but hopefully we can come up with ways to keep steemit’s curation (mostly) natural!
WARNING : Counter-argument ahead.
Seriously?!
The default way most normal people use would probably (continue to) work just fine. There is no need to reinvent the wheel here, just upvote what you like! It requires no extra thinking and avoids upvoting things for the almighty dolla dolla bill yall, which is what OP is suggesting.
IMHO this is not the way to grow the Steem Community, it comes across as a counter culture. This attitude of "upvote these people from my selected list to make money, but be sure to throw some crumbs to the noobs, but not too much or you might not make as much money for yourself", reflects poorly on Steem as a whole. That is unless all the Steem Community is focused on is making money for themselves, instead of Steem's adoption to the masses.
This post outlines the problem discussed early on in regards to people forming groups that just upvote each other or only certain accounts while the masses are left to pick up the crumbs off the table. In my and others opinion, this approach is the wrong approach; and suggesting that others simply upvote certain accounts because they have been deemed by the "elite" to be worthy of an upvote simply because you will make more money is asinine and will only deter further growth of this Community.
A lot of the "top post" here on Steem are unabashedly pandering to the Steem whales and owners simply to make the easy cheese. It's repugnant to read at times because I can barely hear the words in my head as I read due to the loud sucking sound spewing from every sentence as they attempt to leech every drop of precious Steem they can before the pressure valve known as July 4th blows.
I love the idea behind Steem and I don't want to see it continue to be turned into an insiders club that pushes away the masses and avoids good content from new users to the platform simply because the whale's bots have already been assigned to upvote those that have been deemed worthy by the same small group of individuals. The rich get richer has never been more true than it is here on Steem right now.
If you're going to target new users with the promise of money for good content, then please stop (at least publicly if you can) making list of accounts that should be upvoted and swaying the masses of new users with the promise of swag if they upvote those deemed worthy by a select few. Sure new users can make a little more money now if they play along and only upvote those you all have chosen ahead of time for them, but in the long run, how do you honestly think that is going to work out for Steem as a whole?
People of Steem, use your own judgement of what is good content! Upvote any account that post useful content, whether it be a long winded post using the overly reverberated proper format, a simple meme that's funny, a video or piece of art that you'd never seen before until that post, a funny joke that made you smile or spit out your favorite drink in laughter, a finger drawing from a phone or a nice round ass you'd like to slap.
Please don't vote for a post simply because some list told you it would make you more money. You're not a machine that needs an algorithm to solve, you're a human being with independent thought and you don't need to bow down to money or crafted list to tell you how to vote. Sure, use them as a guide towards content others feel is worthwhile, but please don't blindly upvote those list for an easy buck. You're doing yourself and Steem a disservice in the long haul.
Now go out there and keep Steem awesome and as decentralized as possible!
Thanks a lot tuck, this is a very important post!
After reading the OP I was seriously wondering about people counting their votes and calculating the remaining power to make the biggest profits.
I have no idea how many votes I cast, definitely more than healthy for me. But it's so much fun!
I agree with both of you that it's a concern, but in the long run it's a minor one. See my direct rebuttal to Tuck, please.
Warning: Rebuttal Ahead
Tuck, if you read the full article, there are two places (at the beginning and the end) where I clearly advised users NOT ONLY to vote for top posters. With about 20 votes a day in your voting power, there isn't enough 'All Star' poster content to vote on that often. I suggested a breakdown of 50/50 or perhaps 75/25 or 25/75, taking care to spend what remains of those 20 votes to reward new, poor, and good quality blog posters -- read my post, and I emphasized that strongly. They need to be supported and paid. I agree, that is the best way Steemit can grow. Also, the whole essence of my piece suggests that people who want to make money need to vote early on good posts. If a top poster is getting what, 6 or 10 votes from people trying to piggyback on the post's income, that's not a lot and it's not going to skew anything on Steemit. Voting later doesn't help the voter as much. Quality posts, whoever writes them, will still get plenty of upvotes because people appreciate the content.
Thank you steamship - as a newbie, it has been a daunting task to wade through the "process" of steemit and the potential benefits this social site has to offer. I had no idea when I first jumped into the arena (two days ago) what the benefit was of upvoting and the limited votes per day (20?) were issued (i'm sure I blew through that my first hour thanking and upvoting all the bots that hit me up, oh well, lesson learned). I have some solid ideas on creative new content and will now take my time is executing quality post. Thanks again.
Very well said!
Hey Tuck - as always you make some really good points, but where you've quoted me:
I was referring to the inevitable rise of the bots! Hopefully most voting will be as you say, real-people (natural) voting for stuff they like!
You definitely have some good points; however, so too does steemship. Furthermore, to his credit he did say target whales but also target anyone with great content. That sounds like good advice to me. One audience allow you to pay the bills the second appeals to your "tree hugger" disposition. Smile