Sunday Thoughts

Believe it or not, this is bank holiday weekend weather here in England. Usually awash with rain and cold temperatures, we are currently basking in 23^C / 74^F with cloudless skies and a strange big bright round thing hanging in the sky. I think they call it 'The Sun'. The experts (professional guessers) are predicting this to be the hottest bank holiday on record. We shall see.

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I started writing this on my phone while lounging in the hot tub. As you can imagine it's very rare for us to be able to use it, but at the slightest chance Ms Muxx whips it out from the garden shed and sets it up in the hope that we can lay back and relax whilst being massaged by bubbles. The kids really enjoy it too. As I recline, I watch our dog Bella chasing and bothering the tortoise, who is enjoying a rare moment of freedom from his vivarium.

Unfortunately I will have to take myself inside soon. As much as I enjoy lounging in the sun it is not in my interests to do so for too long: I have MS and with it a very low heat tolerance. The hotter I get, the more energy is sapped from me. Such is life.

Content Creators

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Earlier this week I wrote a post explaining why I shall refrain from posting any sizable pieces of fiction on Steem in the future. It seems obvious that original content creators are not valued as highly as I might have thought. From the comments on my post and discussions at @thewritersblock I am not alone in this regard. As such the leadership team at The Block got together and had a voice meeting on this topic last night and we threw around ideas about where our focus as a community shall lie going forward. Steem will be used as a tool, not as a destination.

Steem has been a great place to put out writing and receive feedback and encouragement as I continue to hone my craft but, for fiction at least, it shall no longer be my primary focus. It is disheartening to spend days and weeks on a piece for it to disappear in the Steem black hole of posts within an hour or two. As a writer my primary motivation is to entertain, elicit emotions in my readers and hopefully receive feedback on it. Yes, monetary rewards are great but are not the end goal.

Don't get me wrong, I am not abandoning Steem - I have plenty of other stuff to post about.

Bid Bots

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I have never thought much about the practice of using bid bots. To my way of thinking your content is worth what your readers decide - if they like it they upvote. Unfortunately bid bots have become an integral part of the way Steem works. As a content creator it just feels wrong to pat yourself on the back by throwing money at a bot. As someone who wants to do well financially in the current system, is it therefore not incumbent upon me to invest in my blog? I am very torn on this and would appreciate any feedback. FULL DISCLOSURE: yesterday I did a test with @smartsteem to see if it was indeed profitable. The numbers said yes but I still felt icky.

BBQ Time!

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Enough rambling for today. It's mid afternoon, the sun is blazing and beers are chilling on ice. It's time for man to make fire and try his best to avoid food poisoning. I appreciate your thoughts below.

Muxxy

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