I really agree with this part:
most tutorials suggest that minnows follow whales, upvote their posts, comment on them, and try to make friends with them.
I think this is true unfortunately.
But don't do that. This of it this way, the whales don't need you to upvote them, you are actually wasting your upvote on a whale, they dont need it!
Use your upvotes better by supporting minnows and upvoting only minnows as much as possible with as much power as you can.
This makes the community really grow. Of course you want to be on a whale's map but upvoting all their stuff is not a good strategic option for minnows all together.
Don't you think?
Your article is very interesting Mr Folmann, thanks @initforthemoney for this point of view.
Thank you very much. I agree with the whales not needing our votes, however, we are told CONSTANTLY to go get those curation rewards. And where are the biggest curation rewards...? At the heels of the whales. Nonetheless, the money I've made on curation rewards so far are a just pennies. That being said, I do understand that building this system is a huge undertaking, and that it takes a lot of trial-and-error before things run smoothly. I'm not even convinced there is a perfect way of doing things, - just pointing out some observations. I'm glad that it resonated with you!
Yes super exc observations. My comment for not upvoting whales was just an observation in general as well but definitely the whales are needed to stay up top new things and great contents because they do provide this most of the times. So its important to follow and engage with them. I am saying that voting power is valuable and since it runs off temporarily people in general should use it in different places strategically and promote upvoting for new people. The feeling of getting upvotes is nice and all new people should feel it when their contents are good.
I think we just need for the value of Steem to go up like with the rest of cryptos right now. Its a bear market at the moment so we just need to be patient for a moment. It will go back up but who knows when.
Steemit is an awesome platform and community. Everything is great and will be even better as time passes.
True that the whales are needed and that most of them share content with value. I'll be very exited when steem price goes up, although I was kinda serious about the retention strategy.