So I saw this post by @bycoleman:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@botreporter/daily-organic-trending-list-for-today-5-11-18

In it, he lists the top 100 posts in STU value that:

This report reflects the current posts that are earning at least $25.00 and the authors have NOT used bidbots in the last 30 days!

And there are lots of posts on the list that in the 100 STU range and higher. Of course, my immediate reaction was suspicion.

I've looked at the numbers. There are only 6000 accounts on steemit that can even generate 1 STU of rewards, much less 100 STUs. So where are these people getting the votes?

So I looked at the top 10 posts on the list and did a little digging on steemblockexplorer.com.

The Votes

Here's what I found:

Post 1 - Link

Total STU rewards: 172.415

Top votes:

1. adsactly, 23% of total value, witness
2. kingscrown, 12% of total value, has a huge delegation of SP - effectively a whale
3. broncnutz, 11% of total value, whale
4. teamsteem, 10% of total value, witness
5. jrcornel, 10% of total value, self-vote
6. donkeypong, 8% of total value, whale

Post 2 - Link

Total STU rewards: 149.199

Top votes:

1. glitterfart, 77% of total value, lurker-whale
2. arama, 8% of total value, lurker-whale

Post 3 - Link

Total STU rewards: 145.52

Top votes:

1. adsactly, 99% of total value, witness and self-vote

Post 4 - Link

Total STU rewards: 139.579

1. glitterfart, 83% of total value, lurker-whale
2. destbest, 4% of total value, dolphin
3. flamingirl, 3% of total value, dolphin

Post 5 - Link

Total STU rewards: 138.557

1. glitterfart, 83% of total value, lurker-whale
2. destbest, 4% of total value, dolphin
3. flamingirl, 3% of total value, dolphin

Post 6 - Link

Total STU rewards: 136.477

1. glitterfart, 84% of total value, lurker-whale
2. destbest, 4% of total value, dolphin
3. flamingirl, 3% of total value, dolphin

Post 7 - Link

Total STU rewards: 119.682

1. gavvet, 25% of total value, whale
2. hanshotfirst, 13% of total value, whale
3. arama, 12% of total value, whale
4. donkeypong, 11% of total value, whale
5. candyman, 8% of total value, lurker-dolphin

Post 8 - Link

Total STU rewards: 115.103

1. kevinwong, 31% of total value, self-vote
2. donkeypong, 11% of total value, whale
3. newhope, 9% of total value, whale
4. trafalgar, 7% of total value, whale
5. ramengirl, 4% of total value, dolphin

Post 9 - Link

Total STU rewards: 107.147

1. yoo1900, 84% of total value, minnow bot
2. amiramnoam, 12% of total value, whale
3. alexis555, 4% of total value, lurker-whale

Post 10 - Link

Total STU rewards: 105.409

1. adamkokesh, 98% of total value, whale

The Breakdown

So in the top 10 posts on the "organic" listings, we have a total STU payout of 1329.088.

Of all the votes cast for those posts, 30 votes accounted for 85% of the payouts.

Of those 30, there were 21 actual accounts that cast those votes.

Of those 21, 1 account - glitterfart, a self described "Huge Steem Believer and Happy Swimming Whale" accounted for 459.95 STUs all by itself. That's 35% of the whole list's rewards!

Also note that the 21 accounts include 3 self-votes and 2 witness votes - but adsactly appears in both witness and self-vote so these account for 4 of the 21 accounts.

What's Your Point?

My point is that the argument between using bots or relying on the community for upvotes and earnings is a false dichotomy. And were those posts that had the same group of votes really "organic?" It could be that they all have the same taste, but it seems more likely to be bot output or a voting ring.

The real issue is the concentration of voting power, which I outlined in my previous post:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@nealmcspadden/more-on-steemit-inequality-who-is-your-audience

There are only 6006 accounts on the STEEM blockchain that have over 1000 SP.

And 1,000 SP will only get you 0.23 STUs.

So everyone, and I mean everyone, is left trying to attract the attention of the few dolphins and whales that mean anything in terms of rewards. Maybe haileyscomet and adamkokesh become good friends and upvote each other all the time. Maybe loina slipped glitterfart some SBD through some back channel. I don't know and I don't care.

What I do care about is the fact that the argument between organic rankings and bot rankings is selling false hope to the newcomer who has heard that "Oh, just create great content and you'll make money." That's a load of crap and not how STEEM works or was intended to work. Yes you need to make good content, but you also need to invest in the blockchain yourself. That means buying and staking your STEEM so that your vote matters.

Resources

• https://steemit.com/steemit/@nealmcspadden/more-on-steemit-inequality-who-is-your-audience
• https://steemit.com/steemit/@botreporter/daily-organic-trending-list-for-today-5-11-18
• https://steemblockexplorer.com/
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1k_EyHYx_QV5dsV9N_XLG15PdKYmwmyRe-8MLW4je0SM/edit?usp=sharing