Alright, friends. Gather ‘round. This one isn’t going to have any pinup photography. It’s just a freewrite, sharing some thoughts, venting some frustrations and heaping some praise. This has been a very disruptive time for me in regards to the blockchain world. Sometimes disruption is good. Sometimes it’s too much, and you can’t get your footing. That’s where I’ve been for the last few weeks. As many of you know, Block One launched the beta for Voice. I was excited for it, not as an alternative to Steemit, but in addition to Steemit. During this same time, I joined UºS Community, Steemit was sold to @justinsunsteemit, Steemit soft forked, BitCoin went over $10K and almost below $8K. I kind of have blockchain whiplash.
I think this post is meant to give an honest look at Voice, but I’m certainly doing so with a Steemit bias. That bias, however, is something that’s going to be shared on Voice as well. I know there’s a lot of ugly history on how @dan left Steemit. A lot of feelings of betrayal, but in his defense, most of the interviews I’ve seen on the subject came down to having repeated disagreements in @ned’s stubborn vision and leadership. I have to say, I’m sympathetic to that as a Steemit user because as it turns out, @ned’s been a dumpster fire as a CEO. I’ve followed @dan’s work with EOS, and as many of you know, I’m a Media Producer at @eos.detroit, so the launch of Voice has been something I’ve anticipated since June of last year.
As the launch of Voice beta drew closer, some of the euphoria and optimism began to wear off. KYC was a big ding, but I understand it as a philosophy. All social networks have to reconcile that, and whether to have identity verification, or not; the advantages and disadvantages of either. Then, the second shoe dropped. Content restrictions. It sucks, because I am a photographer. As much as I may like porn, I don’t shoot porn. This was the first conscious revelation in just how good we have it at Steemit. It’s not that I wouldn’t be able to show off some of my more erotic art, but that it's a massive red line through free speech. It certainly isn't an alternative to Facebook, Instagram and other mainstream social networks, which Voice is claiming to be.
Now the token economy is active, even though Voice tokens won’t have value until after the beta ends. All tokens will be reset at that time. Fuck, though. It’s already a shit show. It is beta, so I trust things will improve, but for a community that has a stake based token economy that isn’t currently available to buy on exchanges, I don’t see where the bragging rights are in having the most Voice. “The most”, to me, means you’ve been disproportionally rewarded and rather than redistributing those rewards […Voice tokens actually come from your direct wallet, not a chain based reward pool like STEEM] you’re hoarding them like a dragon on a pile of gold.
The early culture, so far, seems to be greedy and a gaming hierarchy. I hope it changes, but for now, it’s really gross. Maybe I’m idealizing things a bit, and maybe all hierarchies are like this […which could explain why I tend to be on the bottom of them both in the real world and internet world], but the glorification of getting the most, giving back the least, and watching the accounts that produce the worst content […in my opinion] get all the rewards is really discouraging. It’s so counter-intuitive. Great. You’ve gamed the entire community out of a reasonable distribution and you have 90% of the economy. No one comes. The ones that do won’t stay, and the value is almost worthless. You win. I guess?
Steemit did start like that, and I remember it. It was the early days. My first post made $1600 and my head exploded. My next ten posts made about $0.23, and I’d watch @charlieshrem just milk the reward pool like crypto-udders. It almost made me quit, because I understood this was a game, and you didn't win it by creating stellar content. Later came @jerrybanfield and the upvote bots began. Sadly, I think the upvote bots were a response to the average user feeling like they couldn’t get visibility or decent rewards without them. It was a vicious cycle. Curation initiatives likes @ocd, @curie and hard forks that attempted to lateralize rewards were the only thing that helped keep Steemit from eating itself alive.
I’m getting out of Minnesota tomorrow. It’ll be my first travel since August. Some work, some pleasure. I’ll be kicking it with @roadscape for a few days, giving him my thoughts, as a user, on how impactful Hive and Communities have been on Steemit these last few weeks. I’m looking forward to brainstorming on the novels I’ve been chipping away at. @roadscape and I tend to get lost in these deeply enlightening conversations about humanity, governance, future technology, purpose, both as individuals and as societies. It’s great fodder for fiction and good for the mind and soul. Thanks for giving me a platform to air my feelings, but rest assured Steemit, I love you.
I think these platforms, as much as they try to be idealistic, just reflect reality. That is to say, in reality, we (humans) are a bunch of greedy, self-centred creatures. There are some very few exceptions here and there, but left to our own devices, we will spiral down into a cesspool of greed and self-destruction.
Yes, you're probably right. The Dan Larimer vision is that collectively, as a group, win-win scenarios might make us transcend this.
I think, in reality, humans are actually good deep down, we have just forgotten how to act because society has taught us to be this way.. But if you have ever experience a natural disaster, people dont think about things or stuff, only humanity and its a beautiful thing.. This matrix world we live in projects fear and encourages greed, so we are just literally just products of our environment..
You're such a modern day hippie! You're also probably one of the good ones :). Unfortunately I don't think we really are good deep down. Otherwise when you remove accountability and consequences most humans wouldn't almost immediately devolve into evil.
Walking down the streets, often what's stopping that guy you've just walked past from smashing your head in and taking your stuff, is the law and consequences :/
I think you are forgetting one trait the humans have (this has also been observed in several animal species)...empathy. Without it we would all be sociopaths. The fact that we can put ourselves in someone else's shoes is the main reason that we do not act like greedy bastards every day of our lives.
Of course there are individuals who lack empathy and those are the ones that gravitate to activities where they can act out their disfunction such as law enforcement, the military, politics or CEO's.
I don't know about anyone else but I don't go about my day supressing any impulses to screw over my neighbors just because I am fearful of the consequences...the thought doesn't even cross my mind.
I like to think I'm one of the good ones ;) LoL. But don't we all?
I disagree with the ideal that criminals would run rampant if there was no law, that is something we are indoctrinated to believe from a very young age. That is done on purpose so we crave governments and "security."
What about the "wild wild west"? Or the mid-evil times? There was no law and people still survived and created lives for themselves. They built communities to help protect each other, they didn't need a governing body.
So you're saying people are only good out of fear? That without government everyone would just kill eachother? That we can't take care of ourselves without a governing body? That's simply not true. There are criminals and bad shit that happens now in a society, so what has changed? Nothing.
In all honesty its much worse because governments create wars, drop bombs and fire missiles at innocent people. They kill and harm far more people than any criminals or thugs ever could. So how is it better? Because it's under the guise of "safety, security or freedom"???
The truth is the system we live in (the matrix) creates fear so they can control people. It pushes greed. It divides us. It teaches us that money is more important than people and it keeps us at odds with each other on everything it can so we are weak as a whole. This system is not for humanities benefit, only for control.... I personally can't be supportive of a system like that.
But that's just one hippie's OPINION, so we may have to agree to disagree ;) Sorry this got so long and I promise I wasn't trying to come off as a dick, only trying to express my views. Take care friend :0)
YES!
Fear of your parents, police, government and God
By the way, "Government" is made of people, who are inherently evil. When the government itself gets too powerful and isn't accountable to anyone, they immediately do bad things like said killings and bombings you mentioned. They pillage funds and make corrupt choices.
The wild-wild-wild west era and medieval times were terrible times!! haha. People bonded together in clans in order to protect themselves from evil outsiders. It's where tribes, and society, really come from - protection from those outside that group. It's a self preservation measure.
So you're telling me that if all laws were gone then tomorrow you would go out to rape and pillage? You would steal and harm innocent people? Of course you wouldn't because you have morals (or at least I assume most people do).
You wouldn't stand up for injustices that you saw? You wouldn't help someone who is being beaten or robbed? You wouldn't help to create a community?
Why do you think the wild wild west times were bad? Because of history books (more propaganda). Many people liked it the way it was, with no laws. I know I would've. Sure the medieval times were probably a bad reference, but what I'm saying is any kind of ruling class is terrible, whether it be oligarchies, governments or anything in between.. The whole system is fucked.
I wouldn't. God is watching me apparently. Also I'm quite wealthy in those two departments already. I'd be the one guarding my stuff, and sisters, from the mob.
Probably not. I'd be too busy trying to get away from the situation and hide from the mob. If there truly were zero consequences for those people, I'd be next on the beat up/kill list. Those people being beaten wouldn't stand up for me either haha.
Depends on who you are doesn't it? If you were a native American ("Indian"), or an African American at the time, I bet you wouldn't like it so much. I'm sure life was good for the young, strong white cowboy who could ride into anywhere and take whatever he wanted without consequence.
This I agree with 100% :)
You should get into motivational speaking :D
Edit: or become a Catholic priest
Haha!
googles "can you make money from motivational speaking?"
Damn. I haven't checked it out much at all, don't even think I signed up for the beta. Only read a post from @bozz about it but I find it kind of funny/sad that there's already so much greed even though it's beta and they know the tokens will be reset. Is there anything that won't be reset that could give the current beta testers and edge in rewards when it launches? Only thing I could think of to point to the greed you mention other than human nature and the way coins usually work where early birds get the biggest worms.
Anyway, I'm very optimistic about Steem's future and the current curation/distribution taking place. Communities sure have changed a lot of things/perspectives and mindsets. It's not easy to get this right as it's all still so experimental but the EIP sure did wonders and I regret we didn't implement it sooner, better late than never though. Let's focus on how we can improve it even more. SMTs will surely be a nice way to find even better models.
Hey, happy to see that my post reached someone :)
Thx for sharing your experience with Voice, the second show-stopper for me is that the Beta has a regional restriction, it's U.S.-only which is against the borderless nature of open, public, censorship-resistant blockchains. I even cannot register for that reason, and read in the announcement that you even cannot change the profile picture?! It has to be the selfie took from the KYC process (wtf). On the plus site, the website looks really nice from what I have seen so far. But overall the concept does not align with our open crypto and blockchain culture in my opinion. Steemit although not perfect is the only true blockchain-based social media in my opinion right now.
I don’t think the platforms are the problem these day but in human nature, all men are greedy and that alone will always cause a certain kind of hierarchy in any network... 🤷🏼♂️😂
Good review, and thank you for this. I signed up to be notified when acct creation was available and got the email link a few days ago. I went to the site to sign up and IMMEDIATELY kyc made me leave. To each his own I guess with blockchains.
Right, @broncnutz. It’s almost a deal breaker for me. They also force you to use your government issues ID name, as of now. I think they’ve said that’ll change in the future but my entire brand is build on a DBA that I’ve used for almost 20 years. There are also lots of legitimate reasons people can’t use real names.
I agree. the KYC is a huge turnoff.
Voice is a scam, @kommienezuspadt, glad you have understood it :)
I hope it improves, @lighteye. I try to not let my aggravation with the early culture throw the baby out with the bath water. There are some great artists and publishers of worthwhile original content on the platform so far, like Steemit. They’re not getting anywhere on Voice, though, as far as I can see. It’s a vote trading game and unless you’re willing and able to do that, you’re left out of the pink and purple circle. For a network that claimed to be a better iteration of Steemit, I’m not seeing it.
Looking forward to hearing some of what comes out (and is shareable) from the "@roadscape chronicles" :)
I saw a tweet by Brock Pierce yesterday:
Aong other things, he explains there's basically 3 different groups in the crypto community: The Cypherpunks, The E-Golds and the Gamers.
I would guess the Gamers group is a big part of the EOS community. They would approach any system with a mentality that says 'I'm here to take all the loot and win this game'.
Dan was very interested in Pixelmaster when it launched on EOS. I think it inspired him to have similar game theory in voice. It does seem to be a game and people are playing apparently with no regard for the content and maybe at this stage it is good so that the mechanics can be refined.
With only around 500 Beta users, all who are crypto heads I think at this point all we will really get are metrics on their interests and speculative tendencies.
I hope when it opens for the general public it will become more diverse with art and music and all other content finding a well supported niche, even NSFW content.
Can't wait to get involved and I really hope that for the final launch all wallets will be wiped clean and we can all start on the same level. What beta testers will get for their participation is the knowledge they will have to play the game.
Nice write up. I have a lot of the same feelings as you about the whole thing. I am hoping that the whole "like" incentive thing pans out because it is going to be hard to be the top Voice. I am not even sure you would want to be the top voice given the way the awards work. You almost want to be the person who got beat out by the one with the top voice. I have no doubt that @dan put a lot of effort into this, he had plenty of time to think about what he would do differently. I mentioned that in my review of Voice I did last Monday on Steem. It will be interesting to see where this all heads. I am not sure it is going to be the vehicle I was hoping it would be for me to cross post my Steem content. Dang, I can't even imagine a $1600 post. The $.23 is what I am more used to :) !
I tried to get to beta when they announced it in June, but not US citizen so not for me. I understand why they did that but it sucks as a reputation of a free social network (they build a big wall and it is working :) )
As i don't have access to it, i could only browse around the site and reading how it will work looks a bit... KYC and the checks given to a private company (forgot the name but when i searched i did not like what they do) is not that great for even less paranoid people.
I get what they say they are trying to do, as no bots but with KYC and their rules there are 2 options. Everyone will be banned, or Voice will be a really great "big company" work environment feeling comunity. As everyone will be fake enough to not be really them.
As i said it few days ago. it sounds like a great place for cat photos.
Great read, wonder how the situation will unfold. Maybe they will also start to change the system so better quality posts can get better rewards. Also very nice blog :)
Mathew-Effect, the name + profile picture which has most authority, will make the race. A mechanism is bad as long as it is no collision resistant game mechanism. Vitalik had a great talk @ETHNewYork about why all those platforms suck and he is right. Fan boy shit will end no where.
Whoa, never really seen you wrote about this kind of things much so it's good read what your opinion is. Safe travel to Minnesota and say hi to roadscape for me :D
Good to hear your voice on the subject, being informed. I don't like the control that the handful of witnesses have over the entire blockchain - not at EOS nor at STEEMIT. This place has not worked out well it seems. Someone needs to reinvent this blockchain without the failed centralized DPoS or whatever they use for so much centralized control. It has virtues but it is also against the cardinal code of blockchain in my opinion.
By the way, is there any hope for UOS? It has ground to a bit of a halt as far as content and adoption.
I definitely don't like KYC but I suppose this may be something to try for the hell of it.
Thanks for the review! Not sure if I'll try it or not. I only have time for so many social media, but... I still want to look into it more at some point and maybe some of the problems you mentioned will be addressed over time..? Still though, sounds more censored/centralized/controlled over there and that's one thing I like about steem! I appreciate how free steem is.... Freedom is important to me and I haven't been censored over here yet. Anyways, I'm starting to ramble I think. Thanks again for the review!
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Sounds like a second try at Trybe.one if it's still there
Wow, I don't really read long post but this kept my attention until the end. I don't think these platforms are the problem, unfortunately when there is money/crypro involve the human always show the true colors.
Thanks for the post. Cheers :D
I agree with you
There is a small storm in the Crypto markets at the moment with BTC and others diving. Fly above it and observe like an eagle. This too shall pass!
I Love❤steemit
Thank for sharing My friend
And happy wekend for you
100%!!!
Any design of a steem like community needs to be built knowing people will try and game it. It has to be part of the design to make it harder to game. I'm not even anti KYC, if it meant one user, one vote. But it sounds like Voice has some issues. Steem was so close to "working" it only needed a few tweaks, but greed and a shitty absentee leader prevented anything from getting better
Congratulations @kommienezuspadt!
Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade in the following category:
Good post. I was excited about voice when it was first announced and I even tried to sign up for the beta. Unfortunately, during my sign up process, my internet connection dropped for a few minutes (my ISP was doing maintenance) and because of that signup interruption I am locked out of the Voice Beta which sucks.
I didn't know that voice has content restrictions though which I can understand for your content could be an issue. I do like your photography btw.
Also so where do the voice tokens come from then? If you "upvote" a post do you give them some of your tokens or does the system create tokens?
This means, if I like your content, my voice balance is paid to you ? If so this is like BAT
Sheesh! after reading this post and the other one from @taskmaster4450, now I'm totally convinced. I'm gonna run like a freaken lightning on an ambulance to the Voice website to open my account immediately. Where I sign to giveaway my soul? };)
After the much hype and anticipation, made us feel we would all missed out if we didn't join the early birds and had to Pre-register but only to be inform it has a region restriction and meant for the US for now.
Just on a Beta stage and they are already milking the cow.
People who are quick to criticize other platforms,mostly come out with something worse. Why the long wait and yet couldn't fix things properly.
KYC
Region restriction
Content restriction (What is Voice, if you can't voice your opinion freely?)
These are turn off already
Hi, thanks for sharing your thoughts on Voice.
I like to have my eyes and ears open to new platforms, especially when it comes to blockchain ones. I did register for Voice but was very disappointed with them. First they launched only for US Residents and second, I really hate the KYC process. I do understand verification but I hate having to show my profile picture on public.
I believe there are a bunch of better alternatives, and of course we shall know in good time what will last.
Again, thanks for posting this review :)
Greetings from Greece