RE: 3 Major Changes In The Steemit Ecosystem During Last Year
Second, a strong use case for the internal currency is created: money is moved around to bid for the user's attention. That was Steemit's goal from day one. It may NOT be in the form Steemit founders hoped it will be, but hey, users (like markets) are always right. If that's what they found worthy of promotion, then bidding bots are the thing.
This is exactly right. I agree that it’s probably not how people may have predicted it would happen, but it’s clearly adding value to the currency and very much in-line with the goals of the platform.
It bothers me to see so many people completely against the currency being used to gain attention / advertise since that’s really the only thing that makes it valuable.
There are definitely issues with how bots work and are being used right now, but I think we should focus on fixing those issues and not just get rid of them, which I believe is like “throwing the baby out with the bath water” as the saying goes.
You’ve been here quite a bit longer than I have, and than most people have, and the more I read your posts it’s clear you really “get it”. You deserve to be a much higher ranked witness in my opinion but unfortunately the witness rankings are more of a political and popularity contest than a contest to find those most suited to actually run and steer this platform.
Thanks for that, really appreciate the nice words.
You know, after talking with a few prominent witnesses, a couple of months ago, it was revealed to me that I'm a bit under the radar not because I won't be useful as witness, or worthy of a vote from a technical point of view, but apparently I'm still paying my dues because of my one and a half month hiatus - which happened exactly one year ago.
I was as high as 40th in the witnesses rank back then, and I had the support of some powerful people (including @ned) but then, in the middle of a flag war (much worse than the one still going on now) I decided to take a step back, and leave the platform. I gave my reasons and all that. One and a half month later I stepped back in, but it was a bit too late, from some people's point of view.
That position was interpreted as lack of loyalty.
I very much understand that, in the early days, every community values loyalty above any other values. As the community evolves, other things, like contribution and innovation may start to rank higher. There is a very interesting book, called "Reinventing Organizations", by Frederic Laloux, which describes organizations based on their "consciousness / awareness level" using colors. Every organization starts with a "red" level, in which loyalty is valued more than anything. Not surprisingly, one of the most common organizations "frozen" at this level is mafia :) One year ago - and even now, from a certain point of view - Steemit was like a closed mafia circle.
But it evolves, just like I tried to point out in the article. Slowly, but it does evolve.
So I'm not at all surprised, let alone frustrated about my witness position. It is what it is.
And I do what I can, with what I have. :)