Is it Right or is it Wrong? My thoughts around Steemit and Message to my Trolls

The last number of months have been incredible since I joined Steemit in June.  I came here knowing nothing about Block chain, Steemit, STEEM, or even Crypto Currencies.  To be honest I stumbled across Steemit by accident.

I am hungry

I love learning, and that is what Steemit offered to me.  A way to learn and understand block chain technology, decentralization, freedom of speech, a rewarding social economy.  I never even heard of a node before I got to Steemit.  It’s a feeding frenzy of information all of which I want(ed) to absorb.

I joined communities, and gleaned from the influencers, seeing everyone as a mentor.  It was truly awesome.

But I am hungry, and I need more information, what questions should I ask?  What else should I know?  I was stumped. By now I get the basics, but what else is there?

This is when I started analysing the Steemit Block Chain Data.  I wasn’t even looking for anything in particular.  Like I said, I didn’t know what questions to ask. But I do have a business and accounting background, so there were certain metrics that were obvious to look at. How many time did this happen?  How many times did that happen?  How much was that worth? How much is this worth. What trends are people following?

It was from these analysis that I started posting my reports to Steemit, and by now, I have done a lot of reports.  Most of these reports are non-bias, I give no feeling on the subjects, and I don’t tend share personal opinion.

Over recent times people have asked my feelings on the topics I write about and I have really tried to stay out of looking judgemental, or even voicing my opinion.

But isn’t part of Steemit about freedom of Speech? You don’t have to like what I say, what I do, or what I post about, you don’t even have to be reading this.  I shouldn’t fear trolls on discord, or worry my Steemit life will be short lived because ‘I expose’ or give my opinion on topical matters.

I have covered some topics in recent times, where I feel my voice should be added.  The aim of this post is to set the record clear to everyone my thoughts around Steemit and these topics

Bots

While preparing the data on my bots analysis I asked fellow steemains their feelings on bots on Steemit. A conversation took part on discord where, because I was writing the post, did not want to express my opinion on the matter, I just wanted to see what others thought.  I was asked and I failed to answer.  I also didn’t give much of an opinion in the post either.

Bots are everywhere, on and off Steemit.  I am all up for automation, and this is what bots can do for us. Heck if I didn’t automate some of my ‘day job’ I wouldn’t have time to be on Steemit.

It was also very well put to me that some people have invested a lot of money in Steemit and bots help maximize their return.  Heck I don’t disagree with that either. If I invested financially into Steemit and was reliant on that investment to make me an income, I would do the same.  What would you do?

I use bots.  I use Minnowsupport and I have also tried the options of paid voting bots.  You see, I have worked online now for several years and I understand social media marketing and social proof.  Votes and pay-outs, that’s what gets attention. These bots give you that little boost on Social proof that can get your post in front of more eyes than normal.

I cannot condemn the use of bots on Steemit, I am in favour of bots. But what I am not in favour of is the growing ratio of bots to humans on Steemit.  My personal feeling is that for Steemit to succeed as a social media platform there must be a level where human activity far out weights bot activity.

I think the highly invested and bot developers need to decide when enough is enough because the next bot might just shoot you in the foot.  As the ratio of bots to humans increases, the chances of Steemit being one of the top social media platforms decreases.

I also ‘KNOW’ there are enough inner circles between the highly invested and bot developers where a consensus should be reached on this matter.  Open up the dialogue guys because if you don’t, you are dooming your own efforts and growth.  You need to think long term business, not short term gain and remember we are all your partners. Minnows and Whales alike.

My thoughts on offering Paid voting bots as a service are also in favour.  If you are on Steemit with the aim of just making money, what is the problem with offering services?  Other social media platforms offer paid ways to get a ‘boost’ to your post.  If there is a demand then there is a business.

Self-Voting

This is tricky as I don’t really know what my limits are.  I don’t have the power to pay myself a meaningful amount in self-votes and if I did, well I don’t know where I would stop.  Well I do. I would see what level seems to be acceptable by the community and keep within the ‘unsaid rules’

I up vote my posts, I don’t really up vote my comments.  I up vote to give the post that first boost in social proof.

However on Steemit is seems to be difficult in judging what is and is not acceptable. There are bot set up by highly invested under different accounts, which vote on the creator’s content.  This is self-voting and often comes to a substantial amount.  If it’s okay for the highly invested, why is it not okay for everyone?  Let’s call a spade a spade here and the double standards piss me off.

Voting Circles

Sometimes called circle jerks, what the fuck, we all take part in this activity. If you love food, and you post about food and you read about food, you’re going to vote on food posts.  Chances are the same authors will continue to reappear.  They will see your posts, you will see theirs.  It’s just the circle you are in.  You then join a food community on discord and make a few friends that you have something in common with.  You start reading their posts and give them your support, they do the same and new circle is formed.

I wouldn’t call these circles, I would call them communities

But there are also ‘For Profit’ Communities where likeminded people let’s just say ‘give votes knowing it is in the benefit of maximizing their return’.  That’s what they are here for.  There are people on every social media platform that are there to profit.  Myself, I use Google+.  Sure what you do think SMT is?????

Neds Delegation

My post on Ned removing his delegation caused a bit of a stir.  A big thing for me here on Steemit is engagement with my posts.  For me if a post can create comments and conversation around the topic they it is successful.  And that exactly what the post was about.

Why did Ned delegate this power to these people in the first place, I don’t know. Many of them are Asian, maybe Ned understands the size of the Asian market, maybe Neds knows that Steemit can help many people in that region.  Let’s face it, earnings of $2-$10 a day on Steemit will not do much for people in Europe.  Now maybe he has taken it back because of the Bitcoin and crypto issues in China??? Only @ned knows the real answer.

I don’t believe any of the Steemains that received delegation did anything wrong.  Some showed awesome entrepreneurial skills.  Paid voting bots are running on Steemit, there is demand, there is a business.  I don’t see the problem.  There are also paid SP leasing services.  I have also received votes from some of these Steemains in the past, although I didn’t pay for them.

Did you see the reward those people passed out?  Nearly $.5M

What Neds delegation showed to me is that everyone one is human.  Self-interest is human nature and who are we to judge.   Everyone is human, but some humans make it to saints, and in the seven selected steemain that received the delegation, one of these just happens to be a saint. Steemit and the community he touches are lucky to have @surpassinggoogle.  If everyone was like this, there would be no need for steemit in the first place.

My post and Neds delegation also showed something else about these Steemain. Integrity. Some of these Steemain actually voted for my post. I know in my heart and soul that if I published some of the analysis I have carried out on certain whales, my content would be down voted straight away.

So I want to shout out to @htliao, @linuslee0216, @nicolemoker, @surpassinggoogle, @sweetsssj @tumutanzi and @ramengirl. Congratulations on the work that you did, the entrepreneurial spirit you showed, the rewards you shared and the communities you have helped.

It upsets me that the highly invested can do exactly the same thing but that is okay.  Why?  Is it because they invested their own money and money speaks louder that time?  Like I said, double standards.

Now that I have got that off my chest, I will be continuing to analyse the steemit data.  I will not be put off by trolls or being told to be careful, or being told I don’t know what I am dealing with. If there is stuff on the block chain that you don’t want everyone to know about, then why did you put it there?  Maybe you should be on Facebook where I can’t access the data and your privacy is secure lol.  If people are interested, if it will generate conversation and comments then I will publish.  

There is loads of  data related posts I have been holding onto. And slowing it will be released.  If you have a concern feel free to contact me on discord, but do not come with threats’ because you already know how much I know about you.

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