People are not ruining anything. They are only using Steemit in the best way possible in their own best interests. This is called capitalism and it's the fundamental model upon which Steemit is built. Perhaps in a hard fork there will be considerations for other models. But right now, Steemit is capitalistic.
Hence the need for curation rewards. Curations are strictly a capitalistic concept in which greed for the curation is supposed to drive people to upvote "quality." Unfortunately, upvoting your own post and even more so your own comment provides a much higher profit than a curation. So while greed is a motivating factor, and curation rewards are less than author rewards, no one has the monetary incentive to vote other's content, except maybe whales. So that leaves the quality of Steemit in the hands of an elite few. Just like anything else run under a capitalistic model.
Thank you. At least someone gets the problem.
Code is law.
https://steemit.com/steem/@lexiconical/code-is-law-only-when-i-want-otherwise-it-s-abuse-the-shaming-syndicate-of-steemit-our-own-brand-of-sjws-and-social-repression
Steemit is decentralized but money makes it centralized. What if a multi-billionaire joins steemit, buys 1 billion steem and powered it up? What will happen? It actually depends on the multi-billionaire's purpose. He can do what he wants (i'm referring to a male multi-billionaire). Money can turn decentralized to centralized or vice-versa. Money is infinite numbers. It has no end. It can circulate the entire universe. Even our minds are controlled by money. This is crazy!
Doesn't seem all that different than billionaires controlling mainstream media if they can pay to have their opinions pushed to the top.
Yep.
Even bitcoin as we know is a decentralized peer to peer that we transact but the fees are getting higher and higher. Its like paying the middlemen. Bitcoin is now under control. Its already in prison, guarded by banks and financial institutions.
hehe mind....blown. capita-what???
capita?
exactly all this stuff is only as decentralised a the people who are using it.
yeah, decentralized people but sometimes we're also scattered people, not united
That is all but taking place now with the Current batch of Whales. The majority of them are like a cliche in high school that cheer each other at the football game on Friday night and bully the new kid in the class room because his hair cut is different or he wears funny clothes.
Yep!
Nothing different actually to elites controlling and playing games with the dregs.
Its not only that. As a new user i feel my vote is actually worth nothing. Also the bots seem to be a part of the system since i see them in almost every post i check.
" As a new user i feel my vote is actually worth nothing."
This is exactly as it should be.
That's the most capitalistic part about Steemit. In a capitalistic model, One needs capital investment to start a venture. The more you invest, the more your upvote will be. That's why everything on the blockchain is called a "vest". You can invest money directly to get that vote power now, or you can invest your time and energy and build your way up.
From what I've gathered so far, the bots act like auto brokers for placing your content in a stock market like bid for the curation reward. They are actually pretty useful, especially if your only capital investment is like $500 USD or so, and you want to make that start earning something right away. They can also be abused, as @berniesanders and others have been pointing out. Unfortunately, if you don't have much to invest in Steemit, whether that be money, or lots professional style content, then Steemit is not a place that will work well for you; or at least that's the hope. In truth, people have found lots of ways to make Steemit work for them without any initial investment or providing any quality content. Many whales fear this is devaluing Steem, and hence hurting their capital investments.
Many of the biggest sp holders on Steemit started with nothing. They were made dolphins by whales, in the early months, when there were far less users. Some of them created good content and some of them didn't. Some of them created schemes that purported to support minnows, but they basically embezzled by up voting themselves with the borrowed power. (This was before delegation was implemented.) My point here is that many of them invested less time and effort than people with a fraction of their sp.
Most cryptos are mined by miners who all have the same hash rate (difficulty), but here mining is done by creating content and everyone's hash rate is different. Quality of content is supposed to equal less difficulty, but the social aspect of Steemit means that this is not always the case.
The quality of content only matters in so far that it draws people in, so that the site becomes a social media hub, so the level of shit-posting is actually irrelevant as long as there are sufficient quality posts to draw people in and keep them here. Think about it, FB is a successful site and it's full of people talking crap and posting crap.
The only way to improve Steemit is to increase the number of dolphins so that there is more competition for the established dolphins, in particular the ones who shit-post.
This is all i care for not the money next to it but if not for the money next to it its of no value these days. I am not gonna crib anymore about how shitty its has gotten around here. Ill figure out a way to stop this, let me know if you guys are in this with me?
I'm running a bit low on SP but that deserved a 100% upvote (for what it's worth). Very clearly put, without giving away whether you're pro or anti-capitalist.
Thanks. I'm thinking of writing on article titled "A Capatilistic Model On A Decentralized Platform". Steemit actually represents an incredibly interesting experiment in capitalism, something that's never been done before: the monetization of your attention. Does it create "quality"? That is left to be seen. But what's fascinating is that capitalism in its purest and most idealistic form is inherently decentralized with the concept of a "free market". Any regulation of this market takes us further away from the ideal. But you're right. I'm trying very hard not to be biased. I'm only pointing out what it is. Not what it should be.
The media knows viewer attention is currency too. That's why we all see headlines that turn your stomach, they do not care. It's all about money, advertising and that's it. The news died a long time ago.
i wrote an article in a similar vein a few days ago - not so much the capitalism metaphor, but more of steemit as a metaphor for the world economy as a whole.
It is fascinating, to say the least. As a sociologist my initial task is to figure out what the best way to collect data is, to answer these questions - the database and the various reports are an obvious starting point, but not enough! I'd love to have the time to interview/ survey some of the people with dead accounts - the 90% in other words.
I think BS above has a point, but I really don't want to wade into that particular war.
On current evidence I'm leaning towards the idea that linear rewards and unregulated self-voting are terrible foundation-principles!
Steemit hasntcreated shit. This is just a ponzy scheme, dont try to call it anything other than that.
This not Capitalism, this is Anarchy. And as such, is a fascinating experiment in human organisation.
good answer. very interesting discussion.
Uhm, that would be a big NO. What Steem is is Crony Capitalism. A few poweful voters (whales), upvote posts that are usually CRAP. For this to be TRUE capitalism, each vote would be worth exactly the same. A post getting 100 individual votes is more valuable than a post that gets one vote from one whale. The emphasis should be on content creators. Without content, you just end up with what quite honestly feels like a giant ponzi scheme.
You pegged it. I am looking forward reading your article. I once made a post about why we have self-voting option. Yes because it is how it works in real life too. So, is there no solution to this problem?
I cannot express how pleased I am to hear you say these things. I have been trying for ages to slowly build an audience with serious unique content and it is unfortunate that no matter what the platform, there will always be those whose only "art" is gaming the system. Great comments, following you now!
The essential purpose and for which a social network of this type is created is to share any amount of knowledge and own experiences to grow personally, socially, economically and culturally; Actually it seems a very original and beautiful project. It is unfortunate that it is surrounded by capitalism, an imposing and aggressive system whose overall purpose is greedy profit and enrichment at whatever cost.
On the other hand, I think it is very satisfying to value an article of good quality, because that act of issuing a value judgment on the work of another person, allows healthy and respectful criticism to make us grow more and more. I share your criteria and position. I am new to the steemit community.
"The essential purpose and for which a social network of this type is created is to share any amount of knowledge and own experiences to grow personally, socially, economically and culturally; Actually it seems a very original and beautiful project. It is unfortunate that it is surrounded by capitalism, an imposing and aggressive system whose overall purpose is greedy profit and enrichment at whatever cost."
So, you must be the creator of Steem, huh, since you know what it was made for?
Try earning your place here before opening your mouth with grandiose, unsupported statements.
On reading your opening line, my brain twitched and tells me "decentralization" and "capitalism" shouldn't be found married together in one concept.
A free market under the fundamental principles of capitalism would ideally not be centralized.
I dont know what happening right now