RE: 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?
@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.