An open message to the WHALES: please, make the revolution happen!

in #steemit8 years ago (edited)

There's a lot of talk about steemit being a revolutionary social network and how it could change everything. I totally agree. But we need to work towards that, it won't JUST happen.

But it WILL happen. Here's how:

We see more and more how the difference in steem power creates a big disadvantage for new accounts and huge advantage for whales. If you don't know what we call whales, check this out

In many ways, the society here, as seen in the distribution resembles a lot the world a large, the 1%[holders of a lot of SP] have control of most of the wealth and the rest hope to make some good posts and get some of that wealth. But it's difficult to do that without the support of someone with a lot of SP.

Whoa! But this is BAD! We need an "occuppy steemit"

Just kidding, NO, please NO!

This could be bad if it goes awry, yes, but it could also be GREAT and in my opinion, necessary.

If the whales/the mega power users have a very democratic and fair steemit in mind, they could make it happen. If they upvote according to their preferences and they curate with heart, anything can happen. The good posts will rise to the top, always. Content and community will win!

Why is this hard to achieve?

For a couple of reasons, in my opinion.

  • One is that it is very difficult for 30-50 persons to be always online and curate. It takes a lot of time and most of these people are busy [ this imagine how a day in life of @dan or @ned looks like, especially these days]. So curating will be too time-consuming for most of them which might lead to laziness and upvoting just because. This will create posts of uneven quality in the long run.

  • Another is that power corrupts. There is this saying but it's true. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, no matter how hard you think it won't apply to you.

Why are so many politicians corrupt? Why are so many 1% greedy?
People don't like to "lose". It hurt us more to lose 100$ than it bring us joy to win 100$. And having power is sweet. Giving power away might feel a bit like "losing".

That's why usually people form groups that protect their own interest and FUCK the rest. We need to prevent this from happening here. That's the real revolution, in my opinion.

Good news here is that it doesn't cost anything to upvote a good post!
So we will see a lot of upvoted good posts.
We must see a lot of upvoted good post.

One can only hope that there are enough whales, with different preferences and interest that will lead to all kind of good posts being upvoted and different kind of content rearing to the surface. The diversity will help steemit flourish. Will make some users richer and their curating powers will grow. And they can work the magic further...

The more upvoted posts the more SP to new users and good content creators, the more the the power will normalize towards a democracy of sorts. This will take time and we need to be patient.

The interesting this is that this is a circle that never ends --> small fish becomes bigger fish and so on and now the big responsability of curation is on THEM. They got there because the whales and dolphins took time and curated/recognized the value of THEIR content and they have a moral obligation to do the same. Will they?

The second generation whales cand make or break steemit. This generation might be us. Let's not forget the lessons.

Which brings me back to my main point: one way or another, the first whales will create some new superusers and if they do it thoughtfully and with care they will set a precedent and they will show the way towards a great steemit.

If the whales act or are perceived as being corrupt, the new whales will follow through.
We see that in corrupt societies that hope the new generation of politicians will be different. THEY AREN'T
[ i'm romanian and every ex-communism country resident can agree with me ].

It's a fucking immense responsibility. But it is one they put in place with the voting system and the SP.

An open message to the whales: "PLEASE FOLLOW THROUGH! "

The whales will take us there if they want to. I see the steemit today as just a stepping stone to the steemit most people envision. If that system will prove out to be better, remains to be seen [ democracy is wack sometimes...] but for now, it's the best we can do.

I am very optimist that this will happen. Nobody at the top proved so far that they are not interested in seeing a change in the right direction happen and happen fast. And I believe that in hindsight we'll see that this kind of system with good/wise users having a lot of power to influence the direction is the way for the community to reach its potential.

We don't want just another reddit, don't we? :D


What's your take on this, do you think this is the way steemit will evolve? What can lower SP users do to help? Let's talk.

PS: a very good posts that doesn't agree with anything I just wrote, in case you want a different take on this --> HERE

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Here is my take: first of all I have only been here a few days. I was given 10 Steem Power. Value stated $5.00.

I have posted a few posts myself, provided feedback to other and up voted a lot. I have almost increased the value of my Steem Power by 10X. I am just a little guy starting out. I would say that's pretty good to say the least. Others would say that not enough.

I agree with you on the next big guys will step up and keep this thing going. They will grow the categories by up voting things just to add validity to the category. They all have, the several different levels of big guys, a vested interest into continuing to build the site. I completely believe this.

And please don't forget this thing is in Beta still. This is still evolving and they are adding things you can see and things you can't see. Under the hood if you will.

Be happy your in the beta and are on the ground floor. You will see, as many others, this is for real.

Thanks for the post. The entire thing is very interesting and a great topic of conversation. Good luck.

Keep the good work and stay relaxed. You are also an early adopter! I'm sure you see the big picture!

I do see it :)

congrats, man! Glad to see that small SP people don't just go crying. your attitude is encouraging!

I can relate what you just expressed ...just keep on doing what you like the most ...for me value of content on topics I am interested in such as art , music and women , lots of women please , to this interesting community of creative people counts most ( for me )

I don't agree that I don't agree!
Our posts are about different issues - on the long term you're absolutely right, and there is lots of good whale activity now also.

Awesome post dude !

I'm sure @berniesanders will be a YUGE supporter of Occupy Steemit. ;)

Well, the logo is ready. He can have it :D

Hahaha , cute comment !

Great post I just bumped you $5 I'm a very very small fish so not even sure how that happened. I still don't fully understand aside from whales how voting fully works. The only post I have done that making something seems to go up and down. I like that whales have a responsibility to pass onto future whales. You don't get this from the whales trading Crypto. As already mentioned we are in beta here it's going to be far from perfect. Change will be needed.

haha. yeah. you didn't bumped it 5$ it was the variation...the $ you see has a lot to do with the steem price and an average at that from what i know..not sure though. but thanks for you upvote.

The message is that content must be also consumed not only created and curated based on titles and snippets.

The advice was to increase the chance of your content be the one consumed :)

Good luck and see you around. Here's a 6 cents upvote for you.

To anyone who has issues with unequal distribution : you need to read on the 80/20 principle. If you dont like unequal distribution, you might as well look for an alternate universe to live in...this is just not how this one is setup. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

I now have a lot to lose by letting crap content rise and do my best to curate mindfully. Thats all i can do

My plentiful free horror fiction could certainly use some attention from one or more whales. It's weird, interesting stuff that deserves a wider audience. As-is, I fear I will be long dead before my work is widely known of.

this sounds like socialism to me, but regardless i think we should try it for a while and see what it will bring.

Good point. I'm going to shamelessly plug my own post here, because I think it complements yours nicely : https://steemit.com/steemit/@r4fken/why-steemit-is-the-future-a-comparison-of-steemit-reddit-and-quora