First off, I understand completely if there are folks out there that need a starting point that doesn't start at zero. I mean every action needs to have a guaranteed reward at the end of it, right? Maybe I'm just a masochist that appreciates the journey more than the destination. Maybe I'm crazy that I have enough self-control not to take the money upfront. Maybe I'm dumb for wanting an actual challenge then something just given to me for little reason.
That looks hard, doesn't it?
I don't use upvote services and have stopped upvoting my posts because the content itself has no real value after I finish writing it. I mean I had these ideas before I compressed them onto a web page. I'm not providing any additional value to myself. Why should I be rewarded for something that I have done for myself?
I mean at that point, it's like printing money. And while that can be useful, it really isn't fun. It's like entering the cheat codes in a video game. Sure, you beat the game, but are you as satisfied at beating the game as you would have otherwise been not cheating?
Now, I'm not saying that upvoting yourself or using some form of upvote service is a bad thing. And it is certainly not cheating as cheating doesn't really exist in the content production world. But as an artist would you be more proud that you produced mediocre art for lots of money or you produced mediocre art for the sake of art itself? I'm not sure want your answer is, but you can probably guess mine.
There was this one game I played when I was in middle school called Locomotion where you would start a transportation company and build different vehicles and infrastructure to transport goods and services. My one issue with the game was that the game was too easy.
One you reached a certain tipping point, it became easier and easier to make money and less and less fun to play. The part of the game I enjoyed was the tension of not knowing whether or not your business was sustainable enough such that you could pay off your debt. When you have like a trillion dollars, it's not so much fun anymore.
But I keep making video game references and Steem is "real" life. I guess. But you are literally writing to entertain and share ideas with other people. It's not like you're really working and delivering a quality product. The people that actually do this for a living are miles beyond anything I could ever write.
But back to upvote services. I don't need that. So why use it? I want to play the hard version of Steem. Guaranteed money is boring. I don't treat this as a job, I treat it as a hobby. Perhaps that's a luxury but it's not like I don't have a real job to also do concurrently with my writing and curating.
If I wanted to really make money, I would have advertised that upvote bot I build that algorithmically filtered content and gave out proportional upvotes to content creators since apparently that's the shit now. But unlike user authority it wasn't as correlated with reputation and having a ton of SP and was more activity based. But that project was boring and I would rather consume content than build a machine to do that for me.
Besides, by not committing to any projects, I can do whatever the hell I want to. Like randomly flag trending or write about splitting larger tasks into easier to manage bite size pieces. The freedom is good.
So, I guess that's really it. I want to earn your damn upvote, not purchase it like some twelve year buying upgrades on Xbox Live. I get that Steem is pay to win, but I'd rather look good losing and taking satisfaction in the few times that I do win rather than just winning all the time because I start a few feet from the finish line.
Besides, while you're not looking, I'm becoming better and better at what I do because I get authentic (although limited) feedback from my microscopic audience. I actually get criticism and push back from time to time while the perennials get a bunch of people showering them with praise. I don't want more praise, I want more criticism. My post isn't interesting if that is the only thing you have to say about it.
So, if you want to take the fast track to the money, be my guest. This platform allows you to start as far away from the finish line as you want. And I don't want any artificial help. At this point, I know I can't beat the bots. I've lost. That race is over.
I'm just crazy enough to play the rigged game the right way. Or at least my way. I get that folks don't like playing rigged games and that's why no one is around, but I think for the first time, I really have to thank the greedy assholes. You make playing the honest game really hard. And I kind of appreciate that.
Great article.. but I fear you are fighting a rigged game here...
On the other hand after having criticized vote buying and upvote bots so much I am atm undertaking some tests about the IRRs of voting bots... I will know more in the next days.. but atm it looks like even from an economical point of view vote buying makes no sense at all.. at least not for the author buying the upvotes.. and I am pretty sure that I had much less readers than voters...
I mean you can just buy votes for attention and gaining an audience even at a negative profit. I don't think it really matters. People can waste their money if they want to. Most services don't provide a helpful service to community, but if folks want an easier way, its there for them.
I might have fought the rigged game in the past, but I can't change it. I'll play my losing game as long as I feel it is worth it.
true... but if I look at the voted posts its all post promotion bots.. so nobody of those voting for me will actually have red what I was writing about...
as steemit killed the views counter nobody has any clue if people read the articles or not.. apart form people voting for it without paying a voting bot... so in my point of view it makes no sense at all for nobody but the bot operators
Yeah, them killing the views counter made little sense. More than anything they should kill the money counter rather than the view counter. One has more applicable large-scale value than the other in terms of determining network health. Not sure why they got rid of it.
I like a challenge as well. When I was using @smartsteem it was all a test to see if I could manipulate curation... you totally can, but then they started cracking down and leeching more tax so I gave up.
I played a game... I can't remember it let me look it up...
Indeed! It was called Pharaoh and it was an Egyptian Simcity game. It was only fun when you didn't know if you'd make it. The last half (or more) of every level was grinding out an objective after you became self-sufficient. Racing the import/export overhead was the fun part. You could do things like pay your workers less but that would reduce their morale and possibly cause other problems.
As far as buying votes is concerned, it's totally not worth it most of the time. You'll lose money. The trending tab has been sold out. All the big accounts don't take it seriously anymore because everyone with stake knows exactly how much of a joke it is.
I agree with you. I’m not sure how many will or won’t and it doesn’t really matter. I suck ass at writing good quality articles that anyone would actually purchase or care to even read if it wasn’t on Steemit. I don’t really upvote myself either and I only randomly purchase a bid bot. I think you actually end up losing money on them lol. It’s pretty shitty when you have a $40 post with no comments at all. I’d much rather have a $0.40 post with 10 real people talking to me.
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Yeah, I usually appreciate the engagement over the vote because when someone leaves an meaningful comment it shows that someone is listening. And it's occasionally nice to engage about ideas with actual human beings.
I can definitely understand your position.
I also have a small amount of views/upvotes on my posts and sometimes I wonder if I really shouldn't use bot services. Last months I have stopped drastically, and now I only do it when I see an incredible opportunity to get a big ROI. (for example, this market prices)
If the token continues to decrease in price, the overall ROI in terms of value isn't as positive as people make it out to be. More coins doesn't necessarily mean more money if the blockchain dies out. Just something to think about.
Oh but that´s only true if you believe something like this can die before reaching the moon. I don´t, that´is why bots are pretty profitable right now... sometimes. :D
The notion of a moon is ridiculous. It reeks more of blind optimism more than anything. What inevitable force has to drive the price up?
Why aren't you submitting your programming stuff to @utopian-io? I bet they'd give you huge upvotes.
That would be too easy. Besides I don't think I really want to develop that much myself. I would rather come up with ideas and share. By programming where nobody is looking, I feel less accountable to anybody.