Hello guys, today I want to write this very critical article here, because yesterday I made a very very stupid experience here in the community and I can´t believe the reactions. With my article of yesterday I wanted to support a broke young friend in africa and finally I wanted to payout the funds from the article for him and send it to him via western union. The first reactions where, that people didn´t believe me, that this is not a fake and was very sceptism. After I uploaded another proof, that the friend in africa is real and im always in contact with him, some comments where removed and the upvotes raised. Some minutes later there were the first cents at the article, but it was apparently too much for some people, so that three guys decided to flag the article. Where does this jealousy come from? Why some people are against helping poor people in third world countries? We have the potential to change the world a little bit with this community and they are articles with many thousand dollars, where only the writer profits. I call everyone to support such actions and not just what you personally like yourself, but what is just important, like helping the people in africa! Of course I understand, that many people try to take advantage of such articles with helping others and they will never donate the money. But this doesn´t mean, that every post where someone want to support a friend, or where a homeless person ask for help is a scam guys!
And it is not so difficult to find out if an article is real or not, because a faker would never give out his personal details, pictures, or will never be able to give you any proof that he knows the person. At my article from yesterday I can´t understand how anyone could think this is a fake, because Im a real person, I always show my face, I could give you my adress and everything. You can even visit the friend in africa, I can give you his adress too! :) If i would want to make a fake article, I wouldn´t publish it on my blog, or with my name, Im not stupid!^^ Everyone should be really ashamed, who thought my article is not real and not upvoted, or even flagged it! (Really ashamed, because apparently you don´t know, or you don´t believe how bad is the situation for young people in africa...)
Why this people are so much stingy?
Like you know, the concept of steemit allows people earn money just with votes and it costs nothing for the voter. So what reason could you have not to upvote an such important article like my article from yesterday, or even flag it? There is no reason, you don´t have to pay anything to help guys! Why not everyone is doing charity actions like this for a friend, so that everyone supports each other in some point? This could make the world a little bit better and then Steemit was a huge invention. If only people with money are supporting people with money, this community is shit and not better then the unfair money system of our world. How could it be, that articles with just one picture and litte text, which is for example only a fun post, get many thousands of dollars for the blog owner and an article with which the blog owner wants to support a poor guy in africa, get zero dollars? This is a big imbalance guys and I hope that this will be better in the future, that high value and important content will be rewarded more than only funny posts.
Look at this for example, with this article I got over 10$, but it was no important issue: https://steemit.com/photography/@future24/berlin-city-impressions-and-photography-3-aboutme
What does this mean? Does it means the people here doesn´t mind what is the situation in africa, or that the most people everytime think that everything is fake, where people want to help other people? If you would know me, I care about such things since I was a child and Im always looking where I can help, because there is a so big imbalance of the wealth in the world. I find it very bad that I have to prove anything, because Im very serious about issues like that, but here is a screenshot of an older transaction from me to the friend in gambia, with which he was able to buy rice for one year longer:
Here you can see the picture of the rice he has bought with my funds, because of course he always shows me what he did with the money as a prove too:
I hope know you understand and believe that my article yesterdays was is NO FAKE and you will spread my message here a little bit. I hope that I waked up some people, that we can do good things with this community and it should not be a community where everyone just wants the best for themselfes! What do you thing about this strange experience with my article from yesterday? Why the people are so sceptism, even if they can see that Im a real person and when I wrote them that I will prove anything I can? Write your opinion in the comments! I will publish the charity article in german too later and I hope that everyone is supporting at least the german article.
Best regards and I wish a open mind for everyone, because "small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world"!
Jonas Ahrens
You intentions might be nobel, but for me there are two issues here:
First off, steem is not a fund-raising platform, votes are to curate posts and the reward is to incentivize the creation of quality content. I see asking people to upvotes for anything despite the content as abusing of the system and therefor think flagging can be justified and it doesn't mean that the user flagging your post is against supporting pour people.
Why not ask people to send you steem, SDB or Bitcoin instead of trying abuse the voting system? (Btw. Votes do cost you limited voting power and are not completely free in that sens)
The other thing is, IMO you shouldn't expect people to just trust you based on a story and a few photos on the internet and then get mad if they don't.
I do not understand all the talk regarding "Quality Content". Steemit states they would like to become a Social Media Platform with many users. Neither FB or Twitter has ever encouraged Quality Content, excellent writing, etc. What they promote is lots of content, community building, user friendliness, etc.
I find all of the focus on quality content confusing. Want to be big? Make it interesting (which isn't always the same as Quality) Make it easy, make it friendly, and allow people to receive feedback. (such as likes or votes more often) Nobody wants to write into a quiet abiss, hoping for a whale. I know people want to make money, but at the expense of not gainning new users it seems to limit the potential of this unbelievably awesome idea.
It had nothing to do with jealousy. Just to mention that, I did not flag that article, but I did also not upvote it.
The thing is, I and another steemer commented critically on that article. That means, we were simply asking for a few more details. The reactions were aggressive and offensive.
Promotion of that article was quite aggressive as well. In Team Steemit group on Facebook, the link to the article was posted under comments, posts, etc. And again, there were aggressive and offensive comments made by you, Jonas.
I wrote several times "don't be so aggressive, you're not doing yourself any favour with this". I was trying to help.
I totally understand that one comment on the other article "flagged for spamming everywhere" - it simply annoys people if you're too needy.
It has nothing to do with jealousy or any of such things, it is simple basics of social skills.
I understand your frustration, but I - and others - gave you tips, tried to help you with your article and all we read for this is jealousy, scepticism, criticism, mixed with offensive behaviour.
Yes @ines-f, I didn´t mean you with the flag and thanks for your feedback! Kind regards, Jonas
"The thing is, I and another steemer commented critically on that article." Yes and he edited his comments, like you can see, because I gave you another prove that Im serious and he understood it. "The reactions were aggressive and offensive." What was aggressive and offensive? If anything, it was defensive, aggressive and offensive looks very different. ;) I only answered your questions and asked you what do you want as a prove and you didn´t answered to this... And then I added another prove and today in this article here one prove more. I also said thanks to you for your feedback and made what you wanted, I already added more details. So is everything ok now? Really friendly greetings from germany! Jonas
I did not delete my comments because I stand by what I am saying and in real life, you can also not simply delete what you just said. I know that you did even not mean being aggressive or offensive - it still felt like that when reading your responses.
Everything is totally okay - I just did not want to lead an endless discussion on this, that's why I did not answer then anymore. I surely don't want to be fighting each other, that's not what I am here for. Let's just agree that we don't agree and everything is fine.
Cheers (from Germany as well^^)
Ines
While I completely understand the skepticism of anyone asking for money for a cause on Steemit, with fraud being possible, I'm not sure why @abit flagged you. I don't see any spamming here on Steemit under your user name. @abit's solid, so I'm sure he will provide more clarity if he flags again.
@derekareith Thank you for your feedback. Yes maybe he means at facebook, where I shared the article in some groups, but I think this is no spam, because it´s a way to reach more people and like I told in this additional article here again, it is really important for Ablie (the young guy from africa). Maybe @abit will remove his flag, it would be really friendly. Best wishes to everyone! Jonas
@abit probably meant that spammy style of promoting his article on Facebook
Yes I think he meant that. But what do you think? Isn´t it legitimate in this case, where's a so important matter? How would you suggest to promote something like this to get as many visitors as possible? Thank you for your suggestions and have a nice day!
It's psychology my friend... Most people turn away from such things and pass by because they don't want to have anything to do with this... They're afraid of it...
Yes that's true, unfortunately. :( And I can understand this, because they are many real fakes here too. That´s why I will do anything to prove that Im really serious with it and if there will be enough support, I would travel to gambia for you and will make pictures and videos, how I will support the people there direct at the place.
I don't think you will get a lot of votes, unfortunately... People don't want to read about the bad things... And they don't want to watch this.
The german article will be published tomorrow.