RE: 2 Years on Steem. Time to HOLD or FOLD? My Brutally Honest Thoughts. *TRIGGER WARNING!*
I will be very sad if steemit becomes a social media cesspool, the way myspace ended up. Another social media giant is always around the corner willing to gobble up users and provide promises of a more popular future with them. Today I just learned about hub.life which hopes to provide a free mouthpiece to livestreamers (particularly conservatives) who no longer are welcomed to speak freely on facebook.
The development technology is way beyond my head or interests, however the ramifications those play on our daily and future interactions are important to me and my values. Being an old-school database guy, I was really excited about hivemind when I heard about it. Isn't that supposed to offer all the data candy all the dapps could ever want and need, and lighten the load on the active blockchain? Maybe I misunderstood everything about it, and the positive potential it could bring here.
I am still less than thrilled about SMT's which I consider a threat to the success recipe for steemit that has already changed a few times. Already there are splinter communities from steem that I can no longer interact with directly like I used to, because I have to be accepted into their coven, buy their weed, and post 10 hail mary's a day to get them to notice me. So many people think they know what a community is, but I don't really think they have a clue. It has become a buzzword, so watered down, it no longer means the same thing. True community is about unity, welcomeness, and developing value from quality relationships. All the facebook refugees who originally came to steemit are now looking elsewhere if they cannot find the acceptance under one single group that will adopt them. How will SMT's unite us? By throwing sketchy tokens at them, with empty promises, they are all equally dependable replacements for the gold standard of Steem? Take a well organized system (okay, a disorganized system) and shake it up into a hundred separate pieces, and we end up with a broken mess, and thousands of angry ants fighting more ruthlessly than before for domain.
Interesting remarks about gnosticism. I think I told you a few months back my own fascination with studing such subjects. In this post I am having trouble drawing a clear thread relating all the pieces you covered though. Definitely many wide open philosophical subjects that people have many different opinions and beliefs about.
Thank you for the honest feedback and open discussion opportunity.
As always, your comment is laden with meaning and really appreciate it.
I am also somewhat skeptical about SMT and the countless micro-economies that they would spawn. Do I think SMTs could possess utility if deployed properly? Sure but my intuition tells me that like ERC-21 tokens that there will be individuals that use the SMT as a pitch for vaporware and scams. I do entertain the notion of starting an SMT for @steemflagrewards but I want to be sure that we have a viable product before we go about selling the idea.
We do have a discord bot and said bot encourages A LOT of flagging of the BS that the narcisists I mention constantly try to sell us so we do have something but that's a far cry from a full on application to empower Steem abuse fighting. I think a big hindrance to other investors is to see the type of activity being rewarded in this ecosystem as that is pretty much why I am reticient to put too much into this system.|
I believe once Steem's incentives are realigned to productive activities then we are on the road to success. Currently, this is not the case as users posting screencaps of horoscopes are more apt to receive rewards (using bots) than say a person like you or me. I am one that would doggedly let me work stand on its own versus using my liquid rewards to empower users that need not empowering. I guess you can call that a quirk of mine and I do not foresee it changing any time soon. In video game terms, I nerf myself so, when I experience any type of glory here, I will know that I have earned it.
As for my theological thoughts, I admit they were kind of discombobulated but hope there was something edifying in spite of it. ;)
Thanks again for the stellar comment.
Thanks for the delayed response. I think I had forgotten about my interaction here, so that was a pleasant surprise.
One of the first things that really spiked popularity, as I remember, was how simple it was to comment, meet people, and exchange some kindness without any pretense.
Something happened along the way, where more people agreed it was better to collect a paycheck, and skip the pleasantries. Have they been corrupted? I am not sure why so many people cannot overlook the money aspect, and appreciate the social networking and information sharing possibilities. I assume it is because other plaforms, not using steem, are starting to do a better job of this.