Of late it feels like it's impossible just to get seen on Steemit. The continuous influx of new redfish users (a step below minnow - basically almost completely new. I first saw this rank on @steemitboard and agree that it's an important distinction) makes it so that even the hardworking, human dolphins, orcas (between whale and dolphin) and whales almost certainly find it impossible to keep up with all of the users.
According to @arcange's most recent post, the combined redfish and minnow accounts equal about 80,000. The amount of dolphin, orca, and whale accounts is a little over 1,500. That means for every account that has a meaningful amount of power there are a little over 50 accounts that don't. Let's a lot of work for those accounts when it comes to new account discovery and vote distribution.
The really big problem is that it's difficult to be seen on Steemit. When I first got on in September of 2016 (about six months after Steemit launched) you could have hundreds of views and votes (granted many of them by bots) just by consistently posting quality content. No longer is that the case. If you make good content (especially if it's better than the vast majority of content) then you really only have to worry about visibility. But visibility comes with getting resteemed, upvoted (increases reputation and puts you closer to the coveted Hot and Trending pages), and commented on (the effects of comments are trickier to discern, but it's clear that they have one and that it's important over time).
Today, you'd better have a good mix of bid bots, friends on Discord (not necessarily a bad thing, but it has nothing to do with the quality of your content), and powerful friends. Consistency is no longer enough. Quality is no longer enough. I think that's rather a shame.
So, what is enough?
That's a great question. I will say this: regardless of how much you 'get' the system or how easily new users blast past you, Steemit does reward sheer persistence. Just keep moving forward and you'll always pull ahead of those who quit for significant periods of time.
Also, continue to experiment. To a very large degree it really is a visibility game. So long as you make even half way decent content, be seen and you win. That's about as 'social networky' as you can get.
It might be worth considering some sort of algorithm that made you more seen the less that you'd been seen recently (in the new tab). It'd change slightly based on reputation, with higher ranked users never falling quite as low as new users, but with new users getting true top priority more often. I think it's worth considering anyway.
Be sure to upvote, comment, and resteem! Follow and take a look at my other posts!
Thursday, December 7th, 2017
Source: 1
Hey @jenkinrocket - I am one of the new people - curious what do you mean by bid bots and friends? Do you really believe it's necessary (like in old days of digg) to work on exchange votes to get through the dust..and there is little chance for other?
I don't know if this is useful, but I recently was thinking that main categories are overpopulated so I found that it could be far more beneficial to publish posts to less crowded categories.
For example instead of bitcoin, cryptocurrency or crypto - post in crypto-news, zcash, beyondbitcoin categories :) that increases the likelihood at least to be seen somewhere.
Like steemit category is also overcrowded.
I think people need to adjust and become smarter as the platform gets bigger.
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I really appreciated this post, because I have been one of those people who wasn't as consistent as I think I could have been in the past. I find more value in the social exchange here on Steemit because of the innovative ideas being brought to the surface, especially in regards to cryptocurrencies.
Same here, man. There was a long it's of time, maybe a couple of months, where I posted on average maybe once every two weeks it so. But I'm back in the wagon and don't intend to fall if, again.
I lost the password of my first account months ago and decided to come back after some time. I enjoy being on Steemit because I gain much more here than being on Facebook or Twitter. I also have come to the recent understanding that those two social media giants are censoring independent media, which is something I am completely against. My account is small but I follow some of the best names in independent media which is one of the main reasons I am here in the first place. I'm not here just for the Steem, I am here because of the innovation, ideas, and freedom to be had by using social media outside of the mainstream.
Yeah, the Steem blockchain is pretty hardcore anti censorship. The one thing almost all ya early adopters have in common is a complete lack of faith and trust in central authority, though it's to varying degrees.
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Keep up the good work and original content, everyone appreciates it!