I never really looked at this place warzone, even back in the day when it was really bad. When I look around, all I see is people busting their asses. Steemit INC is crushing it lately with updates (I remember when people were up in arms that INC was not helping)
People use their downvotes, I remember when everyone was up in arms about people not using them.
People are getting paid, organically, for great content. One just has to click the photography/trend tab to see how far we've come, before it was all bid botted crap.
I think its easy to see the bad in anything, and vice verse. As a stakehodler, ive never been more excited about the future of Steem.
ANd SMTs and Communities will not remove "war" - you know who stops wars? the owners of the website, this is a decentralized place, so you need to clash sometimes if you want balance.
The next bitching you will here is about "elite communities" and SMTs that are controlled by overlords. Giving people power over who does what in a community is great, but that doesn't not come with 100% peace.
The problem is, that the improvements regarding the trending page are subjective and that too many people were thrown under the bus. And not only people, but stakeholders.
With bid-botting, the difference was that most people buying votes, were simply doing it to generate more money and to sell it. Most of those users weren't big stakeholders, mainly leeches to get the most out of the reward pool, so it's fine if they're gone.
On the other hand, whether someone thinks @slowwalker's, @broncnutz's and others behaviour is appropriate for the platform, is subjective and opinionated. And I find it to be a very dangerous game to force stakeholders to have a certain belief. "Either you stop upvoting your friends, or we're going to burn your rewards to the ground". This mindset is harming the bond between stakeholders, which should normally be as positive and neutral as possible. With Bitcoin, Ethereum and most other coins, there's just one direction: forwards. But on Steem, it's super opiniated.
And if I were to be treated like @slowwalker, I would wonder whether my stake in Steem is appreciated enough. If it were an SMT, he could simply sell it and buy another SMT, all based on Steem. But with the main currency, he is forced to either adapt or to sell it for bitcoin/another altcoin.
I agree with what you're saying but I am not in the reward pool being taken away and forcing SMTs to be the only PoB on Steem. I will make a video explaining my thoughts better then I can in the comments. But you are exactly right at naming the issues, I just think the solution, while sounds great on paper, I don't think will work well in practice.
Now, if we are talking about removing the reward pool down the line, as the inflation shrinks and SMTs will be forced to step up. But I am not a fan of removing it until both SMTs are mature, and the reward pool inflation has become so low, that people are naturally forced into using SMTs more.
I understand your point and removing one of the key strength of Steem at this time is not the correct move. However, I think we're under-selling the passive inflation and we should increase the incentive for people to stake their Steempower. In the best case, with a dynamic staking period and increasing potential APR. (https://medium.com/@bytemaster/blockchain-governance-proposal-470478e42686)
I was looking over Dan's proposal. Was wanting to get thoughts from Steem witnesses on it. I don't agree with all of it but there may be so useful things we can pick at for Steem.
Points and facts everywhere. But, a little wrong could cause havoc. While we are fighting for the growth, and the success of this Blockchain we all need to be reasonable in everything we do. I have been here for years, and I have invested my time, money, and energy to work with many nice projects. I launched a project less than 2 weeks ago, and I clearly started the purpose and how I planned to bring more people here with it. I couldn't think of anyway to get it to seen than to use a Bidbot. I did and many people love the idea, but it was amazing to see that I was faced with many DOWNVOTES( After stating in a comment that part of the payout will be burnt). This is where I know some people do things unreasonably. The post was not for gain it was for visibility of something I think could drive more folks here. If we are building we should build well.
This is definitely going to be the case and already happens on the S-E tokens where there are stakeholders and owners who are policing, and some stakeholders trying to undermine the site.
The interesting thing is going to be when essentially anyone can start a community and will be responsible for managing and making it valuable. I think at this point, the real businesses will develop and grow to provide value for their endusers.
The successful will always be blamed for their position ahead of others.
How long has it been since the HF, 6 weeks? The effects still haven't fully shaken out yet. We have oldsteem programs and organizations still retooling. It could be another year or more until this all shakes out. But I take a look around, and I think we are off to a great start here.