Fancibull Thoughts

I have a bit of a weird writing obsession it seems as once I get going, I tend to keep going. I normally have so many things to write on the narrowing is hard but it isn't always an easy start. Sometimes I need a little psychological bump, kind of like doing a line of cocaine off a woman's backside. So I have heard. But since there is a distinct lack of cocaine around, I generally use an image as a catalyst of thought.

Sometimes it is not even an image, but a title alone. I have written 1500 words based on a title often enough. I also tend to give my articles weird titles (often with 'dad joke' puns) which doesn't really help attract readers I think. Writing a lot is a detrimental approach to Steem in some ways but at the same time, shows that at least one is willing to put in some effort for what is likely going to be very little reward. Don't get me wrong, I do okay, but it wasn't always so, there are plenty of decent posts that got washed away unseen in my Steem history.

People come in expecting rewards which is often down to the way they are introduced to the platform but tend to very quickly realize that the rewards aren't going to flow in so decide to adjust their expectations to suit. Unfortunately, many also adjust their content quality alongside it. We can see this when price drops. The common statement is,

"Why should I put the effort in for so little return?"

Ummm. because you care how you represent yourself to the world? Because a job worth doing is worth doing well? Because no one is going to ever give a crap about mediocre, ubiquitous, generic content?

It is a funny old world view of it since we are all consumers ourselves and would not increase our expenditure on low quality crap in the hopes that the manufacturers will then see the demand and improve the quality. The manufacturers have to choose their quality and price point and work extremely hard to create demand in what is often crowded and competitive market places and they will go heavily into debt to do so. We expect manufacturers to provide the best they can and even then, they have to meet our personal standards.

Personal standards are pretty important aren't they? Why would someone put out sub-par work while complaining about not getting paid for their work? Don't get me wrong, quality isn't the only metric of importance here, personality plays a massive role here also, as does ones ability to network and connect with people who are well enough connected to influence outcomes.

In general, assholes don't do well in social environments, no matter how clever they think themselves to be. If they are so clever, they would likely be getting better results. Of course, assholes with stake in a stake-based system have a lot more freedom but, that takes having the ability to invest and lock into Steem Power which often requires luck and skills in itself.

Writing a lot doesn't mean quality either, there still has to be some useful point to it that can be extracted by the users for them to think, "Geez, it was long, but worth it". Sometimes some of the things I write could just be bulletpointed but I find that those type of things rarely result in any deeper thinking or changed action so for me, are useless as even if they are effective at transferring this information, they aren't effective at developing understanding required to act.

For most of my content, I am looking for people to take responsibility and act for themselves as it will be those types of people that will drive value and decentralization in the future. They are far and few between these days though because they tend to be the ones who have personal standards of performance regardless of the reward. 'Price down, Quality down' contributors will eventually see themselves pushed from the potential to earn markets.

A lot of people also don't seem to understand that price isn't the draw on the pool, vests are. Vests are vests regardless of price. So in Steem terms, a 10 dollar vote using 100,000 vests when price is up is less valuable than a 4 dollar vote using 200,000 vests when price is low. Unless you sell of course. When prices go up, the large voters tend to spread there vests out more as they too use the vote value as the indicator. This means when prices are down, there are less people competing for the pool and voters have increased their vote percentage to a narrower audience. Being in the narrowed audience is not an easy task for those who are unstaked or aren't very good friends with those who are, it takes a veritable crap load of work to do it.

I noticed that I am now the 87th highest ranked by reputation on the Steem platform. It is of course meaningless as positions have been purchasable for over a year now but even still, since I haven't bought mine it means something to me. In that list I am surrounded by bidbot boosted accounts, circlejerk accounts, but also some highly esteemed company, the kinds of people who have worked very hard for the platform in multiple ways. While the reputation metric is meaningless, the work they have done is not and I am grateful to them for it.

Perhaps a better indicator is the Steem-UA ranking and I am in 250th position. Since witnesses get a higher rating and I am not one, I consider 250 a pretty decent position. It is still meaningless of course as all reputation-based systems ultimately are. But in a social environment with unknown faces and many accounts, rep rankings of various sorts going to become more and more useful as the platform grows. Trust among large groups is one of the things blockchains are trying to secure and there are only so many ways that can be effectively done.

If you required complicated surgery and had to choose from ten doctors with varying but unknown skill levels, who would you choose? Would it be the most expensive one? If you had a metric that ranked them on past performance that you trusted, the decision would be pretty easy and you would likely pay more for the highest ranked to limit risk. That is depending on your own means of course. If one has nothing to pay, it is take what you get handed. As the saying goes, "Beggars can't be choosers."

What is interesting is that without these kinds of views of the platform, people just look at the value a post gets and assume they know what led to it. Track record really does count for some things, it is just that people have very short memories of the past as they are always looking for the next trend to come along, the next chance to increase their value. Since the start of the year, every week I have appeared in the top 30-odd users who encourage discussion as I vote on comments I receive, I also comment on almost every comment I receive. In that time I have distributed a few thousand Steem into comments alone. The 42,000+ manual votes I have cast add up and obviously, most of my voting percentage goes onto posts.

On an average day, 25% of my voting power goes to my own posts, 20% goes to comments and 55% goes to top level posts in my feed or those fed to me. You add up 75% of my voting power for nearly two years and it is a significant amount, especially when prices were high. It has stayed pretty consistent even though I have paid for my delegation for very close to a year also, it is strange to be called greedy at times here. I recently received unexpected delegations from @pharesim and @v4vapid, which I am eternally grateful for and never imagined I would qualify for. This allows me to grow a little and distribute more. I owe them some drinks, so do others who I vote on ;)

People often say that this system doesn't work but it really does depend on the person. I took the workhorse approach and have been grinding away for a very long time everyday and for me, it has worked. It is never easy but it is personally rewarding and I have made the most important investment in my life here, the one into myself, the one where I can start to find meaning and purpose outside of earning and debt. I have a lot more work to do though. Endlessly so.

Just like everyone else, I see the posts in Trending, poor quality photos with 300 dollars on it, old arguments brought up again and again boosted to 700 dollars. Posts with 100 often poorly constructed words earning 6 dollars a word. It is depressing I know, I feel it too. Those dollars could have been much better distributed but, weren't as that is the current system. I say current because it is changing.

While people get stuck in the moment here, there are movements and improvements continually going on that in my opinion, will shift the way distribution happens and take "promotion" and turn it into actual Promotion. There will be ways to verify accounts, rank them in more sensitive and meaningful positions, new users, new investors, new ideas, new apps, new growth, new opportunities for users, young and old.

For me, this is where the grind all leads, opportunity for many to have opportunity. These days are made for the grinders and those patient enough to wait it all out. Those willing to engage and have some fun without expectation of return. The people willing to play around creating apps and innovations that are likely going to fail miserably and then, try again, try something new, experiment. It is a bloody awesome place if you ask me as everyone has a chance to take ownership of their experience. This doesn't mean we all get what we want though.

I titled this "Fancibull Thoughts" because it is a bit of hoping dreaming mixed with reality and shill, but one day, one day, the bulls will really run through Steem and with them will come a great deal more opportunity than most presently see. It is there though, one just has to look under the surface and see what is coming.

Today's battles will become tomorrow's victories.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

I think everyone should write occasionally on their experiences here and reflect on how they progress, what they do, where they could improve. It helps me immensely anyway. I am hoping that after SteemFest next week, I will have a little more clarity and a few more connections to find ways to dig in deeper.