"Catch A Whale" is completely defeating the idea of steemit.
The concept
Recently, @blueorgy made a post about his newly created site, "Catch A Whale". It dynamically generates a "Whale Catching Score" for the next 5 minutes, to help users to potentially get more whale upvotes on their posts.
The problem
For most minnows on here, this sounds like a good idea, and whale-catching is getting more and more popular. However, most content that is published right now just aims to get upvoted by one or two whales, and to hit the "jackpot", to be one of the top articles on the trending page. Users are not trying to write about uncovered topics or their personal interests, everything has to be built around steemit, whales, girls and hiking.
"Catch A Whale" is taking the wrong approach. When everyone is just begging for attention to the big ones, we are losing the social aspect. We don't care about the good authors writing excellent, long articles about interesting topics, just because we're busy catching the big ones.
The solution?
This is a problem which is extremely hard to solve. Most of you have probably read this article by @johnsmith, which raised almost 6000$. However, he has made a point which I think should be discussed a bit further:
Your deep analysis of something important is not going to bring the herd stampeding to Steemit. Steemit needs bodies. Lots of them. Right now the universe it telling you that out of 30,000 people, 48 think you're cool enough to hang out with. That's like 0.16% and means the community values your contributions at about $0.04/hr.
Of course it is obvious that steemit can only run sustainably with a lot of users. However, what's currently happening is that more and more users get frustrated and just give up. So what's the point in aquiring a million users when most of them stop posting after a few days because they don't get any attention (or only attention from minnows, which doesn't earn them money)?
In my opinion, there are two things that need to change:
- The behaviour of some whales
Don't get me wrong here, there are a few whales such as @steemed, who is actually searching for good content creators to upvote them. However, many whales are not voting at all, and some are just upvoting the stuff I mentioned above. I think we need more whales like @steemed, actively providing help to outstanding writers. - The behaviour of the minnows
I am going to quote @johnsmith on this one again, as he summed it up in one sentence:
No go write something that makes you smile!
We should focus on writing articles about topics we are interested in. Even if those don't earn anything right now, there will be a time when those articles will earn good amounts of money regularly, thanks to whales like @steemed and thanks to those who achieved the dolphin status just recently.
#steemit #journalism #circlejerk
(Image Credit: Wikimedia)
Valuable article, thanks for posting once again.
Another thing that is probably making alot of users abandon steemit , after a few articles, is that they are overhyped.
I had to adjust my expectations aswell. I went from random postings, in hope to "catch a whale" to posting stuff that interests me and iam actually involved in.
After doing that i saw the first results, with money not even being my main motivation anymore.
I just try to have fun, sharing what keeps me busy these days.
Do not give up, and just do what you love. If you aim for the money, chances are you will not make any.
Great article.
My $0.02, there should be less emphasis on the dollar value of posts, or hiding the wallet info of other users. People seem to get into a mania about joining some gravy train or stalking whales when they see a post or a user with huge figures, and as much as it helps really great posts get attention, it hurts just about everything else.
To the person upvoting with botted accounts: Just stop it, you're not contributing to this community.
Agreed for sure. The community of users on Steemit is what keeps me coming back. Everybody seems to analyze things a little more carefully when there is a cash incentive hanging over their head lol... Regardless of whether you're a whale catcher or a minnow journalist. This platform breeds good conversation.
Good article, I am new to the community and besides a meme post i made yesterday I am yet to post an article. I have a couple of indepth articles i have written and one funny video about etherium. I have put alot of work into them and think they are prity good and would like to get some sort of response. I am wondering if there is any way to boost your posts besides upvoting, Ive heard of whaleshares is that still a thing? Thats got me thinking if you have to pay to get seen or post what whales like doesnt that make steem not realy that much better than facebook?... One of my articles is a broad and humourous guide to cryptocurrency and its phylosophical implications and I am in the process of forming my opining on of steem and even though I don't think it is a scam I am questioning if its a good value popersition. Anyway I have read some of your other article and enjoyed them and followed. I think my curating strategy will be half supporting whales that actually post good content and unknowns who have potential to become whales. Have a good one.
Thanks for the post!!