Do you remember Steemit's First Playmate @brendazambrano? The one that the whales upvoted to 13,000 dollars? She made 3 posts 3 weeks ago earning over 15,000 dollars and POOF, up and disappeared. The claim? "I have almost 1.5 million followers in my country, between Facebook, Twitter and Instagram."
Do you guys think she will be back? How many people do you think she actually brought to Steemit?
I see she has been active on her Twitter. Is Steemit missing something that prevents ease of access or why are we not completely dominating the other forms of social media yet?
My question to you @ned. Was she worth it?
100,000 to 1 person without much of a consistent track record on Steemit
-or-
or 1,000 to 100 people with consistency, actively being part of Steemit
"Celebrities" have plenty of opportunities outside. I'd personally agree with getting "celebs" with understanding and appreciation of blockchain technnology ( @dollarvigilante is a great choice)... but other than that, for the network to grow, smaller cuts distributed amongst dedicated Steemers is a much preferable strategy (which is happening now as well! - a good thing).
This thing called "social influencers" are already a dead concept in the blogging space (I know because Malaysia was really big on bloggers, which re-branded themselves as social influencers.. which in the end amounts to nothing but just a way to collect the attention of -gawkers-, not -doers-). Plus, dedicated Steemers can at least guide other users in the process, albeit with lesser reach than someone with star power.
We need originality and not just passive influencers, but active and dedicated -participants- with skin-in-the-game to make things happen within (and outside) the network itself. #justsaying
PS: I personally agree with the sentiment of this post, but probably not the "witch-hunt", the votes were their decision anyway, although bringing this to light may help in some ways, especially making informed decisions.
Great points. I think the people doing this sort of thing are trying to help but it can backfire as it encourages just the sort of game playing that @noganoo is pointing out and dose not reward those active participants who have stuck with it and helped to build the community.
Ultimately these issues will resolve themselves or Steemit will lose it's place to a competitor which does it better.
That's the beauty of the free market.
Well said, and good point @thecryptofiend.
Its an interesting post. I'm glad you followed this story and brought it to everyone's attention. I think there are several questions this brings up.
Hahah, I laughed when I saw that you said she was a C list celeb.
It was interesting what has happened to some of these chicks. Looking back at the chick who did the huge makeup tutorial's first couple post I would have thought that was a catfish situation where some dude just used a hot girls pics from Instagram and then she turned out to be real.
She actually comes back and still posts quite a bit too. She also promotes steemit. @guerrint is her handle. She is legit and I'm glad she is dedicated. That makeup tutorial didn't do much for me because I'm a guy, but she did know her material and she put a lot of work into it.
It also did get a lot of people rushing to the platform making makeup tutorials. I wonder how many of them stuck around. LOL
@dollarvigilante did bring a lot of different people with him. We just need more as dedicated as he was to getting his people here, but in different areas of interest.
This is one of the many reasons that made me mad sometimes at Steemit. Bimbos flaunting their asses get numerous votes by you-know-who (can't they just watch porn on adult websites and just be satisfied?) while others with tame content languish in the dark. There is no justice in this world.
I don't think steemit whales, especially those from official team, should vote up random contents, because their power is too high.
We are seeing quite a few different forms of scams hitting steemit, and some of them can be difficult to test. Pay someone to hold up a sign and take some photos. Totally possible and we've seen it happen with other cases. I've seen other investigations where they found the girl that was hired for another post (don't remember the post from weeks ago or I'd share it). @klye is also tracking other types of questionable activities, but those are not necessarily whales. They are however, potentially creating future questionable whales.
Interesting article my friend... And then you had to go and drag me into it.
Good point though that you made by the comparison. 1 intro post makes thousands. Yet, I, for example and so many others, have never had a four figure post. Many haven't even got a four figure net worth. In the past five weeks on Steemit I have only worked my "regular job" for 10 days (the equivalent of 2 weeks). Almost all the other time has been spent writing and taking pictures for Steemit. This is because I want Steemit to succeed because I want to succeed. Without serious commitment, it will not work.
Thanks for bringing things like this up for discussion and awareness, and for getting me steeming in the first place.
Let's all do what we can to really make this thing work!
I've never had a 4 figure post either. I post a lot. I've had three posts hit 3 figures. I've had some comments hit 3 figures. Yet I'm pretty happy. Overall. I do appreciate people doing these types of investigations though. It is wonderful how revealing the system is when people can't hide their transactions from the blockchain. They could send them out to some other exchange and do whatever they wanted. Yet that one 2000+ sbd transfer to a bot. That was really interesting.
I'm glad to be here too, and glad that I can make something by posting. Nice job on 3 figure comments. I'm guessing those were on big paying posts?
I wonder about the future though, I've seen a lot if minnows swim off the deep end lately...
I believe we'll be around in the future. It may be like the start of any crypto currency for awhile but really this place seems too addictive to be a failure at this point.
As to big payout posts. Most yes, but I had three @chaospoet (that's me too) comments do 3 figures each on the same blog entry as I managed to pull off a pretty deep dialog only using poetry. (luck) I think that entire blog post might have hit four figures barely and my @chaospoet stuff was a bunch of it. I sent the original author some SBD as thanks even though he didn't require it as he is one of those doing quite a bit better than you and I. That was my single greatest payout. I don't post with @chaospoet a lot though so as not to wear out his novelty. I do most of my work here on my personal account.
I guess he's also a fan of yours @papa-pepper
I certainly do not mind that! ;-)
All the A lister's here also will run watch. This is why minnows need to be the focus and grassroot them up into the system. Not saying A listers don't have a place here ,but they should start with a lower rep/ or something and be made to earn it. Minnows should start at the top.
I was just looking at those transfers a few minutes ago! What are the odds?
Yeah, it seems a bit fishy to me. Why would a "playmate" be transferring a bunch of SBD to another user in a bunch of different transactions. Or maybe he's doing some work for this playmate that we don't know about? It's a little strange, for sure.
@noganoo
The politics here in Steemit are definately very complicated. I am not sure were all this is going to go but I am trying to do the best I can with some friends so we can help the situation.
The RobinHood Whale is one of those initiatives.
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@robinhoodwhale/hi-i-am-robinhood-whale-and-here-is-my-story-from-the-blockchain-folklore
I also think that instead of wasting money on celebrities that will bring trash people with them (vigilante-like, celebrity-like) it woul be best to advertise outside or to real professional writers.
While I agree with your sentiment towards @brendazambrano's smash and grab tactic, just be aware that in a platform with no rules essentially. many mistakes will be made but many lessons will be learned. You're helping with the lesson on this post.
That said, opportunities come in many forms and rarely do you have enough information to make a decision with a high degree of confidence of a positive outcome.
I would take the bet on upvoting @brendazambrano again, just because its so new and there's so many directions things can go.
The transfers are very interesting though...
Interesting. So she got onto the first page using upvote bots, and presumably then the community (including the big whales) upvoted her thinking she was virally popular?
This is her facebook post "promoting Steemit": https://www.facebook.com/BrendaZambranoC/posts/567130480143900
She has 1,447,215 people who like her page,
but the Steemit post has only 64 Likes on it!
Either she doesn't know how to proper advertise or her PR's....If you translate the text, she says she "won the money"? wtf?
well... even the whitepaper calls steem a "lottery"...
in all fairness, facebook controls the reach of any given post. they have sophisticated algorithms that can detect when a post is promotional... and they bury them unless you PAY THE MONEY
the issue is more the assumption that she would benefit the platform... i think it was pretty far fetched... but it doesn't really matter in the end
Pssst.... In a post I've read where someone invested money to promote steemit by bying ads on various sites like, reddit and some crypto exchange ones, when he put it on facebook as soon as it hit 6 "hits" Facebook took it down...
Too late to regret shit everything has been done cannot be undone now. Thanks too all "whales" being double standard to not so many follower user. I don't have 1.3 millions followers but I tried so hard to let people know about steemit.
I wish I can look at my reff how many people already click under my reff link .
Btw following you from now on . Cheer up mate
Great work interweb detective nog!
CRIME!
dan probably downvoted it because it wasn't plagiarized
c'mon guys are we seriously asking this?
First of all it's boobs. Boobs are and will always be successful. Especially famous boobs. So yeah, Ned upvoted some boobs to oblivion, cut the guy's mouse off...jeez...and yes it was worth it. Just like with DV, these people had a life before Steemit. A life in which they invested a lot, built up a name, and are now associating their name with Steemit. Steemit is the winner, and yes, it does pay a price as it should. It created exposure for Steemit which is much needed if we want to grow.
Second, the whales are not stupid as some may consider it. Did you also check her posts history? She had that 13k one, then she tried again but it only got to 2k, then she tried again and got 16 bucks. Unless she was going to start adding value, she was never going to hit more money. At the time of the first post, did people know she was going to do that? No.
Same thing happen to DV. He had his initial post, got 15k, then when bragging about it and milking Steemit, he got shut down. If he didn't change the attitude and start contributing, he would have had the same faith as the playmate. But he started adding value, leveraging more of this pre-Steemit worked statute towards Steemit, and it pays off.
I don't think:
Not entirely true check out @girlsgonewild a few cents here and there.
From what I know @brendazambrano is her account. She posted a video with a steemit t-shirt and also mentioned it on her Social
Media accounts.
I dissagree with all your other povs as you're looking at it too dramatically. Calling playmates prostitutes and the whales foolish is too much imo. I don't like B & K either, they won't bring value but would bring exposure and millions of users to the platfrom.
Yeah, my bad on the downvote, checked and I didn't see it right I guess. Edited my comment to take that statement out.
Getting people with social capital on board is absolutely worth it. In this case we may have overestimated someone's social capital (she made posts about SteemIt on Facebook and Twitter which got a few likes, while her selfie shortly after was shared by thousands), but it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I do hope she keeps posting here. Her really big first two payouts may have set expectations too high, and the third one was essentially "give me money to give to my friends" which flopped.
I don't particularly care if her boyfriend is handling her account. She is clearly involved, as you see from her videos.
Go on....take the money and run. wooowhoowoo! Sorry, Steve Miller band kept circulating through my head while reading this. She very well could have just taken the quick money grab and been out. Said to see it leave steemit that way, but in the end the community voted on her posts.
This might be why I don't by random girls drink at the bar.
Good work....just check some other posts. I'm following you now.
As long as there are opportunities like this, which could be bend and faked in one way ore another, it will always attract these kind of people. Like fat flies on a big turd in the sunshine .
Don't know, how much are a million likes on Facebook nowadays?
Some everyday users are also. Why was my post flagged? It was warned of offensive content. If we need to war..... I'm willing. Have my real account ready
Wow I just came across this post. Great detective work!
there are still Steem worth of 1800$ on that account -.-