The Inbox Runneth Over -- The Policy Papers -- Issue #3

The State of The STEEM Engine
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Here we go:

Okay ... I've said before I know people are concerned about the 2 uv / 2 com rule for promoting posts, but that's not really our most pressing problem. Our most pressing problem is that our post pay-outs absolutely suck. There are two ways to affect that. Well, three, actually -- but I'm not so keen on the third one.

Anyway, this issue of our post pay-outs is where the rubber meets the road in terms of who really wants to be with us and who is just along sight-seeing. Many of you, especially those who came along later, may not realize where our upvotes come from. Some of it, of course, is from what we've built up in the group account from member upvotes in the past. But that is less than half of what we're relying on right now.

We have about 1850 of our own SP ... our own money, so to speak. There's nearly 2500 SP in various delegations -- the majority of it a 1300 SP delegation from Ethan. A cluster of smaller delegations make up the rest. Ethan's own chunky upvote which he has generously spread all over the TSE membership is funded by a nearly 10,000 SP delegation from a friend of his -- a Steemit investor who goes to his church. He has entrusted Ethan to use this assignment wisely, and I am very aware of this obligation.

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Running on credit

I am also very aware that running on delegation is somewhat like living on credit. It's not really your money ... and it could disappear in a heartbeat. I saw a first hand example of that soon after TSE started, when one of the founders reclaimed a sizeable delegation to invest elsewhere with virtually no notice.

Thirty minutes after Ethan was told it was going to be pulled, it was gone ... and he had to scramble like mad to keep things stable. He managed it, too. We all owe him a level of gratitude most people don't realize. He has kept TSE going. He has almost single-handedly funded it. His generosity is inspiring -- and it deserves decent treatment.

But the rest of us need to look at this matter of delegated SP as basically "gravy" -- not something to count on constantly. We don't have any whale support, although we've been upvoted by whales in the past. But that's as far as it went. So, we need to build our own foundation to stand on -- and we do this by upvoting the group post The Daily Whistle Stops -- day after day after day.

Remember, if for any reason all our current delegation disappears, our vote value falls by more than half. While we have this "cushion" to work with, now is the time to do something about that.

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How Qurator does it

Qurator has faced some of this same problem recently -- and while our groups are similar in nature, they're a lot bigger and they have a slightly different mission than ours. However, they have set a policy in place that in order to get their Tier 2 upvote, you have to upvote them at least seven times a week for at least $.05 each time.

They have made it a lot easier for smaller accounts to provide them with a $.35 value in upvotes a week, by doubling the number of times they publish a day ... doubling the number of things people can upvote. But that's what it takes ... and their Tier 2 upvote is presently worth between $.07 - $.08. That's a fraction of ours ... but it goes to a lot more people ... so the comparison isn't exactly 1:1.

To get higher upvotes from them, you have to delegate to Qurator -- and as I just said, I don't want to depend on that any more than we have to. So, starting immediately ... I would like either a $.06 daily upvote from those who can do that ... or a 100% daily upvote from those who can't. When you joined TSE, especially if you joined after submitting an application, it contained this request:

For your information, after your application has been approved, we ask that you do the following: First you must upvote and resteem our latest recruitment or curation post. Next, we ask that you provide an upvote on each of our group account's posts when they are published. This amounts to about one full strength vote per day and helps grow our group account. (Typically this is accomplished via a Steemvoter rule, but we welcome other methods of auto-voting.) Please keep these things in mind before submitting your application.

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Your vote counts

Either not many people read that -- or not many chose to comply. The word "ask" may have been the problem. One applicant said to Cw ... "If you're just asking, that means I don't have to. Right?" Well, I guess you can't argue with that. But the attitude scotched his dreams of a TSE future on the spot.

Whatever the reason -- it's water under the bridge AFAIC -- if you're not upvoting The Daily Whistle Stops daily -- that means every day, every day, every day without fail -- for at least $.06 or 100%, would you please start doing that. You'll need to look at your own posting schedule -- and your own commitment to TSE -- and decide if this upvote investment is one you're ready to make.

Our upvote presently (even in these godawful times) is usually worth around $.20 - $.25. Ethan's trailing vote adds another $.05 - $.10 to that (if his bot is working and it usually is.) I'm hopeful that we've reached the bottom of this dip -- and can start climbing from here. But, of course, we'll have to see. With a $.06 upvote, if you post quality content twice a week, you've made money.

And if you hand in usable content 7 or more times a week, I'll upvote you on everything you submit. In fact, that's around a 4:1 ROI ... and you certainly won't get that even from the bid-bots. (Some of them guarantee you a 10% profit ... and some don't.) Also, in the interests of full disclosure, if you're upvoting us at $.06 and that's less than 100%, that's ok, but if Steem rises again ... especially if it rises substantially, this minimum amount will increase also.

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Taking stock of what we can count on

I realize we don't have the dazzling assets of Adsactly or Dlive or Utopian.io or Curie. But we're here for you and we're consistent -- and we can grow it into something much better. But if you want to stay with us and you're not already upvoting us to this extent (and frankly very few are), you'll need to make some adjustments.

If you decide this isn't for you, I understand. But we need to know what we can depend on. I'm somewhat pessimistic about the fact that only about 30% of the remaining members have acknowledged they've read my updates. I'll see what I can do to improve that, but TBH, the smaller we are, the easier it will be to support all the community members. And that's what I want to build here -- a community ... where everyone participates. (More about that later, too.)

I also realize these changes may result in even lower post-payouts for a while if members leave -- one way or the other, but that's part of rebuilding. Don't worry about it. There are other wonderful writers on Steemit and they are our people. Together we'll find each other.

I've used up my word quota for the evening, and I'm not nearly finished talking. So, look for more soon. Eventually even I will get it all said.