First of all, I suck at giving titles to posts, I hope the readers won't read too much into it but the content of the post instead.
What I wanted to talk about today is the freedom of speech and attention to everyone's voice on Steem. Compared to other cryptocurrency projects Steem is quite different in this regard, let me explain why.
If you were to look at a platform such as Ethereum, regular users who want to bring up criticism, doubt or have other ulterior motives to say what they do have a much harder time to grab attention to themselves. They could turn to github which relies on people voting the comments but the majority would rely on the content having something to do with coding and they wouldn't give too much attention to anything else. They could turn to Reddit but the hivemind there would not reward criticism as they'd see it as a way of casting doubt at their investments which could look bad from readers and possible investors, they'd either downvote it or ignore it. While there's many ways to manipulate Reddit voting through black market purchases and only admins being able to see the details of the voting activity it is also very centralized such as mods taking down whatever posts they feel like if they feel it is hurting the image of the project.
What I'm trying to get to is that even for valid criticism someone could have a very hard time getting the attention they are asking for in other cryptocurrency projects. This can of course also be countered by paying for these actions. With the ease of paying users in cryptocurrency and being discreet about it there are many smear campaigns that can be used to reach effective results. This is of course something that doesn't often happen with bigger as the truth coming to light could backfire more than what the campaign is worth, but the imbalance in the world makes it easily possible to pay for opinions to create FUD.
On Steem right now we have a very powerful tool, freedom of speech and easy access to the majority of readers of the platform. This is of course one of the advantages of Steem but in the wrong hands it can be used for anything. While I'm not recommending that investors not reward or flag criticism, at times like these where a lot of voting power is concentrated on bid bots it is also difficult for them to act on criticism they think is unjust.
Let's take a minute and think what a bad actor could do on Steem with the power at his disposal in this time frame. Say for instance there is a Steemian that is very unhappy about something, maybe it's the way the platform works right now, maybe it's the reward curve, maybe it's the regret of having sold too much stake, maybe it's the difficulty of buying back at low liquidity, maybe it's the plan to try and keep steem down for longer while his other investments prosper, maybe it's greed knowing if rules changed he'd have it easier to grow again, maybe it's someone who has given up on the project and wants to make sure to ruin it for others, maybe he is more invested in another competing platform now, or maybe he is genuinely concerned about the future of the platform. Yes I do realize there are just as many non-negative reasons to act in the way I'll be talking about next, but let's go with this example for now.
This will still require a user that can come off as genuine and not make it completely obvious what his intentions are. If he were to go "rogue" now and become a bad actor he could easily manipulate the general view of the platform not just to current users and investors, but to onlookers and future ones as well. Bid bots.
Let's face it, trending sucks and many of us who've been around Steem for a long time have already come to terms with it. I'm not just blaming bid bots but they obviously didn't make it easier, but for this case they made creating FUD easier since bid bot votes currently work as advertisement. Bad advertisement as well considering most buyers are barely paying for it when bid bots return the rewards a week later some times even at a positive ROI due to downvotes being so expensive. Even though many users don't look at trending anymore it is still there and the face of the platform for outsiders. Someone looking at the market today thinking maybe this is the point where a new bull run is starting may check out our currency and take a look into trending only to see posts where the majority is uncertainty and doubt by their own users. How do you think it will affect this possible investor?
While I have no doubt that "clever money" will make it's way into the platform after doing more research and looking deeper into the currency and it's technological advantages there will still be many looking the other way and a portion of them may be affected by just some posts in trending. "If the current investors don't believe in the platform and seem very unhappy about it - why would I take the risk to invest in it." As we saw from the last bull run of late 2017, a lot of money comes pouring in as people don't take the time to research properly and that is understandable - there are a lot of projects and it is hard to determine which are legit and which are not.
Without getting too much into the eyes of the investor, let's go back to the bad actor example. This is why we need free downvotes which has been considered lately to be implemented. If Steem is to keep its linear rewards because it makes so many businesses eligible and a lot of math easier then we are going to have to do something about the main use of delegation and stake at this time - selling votes.
I remember when vote selling occurred for the first time and I just saw it as one of the first symptoms of linear rewards but was hoping that some better usecases for it were to come a long - I am still hopeful for that and seeing how many SMT's are popping up before the infrastructure for them is even released or ready to be viewed. I do believe that there will be a shift towards investing your voting power into something else than just receiving max returns from your current investment in the form of selling votes to content/advertisement.
Alright I apologize for sidetracking constantly and making this into a much longer post than I originally intended. The main point I want to get to is that right now it is very easy for users with ulterior motives in hopes for affecting price through the posts they promote to trending with bid bots. The one thing you could do to combat this is to downvote because you disagree with the rewards but since so much stake is concentrated into bid bots and a user can just stack them all up into one posts and the little voting power that is up for grabs is so expensive and feels insignificant to the results on the post. At the same time the downvotes can backfire and the bad actor can accuse you of "censorship" or trying to hide criticism. Meaning the only way you can get to the root of the things addressed in the promoted post is by reading a ton of comments which let's face it, not many have the will nor time to do - especially not new investors wondering if this would be a good place to put their money into.
Now to finish this off, yes there are a lot of things Steem could fix and improve. Lately it feels though that many are going into panic mode and trying to come up with radical solutions because of their investments or prices as if they've never been around these markets before. Many even seem to forget the huge advantages our blockchain has and that the Steemit team has been working very hard to get it ready for mass adoption.
I just hope people won't judge a book by its cover, since that's what unfortunately the trending of Steemit is.
Lastly, I apologize again for this post being a bit all over the place - it's quite a difficult subject but I hope my readers will get the gist of it.
People criticize when their expectations aren't met and they get disappointed. I think the older members who once were well supported can get desperate trying to remain relevant and this is even harder if they have sold their stake. Important people who are no longer regarded important get bitter and want to voice their displeasure.
There are one or two at the moment who seem to be bringing conversations up with nothing new to add, that have already been discussed heavily. One has added the GDP of a small country to their posts in the last few days to either get seen again or, make some profit. Either way, it doesn't come across as genuine. It is a pity.
the timing at the loss of a very large delegation doesn't help looking genuine.
so true, I'm glad others see it.
I saw it happen on Monday and was wondering what the outcome would be.
Excellent comment @tarazkp All I am seeing recently are many 'older' Steemians simply posting comment about the state of steem, whinging about changes, suggesting other changes and all the while raking in a fortune in rewards from their old Steemian mates. How does this look to future potentialminvestors or even just people who want to blog or play the DApps? There is far too much old skool backslapping and propping up members with very little to say thats new or interesting but thinkm they deserve their place at the head of the table simply due to the age of their account.
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I understand your frustration but there is a pipeline in the works at all times. It is part of the process and the changing of the guard and the slow decline in cronyism takes time but will happen as new users and new options come into play. Those who are playing long games don't worry too much about the current state of affairs other than taking the small steps necessary to keep building.
Thanks for taking the time to give a great reply :-)
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My advice is, don't spend too much voting power on those who don't take much time to apply. However, be understanding when large accounts that get many comments don't always get to everyone as it can take a crap load of time :D Also, many questions etc are answered in other comments. A really good way to build a good network is to find the people who comment well and follow them back to their blogs for a look.
Yes.
A real content creator can come in and make good money from day 1. Which makes the early Stake holders nervous.
Since they see that content creators will be the main star going forward. Someone is making value fast! Especially if they are not investing into content creators clearly that must breed some level of nervousness.
If Steem 5x in value and a person comes in and earns 5 Steem a day then that is 750 dollars in 30 days. So this illusion of scarcity has hit many people when they only look at the short term time frame.
Stake holders shouldn't try to be content creators if they are not. They can just invest into others and play the long game. Win-win on all sides. A paradigm shift is coming. It was here for a short while early 2018. It will come back again 1 day.
Very few in this industry understand anything long term, it is all about fast income. Those that do however will still be earning years from now on the work they put in today.
Ah dang, I forgot to add something to the post but remembered it now after I saw your vote @theycallmedan. In case you have mentions enabled, was gonna quote you from one of your videos:
"people get weird when prices go low" :D
:D
Why apologize? Simply because this is a wall of text? Absolutely agree on most of the term you spelt, but I doubt if there's a solution to remedy the current situation. When there's law, there will be criminal that try to break it. When there's self govern, which means some higher power individual/corporation will take self policing as a mask to capitalize on what seems to be like a good guy and rip the fruits at the same time. Say I'm wrong, I could get a flag for this comment as well.
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You're not wrong at all and you did word it a lot better than I ever could with my english.
I need to work on my structuring of posts better even though they're more of the 'free-write' type, that's why I apologized in case it got too confusing.
You're funny. Your command in English easily topped mine. Like the old saying goes, I followed you, please follow me back 😂
Oh wait! You are following me!!! 🤣🤣🤣
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Dude you are talking exactly about what ill write yesterday! here!
Its like people can ruin everything!
Exactly. Look at it at the bright side, Steemit has a strong community mindset and people can withstand the abuse(be it good guy or bad guy). Take someone who like to flag, we all know the reward pool is only this big, by flagging the overpaid article may help to put back the payout to the reward pool, but what was the motive behind it? Why do they care? Are they simply because they care about their own payout being ripped? Well, someone smarter came in and suggest, instead of flagging, why don't you use the same vesting power to upvote potential author to help encourage the good seeds? Which is not wrong! But!!! Having another high payout to an extra article will equally deprive the already being heavily abused reward pool. So, which way do you prefer? Slow death? Or the do or die way?
Nevertheless, if we withdraw ourselves from the situation, bring some popcorn and enjoy the show, it's all clear. Criminal will always find a way to get over obstacle, because that's their destiny. Those who have a badge, will always say "Stop right there!" Dude! Seriously? The book said when police shout that phrase and the thief will stop and let the police nab them 🤣 I mean come on! During the transition, some good people sacrificed, some promoted to be captain. Whether they're in the law enforcement or captain jack sparrow doesn't matter. The amount of SP speaks for itself.
Again, the old saying goes. I upvoted you. Please upvote me back 😂
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The other day i just was talking to a few of them, its just nonsense.
They deffend copy paste, im not talking about new users definitely. They know what are doing. Steem needs a state (?) just kidding.
Vertically have some benefits, and of course his known problems (how to forgot them!)
Preefer freedom of course, but if i have a lot of sp ill become a big dictator probably (?
The term is MYOFB - mind your own (fishing) business. They're definitely not right for doing so, but they have their own risks also, any payout later than their post will cause their post payout drop. The more of this kind of morons, the more their post payout will shrink. Had my post only being paid 4.50$, so what if it dropped to $3.00? But that's not the case if someone spent 300$ to buy $450 worth of upvote? Anytime when it drop below 400$, they will lost a substantial of liquidity.
And if SP changed who you are, you're no difference then those idiots. I helped the community to flag spam, I deserved a piece of reward. I have the rights to decide what's right and wrong. I can flag whoever I want and irregardless of their explanation. I sacrifice a lot to the community, I can use some of the delegation for myself because I deserve it. Trust me, I've been delegated before and I was too busy upvoting myself. I earned a bunch of 0.004 front runner instead of real follower. Being a respectable author is hard. To be a dictator and still earn, it's even harder. Don't forget you need to make up some statistic report (which some people view them as spam also) so you can self upvote and give back yourself a piece.
I like to use "old saying" in my replies. The old saying goes, if you can't fight them? Join them! 😂
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There are always going to be naysayers. If in fact Steem is going to prove to be, what I really feel it will become, a huge success, then the diversity of its usefulness will come shinning through. I am not involved in any other capacity other then being a fellow Steemian who posts, what has been received by my counterparts, as quality content. I'm a glass half full kind of person. Technology is not my bag, and I feel that the people on the development end of the Steem Blockchain are trustworthy individuals whose hearts are in the right place. I truely believe these innovative vissionaries will be the ones that determine the success of Steem. As a blogger and nothing more, my responsibilities to the network are three fold, create quality content, support quality content, and support actions that will further nurture this very malleable blockchain. Supporting initiatives like voting for Steem when Netcoins was running their contest, and writing letters to Netcoin officials, explaining why we feel Netcoins should include Steem when they add new altcoins to their listings. This very creative idea by @kenmelendez is an example of what all of us should be focused on. A concerted efforts of this nature will drown out the negativism. Skepticism can be negated by a well orchestrated campaign by those who don't wield the power of those at the top of the food chain. Strength in numbers will prevail if we band together and support the people who are working so hard, most times behind the curtain.
All fellow Steemians, pick up a pen and take action that will contribute to
the end product, a secure and awesome plateform that has the possibilty of mass adoption.
I'm still very pro a "Editor Picks" cover which highlights great reads on the platform.
Anything but trending would be great. :P
Eventually a system with Moderators and Niche Owners should be done. May be the ideal system.
People want targeted niche content in a specific field. And a proper Community system to be coded. Narrative is trying to pull off that in December of this year. This would create some more structure and make it more into a digital job.
Content first, advertising slots in posts instead of filling up the Trending section, Just as Scorum is experimenting with (Using the system that has worked for Google but with Crypto), curation stay the same, or explore various experiments with SMT.
Have I got fun news for you, if you haven't had a chance to see some of the plans in place to address these points:
https://github.com/steemit/hivemind/blob/master/docs/communities.md
Thanks,
But I remain skeptical if Steem can pull it off. As they seem more pro-Stake holders rather than Content Creators and proper Advertising. Someone will figure out the right formula eventually no question about it. Steem figured out the right Stake system.
Absolutely excellent and to the point, and you could have said a whole lot more! People need to simply read stuff, write and share interesting stuff they like and lay off the same old same old Steem posts. There are some bigshots writing daily posts about Steem which are basically re hash of the crap they posted the day before. Its a big old world, have people really run out of interesting stuff to write about and share?
There needs to be far more off chain promotion too from individual members here....I think some people appear to like it as a private members club where everything can be controlled more easily and old boys clubs can thrive. Its a sad state at the moment in some ways.
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If you could use some positivity on this topic, I've started a blog series to try to peacefully inspire and refocus people to look at the positive opportunities we have in front of us on this platform. I feel your pain. I'm done debating and just want to attract like-minded people to make this place better. Feel free to take a gander simply to get some uplift if you'd like.
And pictures/thumbnails too? Haha peace out! 😀
Ultimately your stake is your voice, powering it all away and negative posting when things don't go your way just looks bad and as you say affects us all when people look to trending. For a lot of investors, rightly or wrongly, trending is their initial research. Sigh
Exactly, they don't know what we know and because of this they may not even get the chance to find out.
Until it's too late and you may have indirectly cost someone a lot of ROI.
In regards to free speech, it's merely a tool to be used by any person. Now whether it becomes good or bad depends on the individual and what their consequences of free speech brings forth.
Similarly like you mentioned bid bot's are causing harm but they're not causing good as well.
In regards to the Trending page one user @roelandp mentioned in the comment above, that we should have an "editors pick", i wholeheartedly welcome that because it brings content and talent forth, you actually look forward to longing on to steemit and learn something new.
Free or not downvotes can get you into flagging wars and you didn't adress that in your post.
You're right, I didn't want that possible implementation to be the main subject in the post. Been doing a lot of thinking about how that could work in the long run though.
I get the concern you are trying to raise here !
and I have been against bid bots from day 1, Steemit doesnt care about it though, and newer platforms like ONO have addressed the issue.
"it is very easy for users with ulterior motives in hopes for affecting price through the posts they promote to trending with bid bots. "
I am not sure, if you have seen the latest post from @steeveapp, a new platform without Bidbots. So if the larger community decides to go this way, then probably bidbots will be things of past soon.
Yes
Think we should nominate your post as - "The best frankly speaking post after H20" @acidyo :)
Mmmm Ill do some critics about steem, and you make me think about the impact of that kind of post.
But for sure is not my intention to hurt Steem.
I trully believe that the problem are the users and not the platform. Ill write that some times. Is not the bidding voting system itself, its more like who owns bots.
I guess the system implemented in @ocdb is just the smartest way. Instead let the market for public, some criteria should be aplied.
I was thinking about changing reputation system could work. Maybe something similar as witness proxy but for users, managed by communities. Something like curation, but as a collective but to certify ussers and proyects. In wich artificial chains of fake ussers could be identify faster (yeah i think a lot about steem, in kinda in love with this proyect)
I dont know if you read my posts, because I feel identified (?)
As the saying goes "your worst enemies could be the members of your household", and some steemians are proving that here.
I have come to tune out the negative nelly steemians, I admit I have no idea what trending looks like these days. I personally would make a few tweaks to the system, no matter what you do someone will figure out a way to game the system
@acidyo's article on "Steem is its own worst critic", I read it interestingly. Thank you. I resteemed.
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Hi @acidyo!
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Your UA account score is currently 7.891 which ranks you at #34 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 1 places in the last three days (old rank 35).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 278 contributions, your post is ranked at #2. Congratulations!
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Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
I’m wondering if some of the things that aren’t very desirable on Steem will be resolved with Ned’s new Destiny project.
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You're right that Steem is it's own worst critic...but that might be a good thing in a way. Until we fix these glaring issues, maybe Steem shouldn't be worth what it's actually worth. Our criticism pushes down the coin...and we can sort the issues that really need to be addressed...hopefully.
One caveat is that even, if downvotes didn't cost VP or existed in a separate flagging pool, they would not be free in the sense of them not being subject to retaliation. If downvotes didn't cost VP, sure we could go and flag shitposts all the livelong day but we both know that the abusers don't take kindly to folks putting the brakes on their low effort reward wagon. We know they will flag back in revenge. I've seen it and I'm sure you've seen it.
I do have a particular idea to alleviate this situation to reduce the fear of reprisal from abusers. The difficult thing would be addressing counter flags from alts. That being said, we may be able to reduce the risk of sending healthy flags by implementing a system I'd like to call a Reactive Flag Protection Mechanism but it would by no means eliminate the threat.
Still yet, any way I think we can buff good flags coming from abuse fighters, the better for the platform in my humble opinion.
I think I will write at length on the RFPM proposal in one of my upcoming Utopian anti-abuse project posts. Think there is some potential there but I would like to hear from witnesses like you.
As far as walls of text go, I appreciated yours. My takeaway from it is I need to try and be more positive. I have a bad habit of focusing on the negative with all the shenanigans I see on the chain. The problem isn't mostly Steem intrinsically. It's rather human nature.