Seeing a lot of posts this morning about how minnows are getting the shaft on Steemit. Being minnow-like myself, I feel a lot of the same things everyone does. @aggroed had a damning chart showing that the top 1% of Steemians control 93% of the SP, and admittedly, man, that was a little hard to take. Steemit has brought aboard tens of thousands of new users just in the last couple weeks, and to have that influx not result in a major boost to the payout pool--to have the pool shrink, as a matter of fact--is frustrating.
All that's above my tiny pay grade. I don't pretend to know how those things are calculated. I do completely understand the mounting grumble from the hundreds of thousands of minnows in the school. I'm one of them.
But, people. When you start talking about Steemit like a pyramid scheme, or some kind of massive scam, that's when I gotta push back. The truth is that Steemit owes you nothing. Not. A. Blessed. Thing. And when we start thinking it does, that's when we should take a deep breath and quaff the red pill.
Whales vacuum up most of the rewards on Steemit. Yes. Who disputes it? But who's giving them those rewards? We are.
You are getting paid to post words and pictures on a website.
Let that sink in for a moment, good people, my dear friends.
You are getting paid to post words and pictures on a website.
And here's another salient fact: we are getting paid by other people, who are using money they don't lose when they pay us. Heck, they get paid to give us money.
Yes, Steemians, this paradisical wonderland actually pays us to give money to other people.
Is our complaint that we're not getting as much of this more or less free money as others are? Boo-bleeping-hoo. Here's the solution: surf some porn instead. How much you getting paid for that?
If the rewards are poor, and the activity isn't worth it, then make the sensible calculation and go do something else. Steemit isn't here to make you rich. The site--the community--has zero obligation to us. If our tender sensibilities are offended because @curie and @abit and @jamesc and fifty others are making more of the rewards here, then the solution is to go ride a bike. That won't pay us anything from one of the ten most valuable cryptocurrencies on earth, but we'll be healthier, and that's no bad thing.
Everyone is free to make their own calculations about that. We decide--it's hard, this adulting thing--whether this activity is worth our time. As for me, I'm writing anyway, and until Steemit only a very small amount of my writing paid me anything at all. Now, a lot of it does. So it's $5 a day. So what? I was getting that someplace else? Who, exactly, owes me something just because I learned to type? To shoot a photo? To minimally HTM-the bleep-L?
Nobody, that's who.
Personally, I feel bloody thrilled that these words are worth anything at all, and that there's someplace where some of that value can end up in my pocket. Maybe we should all try to remember that. We'll sure as hell feel a lot better.
~Cristof
True , but the fear of accepting it is the problem. Though some resolutions need to come up
I can totally understand that. And I think you're right. We're going to have some more tinkering to do before the site matures.
I agree with you on this. Everywhere you go you will always have "Whales" influencing the direction in which things go. Be it in the financial market where they easily manipulate prices at the expense of the small traders or basically in government where we get shafted on a daily basis as the politicians siphon public money.
The best we can hope for is to build our profiles and our position on steemit and also join the elites. All it takes is hard work and maybe not thinking at all about the rewards. Invest in steem ladies and gentlemen and gain SteemPOWERRR!!
I wish I didn't agree so hard with this. But I do. There's an order of things, and if you start with a perfectly level field and perfectly fair rules, it won't take long before you have people at the top who will then make new rules to help them stay there. Perhaps there's a system where that doesn't happen, but I don't know what it would be.
The key thing is to design a system where even if the big players can take most of the rewards for themselves, they can't hurt the people underneath them, and Steemit does that about as well as anything I can imagine. Far better than the government, which is even worse than zero-sum--the people at the top can't get ANYTHING unless they take it from someone else.
Reminds me of the quote "always know the rules of the game before you play it". This website is so new I think it will change and evolve a lot. I think it has a lot to offer even with a few people who control much of it.
I think that, too. I don't know what we can do about it. Way too complex for me. But I do think that there are improvements that can be made.
Upvoted your words here, nice post, i think steemit has more benefits than negative sides.
If you didn't, why would you even be here? At the very least, you can't do yourself any harm here.
I think you missunderstood me, i wanted to say i like steemit no matter if this post say some bad things too.
I think that's true for all of us. We love what Steemit does, and we wish it did better things.
yes i agree
People work hard that is what they do. Steemit Doesn't ANYONE a Damn Thing. No Whine Zone. Take Accountability. Upvoted.
Sort of the way I look at it. I mean, who is harmed by whales taking profits? Anybody? I'm getting very little from my work here. But I'm not LOSING anything, and someone else getting rich doesn't harm me at all.
Great article. I agree that it's frustrating to maybe get a dollar or less for each post, once the final payout comes. But this should be seen as a bonus on top and the site should be enjoyed primarily for the social side, and the opportunity to share and be a part of a community.
Bingo. Not to mention that you do get something for it. You spend all day on Reddit, and how much does that make for you?
Exactly, plus this is the most positive community I've come across on the net.
I'll echo that. I can't even imagine how much better a place Reddit would be if it were like this.
The way I look at it is that I can use steemit to give back to the folks who I have followed for a very long time and support their work and effort by giving back to them. They worked hard to build up their following and are successful for a reason. I think there are many others who do the same.
What I also love about steemit is that I get to find folks who are posting great content and I can help support them as well. :)
Great way to look at it. On Steemit, I can give people much more than praise and compliments. Well, okay, not much more, just like .17 more, but that's more, right? And it will get to be more over time as well.
Exactly! At least for the folks I follow... they have a huge follower base. They get anywhere from $100-$1000 per post.
At least my .15 helps out that little tiny bit. ;)
Yep. That's all I have, too. Less, most times. The follower count is critical, and boosting it is a major priority--or should be--for every minnow.
I've posted some awesome stuff on Facebook, some beautiful photos on Instagram, think they paid me a red cent of stock for my participation? Think they sold me shares. Nope, but they did take my efforts as a sign they could sell me to advertisers.
I've had a blogger account for 7 years, think they are covering my annual url reservation fees for bleedpoetry.com, I could of used google ads, but it was against my philosophy. I left a donation button up that collects dust not dollars.
I've been paying money for a service and community that Steemit offers for free, ad free. Every cent I make is a blessing, it's depressing some people don't see how great this place could be.
Not that I'm not sorry about the other ventures--I'm a writer, and I totally hear you--but I'm very glad you see the uses for Steemit. I could write these rants on Reddit, if I wanted, and what would that do for me? Not a thing. There, and everywhere else, I'm paying for the privilege of talking with people and creating content. Here, I'm getting paid for it, by people that are also getting paid to interact with me. Where's the downside?
Not that there aren't changes that could be made. There definitely are. But they also get made, and I'm encouraged by that.
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With this post, you remind on an (almost 9 months) old post of mine, basically on the same topic.
As I wasn't very active since then, just a post here and there, I am, same as you, still just a minnow.
You've got my vote for sure, but personally, I don't want to lose my energy anymore on those things as there would always be some more or less loud complainers, naggers, and braggers.
You're probably right. This morning, I couldn't stand it any more. I'll go back in my shell now.
I can completely understand you because although I want to avoid losing energy on such things, I would probably burst as well if I wouldn't be able to stand it anymore (again). 😉
Bingo. That's what I mean. I'm feeling much better now.
You hit it on the spot!
It is kind of hard to complain when Steemit has offered me so much; it is the investors that buy into it that subsidize the money we make after all.
I would think, however, it is always fair to criticize how things work; without imput there is no improvement and evolution and for Steemit to grow it must keep evolving at a rapid pace. You have to keep the investors investing, curators curating and the creators creating to keep Steemit expanding instead of becoming a giant circle jerk.
How could I argue with this? And surely there are going to be more improvements coming that might address the worst of the complaints--while creating new things to complain about, no doubt.
you know, with the level of engagement this post generated the rewards should be much higher. The content was also excellent and added value to the site. Finally, you are performing a useful service week in and week out in featuring the best of the site. Now, if we can only come up with an algorithm that incorporates all those factors so that you get paid what you justly deserve, then I will be satisfied
Thanks. I have no idea what "justly deserve" even means. You get what you get. When you produce something that people like, you get more--I did, more than usual, anyway--and if you don't, you get less. Usually. Sometimes. The correlation is not 1:1.
I'd love to be getting posts in the $10-$20 range, but apparently I'm not there yet. I'll keep going. I'll be there one day.