Are we circle jerking to get big upvotes on Steemit?

in #steemit5 years ago

Lately I've seen a few different articles that talk about circle jerking.

What exactly is circle jerking?

Well, in it's most direct form.... the term was meant to talk about a circle of men that stood around pleasuring each other.

Nowadays it's mostly used to talk about people that are helping themselves by pretending to help someone else.

cir1.jpg
Source: Pixabay.com

For example, there was some consternation regarding the EOS block producers because they were voting for each other and giving each other money, as far I understand.

You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, as long as it is quite definite that my back is getting scratched.


We generally think of five classifications of people on the Steemit blockchain.

Plankton, minnows, orcas, dolphins, and whales.

You might notice if you look at someone that is rated 71 or 72 that even if they put out a subpar article, they tend to get quite a few high upvotes. One of these high-rated people might get $10 or $20 with as little as a picture with a word on it. This is without the use of bid bots.

Is this a case of circle jerking?

Well, this is what you have to consider....

When the Steem blockchain was started and people began using this platform, they developed relationships with each other.

Many people have been confused into believing that this platform is about creating quality content. That is not what we should be about. We should definitely be a social media platform that is capable of attracting the typical daily user so that they will find our system to be fun and available.

When the early adopters of the Steemit platform started posting they began to know each other. They developed relationships and became friends. If my best friend joined this platform do you think that I would upvote him even if his content was subpar?

Of course I would. He's my friend. Let's not fool ourselves into thinking that quality rules the world.

cir2.jpg
Source: Pixabay.com

Now look around yourself. Let's say that you are a minnow. I'll bet you have your circle of friends that you like to upvote. They don't give you much money, and you don't give them much.....because you are minnows.

If you should become a whale are you going to abandon this group of people that you've come to know and like?

I doubt that very much.

Is that akin to circle jerking then?

We vote for people that we form relationships with. Occasionally we do vote for good content, but don't let anyone tell you that content rules this platform.

If you see high ranked people that appear to be circle jerking, there's a good chance that those people are simply friends who got to know each other when they first joined the platform. If you had joined the platform at the very beginning, you would have become part of that circle of friends as well.

Having said that, there's a really good chance that the circle of friends you currently have will continue to advance in the platform and then eventually you too will be accused of circle jerking.

Now how about that?

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In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with voting for your friends. I love steemit because you can do what you want with your resources. I really don't think anybody should be telling anybody else what to do with their money. People can write posts giving their opinion on the best way to use steemit and to grow steemit but it's up to everybody to decide for themselves.

I agree. Everyone should do what they want with their stake. The point that I'm trying to make with this post though, is that we are mostly a social engagement site already. To think that we are a site based on quality content is misleading, because even the high quality content is getting high up votes from social engagement.

Oh I totally agree with what you're saying! :) Besides, one man's trash is another man's treasure. It's hard to define "high quality".

Get anywhere here and expect to be treated like shit for it. I work, I try to bring in new votes, I get new followers, they don't vote, I get called names. Good times!

Perfect timing. I just spent a few hours producing art, shared it here with only a few words... read a post that says:

One of these high-rated people might get $10 or $20 with as little as a picture with a word on it. This is without the use of bid bots.

Get called names and made to feel like your craft isn't welcome. I love this place.

Of course I'm not talking about your art @nonameslefttouse.

I'm talking about a post that takes a few minutes, not a post that takes a few hours. Nevertheless, high quality content tends to make far less than it should when compared to social engagement. I'm not actually sure which should do better.

I think in the long run though, this is going to be a website that is based mostly about social media and not about quality content.

The entertainment industry has never really been about quality content. By the way, I use the term entertainment loosely. Many associate entertainment with laughs or drama but in reality a serious essay about ducks can potentially entertain someone, somewhere.

People are loyal. If they like Stephen King novels, even if the latest one sucked, they'll still support him. Same with music. Eminem is a big shot, he's had a few flops, but he's still a big shot. Your favorite game streamer might be boring one day, but you'll still tune in the next day.

It's not about the content, it's about the people. People like people. People like people who take pictures of trees. It's not about people liking trees.

Also, using Facebook as an example. People are not avoiding posts from their friends because others might see that like and assume it's favoritism and then frown upon that behavior.

The money here is what makes others frown upon success. THEY want that money and view others as competition, so they badmouth every single move the successful ones make. It's their attitude that's the problem, not the way things naturally take shape here.

I definitely agree with that. The minnows will always be jealous of the dolphins and whales, and there's just no way around that.

In my mind though, currently Steemit is like Kindle Unlimited.

It's great for a select few people, but most of the world would not sit in a restaurant waiting for their partner to arrive while browsing through the books on Kindle unlimited.

He would much rather have a Facebook or Instagram type interface that they can quickly access and vote for people that they enjoy interacting with. I honestly think once we have enough of the right Dapps in place to make that possible, we will finally see that drastic increase in price that we all have been waiting for.

It won't be because of quality content though although there are certain people that will always enjoy that factor..... I really don't think Stephen King would have been able to make his start here.

Pewdiepie, on the other hand, would be able to offer quick bite-sized gaming information that the public would eat up because they can read it while they were waiting on others instead of having to trudge through a long book. By the way Stephen King is one of my very favorite authors.

People are definitely loyal to their friends and viewers. That's a good thing but it will always mean that minnows will be try to become friends with whales for financial reasons, and the whales and large dolphins will kind of resent them for it. It's a battle that can never truly be won, because both sides are right.

The point of this post was supposed to be that nobody's actually circle jerking because the people at the very beginning truly became friends, and the people now that are minnows that are trying to become friends with those large dolphins and whales are doing so because they want to get money from them.... and even though the initial people are actually exchanging money too, it's because they've developed those friendships that they can do it without having to feel regretful about it.

Every new member here has the same opportunity to start out small, meet people who might also be in the same boat, and gradually build themselves up to the point many others reached in two years.

They do waste time kissing butt, they waste time buying votes, sitting back, and waiting for a miracle. Too many distractions.

My mind has always been one that looks up to success. When I started with nothing, I wasn't jealous. I saw people who I could be someday. Just like when I was a teenager starting out unloading trucks at a store, seeing managers with nice cars, clothes, fat wallets; I wanted that. I spent a good portion of my early twenties working my way up and eventually had everything they had. So many coworkers would complain, quit, go somewhere else similar and always stay at the bottom. They'd call management lazy, badmouth everything they did. Go to the next place and do the same thing. It's never their fault they stayed at the bottom though. Always someone else. Easier to blame someone than work.

I quit that corporate job right before I was about to move up to a district position. There wasn't much more room to move up. Success started to feel like a dead end. I don't know why I'm rambling.

I wasn't trying to grow by making good content but I noticed a few weeks ago that in order to grow you hace to make friends or at least have good contacts

It's the most important part of it all.

Agreeing with you, but unfortunately I'm here to announce that this whole thing is going to change right now. I will drown you all to quality posts and get every single witness agree that the next HardFork (made by me) is the best and last one. It is called only vote Insaneworks HardFork. It does... well, I think it's pretty self explanatory what it does. It is an InsaneFork!

Oh yes. And I'm sorry.
I'm tired but I can't sleep.
Soooooo tired.

I hope it works out really well for you I'll be watching to see what happens.

I really don't see anything wrong with circle jerking like you have pointed it out. But it will be nice to support people outside from time to time and if possible make them part of the circle. 😄 Resteemed.

Uploading quality content is always a good idea however it's awfully hard to part anyone from their money.

i agree that this thing exists and i consider it ok most of the times but i draw the line somewhere.

Voting for your friend or people you have formed relationships it's really ok but i think we need to go a step further. We can let them know if they keep on posting non quality posts or show them that with our upvotes. If they are friends they will understand if we explain them.

You see the goal here isn't just to make some money. In order to make more and at the same time be part of something bigger we have to keep always in mind the best about our platform.

What i do is upvoting the majority of my friends-people that follow with a certain % if they have quality posts. If they don't and post a picture for example multiple times, will just give them lover votes in order to make that fair for everybody. Some have even asked me what was my reason behind this and when i explained them they totally understand it, they kept on following me and upvote me and nothing changed.

Another thing that leads to circle jerking is the interface. If it takes too long to find new people with quality posts and the procedure to achieve that is hard then you obviously aren't gonna do that. I something needs to be done with this too.

Overall it's ok to vote for your friends but try to be fair cause the next day you may find a new one or lose an old one!

"You scratch my back, I'll scratch your back" is Steemit in a nutshell, bro. Welcome.

I'm not even saying it's a bad thing, but it most definitely is a thing.

Most big users get their votes based on how big of a vote they can give in return.

That's for sure.

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