Steemit: Defeating the Tragedy of the Commons
I've been thinking recently about how Steemit will succeed or fail as a platform, and I think there are two interlocking obstacles to conquer: the pyramid effect and the tragedy of the commons. I'm planning on talking more about what I mean by the pyramid effect and what we can do about it later, but at the moment, I want to talk about the tragedy of the commons.
For anyone who hasn't heard about it yet, the tragedy of the commons is a thought experiment/metaphor that helps people understand why shared resources are over-exploited to the point of destruction. Basically, imagine a village with a shared field where everyone keeps their sheep. For any individual, it makes the most sense to use the field as much as possible. Their greatest benefit is in getting as much value for themselves as possible, so they keep getting more sheep and keeping them on the commons. The problem is that the commons, like any environment, isn't infinite. It can't support more and more and more sheep, so the quality degrades until it's no use to anyone.
Depressing! Here's a pretty picture:
Okay, so what does that have to do with Steemit? Much like the commons, it makes sense for every individual user to try and get as much Steem as possible. That means that a shorter post that gets X likes makes more sense than a longer one that also gets X likes. It means that it doesn't make economic sense to upvote other people except as alliance-building, since that takes away from the Steem you might earn. Unfortunately, it becomes something of a zero-sum game. And if we view it as a zero-sum game, we become locked in a spiral where value goes down and down and down for everyone.
Now the important part: How do we avoid getting locked in this spiral? I think there are two parts to the solution. First of all, we need to look at this collaboratively. We need to realize that in the long term, trying to keep the commons for ourselves (a.k.a. hoarding value and not encouraging others) is bad for absolutely everyone, and we need to life other Steemers up to lift ourselves up.
Part two: We need to grow the commons. More about how to do that later.
Cheers everyone! Keep on being awesome.
An interesting post - thanks for these thoughts. I agree with you so far and would like to add another idea or thought: Who uses steemit or other platforms should be not only author but also consumer. I also want my posts to be read so I should be interested in other things as well. Maybe that's another way out of the spiral.
I totally agree! I'm actually going to write more about that in a bit (it's the problem I think we can solve with the pyramid effect). Gonna go check out your posts now. ;)
This is a massive problem that can kill any community. We see it all the time in the open source communities, and there is a distinct need to find ways to limit the application. The fact that Steem posts are tied to "currency", and the mechanisms around it tend to encourage quality to a certain degree, means that we have some things to work with.
However, as you note, there is still the issue of "gaming the system", which we are also already seeing in play. Its a tricky balance. I'm hopeful that the interlocking series of valuations (posts, replies, upvotes, steem, power, dollars) can provide a bit of a hedge against this.
I'm looking forward to the next post an more of your thoughts on the topic!
Thanks, rlnorthcutt! I'm also a fan of the "checks and balances" built into the valuations. And in the end, I do believe that most people are good at heart and want to build something rather than tearing something down. So there's definitely reason to hope!
You have a minor grammatical mistake in the following sentence:
It should be in the long run, instead of in the long term,.https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/in-the-long-term
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