from your query:
I'm actually not much of a people person, so I don't really miss the "Happy Birthdays," but I think you're right that it's missing, and it's important to many people. Not sure how to encourage that, though. Groups?
I've been thinking about the sharing vs. adding original content recently. One means of "adding value" is being the first to bring something to my attention. Curators (myself included) could get better at recognizing the value of having content delivered here from elsewhere on the web, even if the steemit share doesn't add any substance. It's the difference between ordering takeout or having pizza delivered, and convenience should be rewarded.
I read an article at Bruce Schneier's blog recently, Stop Trying to Fix the User. Much of the curation here feels like that. For example: I get the concerns about plagiarism, and they're legitimate, but no one ever comments on my facebook posts asking me to cite the source of an image before they'll "Like" it. Not sure what to do about it, but the more you ask the authors to change, the less they'll be inclined to stay.
Flag wars: There has to be a way to accomplish a reliable reputation system with a positive-value voting system. Abusive flagging creates an atmosphere of fear, even when I'm not the target (personally, I recently began unfollowing and declining to vote for posts by people who I notice that get involved in flag wars).
Hostility towards bots. I haven't even spent much time working on bots, but the luddite-like attitude towards bots here really puts me off. As I posted here, I think that bots will eventually be steemit's greatest strength. I wish people would just be patient, let them work through the speed bumps, and wait for them to amaze us all. Developers should try to curb abuse - whether human or bot, but shouldn't be actively trying to discourage bot deployment - not even voting bots. It's like saying that google should employ an army of humans to replace its PageRank algorithm.
Dunno. Just thinking out loud, since you asked, and since I agree that user retention is an important goal at this time in steemit's lifecycle. Those are my thoughts, for whatever they're worth.
PS - Happy Anniversary!
You bring about some of my and other witnesses concerns in a much better way than I can put together. Great feedback, thank you. I will forward these concerns and what can be done about them to the "lucky few" that will answer them :) I happen to agree on the bots issue., one that brings a smile to my face every time I remember it, is dickbutt , not sure if it's still around or it was killed. Thank you for the anniversary wishes, that was awhile ago but wanted to make a point of it.
I believe dickbutt can still be found on posts tagged #nsfw or #funny
I apologize for "double dipping", but another thought has now occurred to me. In question form, "What can the platform do to help authors recruit members from their social networks on other platforms?" Your post helped to inspire this question, along with one brainstormed suggestion, which I posted here.
I think a lot of this comes down to the experience you are expecting from Steemit.
For a professional writer, if they put out an article they have carefully crafted and it makes them less than they could get for a writing job, they may not continue to post.
Talented writers like @stellabelle @the-alien @rok-sivante @kevinwong and others have spent a lot of time and effort creating unique content and in the beginning saw very high rewards. Now that same effort might not make as much as it once did, so the question comes as to what you want out of this platform. A job, a platform to voice your opinion, a fun way to interact, or a number of other possibilities.
I myself have no writing background and found it amazing that an idea from my mind or a comment I put could earn me $0.09 That is what got me hooked. Nine pennies. It made me want to learn how to write better and become a better communicator. I've always been creative, but writing never really had interest to me until I saw that I could blog about anything I wanted and interact with the community that way.
The people I believe will stay with steemit are those that would continue posting even if rewards didn't exist. I don't think the value will ever get that low, but the community means enough to me, that even if there were no rewards I would continue to post.
I don't think introduceyourself posts ever deserved thousands of dollars, but at the time it got people thinking and excited. I think @ned and some other influential minds should give a gameplan to those who are willing to go balls to the wall for steemit.
I think ad dollars and partnerships with colleges and some creative ways to advertise steemit would be great. Things like blogging workshops or writing competitions sponsored by local colleges with sbd or chromebook prizes etc.
I think curation is a problem since it does not require someone to read any content. The biggest issue I see right now is how comments are devalued. With a curation bot there is no human interaction, just investment based on probability and other algorithms. It helps those who post great content make some money, but without feedback it won't be sustainable long term.
If my post makes $25 and there are 0 comments, something is very wrong with the system. People who used to spend a lot of time crafting comments see that there is no real reward in doing so (time is money so most will focus on blog posts where money is to be made and the same is true of vote bots - there are no "comment" vote bots to the best of my knowledge and curation doesn't make a whole lot of money through comments at least of late.)
We also need to somehow hire or have a group of people that help new users with a live chat feature so they are able to get feedback quickly from users that know how to post, format, explain what steem, steem dollars etc are. Maybe something people could apply for by showing their knowledge and being available for an hour time frame for x amount of sbd.
Great writers will come and go and the price of steem will ebb and flow. I'm happy to do anything that will help steemit, whether or not it pays. I see so much value and potential in this platform.
I'm interested to see what others have to write in the comment section. Thanks for opening this topic up for debate @joseph
Thank You, your feedback is really valuable and appreciated. I wish some of the comments here were in the format of a question :) you guys will make my job a little harder, but it's worth it.
Haha :) I didn't know it was jeopardy format ;)
Nature abhors a vacuum, and for every weak willed talented writer I've seen leave, I've seen another hardy one arrive the following week. You gotta have STAMINA on here are Donald Trump would say. Simple as that.
Correct. The reward pool mechanism essentially forces this. The more leave, the larger the share of the pool remains for others, the less competition for votes, and the more content producers are thus attracted.
I know this sounds like a paradox @smooth but TRUE learning on Steemit comes about when the competitive spirit has ceased...and the true spirit speaks. Quality spirit = Quality content ;)
I think some were under the impression posting on steemit was going to be their new full time job. They saw whales making serious payouts in the beginning and were assuming the situation was going to remain static in steemit and achievable by many. Steemit is a wonderful platform but is part of the crypto currency community where one needs to keep their feet grounded and not trying to depend on making bank off involvement unless involved with crypto infrastructure for a weekly paycheck. Just my personal 2 cents, crypto is a wonderful hobby.
Stop adding features.
We haven't nailed the key transaction yet. Bells and whistles detract from -- not add to -- the platform (at this time).
We lose writers because they are only one part of an equation and they are not finding the other part of the equation here.
Consumers.
We need at least ten times as many consumers as producers if there is ever going to be 'liquidity' in the platform (not to be confused with liquidity in the steem market).
Imagine a fledgling Uber losing drivers, because they weren't getting any fares. Now imagine Uber's leadership trying to fix the problem by finding more drivers.
We need fares. Consumers. People like me. Figure out how to get me back, get a lot more like me, THEN go back to the other side of the transaction (content).
I agree with you. What would get you back?
Good question. Is this a content consumption site? If so then the content has to be better than elsewhere -- I wouldn't choose to spend my finite amount of time on lesser content for the hope of earning partial pennies.
Is this a social network? If so I would choose a social network that doesn't put me shoulder to shoulder with, well, criminals with whom I do not share views of the world (you know, "famous anarchists").
Is this a cryptocurrency introduction site? If so introduction made job done.
I guess I am at a loss. It's up to the stakeholders to state clearly that this is a site with a primary function of connecting X with Y. If X is writers and Y is readers, then I am a reader and the job of the site is to connect me WITH WHAT I WANT TO READ better than any other site. If X is anarcho-blockchain-crypto-enthusiasts then Y is X (the end).
Whatever it is, the primary focus should be on matchmaking. And that cannot happen until there is clarity on who is being matched with what.
I remain interested, and hopeful. The job is not in the developers hands at this point, it is in the business leaders.
Businesspeople of Steemit: what is your product, who are the producers, and who are the consumers?
@ned
That was fantastically concise and clear. I'm actually at a loss of an answer, and it's worth sitting down and figuring out, for myself as well as others, what it is we're trying to provide and who we're trying to provide it to.
Or reward consumers / commentors more.
That could help -- although I am not sure it will. Replacing pennies with nickels is still not enough to change my habits regarding how I spend a limited amount of free time. At this time it would have to be totally upended-- the majority of the available reward pool would have to be focused on generating critical mass on the consumer side.
It wouldn't be a living it would just be more fun. Remember only 800 users post a day 3000 vote. The voters are not trying to make a living more they want to have fun. It's a game to see if you get curation rewards or get a few cents on your comment. Why do people comment in redit? We can keep all the authors or lose half of the them, doesn't matter. But if we triple the voters and they start powering up to boost rewards and influence then the value of steem will rise. Simple. People write for fun or for reputation. I see no reason to pay them much.
So refocus the majority of the reward pool on the curators, triple their number. It could work But wouldn't curation reward have to also be disassociated from SP?
No I think that's brilliant. I might've make the influence sp gives you go up a little slower. Maybe to the 1.5 power intraday of 2 but sp is very important.
The problem here is people didn't earn sp curating. It's like a society of people where capital wasn't in government s hands instead of capitalist would have a lower return on invested capital until capital ended up with people who were good at allocating it. Our steemit sp is in the hand s of developers not marketers and curators. It will fix itself eventually but we'll have a low return on payouts until it's fixed(too much to authors)
Making curator rewards the "majority" of the pool is not necessary. Merely going back to the original 50/50 split would literally double every single user's curation rewards[note] while cutting post rewards by only 33%.
The original concept was that shifting rewards to posting would help distribute them more widely because most users would post. That has turned out to be completely wrong. Most users do not post significantly, they read and vote. As @dennygalindo said well, we need more 'Uber passengers' not 'Uber drivers'. (Truthfully we need both, but there is at least some clear incentive in place to attract 'drivers', much less so for 'passengers'.)
Rolling-back the incorrect reward shift is not all that is needed to attract more consumers, but it is a start, and something that is easy to do.
Note: Except those whose curation rewards are currently too small to pay out at all. Many of those would start getting rewards for the first time.
This is a big problem for us all.
I think partly this has to be improved by us as a community trying to make people feel welcomed and appreciated but it also has to come from the continued evolution of Steemit itself.
If I was Dan or Ned - I would hire/create a small team focussed purely on bringing new users in and helping to retain them.
I think there already is a section of the community doing this in the form of the Steemprentice Initiative with users like @sykochica, @virtualgrowth, @rubellitefae etc putting in a huge amount of their own time to help new users.
I would immediately hire these people and others like them full time, both to continue to do this and also help guide strategy in this regard.
That would be my immediate first step.
I would also give a few staff members full time curation posts to look for overlooked material and give them sufficient SP to grant decent upvotes to it.
Finally sorry I missed your Anniversary post. I do try to keep up with things but as you know it is easy to miss things. Belated Congratulations on that if it helps!
Also I will say Happy Birthday now too just in case I miss that post:)
Thank you for the mention. Anyone may check out #steemprentice if looking for help or to give help to success in steemit.