I've sat here putting up with your insults long before I even downvoted, and you're calling me a bully? That doesn't make sense.
whatever anybody is planning doesn't give them the right to bully people into behavior they deem appropriate.
You're attempting to bully me and make me out to be some kind of a villain and all I did was curate within the rules. Rules that have existed for over three years. According to you, you have no right to bully people into behavior they deem appropriate — so why are you insulting me? Was it my behavior? Do you even see yourself and how you're acting? You lost nothing and got exactly what you paid for. Nobody came here with plans to knock your post down into the negative or attack you personally. I, and by the looks of it, a few others, felt some of the resources used to place the post on trending were unnecessary and wasteful, so those resources were returned to the pool, for others to have access to, since the pool is shared. You're still on the trending page. You got what you paid for. What's the problem?
This is true, no guarantees. However, I have tried to explain to you already, the most valuable content takes too much of an investment in time and money to take the risk of being downvoted IN ADDITION to not being "liked" i.e. upvoted on its own merits. So these content creators will leave or never join in the first place because they can't win, no matter what. What's left is a few idealists and that's not enough.
Downvotes have existed for three years. I've been here the entire time and so have many others. The organic experience has, for the most part, been more than welcoming for producers. I'm proof of that. I've helped many "win". Not everyone wins though, but that's normal for the entertainment industry.
As for the music analogy, I get what you're saying, but only the abusive and fraudulent posts get stomped on. You're still on the trending page. You're positioned slightly higher than I am, currently. You paid for your slot, I'm moving up organically. We're both finding the success we wanted. You wanted eyes and instant gratification, I wanted to work for eyes and hopefully earn some rewards and damn it would be nice to do something that goes viral, because that would pay more, just like anywhere else. How can you act like it's all doom and gloom, when the reality of the situation is there to observe. Eventually, you're going to want to succeed organically, correct? Isn't that why you're attempting to buy attention? We're both proving to the world what can be done, and how. In three years, wouldn't you have enough of a following to get somewhere organically? I'd hope so. For the past two years, we haven't been able to reach the top slots organically, but now we can, because of these changes and the hardfork. Why spend money promoting if you don't have a venue once you find success? If you can't have an organically popular post, what's the point? Why even promote?
The problem is, you won't have much to curate.
That's bullshit. Besides, for the past two years, most folks ignored the trending page and curated the ACTUAL content that wasn't advertisements. People paid to be seen on some of the worst real estate the platform had to offer. The rest of the folks purchasing votes simply blend in with the rest of the crowd. That "visibility" stuff they market is bullshit and still up to the content producer to provide something people enjoy, and for the most part, there's no way of knowing what people will enjoy.
What do you think happens every time a Steemian is disappointed for whatever reason and leaves? What kind of reputation does Steem get in other social media? How do you think the negative vibe of massive downvoting will play there?
You folks purchasing votes literally bury other members content. Like I said at first, buying votes is the same as downvoting, it has the same result. Folks buying votes and stomping on those who didn't buy votes forced people out. Why don't you care about those folks? Don't pretend you give a crap about people when you'd gladly take away what they had to work for.
And if everyone bought votes just to keep up, the entire model stops functioning. You'd buy votes and your post would get buried within seconds after 1000 more people buy the same thing. Think about it. Your husband calls them shit coins and I can see why you folks don't value those rewards. They'd have far less value if $40 became the new starting point of $0.00 simply because everyone purchased $40 or got buried. That's the most dysfunctional business model on the entire blockchain and the moment it becomes as successful as it possibly can is the exact moment it becomes useless. And that's what you support, which to me, is silly and selfish.
That would be 1000 people all earning next to nothing, while those selling the votes laugh all the way to the bank, for doing nothing. Giving access to earning that many tokens easy then drives the value of the token down, meaning the next round of content producers stands a chance of earning even less, while the vote sellers are still laughing. Meanwhile, there's no one around to actually LOOK at the posts, because you're paying them all to look away, so the visibility line, again, is total bullshit.
And those established Youtubers would need curators. They're not going to come here after gaining thousands of followers, just to be buried by a noob with 90.
Another thing I should add is: Normally I'd upvote a few comments when people spend so much time debating. Debate can be healthy, provided it's productive. I also need to consider the value of my investment though, and that's also something you need to consider. If I upvote, you'll sell instantly, and that contributes to driving the value of my property down, so it's unwise for me to do so. That's why, early on, I suggested it's wise to become part of the community, rather than doing things that work against the community. Those who follow that advice often find success. This platform is still somewhat in its infancy and many don't know the ins and outs, they simply bring the old ways with them and assume that's all it takes. Learning the ropes here though is necessary and combining all knowledge is a huge asset.
My account value, after producing content for a little over a year, was once worth nearly a quarter million dollars. That's what's possible for a content producer if we take care of the investment. Making the tokens worthless and just a tool to rank content is insane. Making the tokens harder to earn and offering incentives to hold the tokens helps the value increase. That's common sense here.
I do thank you for your time though, and I think the art looks cool. I do similar things from time to time, but hand painted digitally.