I like the fact that Steemit strives to be about original content. Its what differentiates it from other social networks. I think its a unique feature and a pretty cool one.
Its fascinating to me, how the obsession with original content came to be from the community. There was never any rule written on what can and can't be posted on Steemit. It just materialized as a belief from the early adopters. It is a part of our "company culture" now.
Absolutely agreed. I absolutely can't take the credit for it, but I can say I tried to make my voice heard on that subject to the tune of thousands of lines of text over the last 3 weeks. In hindsight it might have been a waste of time because I could have been posting content and trying to gain a reward for my time like so many others, but I feel this will pay off in the long run with a community I can be proud to be a part of.
It probably will be an ongoing fight to keep the "company culture" thinking along these lines once the influx of new users hits unmanageable sizes, but sowing the seeds now makes sense and I'm very glad I'm not a lone voice!
Stay original, Steemit!
I've always been against the obsession with original content. I think it came about in large part because many of the early adopters of Steem were themselves bloggers who didn't like the competition for visibility, attention and rewards.
In my opinion, links which provoke discussion (where the discussion is the original content) are great, and people who are great at finding and selecting the most relevant and discussion-generating links should be rewarded. Of course I love the bloggers too. We can do both.
Hi @smooth
I've noticed that you have supported a different view and I think that is great. I agree there should be the freedom to do both. Where I find the issue, and you may not agree, is when that content that is being shared is more or less copy and paste, no real value added by the reposter and the content owner of what is linked is unaware that his content is being used to make a profit.
I agree that curation in this sense is surely worthy of reward, but I feel it needs to be done responsibly and not lazily.
A month or two ago it might have been ok to "steal" some content due to a lack of quality content and real rewards. But now we can and should do better. IMO, it was not ideal to have certain "curators" of content get handsomely rewarded while someone else could post the exact same thing and get nothing.
The content was not king. It was the kingmaker(whale nepotism) that made the content king. On top of that it was pilfered and profited from in a less than ideal way. Just because FB and other social media sites rip off the content providers, doesn't mean we must follow their lead or die.
https://steemit.com/music/@thisisbenbrick/can-steemit-and-the-blockchain-kill-spotify
This is what I feel this site can cultivate ideally. The idea that content creators, not the middle man, get a greater share of the rewards. When I see a curator getting the immediate rewards for supposedly giving the creator more exposure I get ill to my stomach. That business model deserves to die and if I have any say in the matter it will die.
Having been a professional content creator for most of my life I really can't stand to see the artist getting the short end of the stick. Sorry to go on and on about this matter.
Cheers
@smooth LOL, I love the "(where the discussion is the original content)" part of your post. I have found myself on many occasions more engaged with the comments section than the original post as well.
Anyone who denies the thrill of being pulled into a good comments thread is also denying themselves half the fun of a healthy social media outlet for open discussion and debate. ;-)