Desperation is a Stinky Cologne ~ #sellingout?

in #steemit5 years ago

I am not shocked, but to say that I am not sad, or better yet, disappointed, would be an understatement. If you've been on the Steemit.com page in the past day or two, you probably have noticed the ads sandwiched in between every other post or so. Or the banner ads lurking on the bottom of the comment sections inside posts. Steemit.com is now taking money from companies to post ads on their website.

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Is this wrong? Unjust? Illegal? Immoral?

Well, technically it's none of the last three. It certainly isn't immoral or illegal, seeing as a private company (steemit inc) can do whatever they wish with their website...in this case, sell ads.

If it were unjust of them to sell ads, there would need to be a victim of this practice seeking redress, I have yet to find one. Nor do I think one exists now or in the future.

Is it wrong?

Ethically, I don't believe so. Fundamentally? No.

But like breaking up with a girlfriend whom you say owns your heart, there is a hurt.....say, a bond or trust that feels like has been broken.

Why would you do this to me Steemit.com? Whyyyyy????

Ok, I know why. Steemit.inc is hurting for money and this was a way to bring in some much needed income. I remember long ago when this topic came up. Should we have ads here? The majority said no. We were a decentralized network of random people who were just doing our thing. No need to muddy the waters with ads like FB and others had been doing. We were different!-----or so we thought.

The crux of this comes down to understanding (again!) the difference between STEEM and Steemit.com

I type this post not from Steemit.com. but from busy.org. A front end site that allows me to use, access, and see all the content from steemit.com, but without being on steemit.com. In essence, it is simply displaying the STEEM blockchain on a different user interface.

There is also Steempeak which does the same thing and I can only imagine other front end websites in the works.

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Suffice to say, imo, the market that flocked to Steemit.com in the beginning, and those who have come here as recently as last week, came here partly because of the decentralization aspect which for the time being had been accompanied by no ads.

The fact that Steemit.inc decided to sell ads to bring in money isn't surprising to me, nor do I think there is any nefariousness to it.

I do however think the market will react....as I am doing now, by writing this post on busy.org.

No one wants to be inundated with ads if they can help it. There are other sites out there that accomplish what Steemit.com does, much better most would say, and without ads.

It's only a matter of time before Steemit.com is the least used UI displaying the STEEM BC.

RIP Steemit.com, but long live STEEM!

What do you think?! Is Steemit.com done for? Or am I over reacting?

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Communication from the boss of the Vikings [NORWAY]
is found with a click here and the latest post: by the steemit.com link on this page in MY GANG

Regards - the boss
@Ramta Reddington

Hey, @intothewild.

There's plenty to this issue to pick at, isn't there?

I think you unpacked this pretty well. Steemit is free to do what they will do, but not necessarily without consequences, since we are also free to do what we will do, which includes blocking ads or moving to another front end.

I have nothing to base my opinion on, other than some pretty limited experience when it comes to using google ads, quite a bit more from buying ads on Facebook, and even more in ad creating and selling space for print newspapers.

Ultimately, I don't think they're going to work, unless they manage to get the masses here now who are used to seeing the ads and have not come here in part, as you mentioned, to escape them. If a certain number of folks don't regularly click on the ads, there will be no ad revenue. And even if it's CPC or CPM, at some point, the advertiser will want to have sales. Which means, if folks here aren't only clicking, but buying, those advertisers will go elsewhere.

So, we'll see. It does cut across the grain for me to see ads here when the whole idea was, we can generate our own income through specific tasks on the social side of things, or by even leasing out delegations, etc. In other words, the financial part is supposed to be built in. Price of STEEM notwithstanding, it doesn't bode well for me for anyone else who might want to come here if the flagship of the platform has basically thrown up its hands and surrendered back to the old way of doing things.

Your concerns and reasoning resound well with me @glenalbrethsen.

People here don't want the ads. If they don't get clicked, advertisers won't pay for them. It's like a really bad plan while at the same time alienating their main user base.

I see your point as well on new users...'this place is supposed to be different than other SM sites??? Looks the same to me.' is what I would suspect most of them would say.

Thanks for reading and for the feedback!

I came by here to give an extra thank you for resteeming me, I really appreciate that, @intothewild. But then I got here and, well, the ads aren’t #new. 🤔

They have been there for a couple of months now, correct? Or at least five weeks I would say. I began seeing them awhile back. In my opinion, which means the world to me and me only, I think ads are a good thing—whatever it takes to keep the lights on at Steemitinc. Again, just my opinion but I think they built a nixe platform and I don’t see them walking away anytime soon.

I haven’t tried busy, yet. Can I do it from my mobile? Bare with me, I have no PC and this truly is my very first social media experience. I’ve used Steepshot a few times and I just used partiko for the first time last night—am I behind the curve??

Nice article, @intothewild, it’s always a pleasure to read your work.

I know I'm not here as much as I would like, but I've only noticed the ads since the past week or two. Perhaps they started sooner and I was not using steemit as much (or if at all) compared to other UI's (like busy, which doesn't have ads).

Tbh, steemit.inc no longer needs to exist. They have got the ball rolling in terms of establishing the BC and now the rest is essentially up to the witnesses to take from here. Not that steemit.inc is just going to roll over and go away, but with all products, market needs and wants dictate winners and losers. I predict Steemit.com will be a loser. I wish I could suspect differently, but they haven't shown me anything to think otherwise. There are hungrier entrepreneurs here doing their thing with many less resources and providing a much better UI that steemit has. I have no qualms with whatever they do to keep their lights on, but at the slight expense of the majority of peoples reasons to come here seems baffling to me, but it was their call. It'll be interesting for sure to see in a few years how it all pans out.

As for other UI's, I use Busy on my desktop (fortunate to have one :)) and Partiko on my cell phone for quick comments and browsing. I'm typing this from Busy...not sure if they have an app or not, I would gander they do but Partiko has been great and I love the notifications; something Steemit seriously lacks. I wouldn't say your behind the curve, simply because you are here. You are part of a few thousand that even know what STEEM is. That puts you ahead of the curve by a long shot.

it’s always a pleasure to read your work.

That means a lot, thank you. I felt the same reading your last article which was the reason for the resteem. Glad to see blocktrades caught whiff of it ;)

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