New Ad Slogan: Steemit... Where The Rich Get Richer!
Before you get into this post, when you see someone try to argue against it, just ask them this simple question:
Are the people that have the highest earning posts going to be earning more money because part of "everyone else's posts and votes" will be given back to the pool for distribution to the rewards to the most valuable content?
A Dirty Subject
I'm not going to pretty this post up... Because it is an ugly subject and doesn't deserve being made pretty. If you don't want to vote for it because it isn't perfectly formatted, that is ok with me. All I care about is getting this message delivered.
I have never seen as tone deaf a company as Steemit, they are so out of touch with their "average" users its really a shame. They think their technology is so good that they don't even need to listen to the normal users. They cater to the money people, and make sure they stack the top 20 witnesses that support what is good for the rich. Here is just another example of where this is happening.
Hard Fork 20
I read a post yesterday by @tcpolymath titled:
I won't rehash his whole point but I will condense it to the simple way that I think.
What Is Changing
First, they are changing the way people earn money here. The company and the top 20 witnesses (ie witnesses backed by money in the system) have decided that they are going to take money from the posts and give it to the "pool" to be paid to "the most valuable content." This is hogwash speech for give it to the people that have the most money and can buy the most votes (ie the rich).
Let me say that again...I want this to sink in.
Right now either the authors or curators earn all the money from the posts. Without making it complicated, the fact is that EITHER THE AUTHOR or THE CURATOR gets paid from making the post or voting for the post. Do you understand that? Simple concept really, either the people that make it get paid or the people that like it and vote it get paid. No one else gets paid.
What will change, you might ask?
Well if they push through their brilliant plan then neither the author nor the curator will get paid if a post gets voted on in the first 15 minutes. But those votes will count and will be paid to someone. Guess who?
Who do you think they will reward with those votes that were casts in the first 15 minutes, come on you can say it?
I kid you not, it will go the the people that have the highest value post. Who are those people? Well they are the ones that can drop $100s of dollars per post. They are the ones that really made a name for themselves and anyone around here for any length of time know exactly who they are!
But wait it gets better...
All Curators Now Pay The Rich Guys
Not only are they taking the money from the people that voted in the first 15 minutes and giving it to the rich guys, they are also taking a piece from all those other votes AFTER the 15 minutes as the early voters steal part of the curation from the later voters. Think of it like the early voters are unwitting dupes that are working to collect curation of later voters for the rich! The moneyed interests wants a piece of everything!
So no matter what, if you vote early you are just handing money to the Jerry Banfield's and Haejins, but if you vote later because a guy has a good post, they will take even more of the money from the curators that later vote the post and also give it to the Banfield's and Haejins!
And what does this incentivize? Well basically you should put out posts that suck so that none of the rich guys get the efforts from your hard work. And if you vote but don't want to pay the rich guys, then you will only vote after 15 min and only for posts that don't have any votes yet. If they have votes, then they will be sending your money to the rich.
Cover Story For This Reverse Robin Hood Maneuver
What is their cover story? IE what is the "valid" reason they say they are making this change?
Well they say it is designed to stop self-voting. That is the reason that they state is a cause for alarm and causes the degradation of the system? Are you kidding me? Seriously? So you are going to take the money from the good authors and legit curators and hand it to the shit that litters our trending pages? Can you guys even say this with a straight face? How can you look in the mirror in the morning?
Omgosh, I couldn't even believe my eyes today when I read the post. I am floored, simply floored at the arrogance and the tone deafness with which these people run this place.
I love the platform for the people that have been here and for the potential of the technology. But if these kinds of decisions keep being made, then @ned and all the money types, you will get what you deserve. I have seen many companies succeed and fail in my 33 years of investment experience. I have managed several $100 million companies myself. This one is clear as can be. The management of Steemit and the top 20 witnesses are going to regret making this decision. If it goes through, then don't let it be said that I didn't give you notice of the failed thinking ahead of time!
Submitting My New Ad Slogan First
In anticipation of the new Hard Fork 20 rule going in, I have created an ad campaign tag line already:
And here is my awesome banner giphy that we can also add all over social media sites to attract more users!
My "highly recommended" witness votes will now be added to my posts. I hope you add them as your witness and to your posts too!
@steemcommunity
@danielsaori
@yabapmatt
@steemgigs
@jackmiller
@noblewitness
@comedyopenmic
@curie
@qurator
@swelker101
@ats-witness
so god damn fitting for the whole situation
Ohh yeeaahh--freaking loved Randy Savage! What a pimp.
you received an up vote from danlupi with voting power of 67.30%. Estimated dollar amount of $2.1
hahaha... you get the upvote now for that... lol... I have been trying to hold out to save my VP but that is seriously funny @cryptkeeper17!
Well shoot davemccoy hang on to them upvotes! I don't need them. I know that when I hit post there is likely some hairy material going out, but oh well.
Amazing job on the post, vintage @davemccoy post, 100+ votes, 100 comments, and lot of fun and insight!
you received an up vote from danlupi with voting power of 67.30%. Estimated dollar amount of $2.1
You got a 11.52% upvote from @emperorofnaps courtesy of @cryptkeeper17!
Want to promote your posts too? Send 0.05+ SBD or STEEM to @emperorofnaps to receive a share of a full upvote every 2.4 hours...Then go relax and take a nap!
Not trying to start an argument but I am curious about what you think will happen if the power of the upvote is shifted more to minnows instead. This is my take.
Support for steem blockchain comes primarily from people who buy tokens, not people who earn tokens. That means that in order to become an investor in this system, you must invest your own money into it, otherwise you are just a player. Minnows do not invest money, but instead, invest their time to create content.
If there is a reduction in the amount of rewards for curators (there by shifting the rewards more towards the author side), then minnows have less of a reason to upvote to collect rewards, and more reason to create content for rewards. I don't see an issue with from a theoretical point of view but in practice, you have a point. The rich just get richer. But they are also the ones who spent a great deal of money investing in the platform. Theoretically, they should have the maximum return.
In practice, there are so few whales that their (the whales) behavior is counter productive to the theory. Part of this is the nature of bidbots, but more so then not, it is the barrier to entry and the lack of upvoting by whales of minnow content.
The two primary reasons for that is that minnows will statistically not buy steem in the amounts an investor will (otherwise minnows will not be minnows), so they can only rely on content creation for rewards. The obvious problem there is that most users (whales and minnows) create shit for content here to begin with.
So how will steemit dev team deal with it? Easy, its less about the platform of steemit, and more about maximizing steem blockchain to support real usage, and that means putting the power more favorably into the investors hands.
@hrissm, whats your take?
I am repeating this message from another post.
HF20 hardfork explained with one picture.
It gets better the second time around. Probably more fitting with this post. 😂
lol... yes I think it fits the more belligerent post for sure :P
You two are super dorks. 😂
You win. That is beautiful.
lol... it is for sure DDC :)
Excellent context ddc
That pretty well sums it up!
hahaha... I hope that is silver then it would be absolutely perfect! I know you know what I mean Arch ;)
That's what you all get. For the rest of the few...
hahaha... that's hilarious :P ... and so true... Steemit... Where The Rich Get Richer (TM)
Yep, your new slogan hit the nail on the head. Only Steemit could come up with a solution for the problem that is worse than the problem itself. Ha ha.
I thought that exact thing... They couldn't have made a worse solution to fix a problem... I don't know how they can hold their heads up and explain it without laughing. Just how dumb do they think we are?
Apparently not all of us are dumb. Especially TCpolymath. Other of us are still uninformed. I still don't understand the rewards pool. I know that if people vote on my posts that I get a portion of that amount. I don't understand how that applies to the rewards pool though.
For instance, with rewards that are returned by flagging, does that increase everyone's post payout value? And it's just that mine only increases a little because it's not worth much? I can't actually track which votes cause the value to increase other than looking on Busy and seeing that "a-person" voted "x-value" for my post.
And if Steemit, for instance decided to vote for people at 100% power 10 times per day, would that actually decrease the amount I would get at payout? I was already given certain amounts of rewards by other people. Would Steemit's votes for people other than me really lower my payout?
Sorry, I haven't really looked into the rewards pool much. I've been more focused on making sure that I was getting posts out at least once per day.
I'd rather have one of those. Could I change my pick? :D
lol... me too :D
Ok, @palikari123, @davemccoy and I would both like gold forks. Can you get us tracking numbers on those? :P
Sure, follow the instructions and you shall receive!
@themanwithnoname lol... I'm still waiting... He gave his reply and it wasn't very nice ;)
lol... me too :D
hahaha... I'm trying to save my VP for a newbie and minnow contest this weekend, but I have to send you to the top on that one! :P
hay @davemccoy, I read this post last night and it concerned me. But i didn't want to reply till I had some data. Now that I have looked at the data i am not too concerned. I have put the data into a post and I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback
https://steemit.com/analysis/@paulag/hf20-exploratory-data-analysis-on-proposed-payout-changes
I'm going to check it out right now! Thanks for the tag here Paula! :)
Very good post my man. I noticed Asher isn't in your list? Will you share your reasoning?
Hey @johndoer123... because @abh12345 is a .... LOL... He isn't on the list because he is disguised as @steemcommunity! He and @paulag make the fantastic duo of @steemcommunity and they are still at the top for sure ;) ... So don't worry about me still liking and trusting Asher, I give him 1000x my full endorsement! :)
And hope you are doing well @johndoer123, I haven't talked to you in a bit but have seen you around for sure ;)
Yeah, doing good but aggravated. Actually I've spent some time figuring out how EVERYTHING works behind the scenes here. It has left a bad taste in my mouth. Combined with steem prices falling right before this HF20 deal AND noticing quite a few of the big accounts powering down, has caused me to begin my search for something else. I am going to powerdown, so I can get out if I want, without waiting. Have you ever heard of/looked into YOURS.ORG? I'm just starting to look at it.
I haven't... And one thing that I want to tell you is that I am still sticking in there. The reasons are 2 fold... 1) I really do like the people I've met and to me its a community and 2) I like the technology behind steemit and think they might succeed despite the people at the top.
If you do leave, I certainly wouldn't blame you and as far as the money part that is always a personal decision. I never second guess people investing however they like. But I do hope you keep your passwords and keys safe and remember them, because you have earned a spot here and one day if we ever get bigger we will be able to reward you. Right now unfortunately we can't. All the people you know, I know too. Unfortunately we weren't here early enough to have enough accumulated to give you some help and encouragement.
But one day that might change and if you keep your feet in the water just by checking in every so often, I think you will find some of us diehards that will always consider you a friend and welcome you back with open arms!
If we lose you it will be a shame because you are one helluva guy and its been my honor to even connect with you and see your big beautiful heart!
ps... the funny thing is I just bought my first steem a week or so ago! I actually love the fact its come down, but I get your point. It is risky given this shit and the lack of transparency too!
Well said @davemccoy, @johndoer123 is one of the good guys!!
I agree completely @sparkesy43!
Dangit...I'm not going anywhere.🙂 Just a johndoer vent moment. Sorry about that. But thank you so much for the supportive words. It's the great people here, like you that keep me from leaving. I love all you guys, and gals.
Awesome, that is very good to hear! I don't want you to because now it is just getting good... Don't let the people at the top get you down, one day we will have some representation there and be able to work to help each other!
And I agree 100% with you, I'm here for my friends who are some pretty awesome people in my opinion!
ps... I left you a message on discord, so if you could reply when you get a chance that would be awesome!
Just had a quick look at yours.org. Interesting. I wonder how well it will do though as you have to pay for upvotes with your own cash.
Yeah, once I figured that out, it didn't seem that great. I'm not sure how that one will go over. Nice meeting you here though friend!
How long do you think it will take before bots owned by (I think you can guess) are automatically upvoting every post within the first 15 mins to ensure that the powerbrokers get their cut of everything?
lol... do you think they would've thought about this? hahaha... and on top of that, they can also downvote anyone on "their" own posts in the first 15 min, then hit it with 1000's of $s on bots after 15 min and get back to the top again. They are going to create an even more absurd game.
Some have already thought very much about this, Thus the reason everyone is getting random followers from total new accounts, and multiple of creation on the same day. You will notice some of these already voting on your post at 0 min.
When I was first reading about HF20 on, I think it was @tcpolumath's post the words "highest value post" were what stuck out the most to me. I understand a little bit better about the post payout and rewards after "tc's" explanation.
Along with this and in response to a comment below, doing away with the self vote is not something they will give up. it benefits them in a number of ways, the two most important, they can give themselves money whenever they want, and can make redfish and small minnows throw away their votes and potential reward by convincing them to self vote. A small minnow or redfish, anyone without sufficient vote power to cast a $0.02 or more vote , on themselves have only succeeded in burning up one of their potential rewards.One of the reasons I tell new users to wait until their post is at a payout level of at least $0.03 before voting for themselves.
I think the "old guard" are getting worried about the up and coming new guard. Witnesses need support from the stakeholders, there are a lot of them that see that they are doing things that are contrary to growth, and investors want growth potential, not stagnation. I do not know what the turn over in the top 20 witnesses has been in the last 6 months, but I am sure there have been some changes. Let us hope it continues and the poor choice can be stopped before it is implemented.
Awesome to hear from you on this subject @bashadow! As always I like to hear your thoughts. I also like it because you always have a more experienced perspective than me, and you (unlike others in the older classes) aren't afraid to tell it like it is! I completely agree with you that much has been wasted over the last few years on dust votes from the newbies and minnows that didn't know any better...
And I hope you are right about the "old guard" getting changed. That is some straight up ridiculousness they are trying to sell us with that solution. If they want to take away the author rewards, then whey not just give it to the curators of that post? Wouldn't that make a helluva lot more sense?
Some minnow but mostly Dolphin accounts are getting the notice, people are paying attention to the people that are actually trying to help them. The whales are not getting any notice. The rich have always been afraid of the middle class, thus the stranglehold many countries have put on the middle class, steemit is no different in that. Take a good look at what dolphins/orca accounts are being harassed by botnets, opt in this opt out that, oh you buy votes, oh you don't buy votes. I saw what happened a couple days after the @steemcommunity post from paulg, I read that post, I looked at the list, I gave my feedback on that list. Then I saw that something happened, knee jerk reactions on the part of several people. large behind the scenes mostly people. All because she was doing her job, enough said on that it is on the post in question.
the problems @deliberator is having with so called transparency, which is a laugh, You read TC's post, there is a war going on, a war of "look at me I am still relevant" see jerry banfields laughing stock post and whinny my butt is hurt post. it is not just him trying to remain relevant, but others also.
The crash to steemit is coming, but I think they think they are going to win, I do not think so. The Orca's, Dolphin's, Minnow's and redfish, know we outnumber them a thousand to one.
@bashadow I hope you are right and you know I have valued your opinions for a long time! Thank you for taking the time to give me a headsup and a good analysis of how you see things working!
Well @davemccoy, this sounds like a giant clusterf*ck to me. Actually, it sounds like what happens when a group of people who became instant accidental millionaires get together and try to figure out ways to make their millions grow with complete disregard for the system that GOT them aforesaid millions, in the first place.
A bit harsh? Perhaps... and then perhaps not. Sad, though... I still believe in this community, and I continue to claw myself up the ladder to... somewhere.
=^..^=
lol... I agree completely! And the only thing I can say is that I think all these things will turn out to galvanize the community even more. It is like the real world, as people become more and more detached from the average person, things will change on the next major move down. I'm hoping we continue to grow and stay a good community (of cats and humans alike)... that way one day we can be there when the time is right for change ;)
The way I look at it as that as long as our individual stakes are growing faster than the built-in inflation rate of the Steem token, we are "gaining ground." It becomes a matter of patience and perseverance...
The troubling thought is that they end up "screwing the pooch" so badly that the price of Steem declines beyond repair.
=^..^=
thanks for a good assessment, Dave!
I've up upvoted it and Lniked to in my blog.
please also read my own blog post on the same subject:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@vimukti-ananda/thoughts-about-rc-same-old-parable-of-talents-principle-employed
I will check it out now! Thank you for sending it to me and for the nice words :)
Why not just disable the ability to self vote
because that would take away their argument for supplementing their incomes at the top... didn't you see the new tagline? lol :)
I saw it lol. I needed a reply to open the door to my knock knock,
Basically, you have a strong circle jerk team at the top who have too much control, The only way to win is to create a better circle jerk.
@jan23com lol... I think you are right about the circle jerk at the top... And I also agree about the better circle jerk... we just need some time, but we are growing by the day ;)
Because then people would just create secondary accounts and upvote the secondary accounts instead.
How do we know this? Because that's what used to happen in a previous hard fork where you weren't able to self upvote.
It does not matter what system used. the result of manipulation is the same. That was the opening comment. Should not be taken as my sole view. The voting for oneself can be done by so many means. Sure buying a vote is essentially the same thing. My reply to the original comment I made opens the door to these solutions if any want to assist with the change they want to see.
You asked why not just disable the ability to self vote.
I answered because it's not possible to stop it. putting up simple road blocks that can be easily circumvented is just a waste of time. It's better to try and find methods that help incentivise good behavior.