RE: To Bee or Not to Bee - Perspective of a Redfish
Very interesting post, @beeyou. Although it doesn’t really help solving the things I’m struggling with at the moment.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I said I’d stop using the bidbots and would not sell my votes anymore.
90% of my curation has always been done manually. Until I went to the hospital a little over 3 weeks ago. Because I knew I wouldn’t be able to manually curate for a while, I followed some curation trails and set up some auto-votes.
That gave me 10 to 20 times more profits in curation rewards (and proves how much I suck at curating, lol).
Earlier this week I read a post by someone (I don’t remember which post by whom, because I didn’t comment - it just made me think) that discussed a couple of things, of which one was the 50/50 self-vote.
I stopped self-voting long ago, because I wanted my upvoters to earn some curation rewards. Then there was @abh12345’s league with the incentive of not self-voting. (I did self-upvote a couple of my posts last week, but only after a couple of days).
And now there is your post...
I’m just trying to say that I’m doubting my entire ‘strategy’, if you can call it a strategy.
I want to do the good thing and help others grow. But when I focus on growing my own account at maximum speed, won’t I be able to help others more than I do now...?? Is it selfish/respectless/stupid or whatever to use the bidbots, autocurate for max rewards, self-upvote and so on? Or is it the smart thing to do?
The bigger I can grow my account, the more I can support others...
I’m really losing my head over this. :0(
(Maybe I should turn this into a post to see what others have got to say about this)
And this is why we are steadily seeing the good people side towards Bot usage, and I'm feeling like you here.
If they are proven to grow your account quicker, and your end goal is not to be a selfish doofus, then growing your account (in any way possible) seems 'fair'.
I'm no longer publicly on the bid-bot hate wagon, and many accounts I support do use bots. A post written by @aggroed months ago summed it up, (and I'm paraphrasing), 'if you don't use them then someone else will' (and their content is likely to be worse.
I appreciate you stopping by to comment Asher. We all respect you and hearing your thoughts on things.
Well thanks :)
My new philosophy is edging towards 'do what you gotta do', there is a lot of BS going on, so whatever you need to do to grow your account to in turn help others is fine by me.
There is a reason you are my favorite SOG! 🙂
awww, shucks 😊
Thanks, Asher. I’m glad I changed my mind in the end and tagged you anyway :0)
It’s a real moral struggle.
Instead of making loads of money delegating to one or more bidbots, I delegate to individuals who are in the bandwidth-error-zone and initiatives like @newbieresteemday, @friendsofgondor, @dustsweeper and a couple of others. The only (small) delegation profits I make are from @trufflepig and @transparencybot. Is it smart? No, but I think it’s the right thing to do. (And about the only part of my ‘strategy’ I have no doubts about.)
But I thought that not self-voting and not using the bots were the right thing to do too... until I read that article a couple of days ago (don’t remember which one, it was something about SteemIt needing a middle class urgently).
So now I have to decide which way to go, and it is more difficult than I thought it would be. It feels a bit like betraying myself, betraying my followers...
I do like being tagged on this kind of topic 😊
Honestly, you guys delegating out even with just a few hundred SP are saints - this was not the case when the fork first landed - only the big guys this this to start.
Like you, I have 000's out for free, but have kept some back to support people too - finding this balance is tough.
Bot delegations I still consider self-votes, but perhaps a % should be sent there while we wait for SMTs and the potential to delegate to a more 'worthy' cause arrives.
I think as long as the approach is balanced bot/community/saved for friends then you aren't betraying anyone.
Looking forward to hearing how you and @beeyou choose to Steem-it going forward 😊
Future Steem-it path:
I would never want to one day realize I have become the same selfish, egotistical, and greedy people on this platform. If that happens, then evil won. They turned someone who came on here thinking an upvote could change peoples’ lives in third world countries to another selfish success story. I would hate myself being like that so I would never want to lose sight of my true nature.
I will grow but will never lose sight of everyone that walked ahead or besides me that is on the journey with me. Even new bees that might want to join the party are welcome. As long as they’re not bounty hunters, the more the merrier!
This sounds good to me, I think we are taking a similar route :)
Still struggling so far. I need to be able to look into the mirror every day. Still I feel I have little choice, if I want to grow my account at a faster pace.
I will probably keep going back and forth for a while before I can make up my mind. Try out a couple of things and see how that makes me feel.
Point is that I truely believe it is in my best interest - and that of the people i want to support - to grow my account as fast as possible...
Which means I’ve got to find a way to bend the rules so they can work in my advantage, but don’t bend them too far so I can keep the honour to myself...
If it can be done in the code, it's not a rule bend/break.
'We' worry too much. Write an awesome post and boost it to Trending :D
Lol. I still got to write my first awesome post that is worth sending to Trending ;0)
And I completely agree on the worrying. It’s like the story of my life...
When have we been ones to follow the rules? ;)
As long as we are not douchebags and greedy individuals that are not happy with a slice of pie and want the whole thing.
See my thing here is kinda the same as what you said. The quicker I can grow my account the faster I can help others. It is kind of a well kept secret around here that I am kind of a D bag so keep it under your hat so no one finds out, but what they don't see is that I am delegating a 1/4 of my total steem power to @newbieresteemday and @thehive . When I started doing it it was HALF of my total steem power. Why? because I remember how damn hard it was starting out. I am just getting my legs under me now and am figuring out all the ins and outs of everything. I love playing the dumb guy in the room act, but if you think you can just organicly grow on here when you are putting out mediocore at best content like I probably do then you are just retarded. If you don't come in as a newbie with a big name like the hodge twins or have some preset super scam in place then it is simply NOT going to happen. Can you grow? Absolutely. Will it be fast. probably not. I think of it this way. You have the same odds of becoming a whale on steemit organicly as you do becoming an NBA SUPERSTAR in my opinion. With me being a 6 foot tall , 200 pound white guy I have come to the realization that neither are going to happen in this lifetime so I do what I do at the race track. Go 100 mph, throw that bitch into the corner and hope it sticks. If it don't I am going to hit a big ass wall and it is going to fucking hurt. I have learned that people always say they want the truth but then they get real pissed off when I give it to them. Let me know if any of this seems off or untrue. :)
For what it’s worth, I never thought of you as a D bag, but hey, I still miss a lot, lol.
I think that’s how I got to know your name: as one of the delegators to @newbieresteemday.
It’s an honourable gesture, and I delegated to get NRD to 500sp for the same reason you did: because I remember how important it is to get support when you’re new.
The thing is... I don’t have the feeling it’s getting any easier, in spite of the fact that I’m near to rep score 57...
The parallels with my ‘real life’ struggles seem to get more obvious every day. There’s no use in putting other people’s wellbeing before your own and just be happy with the little bit that is left. Being an idealist is nice, but it won’t get you anywhere.
Why play by the rules you’ve set for yourself - why no one else is doing it? It’s just plain naive...
If anything it gets harder after rep score 45 because all the help mechanisms cut you off at 45 rep
The exact reason me and @beeyou have been trying to come up with an idea to keep some sort of support system in place for people that get cut off at 45 and people like us. So far, we haven’t been able to find any good ideas, unfortunately.
Still I believe it is necessary to make it a little easier for everyone who loses the newcomers support..,
I see everyone's comments, but just haven't found the time needed to reply back with something that is not "spammy". Will try to get back to everyone tonight, I hope.
I think we could take ‘spammy’ from you, @beeyou. Everyone knows you’re a busy little bee ;0)
I didn't mean I was really a D bag. I just play one on steemit.
:)
Lol
Wait, you are or are not a a D bag? 😉
I have never seen you typed so much!
Depends on the day.........
Hi @simplymike. I hope you are feeling better since the hospital visit.
I noticed the same when I started following curation trails and set up autovotes. I would love to have all the time in the world to manually curate, but it’s simply too time consuming (for me anyway). I actually prefer to set autovotes so my votes can get casted when I’m not available. I read those posts by my favorite authors later.
I see Asher quoted the same and gave his reply to you. I really don’t know if is black or white on here. Many activities on this platform falls somewhere in between. It is my opinion only, but if you are true to yourself, then you can’t go wrong with the decision you make. If it is your supporters you are worried about, why? If they are truly your supporters, because why else would they support you if not because they share the same interest or are like-minded, then they would continue to support you.
Asher for instance. I have tremendous respect for him and I know (at least think I do) that he would continue to show his support for me even if I use bots. I know all my true supporters would not mind either because they support me. I have many supporters that prefer to grow organic and I respect them too. If I am being true to myself, I don’t think I’m being selfish by trying to grow so I can help others grow along with me. I’ve tried to grow on this platform in different ways just like you. I’ve come to realize that organic growth is the idealist viewpoint. I consider myself a good person and a smart investor and a combination of an idealist/realist. Smart growth is NOT something to be ashamed of.
If I start abusing the system, well, I probably won’t be such a good person anymore and wouldn’t care one bit what others think of me. 😉
Some good points you make there, @beeyou.
Your comment made me realize I am allowed to change my mind about things. ‘cos that happens when you grow and learn more. The only one I need to stay true of is myself. And I’m not the person I was yesterday, nor am I the one I will be tomorrow.
A little trust in myself would do no harm :0)