You are welcome to be on Steem, but you need to build a following to support you. I realise that is working with a small pool for now, but we need pioneers willing to give it a try. Any Steem you earn has potential to be more valuable.
I downvoted the post as the rewards are just not justifiable when others make cents for good content from 'organic' votes. People do appreciate the real interaction they can get here. Just milking the bots is being punished now in an effort to make Steem work as intended. Nothing is perfect, but there is still potential here.
Well either way quite the way to welcome back after a 2 month break due to life events, moving, jobs etc... Makes me want to power the rest of the way down and leave for good. Wow.
That's your choice. Downvoting is as valid as upvoting and this post is over-valued. It will look selfish to everyone here. Can you see that? Steem was intended to work using user curation, but the vote sellers exploited the exceptional freedom we have on Steem.
Alternatively you could power up and support other photographers whilst earning from curation. It's not like it's worth selling Steem right now. We have new tokens based around photography and creativity with their own sites where you can trend without buying votes. There's an opportunity to build something new that does not depend on advertising and everyone has a chance to earn something.
So you want to leave because you can no longer milk the rewards like you used to under a broken economic model?
I downvoted this post not because it was a bad post or because I have any ill will towards you. I downvoted it only because we can't let people buy enough votes to put their posts into Trending and also profit from it. There has to be a negative ROI to buying votes to reach Trending because Trending is the most valuable real estate on front ends such as Steemit.
I try to downvote everything in Trending that didn't get there on organic votes only. Not just you. Nothing personal. Welcome back.
So you're saying that if you were a new user you'd like to see the spammy looking posts currently on trending over my or others photography or original art? What do you exactly want to spend that "real estate" on?
It's up to the community to decide how valuable each piece of content is. You used bid bots to grab about $107 from the reward pool (which is finite) to the bid bot delegators and owners + about $5 to yourself. It's fine as long as you decline rewards or burn (have @null as the beneficiary) enough of the rewards to get negative ROI or alternatively accept gracefully that your post will be downvoted with enough stake to send it into negative ROI territory.
Your single picture post was an ok post but I've seen much better material take a fraction of $107 from the pool. I also downvote those posts whose author bought votes that are in fact paid promotion. We can't have that get to trending with positive ROI, either.
Also, no I don't want to leave because I can 'no longer milk the rewards". That feeling is coming from the fact that I was gone for two months due to some big life changes, continent, job, etc... Then I come back on here and make a post, promote it and immediately start getting down voted. This was super strange so I started looking into it and realized things had changed. At that point I edited my post and begin figuring things out here on the comments that things had changed. Yet even though I realize I made a mistake and know that things are different know people are still intent on "punishing" me for making a simple mistake. I mean if it's such a big deal why didn't you all down vote me for the past 6 months?
We didn't downvote you because prior to HF21 nobody had the 2.5 daily 100% downvotes. The economic model was fixed in HF21. Downvoting is not a punishment. In this case, it's all about reorganizing content appearing in Trending. It has to work without exceptions. Otherwise anyone can claim to be entitled to an exception.
Why not go downvote everything in the Trending section right now then? It looks super spammy and not at all attractive to new users? Is it in trending through organic voting? What determines good content, because it looks every bit as bad as it always has.
I don't have enough downvoting power to downvote everything currently in Trending. I've been talking about the benefits of everyone trying to find the best posts by various types of artists here and organically upvoting them into Trending. I actually agree with you on too much Steem-centric content being in Trending. At this time, however, I'm prioritizing content promoted using bid bots in my downvoting.
gotcha, thanks.
The whole thing though reeks of unwelcoming new people to join. If the "rules" are so vague and unclear there is no way I'm promoting steem. If Smart steem exists, someone uses it and then gets blasted in the comments and down votes, why would they join such a hostile community. Super broken!
The rule was always the same and very simple - everyone can uovote or downvote wharever he/she wants :) just like reddit for example.
Where is that clearly explained?
Where's the down vote button?
Also if it's always been this way why didn't my posts a couple months ago get down voted? Maybe it's because this particular photo in the post is bad? Should I get rid of my Fujifilm and go back to Canon? DSLR only club?
Shut up. Your photography is stunning and you know it haha :)
That's not the point. You've been away for a little while and missed some changes. You're not the only one affected. We've all had to make some behavioural changes.
Steem on!
Also downvotes are free now (small number off).
Smartsteem is also an organic curation project these days. It gives free upvotes and pays out the curation rewards to its delegators. Curation much more profitable than it used to be under the old rules. Author and curation rewards are split 50/50 post HF 21 that took place a couple of weeks ago.
It's like the cops changing a speed limit from 60 to 30 and not posting new signs for the drivers used to the road. Then when they break the speed limit, fine them!
There are plenty of posts about #NewSteem, including on trending. There are no official rules, but being part of the community is encouraged. Buying votes is less profitable now and wouldn't you like actual feedback on your work rather than bot comments? From what I've seen buying votes does not generate much engagement. I appreciate you have to spend your time where you get the most value and Steem is still a small fish.
If 10% of your Instagram followers came to Steem and used it you would all benefit.
Updated to say I have removed my tiny downvote as I understand you misread the mood of Steem now. I hope I joy will give it another try. I'm happy to upvote good content that is not buying votes. I support lots of small accounts.
after edit I appreciate it. I like to fit in and will have a lot more time in the coming months to contribute and participate. I'll see if I can add some value back.
Fair enough sir; thank you for engaging and clarifying.
You just discribed my neighbourhood :)