SteemIt perception: Positive or Negative?
Perception of SteemIt: Is the platform all that it is made up to be? Is the platform really doing what it needs to do? Can more be done? Will SteemIt survive? Lets take a brief look, this list is not going to include everything!
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Is SteemIt all THAT?
When looking at the question about SteemIt, we can see that there are both positives and negatives, this is true about any platform! In comparison, Twitter has a character limit, making it impossible to write out a full length explanation of anything! Facebook someone else is making money, either the advertisers, from you buying the products they've advertised, or the CEO and the company from the work you've done!
SteemIt Cons
I know what your going to say, SteemIt is a platform built by someone else. Also it is very hard to really make money off SteemIt. Or even, unless a whale upvotes your post, your not going to make good money!
SteemIt Pros
There may be several other complaints, or negatives, things I have left out. However lets start on the positives, SteemIt provides a stable, secure, and safe environment! Unless your aiming for a niche market not yet on SteemIt, or very new, or posting something of little or no value to the community, you are bound to get upvotes! Sure in the beginning it may seem like lots of work and little or no payout! Did that ever stop you from posting on Facebook, or Twitter, even when you knew you were not going to make any money? If you're like me then you never bothered to post on Facebook or Twitter, otherwise think of how long it took you to build a group of friends there and all the work you put into finding friends, and posting things.
Just look at the evidence, sure if all you're doing is making small comments on others posts, will you make much, does it even matter? You'd still be doing the same things on Facebook or Twitter and have zero chance of making anything. At least on SteemIt, you might just be lucky enough that little comment you took the time to make, it might just make you a little money!
SteemIt also provides us with both a sense of community, and even helps us socialize with individuals we would never have been able to communicate with out it! Through simply commenting on another's post, it might just turn into a full conversation. It could even draw the comments of more than the original author. This would be the second level on the hierarchy of needs, and even leads right into the top level. Through that socialization, we can both encourage and support others to reach their full potential, all at the same time they are also supporting and encouraging us to do the very same thing.
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Take a good look next time you search on Google, not yet for every topic, but many are starting to have SteemIt blogs up near the top. That alone means your work, either through blogging or commenting, is starting to be visible in places that matter. Therefore do not get discouraged, even when some people say SteemIt is not going to last, I simply look at where it has been, and where it is going. When I first started blogging, you could not find articles posted on SteemIt easily with Google, but over time and as things are changing, the posts are moving toward the top of the search engines.
My Idea Came From
Today, I read a blog by @acehworld, here, where he points out positives of SteemIt. After reading his article, I felt it was time to look at the positives of SteemIt. I have never been one to doubt the benefits of cryptocurrencies, nor the long needed improvements they are making! I'm always looking out for the positive, knowing that cryptocurrency is here to stay, and it is only making the world a better place, why would there be negatives?
Since all we have is this one life that we are living, and it is way to short, why should we not look at our present and see things we can do to improve the lives of everyone around us! Let's all do our part and support each other as a community! Thank you for reading, and I'm looking forward to your comments!
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Here, I’m sending you a post that I wrote, that 2 people actually read. I posted it twice with a few changes added the second time. But it proves my point that nobody cares about content: It’s All About The Numbers and Money!!!
Good evening. The reason for my post is simple: I don’t like what I see on Steemit. I heard a lot about Steemit over the past 2 years, mostly positive, and always encouraging. I heard that it was “Decentralized “. I heard that it was a place of Freedom of Thought, Freedom Of Censorship, Freedom Subjugation!!! I’ve only been here a few short weeks, and I see Absolutely No Evidence of any of these lofty aspirations.
What I have seen is infighting, censorship, automation for profit, avarice and greed. What I have seen, is an Absolute Monarchy and Aristocracy built in the early days of Steemit’s inception and launch, that have lead to an Oligarchy. I have read that 1% of Steemians own 90% of the Power, Wealth, and Control Of Steemit. I found it hard to believe that so few people could hold SO MUCH POWER AND CONTROL ON A SUPPOSEDLY DECENTRALIZED PLATFORM. So I found a list of the top Whales on Steemit, and what their net worths actually were, and it was pretty mind blowing. You can do your own research and draw your own conclusions. Suffice it to say, they own a TON!!
But this isn’t a post designed to bash the Whales, or the people who got in early, that is counterproductive and ignorant. I see plenty of people trying to improve the experience of others on the platform, but I fear that their efforts are falling short. Contests are great, involvement is wonderful, and getting people engaged and interested is all well and good, but when it comes across as a handout, or even worse, an act of retribution for wrongdoing, it defeats the entire purpose. Contests can be fun, but the Plankton, or minnows, as you call them, are not toys to be played with, or be amused by, for the price of a few crumbs of bread. This post is really about finding a way to afford those same opportunities to the incoming waves of people who heard the same positive and inspiring things that I did, which spurred me on to join this community. We need to reconsider how things are done around here, otherwise there is either going to be discord and eventual revolt, or there will come the slow bleed out and resulting death of Steemit. Neither of those options seems either necessary or productive for the future of such a Nobel project.
So what is the answer???
Not any single one of us knows for sure, but collectively, with all the great Mind Power here on Steemit, I’m confident that a solution could be swiftly assembled and put in place that would not only take into account the importance of long standing members with superior reputations and immense “Power”, but also Encourage,Nurture, and Promote the Efforts of those New to the Platform, so that they don’t get discouraged and disaffected, and ultimately abandon their accounts. Is that Really what Steemit is or was ever about???
I wrote this post because I felt compelled to. My time here has been brief agreed, but it doesn’t take a brain surgeon, or a blockchain technician to figure out that there is a problem here.
Great points, yet, it seems there is really no easy fix to the mess! Seems there might be some ways the minnows can grow up together, moving up slowly, but either way it is going to take some time to get there! I think there can be plenty of things done to help fix the issues, but it would take lots of thought to make a plan that would truly benefit all involved!
Don't get me wrong, I like steemit and the online socialization here is really something you can't get on any other site.
But, one of the main problems I've been thinking about for a while is the way the money is distributed. I know, I know, it's not about the money; except it is. When I started using steemit people were very into checking everything on their posts. There were articles about using sites like grammarly and other spell checkers to make sure everything was top notch on that end. Then there were posts about formatting, markdown, proper post layout, using copyrighted material, etc.
And the thing was, all that stuff did matter back then. You could make a really good post and it would earn a good payout. If you made an obvious low quality post, the earnings would be $0.00. The amount of votes from one post to the next were different and so were the payouts. The difference in payouts back then was like $0-$80 and 10-200 votes.
Now, I don't find that happens so much. There are some posts that occasionally earn some good rewards and they deserve it, but for the most part there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of curation going on by anyone that can make a difference. The same people make it to the trending page and making hundreds a post and it doesn't matter what they post. The same people earn $30 on most of their posts no matter the quality. The same people make $2 on their posts even if they are the same or better quality of the posts making it to the trending page. The quality of posts doesn't seem to matter anymore. I get pretty much the same payouts and the same amount of votes on everything I post about. Instead of $0-80, it's more like $2-10 and 20-30 votes. It doesn't matter if it's a drawing that took me hours, or a screenshot of the price of bitcoin. It's always the same. Then, someone else draws a picture of a stick-man doing nothing and they make it to the trending page because that's where their posts usually end up. It just doesn't make any sense to me.
Not to complain about it or anything, it's just something I've been observing. Steemit is still awesome and it's getting better all the time. This is a big con for me now, though.
I do see what your saying, and from watching others here, it seems there are ways around it. It does take time, and a community of supporters, I've seen a group of people move up, along with the amount of SteemPower they have by working together.
One thing the people who keep making allot per post seem to have in common is a large amount of SteemPower, or they are friends with someone who has a large amount. So if a few people with lower amounts of SteemPower all banded together in a group, the amount of SteemPower they have as a collective would grow, and in time they could be doing better as a group.
But for me either way, I would rather make that $2, than let someone like the CEO of a large corporation make it instead. So for me, I find some of the best times I've had making a blog, and even making comments on blogs others have written. So although it is a trend yes, it seems to have been changing, and as a group with lower amounts of SteemPower, we can work together and all gain from the experience!
I agree, it is sort of about community to succeed here, but I don't think quality content should require a workaround to make value it's worth. I just think it would be nice to see it sort of go back to the way it was where you never know if you're post is going to do well or not, but still being able to move forward. That great feeling you get when you check your post in the morning from the night before and 100 people have voted on it has sort of gone. It was good to feel that you made a post that had some value, and also good to know when the post didn't have value because it got no votes and needed to do better next time. I'm okay with earning whatever I make here and getting whatever votes I can. I stuck around even when everyone was making $0-0.05 on every post so $2-10 is fantastic (especially with SBD making it more than it seems). I'm sure it will sort itself out, it's just a matter of time.
Agreed, those were the good old days, but you never know they may have there way of coming back!
I couldn’t agree with you more. There is absolutely Zero incentive to vote for Great Posts from Plankton. However there is much incentive to upvote bad posts from Whales. Until the process is made Equitable, the Oligarchs will profit and strengthen their stranglehold on Sttemit, and the other 99% of us will languish. That’s the plain and simple Facts.
True, and I'm going to keep working my end, as I'm sure over time I can do better! I'm not going to stay a minnow forever, there is plenty of room to move up slowly over time!