Are You Setting The Right Example For Your Followers?
I honestly have no idea whether my position on the subject is in the minority or majority when compared to the views of others but for what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s acceptable behaviour to buy, or sell votes and if you have previously done either of these things, then I would strongly urge you, for your own sake and for the sake of the platform as a whole, to consider whether it is something you think is acceptable going forward. If, after giving it due consideration, you feel there is nothing immoral about doing so, then by all means carry on.
None of us are perfect and I’m by no means a perfect man myself. There have been plenty of times in my life when I have unknowingly and even knowingly made immoral choices. Even now this continues to be the case but when I am fortunate enough to be faced with a moral dilemma, a clear and known choice between moral and immoral behaviour, I hope I am able to make the right choice and become a better man for it. It is a conscious choice for me not to buy votes. I am aware that I could increase my potential rewards from my time on steemit by indulging myself with a few bought votes and I am also aware that it will affect my ‘reputation’ positively rather than negatively by doing so, yet I choose not to because I don’t feel it is right.
The rewards system on steemit, as I understand it, is based around the idea of rewarding good quality posts so that they become the most visible on the platform and in essence ensures that the cream will rise to the top. Given that quality is subjective, we each have a responsibility to represent our own perspective of what quality content is for us, by giving it our seal of approval by way of an upvote. To sell your vote to someone else, in my view, is to misrepresent your own perspective and allow another to gain more weight by adding your voice to it. But there is little or no quality control, since you are allowing anyone to buy a vote for any post.
In buying a vote, you are misrepresenting your own time, effort and labour, by however large or small an amount, as worth more than that of someone else. No matter how well you feel you have written your article, how much time you feel you have spent creating your masterpiece artwork or how much effort you went to in order to research and compile relevant and important information, you have no right to feel that your efforts deserve more reward than anyone else’s. If what you have to share is enjoyed by and/or of use to others then it will surely find the reward it deserves and if not then it will still find the reward it deserves, which may be nothing at all.
That is how I feel about it anyway.
In both cases, you are misappropriating rewards for your own benefit, which could and should be going towards giving a truer and more representative reflection of the platform to all who use it, both now and in future.
This is not the same as delegating SP. I understand that there are those with a large amount of SP who have a difficult time distributing it fairly and so delegating to another member or members of the community who you know to be good, honest and fair curators is, in my view, an acceptable concession and actually one I feel would better suit the platform if implemented properly, giving a better overall view and representation of the content on the site.
Perhaps I am wrong but I feel like I have some sort of responsibility when using steemit to act morally and responsibly and also to set an example by my actions. In the real world, life is full of moral dilemnas which can be difficult to avoid given that almost all behaviour is regulated these days. Acting outside of these regulations can make you a target for the state and their bullies, so we are forced to learn behaviour that goes against our morals and ethics as a survival mechanism.
For example, I would say it is immoral for anyone who has used their own labour to add value to someone else’s life to be forced to hand over part of the fruits of that labour to a third party who adds no value at all. If we do not behave or do not consent to follow regulations that go against our own beliefs, we will soon find resistance to our morality at our doorsteps.
Steemit though, does not suffer that problem. There are no rules or rulers here. Our actions are determined by ourselves and we can hold no one else responsible for them. That is why what we do and how we conduct ourselves is so important because it sets an example for others to follow.
I would like to point out to anyone who hadn't yet realised it but we are all in a position of responsibility for setting an example by our actions, whether we accept that responsibility or not. We all have followers, some more than others and we all follow other users as well. I don't think there is anyone who could argue that we all have an influence on each other in some way, large or small. We are all products of our environments and have become who we are by watching and learning our behaviours from others, whether good or bad, whether from family members growing up, peer groups or so called authority figures.
Examples are set each and every day for us to follow and we all need to be careful with regards to following the right ones. It's also important for us to give due consideration to the examples we are setting for others, whether that be our family members, our peer groups or our followers on steemit. This is especially true for those with the most influence and power on the platform. How these members of our 'community' choose to go about their 'business' and the example they set for the rest of us by their actions will have a direct affect on not only the platforms success but also its integrity.
Steemit is, as I said, a place where we are free to do as we please. I have no right to tell you, or anyone else, how you should or should not be using the platform or your stake in it. I can however attempt to persuade you to change your thoughts and feelings so that they are more in line with my own and I will be quite honest and open in admitting that this is a large part of why I’m writing this post but another part is that I am open to hearing what others have to say on the subject, especially those who disagree with me and even though I am admittedly pretty set in my views on the matter, I am still open to hearing the thoughts of others in the hope that I might see things from a different perspective, have the opportunity to re-assess my feelings and also to either reinforce my position or change it, depending on the new information I’ve gained. I told you, I’m not perfect, so I could very well be wrong. If you think I am, then please tell me why.
If I am being completely honest, there is a very small part of me that wonders why I am even bothering and why I don’t just accept the inevitable. Part of me that says I should accept steemit for what it is becoming rather than what it could be and make the most of my time here financially while the getting is good. A part of me that wonders why I am choosing to spend my time here at all???
I don't think I'm the only one having these thoughts. I think a large majority of users on steemit are trying to use the site fairly but are suffering frustration at seeing unfair behaviour being rewarded without repercussion and also at the difficulty they seem to be having in getting their work seen because they don’t ‘play the game’.
A large part of the reason I spend as much of my time on steemit as I do though, is that I am trying to become a better man and overcome the weaknesses that I’ve allowed to be built up inside me. I know exactly what it would take in order to be ‘successful’ on this platform but I am not willing to sacrifice my morality by paying lip service to others or focusing my attention on producing posts that certain members of the community might vote on, so I dismiss these selfish thoughts and remind myself that money cannot buy me happiness.
I know this from personal experience and it is one of the more valuable lessons I’ve learned in my thirty eight years of life so far. I've had times of relative wealth in my life as well as times of relative poverty and can say that my time as a wealthy man was not as happy as those times of poverty. Of course, this is just my experience, it may not be your own.
What Steemit Is To Me.
We all seem to have a different interpretation of what steemit is to each of us, so I thought I’d share with you a little of what steemit is to me.
It's a place where, as free men and women, we can meet, talk and exchange ideas, even debate those ideas, in a polite, courteous and respectful manner. It's a place where we have the ability to reward one another for our efforts in adding value to the community by way of sharing information and ideas, providing entertainment in the form of singing , dancing, telling stories or producing works of art, for proposals to improve life for all, by launching and growing initiatives designed to help those in difficult situations or even for the support we show one another for our efforts, as well as being a place where we have the ability to band together and help those in need.
It's a place where I can also freely share my own thoughts with the world and perhaps be rewarded in some small way by those who feel the thoughts I’ve shared add value to either the platform itself or better still, their lives. It's a place where I can let loose my ideas and set them free on the wind to find the ears of anyone who wants to hear them, without expectation. It’s a place where I can learn new skills and refine my understanding of the world and my place within it. It’s a place with so much positive potential.
It’s place of anarchy, without rules or rulers, where every man and woman has the personal freedom to act and behave as they choose and where they bare the personal responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
It's a place that, if we wanted it to, could change the world as we know it.
Right now though, it doesn’t feel that way.
There are now so many ways to increase your 'rewards' that there is no longer really any need to interact or curate the works of others. Of course, interacting with the 'right' people and 'playing the game' can increase your potential 'rewards' even further but this is not exactly social interaction and the exchange of ideas, rather it is that age old game of looking after the interest of the self by networking with those you know are able to propel you to greater heights and doing so for that reason.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. That statement holds true in the real world and also in the steemit world. Just because everyone else is doing something doesn't mean that it's morally acceptable for you to do the same. What will it say to a new user when the first post they see is yours and that you have bought most of your rewards???
What sort of example are you setting?
With Great Power Comes Great Resposibility.
I would suggest that those of us who have high rep scores are seen, whether rightly or wrongly, as leaders within the community and whilst I would say that it is the resposibility of everyone to act in a way that sets a positive example for others to follow, I would also add that those who are seen as leaders have slightly more responsibility in ensuring this is the case, so please lead by example.
Cheers. :)
I absolutely abhor the use of bidbots on Steem, but at the same time, until everyone stops using them, it's going to be an unfair playing field. You'll have people abusing bots and profiting off of it, and those not using bots earning dust or if they're lucky $1 or $2. Unless you're lucky enough to be picked up in a curation trail, have a tonne of followers who upvote and share your content, what is the alternative?
For as long as people are rampantly abusing this platform with the use of bots, there really are only two choices: fight back and use bots, or suffer in silence as your content goes unnoticed and eventually pushes some people away from the platform.
I have used bots before and it never resulted in getting to the trending page but I made my investment back in most cases. And the reason for bots was to try and get visibility by getting into the hot or trending section. You're competing against some serious heavy hitters who can afford to keep buying their way onto trending.
Then it makes me wonder if the whales feel like they need to use bots is that because the platform is broken or is it because their content sucks and the only way they'll make money from it is to use bots to get to trending.
The amount of people I see sucking up to high reputation/Steem Power users is sickening. I get the need to "play the game" but people are upvoting bidbot content in hopes they'll get a valuable upvote or follow back (which never happens).
Go to trending right now and most of the content on there is rubbish that has very few comments. And for the content that does have comments, it's rare you'll see the author upvote any of the comments.
Take my Steem history for example. I like to think my content is of a decent standard, but it rarely gets visibility. I am fortunate enough to have the support of a couple of initiatives designed to help authors make a little money from their content, but it's not life-changing and it's rare that it equates to the effort I put in.
I wrote an honest and raw account of losing my mother to chronic alcoholism and the struggles growing up just recently, it barely made a blip. I felt as though the message was important for people to read, so I tried to get visibility with bots and it equated to nothing (except a return on my investment, just).
The root of the problem is Steemit Inc is complicit in the problems that plague this platform and until they do something through a serious hard fork, this place will never change. There is always going to be inequality until @ned and co do something about it.
The fixes for Steem are so damn obvious, reduce the awards you get from upvoting your own content and reward whales who share around their profitable upvotes instead of using them on their own posts and comments. If you flip the script, this place would instantly become a better place. Incentivise whales upvoting other peoples content and not just some small-fry curation rewards either.
I am excited for SMT's, but I would rather Steemit Inc focus on fixing the serious more urgent problems first before exploring projects which are not going to fix anything. Seems to me making Steemit a better place for newbies and non-whales is not very high on the priority list.
I don't think this was ever the reason for the emergence of voting bots on steemit. Certainly its the excuse most use but there has been a promoted tab on steemit forever. The difference is that using the steemit,inc promotion doesn't guarantee a return wheras in most cases the bidbots will return the initial investment or atleast a large part of it. I have nothing against promoting your content but there are more ways to do so than bidbots. For example, if I really wanted a post to be noticed, rather than pay someone for their vote I would offer an incentive to my potential audience such as offering a reward for tge best comment or to one of those who resteem it. If the post was shit I wouldnt expect to make my money back so wouldnt bother. But if I really believed in the quality or importance of my post and wanted it seen I would offer 5 or 10 sbd as a prize for the best comment (of those who have also resteemed it). To me this form of self promotion would be much healthier for everyone and if we all did this it would put the bidbots out of business and force the whales to vote on actual content in order to earn curation rewards.
The way I see it, the bidbot system we have now was always part of the intention of those who created steemit. It may just be for a certain amount of time before steemit,inc decide to change the code slightly before they atart promoting steemit or it could be a way of deliberately driving traffic to the new EOS platform to be launched soon. I don't see how it can continue indefinitely if steemit is to be successful or mass adoption is to happen. It needs sorted before that can happen and @ned has the tools at his disposal to sort it today if he really wanted to with steemit,incs stake of 40 or 50 million steem. Clearly he doesnt want to but why?
Thanks for the great comment @beggars. I really appreciate it and I'm really pleased to meet you. I hope we can get to know each other better in time cos you seem like a great guy mate.
In closing and in reference to your screen name, I would say that beggars CAN be choosers. :)
I love your humbleness and willing to look at alternative information. :)
Let me start by saying I've never used a bid bot and let me explain why I don't think bidbots are a big deal.
Many if not most other social media offer similar ways to advertise your posts. And.. In the real world it would sort of be like setting up a billboard along the side of the road on your property or in this case in the middle of town. Do you think advertising of such sorts should be frowned upon?
Where is the victim when person a pays person b to advertise for them?
At least in this case on steemit these are individual people advertising to each other instead of huge corporations or government.
If it was immoral to sell votes on here, how could we stop it? The best you could do is drive it to the black market, and if you've researched that like I imagine you have, then.. The black market solution and banning things doesn't usually work too well.
I think.. As often is the case and is usually my solution that we need to educate people.. Though, too few want to educate and too few want to wait for that education to take place.
I think as long as steem is worth more than or the same or close to the US dollar, it'll probably be useful. But.. We should try to discourage these greedy practices as much as possible and inspire out own better ways of doing thigns as well. There's still a lot of good people on here.. I think we can make things better, and might as well try as much as possible until something better comes along. :)
Hey.. We could use your help guest judging at the IFC if you're not too busy. It's about time for finals soon, and a few of our judges are behind a bit. Times running out and would be nice to have a few more votes at least. :)
Also weren't we suppose to have a talk? Would be good to have that talk sometime. I feel like we could do some cool things working together. :D
I have nothing against promotion of content but there has always been a promoted page on steemit so why aren't people using that? Because using bidbots guarantees some sort of return on the promotional investment. Why was the promoted page so shit to start with? Perhaps to ensure the facilitation of bidbots.
So the steemit,inc promotion tab was and is shit which is why so many bidbots have sprung up meaning that the many if not most of the largest stakeholders can now make amazing profits from selling their votes, votes which would ideally go towards promoting decent content organically.
Steemit inc have the largest stake in the platform to my knowledge so to combat this why don't they offer an official steemit bidbot or bots. The same system could be used but instead of all the profits from bidbot promotion going to individuals, the profits could be kept within the community.
Also, as I mentioned to @beggars there are other ways to promote your content yourself. There really isn't any need to use bidbots to promote a post. If promotion is really what people want they could achieve it in other ways.
Let me know what you'd like me to do mate and I'll do all I can. This year has been a bit of a struggle for me so far as you know and I'm not in any position to commit or make promises but if I can help I will and would be honored. You've been a really good and supportive friend to me and I really appreciate all you've done mate. :)
We were mate and I look forward to the time when I'm able to have that chat but life is really getting the better of me right now and both my time on steemit and my friendships on the platform have definitely been suffering as a result. I can only apologise for my ignorance mate. It's not something I'm happy about or proud of and I hope things get a little easier for me soon because there are things I really want to get done on here. I think we could do some cool things together too mate but I won't be able to do anything until I get myself sorted out first. I'm sure it won't be too much longer. (I really fucking hope not anyway)
Hope you have a great day mate. Let me know what you want me to do judging wise and I'll get to it. :)
I think that's a good idea.
I think people who wanna promote their content usually use every way they reasonably can. Just cause there's other ways, doesn't mean you shouldn't advertise in a given way.
The reason I personally don't use them is mostly cause I want to work with people who are against them and I don't want to alienate anyone.
I actually did pay for advertising on Facebook a couple times. So technically I've done it before on another platform.
My feelings are a bit mixed. Though I think it's better to try to make genuine connections than to rely on advertising. I think good connections are more important.
Thanks for the nice words and happy to be of service in the ways I can be! :) Thank you as well for buying an awesome friend. And..
If you're too busy it's cool, no worries. One of our judges who had not voted in a while voted a whole bunch today and that helped a lot! Would still appreciate your help but if you're really busy I understand. We'll be alright!
I'd suggest jumping on our discord whenever you have the time and inclination to either help judge or talk about ideas. If you know ahead of time, and can sorta be like.. "I'll have this day free" lemme know and I'll make extra effort to try to be around.
Also if you wanna judge a round I'd suggest starting with round 36, though.. we're trying to get these all done soon as the finals are just around the corner. So if it takes you a couple days to get to it, it might be done already. If you come on the discord you can find out which round we're on.. Though there's only 40 total.. So.. That's like 4 left from where I suggested you start.. It's getting close to finish and I hope to have them all judged and counted by Sunday even if not all the judges get to it.
So.. Thanks for your help if you do! And no worries if not. I hope you get your life more balanced in the ways you would like as well! All the best to you my friend. <3
It was good to read this. I'm firmly anti-bidbot and even anti-self-upvote. I feel like the rewards pool is like the thing that connects us all. It's like the community energy supply. And both of those practices weaken it in different ways. Both take the place where other actual people should be.
I feel stupid holding this position and I know it's idealistic. But I just can't do it. If I can't get anywhere here through connections with actual live people, then I don't really want to be here at all. But I really do feel a bit silly and embarrassed to say that so it's nice to know that others are as "silly" as me :)
Hi Sue. Thanks for the lovely comments and obviously I share your sentiments.
I'm a little bit of an idealist myself but I have no problem being so because I realise that there is no such possible thing as an ideal society but striving for the ideal will lead you to a place as close as you can get, so idealism definitely serves a positive purpose, though it is a struggle sometimes and can be a heavy burden which often leads to feelings of self doubt. I know this only too well. :)
Have a wonderful day, my friend!
I'm mostly surprised how people are ok with third party earning money simply on the method of gambling. Moreover if it really works like gambling, I suppose some people simply get addicted to it. Next, the biggest issue is newbies being introduced to bidbots as soon as they join. The top comments are about bidbots, nicely introducing them to various useful things and then promoting a sleazy bid bot at the end. I really hope you can find a way to set a greetings bot that can easily warn all the newcomers. I seriously believe those using bots are doings so, because of not understanding the situation.
Also if the whole process involved proper curation it would be less terrible. At least that way the posters will have to put some effort into their posts. Idk if there is a way to really stop bid bots sadly.
Technically I'm playing the system by targeting various curation systems set on steemit and posting less often. However I'm afraid this won't work forever. After my luck is out and my hard worked on posts get ignored I'll have to find another way to survive on Steemit. I guess it would be nice to have even more big curators :)
I think something will have to change very soon as there is a lot of concern over user retention and this may be a big part of the reason why. Hopefully there will be some sort of positive improvement with the next hardfork. :)
It would be really good to have a better balance between content creators and curators in future also. It's good to hear from you Kristy. I hope life is treating you well. I don't see your dragons in my feed as often these days although I've just seen the excellent work you posted today. :)
Thank you! I'm good, just crazy tired :) How have you been?
I can't post more often, too busy with work. But at least I've been very consistent with my once a week posts ^^
I'm glad to see that you will be posting more often :D
Best of luck! ^-^
I'm good thanks. The last couple of montgs have been a bit of a persobal struggle but I'm feeling a lot better and more positive noe so hopefully I'll be able to get a few things done that I've been putting off for a while. :)
Its a shame your too busy to post more often these days. I think the same is true with otgers such as @wo0lf and @apprentice001. :( But I hope that means you're enjoying what you're doing in the real world and glad to see your posts arr grtting good support.
It's always s pleasure to hear from you my friend, especially given how busy you are. :)
Nice for drawing again.
Yeah 2018 is pretty busy for everyone xD But I definitely want to finish my project ^^ If I'm lucky maybe Steemit will be fixed by the time I'm done. Haha
Plus I have so many big posts, there is always something new to catch up. I hope they make it easier to see older posts and more organized ^^
Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 21 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.
I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 18 SBD worth and should receive 86 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.
I am
TrufflePig, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
TrufflePig