A Whale is a Steem user who has a lot of Steem power and influence on the platform. They can grant big earnings to users or reduce the reputation of steem users who post bad content. Many of them became whales getting into Steem early. Here's a site that has an index of all Steem users and their power and account value levels: https://steemwhales.com
Here's what I consider a Whale on Steem.
Big Whale: Only 25 Steem users have an account value of more than $1,000,000(USD).
Medium Whale: Only 200 Steem users have an account value of more than $100,000 (USD).
Lil Whale: Only 350 steem users have an account value of than $50,000(USD).
Thanks @ambienthex. That makes understanding it for a complete newbie like me, very easy.
At least there is a transparency in the manipulation. I think about some of the trash in crypto world: garbage tokens, failed products and pyramid schemes, they can hide behind things. But when crappy content is upvoted for the sake of profit, you can sort of see and recognize what it happening... I don't know if that is refreshing or sad!
Agree, I've been here for a few years and the content quality has deteriorated greatly, its hard enough to get people interested in consciousness, ecology and environmental issues as it is. People don't like your post these days simply because they think its not worth liking if you have little value in your wallet. Steemit needs to change its system or it will be flooded with bad quality content and put those who have something of value to contribute off contributing at all. Its a meritocracy that claims to be pioneering but its still the same as mainstream society, rewarding the whales only and the minnows stay undiscovered.
This place has devolved into an open dumpster fire:
Thanks, @ambienthex. I really need to know more about steemit. This comment really helped a lot. thanks.
That would cost them money. Would you pay for the "privilege" of having to police others?
The game theory of Steemit is so fucked a five-year old would understand the problems.