A Steem Island Adventure
Steem Island – a peaceful Island with 45,000 citizens, located right at the coast.
Most people on the Island are fishermen, driving out into the ocean with their boats everyday, trying to catch as many fish as possible.
I’m @Sirwinchester , and just finished by Fishing Academy a few weeks ago (graduated with a grade 7!) and just moved to Steem Island.
It was 7am, and my alarm was ringing. I hate this piercing sound! But if I change it to a nicer ringtone, I know I would probably never get out of bed…
I was very tired because I have been preparing a special bait yesterday night. It was called “The hidden powers inside yourself”. So I got ready for the day, full of confidence, because I knew I could actually catch some big fish with today’s bait!
When I arrived at the Harbor, I first noticed all the newbies standing around, trying to get their first boat.
Like always, some of them were pretty ladies that tried to get the best boats through flirting when introducing themselves, others were just waiting patiently. And some looked like ladies, but are actually fake – I call them Ladyboys, because they act like being someone they’re not.
Only a few days ago, there has been a scandal on Steem Island, because one woman called @moonflower had disguised herself as somebody else. (as uncovered here : https://steemit.com/steemit-abuse/@sirwinchester/re-warning-scammer-with-reputation-score-7-user-moonflower-is-fake-yet-a-7 )
I continued to walk along the Harbor Promenade (my boat is laying a little further in the back, I couldn’t afford the VIP berths). Then I came across a huge crowd of people, taking pictures, cheering etc, in front of a very big boat – more like a Yacht!
At first I didn’t realize what the people were waiting for, but then I saw a whole crew of people with masks walking to the boat. And leading them, was @stellabelle , also known as the creator of the “Secret Writer” bait – if she and her crew go fishing, they never come home empty-handed.
I’m a big fan of her, the only level 9 fisherman there is. I heard that the first thing she held as a baby wasn’t a baby bottle, but instead a fishing rod.
When I finally arrived at my boat, it was time for me to attach today’s badges to my boat. The badges are important because they give you permission to fish in certain areas. I was short on time because it took me so long to pass by the crowd of people, so I just quickly chose the most popular badges - I thought this would be a safe bet. So I took the badges (hashtags) steem, steemit, health, introduceyourself, writing, motivation, attached the badges to my boat, and drove out to the ocean.
I arrived at my fishing destination, and threw my special bait “The hidden powers inside yourself” into the Ocean. Only minutes later, lots of minnows had already bitten into it. So I pulled them up, squeezed the Steem Dollars out of them and into my bucket, and let the fish back into the sea. Only moments later, bigger fish and dolphins started to bite my bait.
This was way better than I had imagined – not only was the weather great, but I had found the perfect spot to fish with my special bait. The other fishermen were already staring at me from their boats with envious looks. But I didn’t pay any attention to that, because I was so busy collecting all the Steem Dollars from the fish.
Suddenly, I felt my boat moving, and I was being lifted up into the air. At first I thought that it must be a huge wave, but I stayed up there! So I looked down, and saw that a gigantic whale had lifted up my boat.
It was @smooth (8), one of the large whales in the Steem Ocean! I have heard of him, but obviously never seen him live. I was still in shock, and then he shot out a rain of steem dollars from the whale’s blowhole!
All the Steem Dollars fell down into my boat, and I couldn’t even believe my eyes. And this wasn’t even the end! Smooth had brought his brother @smooth-witness and more friends with him - @steemit200 , @au1nethyb1 and many more! I even saw @stellabelle ‘s Yacht in the far distance, and she was giving me a thumbs up.
I rubbed my eyes because I thought maybe this was only a dream, and my alarm was about to ring soon ?! I was really working hard on my bait for hours to make it perfect, but I never would have thought to get a reaction this big, and even attract whales!
So this continued for some time, and different fish bit into my bait. When my boat was completely filled with Steem Dollars, I wanted to return to the Island to exchange the Dollars at the market.
But then, I saw something enormous in the distance. It was even bigger than the Yacht!
At first I didn’t know what it was – something that moved, something grey and large. All the smaller fish suddenly disappeared around me. They were probably scared.
When he came closer, I realized that it was @dantheman himself.
The King of the Steem Ocean.
I heard legends that when he bites into a bait, a rainbow appears above the boat and the Steem Dollars pour out of it. But maybe that’s only a fairytale.
I was already getting excited he might bite my bait, and thought that this was my chance to finally buy a new boat! But then I watched what he was doing, and realized that he actually destroyed many boats in front of me, by jumping on them.
And from that point on, I knew that he was in his Flag Mode.
But I didn’t even have time to think about it, he already swam to me with such a speed, and jumped high into the air, directly above my boat.
My boat was filled with Steem Dollars, almost 2,500, and was already shaking from all the huge waves he was creating. So now he was directly above me, and I had only one choice – to jump off my boat, into the ocean, and save myself!
So Dan landed on my boat, crushed it, and all my Steem Dollars poured out into the ocean.
I was screaming at him “Hey!! Why did you do that?!”
But he didn’t have much time to answer, he was in his Flag Mode. He simply said “Wrong badges.” That’s it. And he left.
So I was slowly swimming back to the coast, without my boat and with almost no Steem Dollars left. Some people were even laughing about me as they saw me swimming past their boats – they thought I had planned to catch fish with my bare hands.
At first I was very upset about my loss, but I came to realize that I couldn’t change it anymore, and also that the King of the Ocean was just doing his job. Afterall, I could’ve chosen different badges so it was my fault too.
Now I have to prepare new bait and buy a new boat, to catch some fish again.
- To be continued -
It is tough being a whale.... you try so to make friends and keep the bad guys at bay.
The good news is that every day is a new day, and today you earned my vote.
@dantheman I understand that you try your best to protect steem with flagging for tag abuse, but currently especially with the new reputation system this creates a lot of collateral damage.
Many newbies come, post something with wrong tags, get hidden by a whale for it and then happen to be invisible though the new reputation system.
I would suggest to let people simply vote what tags are right or wrong like other platforms do.
What also could help is some kind of yellow card, that warns a user of his wrongdoing. A yellow card can reduce the payout, maybe not that drastically like a flag, but is not counted for the reputation score.
What would help greatly is having clear Rules, expectations and the social contract pinned very prominently on the menu bar. Right now I don't see a place where newbies can get oriented with the community rules quickly, right at the start, and review those rules if any doubts.
I strongly agree! Especially in tiny foreign language speaking communities, this can be devastating. To quote myself:
"The german speaking steem community so far is so tiny that yesterday a whale megadownvote of one of its members by an english speaking whale had eradicated quite a proportion of it and caused a certain stirr, with other german speaking steemers posting the letter of the downvoted guy in solidarity and protests of censorship on Steemit risking to go viral in Germany before Steemit had even got viral itself!"
https://steemit.com/steemit/@fabio/speaking-of-ants-the-germants-are-endangered-here
And as usual, you earn mine today.
Dan and stella, sitting in a tree....
k.i.s.s :D
I upvoted as well :) let´s all hold hands!
Well, Steemit is our new lover, he/she gives us just about everything we need and never lets us down, well, unless we fuck over someone else, so in a way, we are holding hands, virtually.
Or probably sitting in @sirwinchester's boat!
@sirwinchester, the bitcoin millionaire is the one with a yacht. I'm still sitting in my rickety dinghy, wearing a mask, afraid to spend a dime.
sure. thing. I think @sirwinchester already has a yacht
Inspired by this article and out of my own experience helping the ¨sunken ships¨I summarized some suggestions how we could evolve further. Hope you enjoy: ¨Tagging and Flaggin¨ hope you enyog: https://steemit.com/steemit/@arcurus/tagging-and-flagging-hidden-by-a-whale-how-to-evolve-further
Now I've got Townshend stuck in my head:
No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
No one knows what it's like
To be hated
To be fated
And now you do too!
You do a great job Dan but the current impact of flags on newbies is a huge problem
https://steemit.com/steemit/@august-newbie/flag-abuse-or-how-to-kill-the-steemit-community
(Though I'm now thinking that I shouldn't have used the word abuse -- it was inspired by the fact that a low reputation individual was able to exile a newbie when we didn't see a problem with the post. With @smooth's flag -- and explanation of the flag -- and, hopefully, the future now-that-the-point-has-been-made removal of his flag, it clearly wasn't abuse, though it remains drastically excessive and likely to lose the community many newbies).
Thank you for taking the time to read through my funny story and comment. I appreciate it. And I can imagine that life as a whale is hard! Afterall you are just trying to do your job, and I know that. All the best.
👍wow amazing adventure @sirwinchester
the team from the secret writer boat are wearing masks! perfect analogy hahaha
Are those Trump masks?! Wow, those are creepy as hell! ;)
;)
you've provided me with a good business idea. Thank you, creative one!
I've heard of this happening to others! Who probably didn't deserve it! But I know they are all trying their best to combat spam! Be careful :) I'm glad they said something about appealing it so you can talk with them about it. I'm sorry but I wouldn't want to be on your fishing boat... Sounds scary lol.
I absolutely loved that you turned this into a funny and interesting story, Great post for sure :) good luck on your Steemit adventures !! Don't drown. Maybe use some Steem Dollars and buy a life jacket. haha.
Thanks for your comment, yes I know it's happened to many people, but at the end the Admin Team is just doing their job and I know that.
Thanks for your feedback as well, and good luck to you too on steemit. I'll make sure to have a life vest on board next time ;)
you made your own gifs right?
This is fucking brilliant. I loved it. Dan is the cat, the rainbow is inside your mind. You win today:
Thanks for your comment! I can see you waving from your huge yacht :D
ha! ha! And you, I believe are one of the black swans we've been waiting for.
You find us...black_swans
We will be waiting for you.
ps- my yacht is invisible with faceless people in it. You have to be wearing special kuroi hackucho sunglasses in order to see my yacht. By the way, your Instagram words are very good.
So creative, so on point and very funny. The analogies are so good! I really enjoyed this story so much that this fisherman is going out for sushi tonight.
hahaha, that's a great idea, maybe I should eat some sushi tonight as well in honor of this post!
wow! I wanna live there 0.o
hahahaha "the king of the steem ocean", so what is ned? the prince? Lol I followed you, hilarious story
Ned will be covered in the next episode of steem island!
oh, Ned, the shepherd. Great!
I love this post. @stellabelle last article brought me here! Have fun on Steemit @sirwinchester!
Minnows of the Steem flow.
@sirwinchester show must go on :) Buy a bettter boat maybe with some underwater gadgets and wales prove :)
hehe yes you're right, I'll buy more equipment in the next episode ;)
Hahahha your creativity is amazing 👏 Very funny story and 100% accurate as to what happens on Steemit. The part with the rainbow from Dan killed me!! I'd be excited to read part 2 of this story! 😄
stay tuned ;)
you've moved up my list. Have you found your own visage on the RISING MINNOW poster yet?
Awesome story! Sums up STEEMIT pretty well👍🏼😊
thanks for your feedback, I tried to incorporate every aspect of Steemit into this analogy!
you need to do some videos! @sirwinchester 8]
Well, now I've named you a Rising Minnow and featured you in my latest post. Find out what Instagram quotes of yours I used in it: https://steemit.com/steemit/@stellabelle/minnow-rising-if-you-are-a-minnow-and-can-t-get-upvotes-learn-from-a-rising-minnow-star-sirwinchester
I definitely want to read a part 2 of this !! upvoted + followed you
thank you! I'll do my best to work on a part 2.
the gifs of the whales are killing me. perfect usage of media in a text ^^
thanks :D
your creativity is beyond words, how did you get this crazy idea?! love it!
It came to my mind just like that! Guess that's the way my brain works :D
"I heard a legend that a rainbow appears, if dan bites the bait" :D :D
if only it was like that in real life!
so now we want to know how the story continues! did you manage to get a new boat ?! I followed you to find out :D
you'll have to wait and see! :)
"FLAG MODE". loooool
it's like Beast Mode, just the Admin Version hahahah
there should be a whole section on steemit for stuff like this. love it, keep it up
thank you!
very kind that you don't have to kill the fish, you just squeeze the steem dollars out of them ^^
I know right, my story is vegan-friendly ;)
such a creative way to look at the whales-and-minnows analogy that everyone on steemit talks about. good job
thanks for your feedback!
I'm just a small minnow, but still you can squeeze some steem dollar cents out of me :)) you have my upvote for this cool story
I do appreciate it, every upvote counts!
you are crazy, but I love it ^^
hahaha thank you!
I'm hapy to see that there is still original stuff like this on steemit. keep it up !
thanks for your comment!
you got my upvote for being so crazy and creative! I'm sure everyone now wants to read the 2nd part!
thank you, I'll try my best to write a 2nd part!
Maybe you should write another story about how the minnows slowly become bigger and bigger fish!
very good idea!
maybe save some money and buy a submarine, so it can't be destroyed? haha ;)
that's actually a very smart idea!
loved your story! upvoted!
thank you! :)
Hope Dan sees this, interested to see what he thinks of it^^
I'd be interested to know too ;)
That was a really cool article! Fun to read, unfortunately a sad ending. But awesome story!
Thank you! this was actually based on a true story as well, my post "hidden powers" went from $2,500 to about $200 because of Dan's flag
Late to the party, but really really good. Thank you
thank you, appreciate your compliment!
Dan flagged my very first post on Steemit. Granted, it was worth nothing so I experienced no financial loss. I was shocked, saddened, really had no idea why, until he posted an explanation. It made me a little gun shy to be honest to post again. Sorry about your whaling experience. There is always more fish in the ocean though, yeah?
haha, yes you're right! Sorry that that happened to you, but luckily you didn't lose much money. Keep posting quality content on steemit and you will sure be recognized
Amazing post @sirwinchester
thanks! :)
Great writing and a great analogy of steem life, this may go down as one of the best epic sagas of all time, on par with The Illiad perhaps!
Glad Dan saw your true worth !
thanks so much for your kind words !! :)
nice post. come to myblog to readabout hot russian girls
Funny thinng i watched all this whales videos in youtube 2 days ago lol
hahaha :D
Great place to go fishing i would imagine eh?
if you catch some big fish, it's definitely rewarding ;)
Bring on the sequel!
I will do my best to put up part 2 as quickly as possible! :)
This is funny. Well done:)
thank you :) appreciate your comment
Hahaha well done !! Well done indeed.. Dident realize placeing the wrong tags for you post could cause the hammer to fall takeing all the rewards with it.. I haven't made any posts just yet, but need to make sure I click the right badges for my boat it would seam.. Lol good luck to you :)
excellent adventure!
This is really good. Great storytelling with a great story to tell. Congratulations. I envy you, of course :)
Did you know that Gilingans Boat was called SS Minnow? :-)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._S._Minnow
wow you are so creative...
can´t find any words for your story!
very witty!
This is an incredibly clever post. You got my vote!
thank you! appreciate it!!