@lolahuss I apologize I've not responded to this article until now. I didn't see my mention on this a few days ago but now that I've come across I'd like to explain why we can't adopt your ideas above for the time being.
As I'm sure that you already know SPORTS operates on top of the Steem blockchain by utilizing the SCOT system provided by the Steem Engine team. This is not a free feature and requires a deal of investment into the SE platform through their ENG token. For each feature there is usually an initial fee for implementation but then there is an ongoing investment requirement in the form of staked ENG tokens for each user of the platform. A user is defined by a Steem user who has your token staked.
For #sportstalk we currently have a requirement of 3 ENG for each member. With our current 1,422 users that means we must have 4,266 ENG staked. If we were to adopt a split payout then we would presumably have all of our 3,193 users with staked tokens and thus have an ENG requirement of 9,579.
To date the Steem Engine team hasn't started requiring this yet but have been clear that if these conditions aren't met then they will disable a tribe's consensus functionality. When this becomes an enforced rule to all SE tribes I imagine we'll see a number of them go offline. My intention is not to be one of those.
As for moderation we currently have a 5 member team in place that is tasked with this duty. They've each been given the keys to a @referee account (@referee1, @referee2, etc) and tasked with downvoting content that is not acceptable for the platform. When there is a consensus of 3 of the 5 @referee# accounts then our @referee account will remove the rewards of the offender based on the % each referee voted for. These moderators have been in place for a bit over 3 weeks now voting on content. If you'd like to follow how they are voting you should follow @sportsinfo from the great @voltaire that makes a daily post on what each referee is downvoting.
We aim to make the @referee system an elected position in the future based on SPORTS POWER but are still developing the functionality to make it happen. This should be something we have in place before the end of the year. Until then I've appointed the referees that are serving but would be willing to consider new applicants.
Maybe this would a reason why tribes will use/switch to SMT?
I certainly see that as being a major factor. After reviewing the current holdings of ENG for all tribes it seems there will be a number that will either be completely shut off or at the very least have a number of features (Nitrous, Dtube, SCOTPeak) turned off.
my two pesos is that regardless of the fork and rules and such , we have enough teeth and were in the green yesterday.... Sportstalk has consistently stayed in the top 20 and has enough of a community infrastructure to evolve however needed
Happy to join in the discussions! I appreciate the offer of donations too. Right now we are funded but would need a substantial increase to allow for reward splits. We are continuing to place buy orders for ENG and maybe in time will have enough to support adding this kind of functionality.
Thank you for helping us to continue curating. Everyone has free downvotes to help remove rewards from content that shouldn't be rewarded each day so any help the community provides the referees will definitely improve the place!
I'm working on getting a comment on the other post for why I dropped the downvote. I keep getting pulled away and thought this was more substantial of a post to really hit valuable issues in discussion.
Thank you again for being a part of the community. All of us together are what makes this place special!