I shut off my AUTOFEED to Social Media for this post...
I just got done reading a really cool article called, "Why Blockchain is Hard" written by Jimmy Song on Medium.
Today I also read, "Spammers Gonna Spam, Focus on Original Content" by @sorin.cristescu who left the link in a comment on yet another post I read, this one by @meno, entitled "An Ode To Spam." Whew!
The topic of spam on the blockchain is a hot topic. I've commented quite a bit on various topics surrounding Steem Blockchain but I'm not the best technical writer so often I fail to make an effective point; only leaving some food for thought behind (usually looking like a half eaten sandwich, lol.)
Some things of note. The whitepaper, bluepaper, the code, the bitcointalk thread feedback, the entire actual transaction record since the genesis block 100% do validate the following facts:
Emphasized screenshot borrowed (sorry) from @sorin.cristescu
I really don't know what this "Old Steemit" people imagine is. I signed up in early 2017. Although I didn't post, you can have a look at what it looked like then (and earlier) by checking out the Wayback Machine -> Here
Note: Since you can only see the front pages day to day, if you want to see the actual posts you have to copy the links, get the original link, and paste it onto Steemit now. Because the links never expire.
Oh my! Hundreds of dollars for a picture! Oh my, shit post makes $800 with no bots! Oh my, circle jerking! Oh my! What's my point? Where is this "Days of old when things were different."
Never existed.
Imaginary. Like Spaghetti Zeus and his thunderbolts of fury. Fake news.
Granted, I wasn't active. Sure there was quality content. There's quality content now. And then, there were far fewer accounts. I can only look at every post that ever existed and compare it to now and see not much has changed that much since then as far as ratios. Steemit now has 1 Million Accounts. And if you look at #introduceyourself and similar tags you will see new users coming in every 5 minutes. To make matters even more intense, once HF20 hits with simple signup; it's possible that will be every 5 seconds, like Facebook.
Next, as @kevingwong pointed out in his post here it's also disadvantageous to distribute wealth on Steem Blockchain at the moment. Even more importantly to note, people that buy into crypto don't buy in to be philanthropists, okay? And they certainly don't buy in to eternally #hodlgang. As I pointed out in my comments on @timcliff post, "Proposal to Make Spam Less Profitable," Steem Community doesn't really want investors, that's a lie — Steem Community wants BENEFACTORS. It wants people to come put in a million dollars, and walk away and never look back. And if by chance they are to create content, they want long form content that takes days to produce (original) and then to wait for someone to MAYBE find it and upvote it organically. And that's for keeps, because putting your content on this blockchain is forever published. Nope, don't self-vote (even if you're a Redfish.) Let's look at the current shame game.
1. Thou shalt not use or speak of any other blockchain (especially EOS)
2. Thou shalt not highlight the flaws of the brains in public but shit on the blockchain, that's fine...
3. Remember the Old Steemit (that didn't exist) and keep it's values (Who exercised values? Name names)
4. Honor thy friends and network and build your tribe, but don't circle vote that tribe you build, ohhhh no
5. Thou shall not upvote thyself despite buttons everywhere encouraging that very act
6. Thou shall not commit vote selling, vote buying, vote exchange or any other actual free market agreement
7. Thou shall not steal the reward pool that belongs to nobody and is a technically a first come first serve thing
8. Thou shall not tell the actual truth or break anyone's agenda, fantasy, or cognitive dissonance
9. Thou shall not covet thy fellow Steemians payouts, rather, be happy and just invest more
10. Thou shall not make the rich richer, or aspire to be rich, or aspire period. Hate yourself, it's far more selfless
Am I getting a bit too bitchy here? I can see the upvotes just floooooooding in like when Moses parted the sea and then the Egyptians drowned when the... did that happen too? Oh my bad.
And the final commandment, love thine enemies. Problem is, can't tell who from who sometimes because self-worth here is as variable as everywhere. It's a human condition. No inferences, or implications. I remember something I said in a comment and here I'm stroking my own titts, I said the biggest flaw on Steem is human, and there's no Hardfork for that. But I'm not talking about who you probably assume I am...
Let's Talk About GREED
I'm a mother. I have three children. I'm divorced and I'm a single mom so I provide for my kids all by myself. I don't get alimony. I don't get child support. I don't get welfare. I wasn't left a house. Two of my three children are clinically disabled as well. Technically, I could fall in that category as well but clearly I'm not incapable of functioning enough to work so I don't go as far as to claim having spectrum differences is a handicap by default. That being said, I've been broke as shit. And I've been wealthy — twice over. I'm at a lower point than I've been previously, yes. And I'm getting my ass in order, again. Working like I do, on what I do, there are no guarantees. Even at the top of my game, I've had medical expenses come in and knock me on my ass (like my kid almost losing his damn eyeball- which could still happen.)
Now granted, there are people on this platform with a lot worse off life than I. I live in America on the East Coast. I have hot water. My apartment is clean. There's numerous reasons for me to be grateful and believe me, I am. I'm thankful every day I wake up, period. Because I could have been dead several times over and my kids would have no father OR mother. So with that out of the way, I know there are poorer people and people with sicker kids. However, MY KIDS ARE MY KIDS. My kids are MY #1 priority. Not YOU, not Steemit, not Steem..not Facebook, not this charity or that, not starving people in 3rd world countries. I worry about my kid possibly needing to have eye operated on again and if I can afford that, cash. Again, no welfare mother here. So I work my ass off. Then on top of that, I have to raise the little gremlins too! So I have to work my ass off, do homework, bath them, do all the mommy AND daddy things. Of course I know some kids don't have any parents at all (double face palm), my question is — am I GREEDY? AM I SELFISH?
Let me answer that for you. Yes, I am. At the end of the day, my #1 priority is me and mine. If Z-poc were here, everyone is getting a shell to the face friend or foe unless you held me down effectively and you're fit for evolution. No dead weight. I'm a team player because it's a team sport. Don't get it twisted.
Here is MY REAL POINT THOUGH and the importance of my post "Do You Have A Darkside?" The answer is yes. You're the same way, argue if you will, lie, bs me if you want- crapola. We're friends BUT you have a family, responsibilities, yourself, your bills, your job, etc. It doesn't mean you hate me but you're a lot nicer because it works for you and helps you sleep at night. Me too.
I have some news for you. There's nothing wrong with being selfish. It's only detrimental when you're selfish and also not simultaneously generous.
My question is, does my ledger have to reflect my generosity to be avoid being labeled? If you didn't know my whole damn business like I spill it, and just made money and took it out — would I be a dickhead? But now you know I have to pay for all this myself and my kid wears a metal eyepatch to bed and so, okay, that makes sense? Let me ask you, how many people do you condemn for their acts and you simply don't know their situation?
Oh but they're rich?! Shit is relative. I'm rich AF compared to someone starving in a 3rd world country. My 4 cent upvote is a blessing to them, to me I could get that returning my Pepsi can. It's not a slice of bread. It's not 2 sheets of toilet paper. Oh but I'm grateful I have a toilet... which I won't have if I don't pay my bills dudes and dudettes.
I shouldn't have come to Steem to make money. My bad. It's a crypto-currency. It's a platform where you earn for time, work, thought. My bad... not. I put in MY money, money I could put into oh, Tether? Can we chill with cosigning each other's bullshit for 20 minutes?
Opinion
This is my opinion, not advice. Take it or leave it. Here is how I would change things.
Stop trying to tell people how to use their own money. It's not yours. The reward pools isn't everyone's, it's NO-ONE's. The only thing you're entitled to is your power granted by your own vests, that recharges. That's it. Use it how YOU want and don't worry about how other people use theirs.
If you don't like the protocol, learn some code and fix it and stop bitching and make content instead of your content being all about bitching about Steemit. By now if you took all that energy and made a pull request, maybe it would be different. And if not, maybe it's not supposed to be and maybe you got your ideals messed up. Maybe you're not cut for the jungle.
Clearly, if you open your eyes you will see this was never implemented for charity or the charitable at heart. It's quite clear it was designed for business purposes in mind. Does that mean you have to change your values? No. Do you think you're going to win against the core protocol and every backbone account on it? Value your time, money, and life more than that.
Focus on what you're bringing to the table more than what people are taking off the table. Stop slapping people on the wrist when they reach for the bread. You missed the entire point of this experiment.
Is This Negative?
Let's talk about happy things, shall we? :)
If you give a read to the first article I mentioned above, by Jimmy Song, it will explain how a blockchain is a database. Now once upon a time, Steem blockchain was the sole database of a single app called Steemit. And it was mostly used for blogging in a way that developed into a blog culture and community. That is not the case any longer. In addition to there being 50+ working interfaces and apps of all kinds on Steem, there's hundreds in development; and who knows what could pop up. Steemit.com FAQ and all the culture oriented guides only apply to blogging blogs through Steemit.com interface.
SMT's will allow 2 other tokens per post or comment. That will open amazing doors for new ways of using the wallet, memos, apps, and more. Good Person Token is something Steemit will be deploying I guess to help with Identity and other things like rewarding behaviors they define as good.
What's an SMT? Basically, some Steem is BURNED/NULLED to produce a new token. You can make a token right now by NULLING some Steem and doing it the long ugly way. Same idea. It can have it's own subchain/sidechain whatever you want to call it. It can have different rules. Steemhunt is a great example with their predeveloping token concept.
Even more, take a look at apps like Dtube, Steemhunt, Parley and others. You won't see all of Steemit's posts in those apps. That's the future of Steem Blockchain. Steemit is sort of a transparency app that will let you see the deep dark web of Steem Blockchain-- well at least what isn't downvoted. If you install a condenser, you will see even more. The point? Steemit to grow, needs to adopt the same methods as Steemhunt and only show what bloggers want to see OR bloggers need a new interface OR bloggers need to adapt to what's coming beforehand. Because it's going to DESTROY many viable businesses developing on Steem like Steepshot or Decentmemes the more there is controversy and downvoting and things like that. It's clear everyone is not on the same page.
Future
To my understanding — correct me if I'm mistaken — but Good Person token is Steemit's contribution to the validation and identity issue. What will be your contribution? And HF20 is removing delegations upon signup, and bringing a requirement of a minimum of SP to be effective. It's also removing the dust vote and making that SP requirement across the board.
Apps built on the blockchain will be most effective dealing with spam on a visibility level (web level) by hiding and filtering things better. Again, look at how the newer apps are doing it. They don't even show the content from other apps. They will earn Steem and their own coins. They'll probably have their own wallets. They select the content they like and put it on their front page according to their own subjective algorithms.
Likewise, just like the thing I'm doing with my curation blog on steemdaily.press (which is getting a major facelift) and my on-boarding project, same- I'll display what I pick and just not show what I don't pick. Isn't that simple enough?
Websites will be able to post to Steem what it allows and also grab selected content from the blockchain. (So that rules out @scottcbusiness tag indexing ideas along with welcomebots regulations and more.)
Steem Blockchain is slated to become multi-app, with multi-token pools, and more.
What about "Classic Steemit?" Some have found the direction of other coins more their flavor. Others suggest an SMT, sidechain, and interface that operates like a blog without the other apps and interface posts visible. Who knows. But I'm not upset about it. I think it's GOOD for the Steem Blockchain, and the development of Hives brings even more hope because communities can form and regulate themselves according to their own values in a similar way to what's already formed on Discord among the hundred+ Steem based servers there.
Instead of focusing on what's being lost, look toward what could become.
Instead of worrying about this abuse or that abuse (which is admirable, don't get me wrong) imagine all the REDFISH you could have upvoted with that energy, how many posts you could have made with that energy.
Food for thought... I bit it first but I'm still sharing. You grossed out or hungry?
What I wish Steemit would do, is set a limit on self-upvotes. Like this comment.
However, how can I resist doing so?
I have not been keeping up with the future development of Steemit, and SMT's but I believe great things are coming. However, with the flood of pay-for-votes and self-upvotes... This can easily become a platform overrun with spam.
Great blog @omitaylor, honestly it's one of the first I've read in full in a while. Most of the time, I skim-read; Pick out some key words and leave a comment on one that makes it look like I read it.
In my opinion, what you do with your upvote is nobodies business — certainly not mine. It's the 1 thing you're truly entitled to here. And I thank you for sometimes using that to support my efforts here. You don't owe me anything and you've always looked out for what I'm doing. If ever the tables should turn, you and yours are will not be forgotten. ♥️ @rcarter
You are keepin it 100% real!! Detailed analysis, and informative. Thank you for your painstaking work. Warm hugs are in order .. weeklong hugs. Regards to the kids from all of this family here too, the Africans in Korea.
I simply don't see any kind of conforming to a failed evolutionary strategy as beneficial to anyone. Nobody can stop the intended direction of this project. It absolutely will be what it will be. So it's like, what now? Where do we find ourselves given the information? Ya know?
Chop wood, carry water.. Steem on? 😂
@kenistyles 😂 👍 😍 😎
I'm reading this a second time, it's too good. Geez. I got to this which is also a pure gem:
Thanks for the quote. Your affirmations make me feel a little less crazy. I've questioned the soundness of my position; the authenticity of my sentiment here, and where my empathy should reside in the grande battle royale going on. I'm over it. Ha-ha
Phew! Where should I start ? Thanks for having read my post, thanks for mentioning it and for borrowing the screenshot !
I love your writing, I think this is an eminently quotable bit:
"the biggest flaw on Steem is human, and there's no Hardfork for that."
How come Jimmy Song didn't publish that excellent article on Steemit instead of publishing it on Medium, I'm wondering ? I liked this phrase:
"If the rules are insufficient to deter bad behavior, you’re out of luck. There is no “spirit” of the law here. You simply have to deal with malicious or misbehaving actors, possibly for a very long time."
When he writes "Blockchain is a way to sell these IT infrastructure upgrades and make them a bit more appetizing.
Second, blockchain is a way to look like you’re on the leading edge of technology. Like it or not, the word “blockchain” has taken on a life of its own. " it resonates with what I wrote in my post "The Holy Blockchain" not long ago.
How do you manage to know so much about steem and SMTs ? I'm impressed, never heard of Steemhunt for instance, I need to go check it out.
Steem on!
Do I? Sometimes I feel rather weird because I'm fairly new to posting and interacting. I'd assume more people would know more than I, or invest in knowing their investments — financially and personal?
I guess when I worked at Fidelity I learned a little bit about fundamentals of appreciating investments — financial and personal.
As for Steem and SMT's, I'm in Neds telegram chat. I follow all of the development, witness, and steem inc channels accross social media. I read the blockchain ledger. I follow the news. I follow the financial powers, the man-power leaders, the biggest curation and dev projects. I read the git, what's approved and not approved. Im in 100+ discord servers, reading. Idk, I guess you could say I pay forward my attention?
Also I have a lot of inspiration from friends who encourage me to invest in myself and my habitat.
I will read that later today. Thank you so much for your comment and your post. I think both you and @meno posts were very stimulating and informative as well. Thank you for posting as well. You have some interesting thought angles. I like points of view as we cannot all view every side of the elephant at once.
I don't really have much of an opinion about all of this stuff with steemit. My opinion changes all the time with all the stuff I read about it, much like the tide coming in and going out. In the meantime, I just keep sharing my posts and collecting whatever rewards happen to come my way. I don't upvote my comments simply because it's heavily frowned upon by so many people and I'd rather not get put in the naughty corner because of it. I do upvote my posts, simply because the system was set up that way. I usually wait until day 5 or 6 to upvote my post because that way, everyone who upvoted my post befor me get's a bit of my upvote in their curation award for the post. Just another little way of saying "thanks for upvoting my post".
What I'm saying here though @amberyooper ♥️ is, WHO is going to put you in the naughty corner? First of all, who has a right to? Secondly, what's going to happen to you? Do you think you'll lose followers? Do you think people will respect you less? I'm not asking questions with a nasty attitude, but I'm truly curious. Do you think people who vote for you will stop voting for you? Do you feel you may disappoint friends you've agreed with or made allegiances to? I'm deeply curious why being frowned upon would modify a decision you'd make — are you indifferent either way? And why do you upvote your posts last in order to give curators the maximum — do they all vote immediately to give you the maximum of their up-vote? Sincerely curious. ♥️
I think that if I was upvoting my own comments, there are people who upvote my posts that might stop upvoting my posts because some people consider upvoting your own comments to be unacceptable behavior on steemit. That seems to be the more commonly held belief on steemit. There is also the possibility that someone might down vote my comment because I upvoted my own comment.
I upvote my posts last simply because, for me, it seems to be the right thing to do. I always upvote my own posts at 100 % because why not. I value the people who upvote my posts, and that is just a little thing that I can do to thank them in a small way. Most people probably are not even aware that I do this, but that's ok too.
Wow thanks for your honest and thoughtful response. I appreciate your disclosure of your point of view. <3
you're welcome.
Standing round of applause 👏
Damn. Omi laying down the realness as all ways the lioness! I'm out here belly laughing, they ain't ready for you! LMAO "Classic Steem" haha they missed the memo, this ain't no walk.
Comparisons are odious said Huxley, ones caught slipping don't know true liberty or decentralization. Comfort zones in crypto is for the birds, they complaining while Omi out here taking over.
Crypto queens take note, this one KNOW her worth! Keep shining siStar. This epic rant was the bomb and if they miss the delivery oh well. Lead by example as we say each one teach one!
Lol I'm still laughing tho.. gwan tell dem! 😂
Thanks for your kind response. Maybe you shouldn't encourage me so well because a gyal a peppa pot. 😆I don't want to diss anyone or intercept anyone's agenda either. It would be nice for the unintentional sabotage to stop though. Steem will rise with more people on the same page as far as development goes.
Lol sabateurs are up against raw anarchic, viral multiplicity and creative talent. Artistry, passion, vision, community.. ones already putting in work are making it happen and the weak minds always tryna keep a head start.. money can't buy it all though. Steem hustle is unstoppable. Shine on! 🌟
@kenistyles 🙏 You be gassing me up Keni I see you family. Lol. 😍 You're not kidding though. 100—
She went up the mountain and she came down with them ten rules and when she read them out I said, I saw it too! I saw it too! and I was saved! Those who can, get on an do. Those who can't, be bitchinn the fox out of this thing. It's annoying as
Lmao! You crack me up with that reference. It's a catch 22, me bitching about bitching is like spamming about spamming. Life and its silly little mirrors. 👀😆
There's laying it out and saying it straight - and then there's griping with nastiness.. you aren't bitchin, Ma'am. I can bitch often, so I know bitchin when I see it ;-) This here is preachin! ;-) Take care!
Yesterday I responded to some post and then reacted to a reply - considered mentioning you there because this post of yours left such an impact on my thoughts this weekend.. and it was at that moment I realised, nah.. I was bitchin and I wouldn't draw you in to it.. so I deleted the comment and left it at something generic.
That negative energy isn't good - it's like a whirlpool. It just drowns our creativity.
If I may be clear, I'm more highlighting actions. There are many large accounts doing the very thing they claim to be fighting but at a larger scale. It's not difficult for an outside person to deduce. So it's either they're not aware of it, or it's a strategy.
Also, many folks are not mindful of what they validate when extrapolated. We've discussed this before I think and I can show numerous examples of folks trying to modify people's behaviors and are not doing what they THINK they're doing.
Example
Or, they know exactly what they're doing. ;)
Spilling the tea everywhere?
Mwahahaaa yes sir, I seen I seen!! This one was like a steem state of the nation 🙌🏽
I think it's pretty clear that greed is driving the forces behind the "unwritten rules" too. What those posters really want is for everyone who isn't playing the Core Game of creating and discovering content to fuck off, so they can earn much more Steem at a much lower price point, presumably on the theory that it will increase in value later.
That's the underlying mathematical logic of the "stealing the rewards pool" argument, which is otherwise nonsense. But of course they can't say straight out that they want the price to drop or no one would support them.
Cue Imagine Dragons - Demons
I think I'm going to cover this song.
Your hypothesis is totally rational to me. Although I don't think most are fully aware of their subconscious survival and self-sabotage strategies.
I posted that video below because the lyrics are so soul bearing.
Your life seems so hard, I wish you success! Bless you Omi!
Yes you are bang on points how system works right now, I like how you have touched sensitive points about steemit eco-system.
I appreciate you. And I truly appreciate the people I've met through here and I feel incredibly blessed by that. I hope it is known that my sentiments are genuine despite my caustic approaches at times.
It clearly comes from a real place. Any honest interpretation of your article would not see an ounce of 'caustic' - it is in fact an anti-caustic sharing and much needed!
Thank you for your affirmation. I appreciate you sharing. Everything is so interpretative these days. I guess that's the fallout of an international internet. Can't make everyone happy I guess. Must learn to accept that more and value those who vibe with me more.♥️
Never doubted for a moment. 😎
Great work! I wonder if you wrote that as fast as I read it - the writing style had such an urgency about it. Steem press is fantastic
This is really intense.
The old steemit. Blahh.....
One of their games
That is typical of any scene . You should have been here when....
Greetings, omitaylor! I wish you a very inspired experience here in this wonderful community :) Have fun
By the way, there are several groups you as a newcomer can join. They will stay with you for your journey, helping and mentoring along the way.
@greetersguild invite link https://discord.gg/AkzNSKx
@newbieresteemday invite link https://discord.gg/2ZcAxsU
Welcome to Steem, @omitaylor!
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You got a 6.85% upvote from @cabbage-dealer courtesy of @omitaylor!
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What a great post, @omitaylor. You have not only done your homework but really thought things through!
Steem has, long, reminded me of the Usenet with tokens. It seemed inevitable that apps would eventually allow us to take the content we want and leave the rest; just as an Admin can configure their Usenet feed to choose what groups they wish to relay.
100% upvote coming at ya. 🖕
Great analogy. I should have used that instead. :)
Wait so how does this rule out the tags?
As a primary taxonomy used for a number of things (have you looked at the code?) there is absolutely no way to going forward to "moderate" most tag uses. I mean, in a sense, yes. For instance, people who've been hijacking the @steemmonsters tag, I've personally told them that their attention seeking behavior only makes them look dishonest and that I hope nobody votes for their post. (lol) However, there will be potentially thousands of front ends to Steem block-chain. Thousands. Just consider that every SMT a potential front end. Yeah, no way to tell 10,000 companies how to use hashtags or which they can and can't use. The most effective approach is probably going to be that interfaces control what tags are seen (like dtube), and what users/topics are shadowbanned (like steemit), and what tags are accepted by the interface (like steepshot)....essentially, the interfaces will control submission and display.
Steemit.com is now, actually, just a "browser" of almost the entire blockchain.
My local consender shows 100x more, including "old posts" hidden/deleted from old authors. Some of that shit is pretty crazy (o_o)
Yeah for sure, and we already got away post "moderating"
It's more about finding a solution in general. Even just pushing for Steemit and other platforms to have more tags allowed to be used which many others do