I would up vote this until you recommended DOWN VOTING. That down vote is more like a flag and shouldn't be used by down vote brigades.
I won't be up voting posts recommending down votes for reasons like that. Let's pull out a gun and start spraying it around at random people because you are unhappy. (yes that is an exaggeration to the extreme but you get my point)
I think I covered everything I could think of in those three posts. I actually would have up voted your post (I'm worth an measly $0.01, $0.02) at the moment but I will not support down vote brigades. I consider it a petty and misaimed attack that hurts us all. It certainly won't fix what you hope it will.
Agreed. I would upvote this also except for the downvote advice. I don't think that is fair.
The thing is that steemit will never hit it's true stride and potential unless this is addressed, lackadaisical or crony upvoting will be the demise here, there is a majority of great content that gets what it deserves but if casual users, people just looking for good content have to wade through what amounts to lame facebook posts from people you don't know or care about then that is extremely damaging to the long term prospects here. Again I'm not talking about trolling or randomly downvoting things you don't like, but the downvote is there for a reason and I believe addressing abusive upvoting is a legitimate, albeit distasteful one.
Thanks for the reply @thecryptofiend
I think it will. The power needs to spread around. It is currently consolidated into the very early adopters, and developers. As they vote on stuff it will up lift others, and as they vote it will further up lift more.
It is in beta and you are early adopter so this stuff has to happen. The only way I see it not eventually working out is for big winners to not vote. If they get the power to uplift people and don't use it, then that becomes a problem.
I'm not talking about randomly or abusively downvoting, I'm not a hater or a troll or unhappy in general, I just see a lot of upvote abuse and it WILL undermine the long term viability of steemit.
Thanks for your input @dwinblood, always appreciate dialogue.
I would stand behind you on encouraging people to NOT VOTE for such things. I personally though will only ever use the FLAG for obvious plagiarism, or abusive/offensive posts that do not give people fair warning before exposing them to it. If they give people a choice such as NSFW then I won't even flag those. I'm not a fan of censorship. I am not happy on the things people vote on, but I'm kind of used to it. I've never been much of one to follow a crowd.
If we hang in there. I believe over time those of us that gain power will help balance that out. I know they are trying to attract a larger audience, and all I have to do is read what is popular in the world to know I am no judge for what the masses consider POPULAR. Most of the stuff that is popular I find incredibly stupid. So if they want to grow the audience should they aim at me, and people like me that are already here, or should they vote on stuff that might grow the people here? We are investors that is what steem power is... so IF they grow the audience ultimately we all benefit. I simply think it will take time to get there. Yes, I'd love to have a $10K+ post but I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that is not likely to ever happen. I like a lot of things, but the things I like don't fall into the exactly popular category. I also don't really like to copy other people, so when I see a pattern it is hard for me to MIMIC a winning strategy. I can't bring myself to do it. So I just play the STEADY AND SLOW game and write about things that are important to me. I think you do too... I think the important mental picture that helps me when I see stuff doing really well that seems the same as other things or stupid is to remember EVERY person up voted here can uplift the rest of us if they turn around and vote on other people. About the only thing that can truly kill steem is people who do really well NEVER using their vote.
@dwinblood I couldn't have said it better. I'm not a follower either and I'm more than willing to take an unpopular stance, maybe too much so, sometimes, but I'm not a hater and I like all sorts of content. I appreciate the high and low culture. I go to the symphony and the dirt track, but the circle jerk upvote abuse is obviously a real problem as I see it. Maybe I was a little rash and to quick to pull the trigger on calling for downvotes, so be it. But I see it as the only answer to what to me is just another form of cronyism at work here, a small club abusing their power and influence. Steemit has been likened to a new kind of economic system and with that in mind it is susceptible to corruption and abuse and right now it's an insider game here and the rest follow along. I see it as a huge problem and not just out of self interest, but like I said, because I believe the potential here is so much greater .
If you've seen reddit then you've likely see that down voting can be just as bad. In fact it can be worse. If you get people starting to down vote anything they don't agree with or dislike, or that they are angry because someone else voted for that person's post then where does it stop?
In addition, you are not hurting the person that voted for that post at all. You are hurting the person that received the vote. This is no solution. You'll get blowback and it'll just spin out of control and people retaliating against perceived injustice.
When in reality there are some simple questions:
When someone else receives a vote, how does that hurt you or me? It's not like I had taxes taken against my will, I didn't pay anything. It actually has ZERO impact on you and I other than making the trending page pretty useless. Since you don't get curator rewards for stuff on the trending page it is better to hang out in NEW and HOT anyway.
No anyone receiving a vote truly hurts no one. They are not taking from you and redistributing it to someone else. That doesn't exist here.
In the world of taxation and taking your money without your consent and then redistributing it to people you'd be spot on. That isn't possible in this environment.
In fact even any perceived cronyism is NO big deal as it has ZERO impact on you or I. (again unlike taxation and regular money)
It does however have the potential of gradually elevating people who might like some of the stuff you and I post and their vote will suddenly be worth more than the $0.01 my vote is currently worth. As you and I gain power our vote will be worth more and I'll only be voting for things I like. If you do as well, and so do other people then it will work out. It is just WAY WAY early in the life of this and it hasn't had a chance to spread out yet. That doesn't mean it doesn't have problems. I just don't see ANY cases where down voting will be a solution with the exception of addressing spam, plagiarism, and abusive/offensive posts with no warning.
No reason to attack people's post because someone else voted for them.
Also I didn't consider you a hater or troll. I could tell by the rest of your post, and that's why I would have up voted it except for the down vote part. It is a matter of perception. If I don't like something I don't vote for it. I don't consider the flag a down vote. I consider it an indication something should be censored. We don't censor things and it is still here, but that is an indicator that it should be censored. That is just IMO. It also helped me not get an concerned about what they up vote when I realized that anyone up voted can then later give you and I more by voting on us. So in theory it will even out. The people that score really well and never vote. Those are the only people I get a little frustrated with. We can't uplift each other without voting. So we need to be happy when we see other people being uplifted even if we have ZERO interest in their post. :) That is what I tell myself, and it has helped me not really care about the trending page. :)
Nice @dwinblood your up $10 on your reply!
That's pretty cool. It wasn't my goal. I just wanted to talk to you. :) I could sense where you were coming from. I think if people like you and I can see posts like yours and explain the silver lining that is not very obvious initially that this place could be pretty positive and turn into an amazing place for all of us.