Hello @kelvinwong, glad i came accross this post. I for one does not support vote buying and have never used the services since my few months on steemit. Reason been that i dont see it as profitable and the effect it has on visibilty is feasible to me.
However, i can understand why people would want to buy votes. It can be very fustrating and discouraging to have put up a post and do not get rewards. Lots of steemit accounts are dead at the moment due to posting and not get rewarded. Now there is a glitched to what is know as quality post on steemit. Long, well disseted, with good pictures, for a post to be quality enough to get reward. Not everyone can do that. other forms of posts needs to be rewarded also. When i joined steemit, i thought it was a place where you can just blog and be cool. But thats not the case, it is about who likes what you blog, is about who gets to see your post, it is about what steemit regard as a good content. I do understand that, as we cant really be visible to everyone, or get to reach everyone.
I guess this is the reason people have to opt for vote buying to encourage themselves to blog. The truth is we all have our circle on steemit and cannot reach every good content. However quality the content of a minnow post is, they can never get what a whale gets for reward, not because the content not good enough, but the circle he/she belongs to.
Buying votes may be bribery, but people have to do what they have to do to earn, build a reputaion, survive and be consistence on steemit. Despite the fact that, few of the many powerful people have been very helpful with rewarding, they cannot reach everyone.
In this plight i would suggest, in as much as buying of vote doesnt give much value and tends more to the abusing side, buying of votes shouldnt be frowned. For those who needs it, they should be able to access the services,if that is what it takes for them to earn and remain active.
My sincere opinion. Thank you.
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Yes I have no problem with the vote trading market. People are free to do what they want. Many may not know the current lopsided incentives that favour the market too much, hence why I’m writing this post.
Buying votes isn't bribery. It's capitalism. We live in a market economy. Advertising is legal.
The promotion page is Steemit's attempt at advertising. Paying for promotion actually burns steem and makes the entire platform worth more. I'm guessing it could be improved, but it acts in a way that is beneficial to the whole system.
I'd argue that people paying for votes is not advertising, and it does not benefit the whole system.
So, what happens with that exchange? Is quality content encouraged? Is curation encouraged? Does the value of steemit increase, or does it go down since its now attached to less and less valuable material?
Great comment. Let me reply.
First of all I don't understand why someone would want to visit a promotion tab? Advertising is evolving and becoming more smooth, directed and niched. For example in comments directed to a specific person. It's evolving to become more elegant where it doesn't even look like advertising. For example Telegram on Twitter which has a very chatty friendly tone to it's audience. Feels very personal and real. That is where things are going. People are expecting more.
Not just crappy content is being posted. Good content is also posted and people get a chance to get in front of more people and become discovered.
Poster pays to get seen. Just as traditional advertising that works. Capitalism that will say.
Surely crappy content can be overvalued for now but once it becomes more expensive to advertise and the profits go down only the ones with real solid legit content will be able to afford to continue to boost stuff.
4-5. People are getting paid.. That is good since people need payment in life.
Also the content is King era is dying in a world of limitless content. Quality relationships and Quality communication is what is providing real value to the Blockchain. That users are using it daily to reach other people and doing value exchanges.
Thanks for the well-thought reply.
I agree that the Promotion tab is a poor solution and needs reworked. Maybe its worth shuffling promoted posts onto the Trending page? Promoted could work like a simple auction for a span of time for those Promotion spots on the Trending page.
Good content can buy votes as well, but what if the good content gets lost among the spam? What general behaviors are we encouraging if any content can reach the Trending page. Are we encouraging solid posts, or cheap posts? Which would become the majority?
I agree.
I don't know if this holds true. Is there a trend for bidbots becoming more expensive? Or, are we just getting a higher quantity of bots with less SP, cheaper buy-ins and less competition?
Payment is not always a net-good. Would you want to get paid in Venezuelan bolívars? The payment needs to remain valuable. I'd argue that Steemit's value is driven by Proof-of-Brain, and shouldn't be driven by Proof-of-Bidbot.
I agree, content is a commodity. People's attention has plenty of things to keep it engaged these days. Relationships and engagement are extremely valuable and should be incentivized.
So, how do we design Steemit to encourage better engagement?
On that note, thank you for the quality conversation and discussion. :D
We need to design it in such a way so it's easy to find discussions and to be able to jump into them and engage. For example how YouTube had it back in the days. Where you could find the videos with the most amount of new comments. This would be great because active users would be seen more.
Also another thing that is extremely valuable that currently is undervalued is the SBD liquid send system. That is what will make this Steem Blockchain worth the most in the long run. The Steem Blockchain surely should reward Proof-of-Brain.
Hive Mind will be interesting in that regard.