I did an analysis of the top posts in July based on a compressed ranking system of 1 minnow, 2 dolphin, 3 whale, 4 megawhale: https://steemit.com/steemit/@jl777/top-posts-for-july-rank-calculated-by-minnow-1-dolphin-2-whale-3-megawhale-4
if you look at the breakdown you will find that the whales liked what everybody else liked and vice versa. There is a discussion about the visibility gained from having a whale vote, but if you look at the ratio between whale votes and the dolphin votes, it is surprisingly in a narrow range.
if anything, the numbers show that minnows are not voting much at all and thus are losing their power to influence steemit content.
There is a security reason that whale votes payout so much, but it takes a whitepaper to explain the details. The important thing to know is that there is no whale conspiracy. I also did another analysis of whales voting for whales as some people think that is going on, but it isnt.
Now the way the math works, either the whales vote the big amounts and some people get disproportionate rewards or NOBODY does. So if you keep complaining about whale votes, then even when your post finally gets to the main trending page you will end up with $200 instead of $2000.
Be careful what you ask for! Only a small percentage of posts win the lotto each day, but everyone has a chance of being the lucky writer, IF you are posting.
Good luck and let us be happy that there is a system that pays out anything for you doing what you probably would be doing anyway
Also, seriously? trying to distract people from economic disparity with a lottery. kind of a bad guy cliche. im just sayin
lotto as in SHA256 hashing when mining, since blogging is the new mining
mining wasnt even the new mining. but k get the ref.
That said, it kind of is like a lottery, right? We all buy tickets to fund whats allegedly a public service , like a hospital or a $20K intro post or some dude saying "before i found steemit i couldnt afford underpants now im rich buy steem". And in return we get a miniscule chance to get a big jackpot.
maybe at first that is what it is, but as the userbase grows it will need speciality content and we are already seeing some of that, ie https://steemit.com/trending/science No nobelprize winning papers (yet), but I wouldnt be surprised if in the future serious papers are posted on steemit. I mean why not? it pays better than most other places even at $10 a post
how old is steemit? What percentage of its evolution have we seen? Sure it isnt perfect but I dont see anything else that is anywhere close, that is why I am here trying to improve it.
tl:dr babies do silly things, but that doesnt mean they cant create serious work given time
replying here due to nesting.
Pick a position. Either the system works OK now, which was your original point that i replied to, or its an evolving crying baby and itll be better one day.
And the user base won't grow, at least not the paid userbase. Because a dozen or so people like the op have the system locked into a liquidity trap, and TPTB are so committed to it at this point that they refuse to back out on principle.
And if its an evolving crying baby, isnt it harmful to say "everyone who wants it to evolve is just a jealous, greedy idiot (OPs exact point in this and other posts).
Also, im not sure what im supposed to be looking at in science. I see one popst by gavvet (who runs a little cottage industry where he charges authors to post their posts because they know that he has a better chance of getting upvotes with the same content) thats a picture of some rocks. And one post that s a summary of some magazine articles written last year.
as was pointed out in that post, its just as easy to attribute that effect to the exposure that they get from being pinned to the top of trending.
If youre saying that it will result in a more even distribution of rewards, that i agree with. I just don't think its a bad thing. The only way to pay people like you and rok 4K every time you post is to pay everyone else pretty much nothing almost always.
Its easy to support a "lotto" when you win the lotto every time you play. But most people have to lose nearly every time they play in order to finance fixing the game in your favor. The lotto system is mainly going to attract people like you, who win everytime they play, and spammers, reposters etc, who want to get their ticket with as little work as possible.
Now yeah, its unfair. But thats not even the point. The point is most of these authors are putting out putting out low quality posts (IMO youre an exception).
Like that list you posted, its not even as bad as the money list but doesn't that make you cringe?
Look at my blog history, I have written an entire liquidity points system and it got a whopping $8. So i dont win the lotto everytime, far from it. I write 10 posts that get $10 for every one that gets more than $1000, I think that is better than most, but I do write deep incisive content of a fairly unique nature :)
from a systems point giving someone 25 bitcoins for finding the right random number that generates a good hash with lots of leading 0's vs. someone who writes a random post, it has similar distribution characteristics.
Look at my list again. look at the RATIO of whale vs dolphin vs minnow votes. While a whale upvoting gives a post more visibility and thus a larger expected return, it wouldnt give a disproportionate response. There are posts that have 1 whale vote others with 10+, generally speaking the distribution of other classes of votes follows similar ratios.
that tells me that what whales like, others like. what whales really like, others really like. whales are just normal people who won their form of lotto and if they are active, people get bigger awards.if they are inactive, they gradually lose their stake as it gets diluted by people who are posting.
also when you are a minnow, one big post and you multiply your Mv. when a whale, nothing you do will boost it even fractionally. while it does feel unfair to see low quality posts getting big payouts, it is identical to low diff hashes winning 50 BTC in the beginning. As more and more competition arises, the threshold for the high payout posts should go up.
Is it?
Yeah, some of your posts don't do that well. And you probably know exactly why that is. Its the same reason youre a 7 (AAMOF, i suspect the bots use a similar profile to the rep system). You probably also know that the effects of that will wear down over time as you get more votes.
I get the bitcoin analogy. I really do. and ill admit to not being a huge crypto guy. But isnt the "mining world" super shitty in btc? Like basically everyone has been chased out except the big pools? You really think people will want to buy into that... come to steemit its just like mining bitcoin!
Unless the additional whale votes moved it further up the page (they do) or kept it near the top longer (they do)
So you get one decent sized whale vote and that puts you on the front page... two gets you moved up a spot. until you get to a certain threshold where you get enough to be at the very top. Now, additional whale votes can keep you there for a whole month.
This is why youre a 7, and probably why you don't get as much bot love as some. https://steemit.com/money/@jl777/steem-price-might-double-next-week-liquidity-awards-to-be-temporarily-suspended-new-supply-of-liquid-steem-to-be-reduced.
You had a post killed by a high power voter.
If it wasnt for a couple huge posts it probably would have banned you outright.
nice try with the brute force analysis, but wordplay isnt going to cloud the issue.
Its not a comparison between whale on whale and non-whale on whale thats relevant. Its a comparison between whale on whale and whale on non whale. its a cute tounge twister though.
I dont know why I am a 7, you got me there. bitcoin mining is dominated by big miners, that is kind of why steemit is cool. anybody can "mine" a lotto post. no need to be able compile unix daemons and setup a miner to get free crypto
I already did a brute force statistical analysis and whale on whale voting is below non-whale for whale voting, except for a few accounts that I think have bots, like wang
thanks for your insightful contribution to the discussion, @jl777.
I haven't been in the crypto scene too long, though recall your name sticking out as being a highly-respected figure in the community, having been a key player in a number of significant projects - as such, your input is greatly respected and appreciated.