Of late I have noticed a new trend emerge on the Steem blockchain, it started with one particular controversial user posting one-liner content with seemingly no thought or effort put into it. It has since spread to other users like a virus.
This is not a name and shame post, so I will refrain from naming anyone, this is a vent, not a witch hunt.
Shitposting is the new dust voting, the new and improved reward pool raping and evolution in the continual decline of Steem
Let's make it clear: I have no problem with the short-form content, or even people writing posts which are designed to elicit a response. What I do take issue with is when these certain people are publishing these posts putting no effort into them whatsoever (a title and maybe a line or two of text), and then self-upvoting them, that to me is spam.
image from pixabay
If you are going to write posts like, "How are you today?" and then in the body of the post write, "I am good, I just went for a walk" or, "I just woke up lol" then self-upvote, that is no different than the spammy content you see on the trending page all of the time.
Here is an example of a short-form post I recently published where I asked people to share interesting facts about their jobs, facts people might not know. Notice how it still has some form of effort put into it? It's 373 words, which is short-form and took me a few minutes to write.
It is possible to publish short-form content and put effort into it, who would have thought? Yet, nobody is putting in even half that effort at times.
But as a lowly Steem minnow with no power or money, if I attempt to act by flagging the content I disagree with, I open myself up to being flagged and brigaded by users with high-karma accounts (bot accounts designed to flag and upvote).
The flagging system is broken because if you flag someone higher rep than you, it does nothing and if that user retaliates they can cripple you or really damage your account if they want.
So it is all well and good to say, but @beggars if you have a problem with content here, why don't you flag it you whinging bastard?
If I hadn't worked for this low Steem power and account value I have, I would be flagging the content I take issue with. But I don't want to paint a target on my back and get brigaded by a user because they can, all that effort would be erased in just a few retaliatory flags.
The only power I have is my voice, my choice of weapon is my words. I can write and speak up, it might not make a difference and most people might ignore me, but it's a form of self-therapy in a way.
Tell us how you really feel @beggars
I had very little sleep last night, crypto is still in the toilet and I am tired of seeing high-profile Steem users degrade the platform by posting absolute trash that contributes nothing.
It's that time of the month for me where I go through my low cycle on Steem, start questioning what it's all for and vent frustration at not getting anywhere on this platform while the major players publish spammy trash and repeatedly get onto the trending page.
Another Steem user complaining again, how original
Yet another broken record complaining about the state of Steem, these minnows complaining about Steem and publishing their whingey posts, uh uh.
I find it ironic that people probably have more of an issue with posts like these than the spammy one-liner headline and piss-poor body text posts being perpetrated on this platform right now.
Why is nobody talking about this?
The biggest question I have is, why is nobody talking about this? am I just hallucinating, is it not as big of a problem as I think? Am I the one with the problem? Is it just me?
I want to see this platform succeed, I really do. As difficult as it has been for me, I want it to succeed and for user growth to increase and for Steemit to be more than just a niche platform.
As far as first impressions go, if newcomers are seeing the type of content I am seeing, they would probably discount this platform as nothing more than a sewer of spam and plagiarism, instead of the serious decentralised content platform it aims to be.
The current state of Steem is embarrassing, to say the least. Some might think it's an exaggeration, but maybe it's denying the truth and severity of the matter, this platform is currently in a dark place.
There are exceptions
Before you start writing your comment where you'll mention there are exceptions to short-form content, let me save you the time and effort. There are absolutely exceptions to the rule of there needing to be an effort, including and not limited to:
- Specific categories that allow for short-form content such as posting jokes under various categories such as #punchline where users regularly post short jokes and anecdotes, the #poem category is another as some poems can be quite short
- Niche competitions (words or less style contests)
- Steepshot for images (an image and caption)
- Steem specific apps which promote the publishing of short-form content
I wholeheartedly agree that not everything has to be a long encyclopedic post, but I also think that even if you're posting a one-liner or photo, you need to put effort into it.
Take Steepshot as a great example. Theoretically, you could just post photos and make money, but if you're posting a tonne of photos daily and they're all the same and/or shit quality, it's just spam.
Shitpostit, let's embrace it
This is why I propose we rip the band-aid off and rename Steemit to Shitpostit. It would be a more accurate representation of the content and at least people would know what to expect. Embrace it, this is who we are now.
Have you noticed this new trend of shitposting?
Drop a comment below, because it will consume me if I don't get some different perspectives.
Thats a part of social media. To me social media just made it easier for people to try to gain fame and with it some money. I never really liked it but its the way the world works. Steemit can change for content creators but even then there is very little true valuable content in this platform.
If it focused on this aspect there would be no investors and I would not see a point to people using it just to upvote some content creators. I think shitposting is a necessary evil because if we were honest there is very little potential in a steemit platform that is for content creators and not your average joe.
You make some very valid and reasonable points here. The issue is not so much the shitposting in itself, it's the whales with high amounts of Steem power shitposting and then self-upvoting it or using paid voting bots to get to the trending page.
I think if these whales shitposted and didn't self-upvote, people would be surprised to see these posts would be valued accordingly and make nothing. It would not be an issue personally, the bidbots are a whole other kettle of fish.
I wholeheartedly believe self-voting should be significantly handicapped, make a self-vote worth half of what it currently is and incentivise voting up other content (increasing curation rewards). I think you would see better content rise to the top.
There will always be shitposting, but I am a strong believer a shitpost is not worth anything more than a few dollars, most definitely not worth $40+ like some of the posts I have been seeing.
Yep. I notice it too and it annoys me. And you're right, it's frustrating you can't get into a flagging war with whales. You'll get destroyed, so there's nothing you can do about it except cash out and hope they'll be the bagholders.
This is not the present trend. I am seeing it for some months (or rather I should say right from the time when I joined this platform). Steem platform has been designed in such a way that it may bring immense fortune to the powerful people (large SP holders). I suggested many times to amend reward distribution system but nobody cares.
It is a fact that if a product is coming free to you then you are the product. Steem blockchain designers are very cunning. They have designed this platform in such a way that it may only support top witnesses and large SP holders who may self upvote or delegate their SP to the bots. Others are foolishly trying to match them.
What is the criteria of judging a good post or what is the meaning of quality content? Are these terms not vague objectives? Many times I wrote posts which had more than 1500 words. Even I tried to put my best effort to write those posts but what I got in return? Just about $0.5 or less for the whole days labor! That can also be earned if I just post two or three photos with a good caption.
If you are powerful, you can do anything as per your wish here. This is the most cruel society where powerful elite can destroy any week person (account) with its downvote. Here every voice which speak unpleasant truth, can be gagged for ever with a powerful downvote. You can do nothing in this situation, except seeing everything helplessly. This is the bitter truth.
You cannot control the sea, you can only learn to ride the waves.