Should SteemIt be an Exclusive Club?
If I understand SteemD correctly, An account in the plankton might be able to write up to two posts a week. I tried posting with a picture, but lacked the resources. So, lets try without.
I am actually happy that SteemIt added resource restrictions. It was far too easy for people to spam this platform.
I had asked the question: How many times should I upvote each day? My upvote is currently worth less than a tenth of a penny. It gets wiped away as dust. There is no real difference between 100% of a tenth of a penny and 30% of a tenth of a penny. A new new user might as well vote until the person reaches a hard limit.
The same goes with posting and comments.
The system incentivized spam.
Imposing resource restrictions would encourage people to buy and hold STEEM POWER which is necessary to support the price of STEEM.
Personally, I think a new account should be able to drop post a day, perform a dozen upvotes and write 20 or so short comments a week. Restricting participation beyond that brings up a disturbing question:
Should SteemIt be designed as an exclusive club?
SteemIt appears to be built around the age-old principle:
THE RICH CAN BUY INFLUENCE
Goldman Sachs could put just a fraction of its cyber-holdings in SP and be a whale. The Whales on the platform seem to have a myopic focus on up-selling this idea to big finance.
I admit, I came here following the idealists who claimed that SteemIt would be the paradigm-shift of paradigm-shift and that a new and glorious society will form around the proliferation of cyber-currency.
SteemIt could do well as an exclusive social club. The model is simple. One needs to buy several thousand dollars in STEEM to participate. These people can then hobknob with others who have several thousand dollars that they can toss around without much thought.
Exclusive clubs have worked in the past. There is no reason they can't work online.
PS: You can say whatever you want about this post, because I won't be able to reply for another three days.
I think there is a happy medium somewhere in between getting spammed until the blockchain breaks and an exclusive club for the rich.
The Steemit developers have already begun to adjust the RC's available by a factor of 10.
I am sure they will find a good balance ....
The post knocked me down to 14% RC; So I couldn't reply. My RC mysteriously regenerated to 100%; so I can.
Not being able to reply to a comment was a bad user experience.
Perhaps the system should distinguish between root level posts and replies to other posts.
Comment spam happens when people drop comments on hundreds of different threads.
Perhaps the system could charge the fee whenever a person engages in a new thread. That way people could always respond to posts.
The resource limit gets rid of the spam from new user accounts.
Unfortunately, the rich can still spam.
From what I know of internet marketers, they often have money and are willing to put that money into their spam activities.
Two things I have noticed on SteemIt:
First: Several of the Whales and Orcas develop bots to help maximize their investments.
Second: People who develop bots that have a positive ROI tend to buy STEEM POWER to get that return on their investments.
I like the resource limitations. I really hope that SteemIt can find the right balance so that they limit spammy behavior without accidentally making SteemIt an exclusive club.
We watch...and wait