Steemit is an online community much like any other. It is not exempt from fundamental laws of economics or social dynamics. When it comes to people interacting based on financial rewards, we have to understand that every possible transaction is based on demand and supply.
Like I mentioned before in a previous post, capital is compartmentalized into social, financial and intellectual. Every company or individual falls under the same economic spectrum. The only difference is that Steemit is unique in the way it merges social capital with the financial one. Nothing more, nothing less.
Throughout the past year, there were plenty of views in regards to how value is created in the platform. Every now and then, morality was invoked as the means to rectify specific incidents. Nonetheless, morality is irrelevant to value. A given environment dictates the morality of the group. Depending on the point of view one examines an economic incident, some parties might feel they have been treated unfairly while some others not so much.
Some whales for example have invested heavily in the platform from the very beginning. They were the ones mining the tokens. It is expected from them to be opinionated about how things are run in here much like with every other major shareholder in a given company.
Others have joined Steemit following team members from previous projects. This is also something that happens in the outside world. These members have invested mostly in people and they feel they should be treated much like any other shareholder. Many other dolphins and minnows have been interacting with one another, created personal connections and formed groups of interest. Again, much like in every company or organization social capital is extremely valuable since it enables the other two forms of capital — intellectual and financial.
When a member of the platform utilizes their shareholder power, no matter how big or small, then it is to be expected not to be frowned upon. People on Steemit can sell their services and products — heck even their own tokens if they so wish. They can also counter other offers with their own version much like in the free market. This is what makes the blockchain so great. Complaining solves nothing. Acting (or reacting) is all the money, literally.
In a recent example, the whaleshares initiative introduced the concept of buying whale votes with their respective tokens. As a counter market act the Random Whale Vote initiative was introduced offering a different reward system that relies more on gambling. Both initiatives, aim to raise capital in their own special way.
People can buy votes if they so wish with their financial OR social capital. People tend to forget than having connections is much the same (if not more important) than having money. A group of people can decide to vote for each other for rewards because they have invested time to create a social bond. It is no different than someone spending the same amount of time to write an article. Both are valuable investments in their own way. Whether we like it or not, it is what it is. There is nothing that can be done to prevent this nor anyone should try to do so.
If we try to regulate economic exchanges on Steemit we would be doing the same exact mistake as in the FIAT world. A truly free market can and will inevitably correct itself. For example, If someone is milking the reward pool with little to no effort then eventually everybody will have to pay for the irresponsibility. The overall value of the platform will fall due to bad handling. The big guys will correct the situation our of self preservation. Same exact pattern is observed everywhere in nature.
There is a parable that describes how a greedy fellow killed the goose that laid one golden egg per day in order to get the gold out. The people within the community will eventually spot the greedy fellow and take action to balance things out otherwise they will be inevitably harming their own investment. A 'regulator' will always fall short since, at the end, who would be regulating the regulator?
I would advice my dear Steemians, whether they are whales, dolphins or minnows to try and understand the motives of each and every person on the platform. Most of the time, they are pretty obvious. If you believe something is "unfair" then try to understand why something happens rather than focusing on the fact that it happened. Any situation can be turned into your own advantage if you play your cards right. This is one of the beauties we can enjoy in the blockchain and one that we should all cherish.
I consider Steemit as a heritage site. It's not only what we have now but what we will leave for the future. And the future is determined on how we behave to what we have now. It is our collective responsibillity to guard this art of social media culture from all sorts of attacks that will eventually come with mainstream flood. I willl use this a bit cliche quote to sum up this tought:"The best way to predict future is to create it".
Well, the blockchain IS forever :)
That's the key. We are able to choose between different types of "forevers" in the blockchain. It's actually fascinating that we have accomplished what generations of humans tend to believe they will have after death: eternity in the physical sense, lol.
This is becoming a true social meaning of eternal good or bad deeds. Steemit along with blockchain is so revolutionary that it will not be easy to coprehend for the masses for a quite some time. It's philosophy of humanism, economy and social philosophy in general is - state of the art.
Steem & Steemit/other Steem platforms are most likely the future or a very large part of the new Internet they build in this space.
almost like the concept of god :)
indeed. that's perhaps the biggest hurdle
YEs and theres always some guy who will print out the entire 100GB bitcoin blockchain and the im sure several gigabyte long steemit blockchain, and yeah text is small, im sure steem blockchain cant be that big, and it can be enscribedonto some cave walls undderground, or etched onto the moon as a QR code we can scan from a telescope!
imagime that, backing up ddata by sending a robot to the moon to create a pattern in thee dust, engraving a QR code that can be read from a telescope, that would be a cool way to preserve code (untill an asteroid or meteor comes and wipes it away)
THIS is what we should be aiming for.
That is some imaginative thinking there buddy. And I like it.
That quote speaks wonders. I'm stealing it for myself and holding that close. Thanks
Most of thing can only be done/change at the system level. Regulating by the participants in the system may not be possible.
Current Steemit system basically put all power under the big whales hands. Dolphines or Minnows are like mid-low rank staffz of a company, they have to use their own ways to survivw and get "Paid" so to said.
Teams / groups / voting rings arw just naturally born under the current eco-system. This is how the lower ranks guys struggle to move up the chain.
So unless the system changes, hence, the rules of game change, the way Steemians act in Steem won't change so much.
Having some kind of police to bar all those "bad guys", it will only drives away majority of Steemians and what remain here will be the whales.
Hard Fork 19 will change the distribution in favor of the small guys
Great post and lots of analogies which I love.
You're exactly right. At first it's quite easy to get disappointed and even angry by some things you see here. For example there are users who will post multiple articles of ''low quality'' every day and will get hundreds of Upvotes. But what's important to understand is that if they are not offering quality then they are offering something else to the platform. If they offer nothing then the community will eventually punish them as you said very correctly.
It's also important to understand what Steemit needs, decide what you can offer and finally invest in that. The better you understand what people need and the more effort you put in giving them what they need, the better the outcome.
Awesomely put.
This. this is all the money.
exactly. Once someone understands what is the their true gift, what aspect of themselves is unique, and unlike any other, then they may start to be in a flow, which really means detachment, which in turn forms a cash flow.
Yes. If done correctly, even trolling can be fun in its own way.
So, how is that different than saying a drug dealer is offering value to the community, b/c people are buying their product? Clickbait is popular but that doesn't make it good for the community. I don't know what the answer is, but buying/wanting isn't the same as needing or it being good for you.
and how or why is that bad? Drugs offer many things to people. The fact that they have been demonized doesn't make them inherently evil.
@joyninja
You are trying to make a moral judgement about drugs, but that's not the issue here. Demand/Supply don't care about the morality of the goods/services being traded. If there is demand for something, there will always be someone out there willing to provide what is demanded. There is nothing in this world that is 100% bad or 100% good. And as kyriacos said, many times our perception of bad/good is affected by other factors (eg media) and not by objective information. I think, for example, that it's quite likely that recreational drugs will become a normal thing in our lives in the future. Maybe not exactly the ones we have today, but as demand for them will increase, better ones will be made.
Of course I enjoy the opportunity to earn money from my posts, but that is secondary to being a member of a community with diverse backgrounds and opinions. Sure I will post very simple jokes and other less meaningful fun things, but I also take the opportunity to give and receive feedback on a multitude of issues and hobbies.
Awesome man. Glad you enjoy the community and get to do your own thing.
The cool thing about Steemit is that it often encourages people to write about things they love.
I believe that there are many ways to make money here that are and will be detrimental to the success of steemit in the short and long term.
I don't think a platform built on plagiarism, copy/paste, and grey areas like posting torrents could be successful. If someone thinks it can be, I say go start one up! Good luck to you!
There have been a lot of innocent ideas such as sports betting, lotteries, voting schemes that on the surface look to benefit individuals and/or the platform. The problem is there are ways to exploit them. Several of these ideas come from well meaning and upstanding community members with good intentions.
What happens when someone else who isn't invested in the success of steemit copies their idea? Then another 10 or 20 do the same thing. In the case of lotteries and sports betting it turns into a vote buying and post spamming nightmare.
Both initiatives you mentioned seem fairly harmless but one has already upvoted plagiarized posts. It was fairly simple for them to buy some votes and get a few whale sized votes. The problem this creates is that with a high rep it takes more weight than groups like @steemcleaners have to effectively neutralize bad actors even with the support of the community without the help of other whales.
Like anything else this will escalate if there isn't a means put in place to counter it. The "bad" minnows will swarm to those initiatives in hopes of getting rich with little or no effort on their part.
Is that in the best long term interest of steemit?
It never just about the money. You look at reddit , facebook. It is never about the money and it is more how people would interact with each other and so on. I am now exploring steemit and have nothing but good thing to recommend to my friend. Thanks for your post
Totally agree, I think everyone here has an account on multiple platforms like Facebook, Reddit and Instagram without ever being paid for it. Steemit is just another cool upcoming community which people want to be part of!
I do not have accounts on those platforms, and only have an account on Steemit because of exactly the reason you mentioned. I am not willing to be a cash cow.
However, I am learning that Steem is not apportioned to the value that my speech has, in a fair way, but is, in ways I do not yet understand, being apportioned according to the wealth of the upvoters, and speakers.
This will impact my participation in Steemit, and I don't believe anyone doubts there will be competitors to Steemit very soon. Steemit is the first of it's kind. It will not be the last. If Steemit is eclipsed by a competitor that values speech fairly, and some profit in the short term from Steemit's failure to value speech fairly, the rest of us that help to provide value to Steemit with our valuable speech that isn't compensated fairly will regret it.
I don't want that to happen, and that is why I am speaking out.
I am sure you can acquire wealth by participating in Steemit but it won't happen overnight. I see you just joined in May and you didn't write a lot of posts yet but are already making some money with them. I get your point but I don't see it as a big issue.
I am, as I hope is clear, not discussing my own financial rewards from Steemit, but rather how an appearance, if not actual practice, of unfair distribution of rewards for posts and curation, will potentially impact Steemit.
I do want Steemit to succeed over the long haul. I have no interest in redistributing the wealth of anyone, or make any claims that I am deserving of upvotes or wealth myself.
Most people strongly believe that every situation where desirable things are shared or distributed should be fair, and the arcane way in which rewards are variable depending on the wealth of the posters and curators is neither easily understood, nor does it seem to be necessary at all to create a thriving community of diverse contributors with integrity.
On the contrary, it seems to have been designed to enable economic manipulation and censorship, much like is happening on Youtube at the moment. Whether I simply don't understand the reasons for it, or why it isn't actually a censorship mechanism, or device to manipulate and concentrate wealth, it certainly appears to do so.
As most people will likely not get past the appearance to an understanding more nuanced, that I have not yet attained, and do strongly react to unfairness in a negative way, it is highly likely that, as new users join Steemit, and begin to understand the system, Steemit will suffer the loss of many potentially valuable contributors.
I am not making an accusation, and I hope that is clear from my repeated statements to that effect, and further my direct confession of lack of understanding of the weird way in which value is distributed in Steemit. I have asked for an explanation, and here do so again.
Why isn't there simply a value provided to upvotes dependent on reputation alone? Why the bizarre interplay between the wealth of the poster, upvoters, and time of the upvote? None of this seems to make any sense - except as a mechanism potentially useful to concentrate wealth, and censor speech via an economic mechanism of control, exactly as is so alarmingly being done on Youtube today.
That censorship is driving a lot of the adoption of Steemit, and that is a very clear and obvious demonstration that people will flee to competing platforms as a result of such manipulation. Steemit appears, and purports, to be devoted to creating a new way for people to use social media, that is more fair and beneficial to it's users.
Making it more simple, and removing even the appearance of unfair distribution, and worse, the potential to censor people economically, just makes sense. I want Steemit to succeed, because we do need to change the world, so that people do have more freedom to speak, and are rewarded more for their contributions that bring value to their community.
That's why I am posting. None of my concern is in the least little bit seeking wealth for myself, and I hope that is very clear.
Thank you for your substantive reply!
The way you write is very unpleasant to read with all the comma's but I think you should try to figure out how the system works. It might take away some of your concerns.
Thank you for your constructive advice, on both counts. Believe it or not, I think you are right about my writing. My problem is that my fingers are unable to keep up with my head, and so I make lots of run on sentences (amongst other things I am sure).
I'll work on that, thanks to your good advice.
here is someone who gets it! :)
Lovely cute animal! I do love their face, which always reminds me to think of those innocent face like children. Especially when they are sleeping. Just always thinking god is so amazing that he created lots of being and all of them are beautiful ( I should say most of them.. as I hate insect..)
I am lost
As a new user I am pleasantly surprised how although people have different intentions, they do appear to come together to create a relatively cohesive community. You mention regulation - to what extent is there a regulator on Steemit to prevent spam, copyright infringement or porn etc that may create income for those users but damage the community for others?
porn is designated by tag "nsfw", else spam, scam, copy/paste, etc. tends to be downvoted rather quickly, especially if it gains some traction. Just look at what happened with the recent Matt Trainer post, "Steemit-Based Reality Game Announced: $10 million prize pool". How's that for a great "community effort"?!
Suddenly there are thousands of Steemit users now clicking on "nsfw" to the delight of not one of their spouses.
I'm sure there are plenty of better places for them to find porn than on steemit, if that's really what they want to do lol
Yeah, that 'Reality Game' post was a bit too much, lol!
@steemcleaners pretty much handles copyright and spam
porn is 'regulated' from the NSFW tag.
and of course anybody can use the flag to "adjust" the community as they wish.
remember, not even steemcleaners is a "regulator" but an independent body that was formed from a large number of people in order to solve specific problems that were a major concern from all.
should probably throw in a mention for @cheetah too:
Link: FAQ about Cheetah
oh yes. our dear @cheetah :)
You can have "regulation" without a "regulator", in this case, the community. I don't think we'll see the situation that you have in, say, Reddit's TIL with users getting up-voted for re-posting items or even blatant plagiarism. When you see this effect there and check out the comments, all the established users and top comments are attacking the poster, pointing out they down-voted, complaining how "the sub is garbage".
Yet, the post is still upvoted, why? Because all votes are equal at Reddit and the platform is flooded with mostly non-posters who don't engage beyond a few voting clicks. Steemit has reputation and voting power adjusted by your investment in the platform. My guess is if you applied that to the "Reddit TIL" model, suddenly those top commenters (who spend most of the time there and know the re-posts) would be able to drum out the low quality items, rendering them without reward. Remove the up-vote and financial incentives to post garbage, you should get less of it.
I will note that there are parties with external financial incentives to distort speech, and these parties engage in practices, like buying Reddit accounts, to manipulate the platform.
This may also be something that impacts Steemit. It should not be allowed to, unless you feel that Steemit should not be a platform for free speech.
I just realized that Steemit is designed to be a platform for paid speech, and this is antithetical to free speech. I will further consider that before commenting further, but to state that this will impact the community and the platform, particularly in a time where England has just proposed a drastic and utterly unworkable censorship law.
Countries are enacting laws against free speech, to greater and lesser degrees, surveillance is chilling free speech, propaganda is distorting free speech in order to distort political power. These are problems I seek, personally, to solve, and reasons why I came to Steemit.
I hope this is food for thought for others. It is for me.
Unfortunately, government intrusion will always be a problem.
I became interested in Steemit because of the money aspect, but the more I use it, the money is quickly becoming secondary. So to me the money doesn't really matter any longer, but I do think it is the hook that initially attracts new users.
Great post which should get everybody's attention, do many people create value here no matter if they creat content or use power or simply engage or promote steemit to the outside world.
This has to be resteemed.
The rewards in Steemit are a fascinating example of game theory at work. We are all gaming the system in the manner that best suits us.
Creating quality content, giving thoughtful replies, using chat, buying steem to power up, following whales, using curation bots, maybe a mixture of many strategies will work for you.
More importantly, find what works for you, and stick with it!!
Thank you for your perspective :)
+1, well said!
We need more leveled head individuals like you in here. Very well put man. Thank YOU for your eloquent response.
Seeing that there is so much randomness to this platform, I think that the random walk theory is a better illustration of this environments framework. There is so much randomness and luck on here, it is hard to determine what exactly is even going. The uncertainty is so frustrating, its getting old quick and starting to look like other iterations of similar environments from the past.
It is still a baby learning to crawl..give it time it will learn to walk, who knows how big and fast this thing will get. I hear yo on the random but I think we are partially to blame ... who we follow affect what we see... and the groups are harder to establish, because of follower content can vary ..,
try and be patient, give it time,I have only been here a month.
:-)
namaste
well said..."game theory" ...a new user can bust their but for weeks with super content and it is painful to watch when you put soo much in to something that gets nothing compared to others. So it is understading. There is a saying in sales that "compensation drives behavior".
Excellent point, and well said.
Thanks!
Yes there are countless opportunities to be had and varied possibilities. But I just hope the long term the outcome is sustainable and promotes the good of the community. Thanks for sharing, interesting read!
Nice writing and good topic. Many people on steemit had promoted your writing and pin as" must read". As I am still a newbie so I can hardly understand what you are talking, but I would bookmark it and read again when I grow up in this community.
oh really? where did it got pinned at?
thank you
I am sorry I forgot. As I just keeping reading hot post and trending post today and I remember as least 2-3 post had mention your writing there. Most of the post is about advices for newbie. They recommended that all newbie must read your post.
Great post! I think that as steemit users we have an obligation to use the platform to share our knowledge, learn from diverse backgrounds and create a community where people feel free to express their opinions.
Yes, you are right steemit is a nice place, however there are some so-called blogger posting nothing but trash. Still many people upvoted them, in other side some blogger pay a lot of effort to post the pic or recipe but they got nothing. I think this is quiet frustrate because i am the one of them. ;(((
In time quality will rise above. Right now Steemit is still young
Loads of words of wisdom in there, thanks a bunch for sharing. Reading a bit more about the whaleshares and the Random Whales Vote Initiative brought back some more thinking about to the surface... I figure by the time groups of people curating different styles of contents as well as different content in itself, they might be even more prone to dropping in some extra rewards for the deserving ones. further more, as you said and underlined so well, maybe they are also keeping extra strength in order to make sure the direction of the platform won't lose sight of what we are building here.
Thanks a bunch for another excellent piece, namaste :)
I really beleive in the whole steemit ethos. Complete freedom of speech, no adverts being rammed down our throats and feeling part of something ( and getting some extra dollar is very welcome )
I don't know about you but im fed up with talking about something and then it suddenly apears on your feed, its almost like google reads your mind.
If you get a chance then check out some interviews with the founders as its very clear its not all about money #NedScott and #DanLarimer, They seem to want the same de centralised world that we can only dream about at the moment.
I have taken the time to write this and i am going to start spreading it around my friends and facebook as steemit is growing fast through word of mouth.
I dont think most people care about blockchains and crypto but if they realise they get rewarded for good content they will be on board (this will also bring the spammers but you cant have it all)
please feel free to follow me and share this with facebook etc
i agree for the most part. gave you full upvote
Thank you for sharing your thoughts in a simple terms. It really helped me digest the information. :) I started following you. I think all of your blogs are well written with a lot of value and meaning behind them.
Thank you @karensuestudios
Valid points. Time vs. Money is fine outside the crypto world, but seems less appealing here. If you don't have time to create/build something you can always pay for it. Some do that with vote buying I suppose.
In the end, there will always be money grabs going on as well, it used to bother me but it's just a fact of society, whether fiat, crypto or other.
Focus on what you control and building your life is how I look at it.
perhaps the biggest source of misery is chasing something you cannot catch...
Like a dog chasing its tail my friend, like a dog chasing its tail.
my cat does that as well and gets quite pissed to tell you the truths. I will make a video/gif. I am sure you can use it again in another post. I am already seeing it forming in your head.
Hahahaha...challenge accepted!
right on!
For me the money is secondary, i like the feeling of community , dont get me wrong the money thing is cool, but its not the be all and end all.
that's good to hear!
I LIKE THIS POST.
Steemit is much more reminiscent of the way people in tribes operated before the corporations took over. Who gives the most does tend to get the most in return. Think of @papa-pepper giving out 1000 Steem to @darthnava. When the community saw his generosity, they upvoted his comments to the point that he earned almost all that 1000 Steem back with their upvotes. That is something I have never witnessed in the 'real' world.
Indeed, truly awesome to see in here.
We do witness this in the real world. In fact many corporations donate to charities (up to 3% on profits) and get tax exempts that are far greater from what they have donated.
People often use this trick to indeed get more money + reputation. This is why so many companies advertise their good deeds. It is part of an economic mentality.
on a side note, i just partook in the @randowhale thing, and i must say, it's enjoyable to spend 2 steem and get upvoted like 30 more.....crazy times, eh?
yeap! I say why not? :)
After all, life is a result of stars gambling hydrogen for helium.
yeah, i noticed you did it too! it's a crazy steemit world where we make up the games
of course! a small roll is good every now and then
Very good article! Basically we're all policing this place together as we wonder around.
yeap! we are the heart and soul of the platform. I have seen some amazing things happen from people's initiatives so far.
Steemit is a place to have fun and meet people. Money comes next. At least to me :)
Of course. Remember us at the very beginning? :)
I don't see how or why the platform and its users would always correct the situation to an equilibrium between low-effort and quality content though. That's a little too idealistic for me to be able to accept.
If someone is milking the reward pool with little to no effort, but not a significant enough number of people, then that behaviour may be able to be absorbed amongst everything else without an overall negative impact on the platform as a whole.
But, in my humble opinion, there's only so many "how to make more money with Steemit" posts, or whining by long-serving content writers who haven't bothered to submit anything substantive for awhile, yet still expect the exact same payouts, before people would wise up and find an alternative.
Have you see how sometimes lions might hunt gazelles way too much? What happens is that lions begin to die due to lack of food. They make less offspring and this the gazelles have time to grow their numbers. Something similar happens in all ecosystems.
then the incident might be insignificant and non-systemic
it happened before. people do back off if they notice. people who enjoyed large rewards, ended up powering down and vanishing.
The failure of the analogy with lions and gazelles is that lions have no opportunities when gazelles are gone. The @whales do. Short term profit should not be a novel concept. It drives the corporate world.
There is potential, in Steemit, to not only kill Steemit for profit, but to 'poison the well' in a world where significant propaganda, surveillance, and repression of speech is ongoing, and perhaps increasing to an intolerable level.
I hope these considerations are undertaken soon, in order to preclude such things from affecting Steemit undesirably.
The whales don't really have alternatives when the resources run out whether we speak about normal folk or gazelles. They ecosystem collapses. Remember ENRON? Leehman Brothers?
I haven't seen repression of speech here and the only surveillance is in regards to copyrighted material.
You could make suggestions in a post if you feel that there are such occurrences.
"it happened before. people do back off if they notice. people who enjoyed large rewards, ended up powering down and vanishing"
In my completely uninformed opinion, based on less than a week's worth of steeming, I had already become convinced that I would see this exact scenario play out later this summer. But that's inevitably part of the cycle, I guess.
Still, it's all good as far as I'm concerned. All things considered, I've found a lot more interesting stuff here than elsewhere, so even if the payment aspect is solely what's fueling that, I'm not gonna knock it.
I paid nothing, and got a higher rate of interest (literally and figuratively) on that investment of time than I would have on Facebook, for example.
Especially when it comes to the "secrets of the blockchain" the sheer value this platform provides is unfathomable.
Yeap. the only thing no one can beat :)
I don't begrudge anyone for how they make money on this platform. Whether it be thru syndicates or secret agreements or investing equity. Work smart and hard, you will carve out a niche on steemit, and likely profit from it.
An aside, the last two days, on posts that I wrote, as the initial upvotes started to happen and comments came in, I noticed something odd. Some of the commenters were receiving more money then my post was making. I looked at who was voting on the comments and they were whales who had neither commented on the post nor voted for it.
They upvoted one comment that was five words long and horribly misspelled. It just felt like this was a joke or something. It seemed like they're playing a game. Not to complain.
I understand exactly what you mean. if you scroll way back to my first posts last year you will see similar incidents.
Don't worry. it is common to see "arbitrary" patterns at the beginning. Maybe those people invested in social capital. Even so, they might not be doing their whale trail justice ...Actually, they might be shooting themselves on the foot.
I thought I was going crazy. Thanks for responding so quickly. That sort of behavior will come back to bite them.
nothing to worry :)
But do you promise to act differently, when you're so big of a whale that you intermittently wash up on the beach, only for some poor soul to have to roll you back over into the waters again? :)
I want a reminder bot right here -->
Thanks for sharing
Really is great content
Does It Really Matter How People Make Money on Steemit?
My answer is no .. someone may make few cents , other can make 1 million dollars.
Personally I am happy as In Just 10 days I withdraw by @BlockTrades ( Quickly Exchange Digital Currency ) 51 SBD ( 100$ ) to My Xapo Visa Card (Bitcoin). after 2 weeks of activity
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@lordoftruth/steemit-something-more-powerful-usd100-cash-in-10-days-just-from-blogging
There you go. This is exactly what people should see. Stop comparing yourself to others and see what you can do for yourself.
Well said !
I am 57 years old and never I comparing myself with other
I am new here and I post daily , hopping in future to be good steemer..
and I am happy for every vote and every cent..
Happy to be one of your followers
Thanks for your reply
I learned this from my father. Never compare yourself to others. Heck, i might be writing next about this. thank you
Yes I learned this from my mother : "donot comapre yourself with other and in the same time be happy if someone more rich than you.."
Thanks for your time
Here is 9.15 p.m.
The time to get rest
wish u all the best
samer
I, too, am having early success. However, I am a little unclear on how visibility on the platform works. I have a very small sample size, but I can't seem to identify what makes certain posts valuable in the eyes of the community while others are ignored. It could just be random chance of what is visible and when, but I am wondering if I am mis-using tags or posting at poor times, etc.
I guess this is why there is the demand for whale votes in the first place, other than the built-in economic one. I read a few posts from the random whale votes, and though there is no verification, users were reporting excellent profits on the vote investment (5x-10x the initial 1SBD). I'm sure some see this as unseemly, but regulation would be both ineffective and difficult. If necessary, it will self-correct.
@kyriacos, this was a good read... thanks!
I have not been here "since the beginning," so I've only been party to watching the evolution of Steemit since the first of February... and it has been interesting to get a sense of the lay of the land.
What I can say-- without hesitance-- is that this is truly UNLIKE any other social platform I have been part of... and that goes back to primitive message boards and email-groups in the 1990s. What's so interesting is that I keep looking for past "disastrous site killer scenarios" to repeat... and yet they seem not to. Or, if/when they do... the effects are very temporary, almost like the Steemit ecosystem has an "intelligent" internal adjustment mechanism. Most recently... the "removal" of a large scale known scammer. In stark contrast to the outpouring of support for a fellow Steemian facing a mountain of medical bills.
So far, the challenge Steemit has not faced-- and I expect it may be our greatest-- is true mass adoption. Not the few-thousand-accounts-a-day type of inflow we see currently, but the kind of inflow that takes us from here to 30 million users in a couple of years or three... happened at the last really good social blogging platform (Xanga) in 2004-06 when they went from a sleepy little blog host to 33 million monthlies... (and that was on a MUCH smaller Internet!) can the infrastructure handle that kind of scaling? I suppose only time will tell.
As for "intentions," I feel pretty safe in saying that the more "mainstream" we become, the more "bottom feeding money seekers" will come to the platform, and the more we will deal with those who care not one whit about the goose... they just want the eggs NOW, and preferably with no effort. And that can be tough to manage, when such "egg hunters" suddenly outnumber the rest of us by 10-to-1.
This was perhaps one of the best plays I have seen in here. But we do that often :)
Yes. Actually Steemit along with Bitshares runs on a chain that can handle more transactions than all the other cryptocurrencies combined :) . Dan IS the man (creator of Steemit)
We had them before. they didn't last long. The community is amazing in stopping these kind of things.
No worries. We will get more @cheetah 's :)
The last post I read from @cheetah mentioned that it costs him more than he earns, and that he has, more than once, considered quitting.
It may be necessary to provide additional support, as expecting such investments in excess of income for the service @cheetah provides may prove a long term detriment to that service.
It will be a necessity. perhaps is he makes report posts once in a while he can make a profit.
I've been amazed by the efficiency and adaptability of the community before... I'm totally prepared to be amazed again!
:)
I believe Steemit is the first true advancement towards a monetized internet without ads or subscription plans. If the per-user income for quality posting users stay this way, Steemit has introduced a new standard of how we use the internet. Ad-free yet still monetized!
Indeed, so really, as far as advertising goes, anything... goes.
Nice read! As a fairly new member to this community it's interesting to get to know all these different views and opinions! At first you know why you start it of course, but i must do admit it's a bot addictive to to write these little blogs about life or whatever! Hope to be here for a long time to come!
I hope the same as well
Thought i wrote something similar some time ago, now i can't find it! But yes, don't have to brute force through anything and there are alternatives :)
There are always alternatives. I think at some point we all wrote something like this. I remember making a loong comment about this when I arrived. Can't find it either.
If you got the goose laying golden eggs then you have made it to a good place!
well.., first you have to nurture it
That is the truth. It is quite amazing. What results can be delivered as hard work is put in is quite remarkable. I only want to show people how they can have that goose but they are so quick to say thats not possible.
It makes me think back to people with the oil lamp that were happy living in the dark room only lit by the oil lamp.
many were so quick to shoot down not wanting to go through the hard work to run wires to the house to run the light bulb and provide electricity because they did not understand it a brighter light for the world to see.
nice parallelism :)
Help others see what they do not see. All the same stuff Jesus talked about!
I think the tagline of steemit "Come for the rewards but stay for the community" sums it all...this is a social media platform that pays for content creation...it is because of creations and connections people have been able to earn money using steemit...I'm sure no one had an overnight success...I always believe losers complain and doers act...if still people have problems they can go continue uploading their selfies on FB :P
really this is what it all comes down to. You get NOTHING on facebook other than repeating the same old habits, generating monetary value for someone else.
Agreed
You have pointed out a lot of things that are hidden from mostly the new people and somehow forgotten by old here.
Making social connection is even more important than writing articles.
You could write a good article and it may happen that nobody notice you and If you have a great social connection, even an average article is seen as a great piece of art.
But at the end, only those with quality in their content and connections here will survive here, else it is very difficult.
Both are important. I came here knowing almost anybody. Had really hard time. I had to work my way through and it was pretty hard. But, I have to agree with you. Is who you know mostly and this applies to everywhere in life.
Yes, it is like the rule of life, nothing could be done without connections and some talent......you also could go through becausr you made connections here, if you haven't made them, you might have quit a long time ago.
See for yourself, how many new people come here daily and how many of them last more than a week?
Just a few, because they were bad with making connections with people here......They would support you and let you help go through the strong waves to the calm water.
Actually, I was here alone for a loooong time, barely making anything. Only recently, after a year I started making connections with many people.
Thing is, I am a very patient man. I also write because I like it, not because I have to.
That's great.....
I also follow you and comment your articles because I like them.
thumbsup.jpg
Consensus = morality.
group dynamics<> privalage,<>$=class warfare,...
so called free market is not free! it controlled and regulated just like us.by the 1%
chess vs checkers.
let the1-10% correct their mistakes....
geoengineering,fracking, clear cutting,open pit mining,graft bribery,lobbying..ect..
we the people are addressing these issues!or trying to,fighting trolls and labels of conspiracy theory..
seem to me we are the ones that are advancing crypto coins...we are the one making the change.. right?
and we are the ones that are allowing the platform to grow, it is not there circle jerking,that is helping the growth...
lol... I know I am a dreamer,and that I am not an expert,and that there is some dissonance in my train of thought.. :-)
I realize we rely on whales for the $,and resteem for growth...
but I think it is bad,and I do not agree that because you can afford a million steem you can be a whale!..this whole redfish-whale is another kind of class warfare...
lol.. I think most of us want a better world,and I think this site has great potential! ,I know it is a work in progress and I can not wait to see what happens next! who knows what changes HF 20 -HF ?? will bring?
thanks for allowing my discord.. :-)
there is a good article by Chris MacDonald "moral decision,an analysis"
namaste
well, you are right. nothing is ever "Free". nonetheless, we have to at least entertain the general sentiment. the more free the better.
indeed. the road is long ahead.
in the civilized world ,nothing is free. In the natural world everything is free!
:-)
namaste
..and everything eats one another :D
yeah but at least you know who to watch out for... :-)
and there are some really amazing cross species relationships. :-)
it funny to see animal with more compassion ,especially if they are well fed!
:-)
namaste
I don't think it's matter how people make money on steemit, as long as they use common sense. I guess "common sense" can be relative but I believe over 90% of people on earth has an inherent idea of what "right" and "wrong" is. I believe in diversity and I do believe it is the spicy of life as they say :)
Nice Posting! Just upvoted and followed you, can you please do the same for me?
Thanks a million!
The problem with common sense is that is not as... common ...
they might do but at the end of the day they will do what serves them rather than what is right.
I assure you there are people that act against their self interest to do what is right. Recently an issue was resolved where people accidentally or ignorantly posted their keys or passwords in the memo field, and Steemit members independently protected those people they found that had the problem, and wrote code to fix it.
They did not do this for a financial reward, whether or not they did receive one.
There are people that sacrifice considerably more, even their lives, to do what is right.
I, personally, do not even attempt to game Steemit for financial reward, but post solely to support free speech and good governance. This has not seemed to be highly valued by the community, which I find a shame, but recognize for what it is. No one is under any obligation to agree with me or reward me in any way.
However, if the Steemit platform cannot be designed to reasonably allow people to provide financial rewards to speech they find valuable in a fair way, this will be reflected in Steemit's future, particularly on a competitive playing field.
While that field does not yet exist, it would be wise to develop Steemit in such a way that it does not lose market share when that field does exist. That would be my preference for the future of the Steemit platform. I am a loyal person, and don't like to abandon efforts that have benefited me.
I tried Facebook, however, and became so disappointed in the censorship, lack of emuneration for the value I provided, and the propaganda, in addition to the cost to my privacy, that I have abandoned it utterly, even though I have friends who I can only contact thereby.
There are limits to loyalty, and rewards should inure accordingly, or there will be costs to Steemit.
Ofcource they do. They gain reputation and community support. That is called social capital. Also look how much money that report most made. People know that the community will reward them if they give back to the community. This is how awesome Steemit is.
I believe with the next fork things will be more fair for all.
I hope that the rewards for providing content that is upvoted are made less arcane, and more apportioned according to the number of votes, rather than the wealth of the voters. If you believe that wealth is speech, we will disagree on this matter fundamentally. I have tried to point out why this is not so, and will leave it at that for now.
I also point out that people do sacrifice their lives to save others. This is not done for social capital, but out of love. You seem to be skeptical that people do things for reasons other than self interest.
I know that they do them even when it will harm them.
I know you are not convinced by my words, and have not been convinced before now, but I think you might want to research animals that rescue people, and other animals. There is an altruistic principal that is not entirely explained by seeking social capital, or any other self interest.
Some people are nice. I hope you are never in need of kindness, but that, if you ever are, you find out this is true.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply!
What owes to be and what we would like something to be are two different things. Wealth and reputation go hand in hand. Monetary rewards are in a way a form of societal value. No matter how we like to romanticize the concept if "equality" it is what it is.
Instinct. For example someone will go and save someone from drowning if they know good swimming. Even a mother seeing her child being in a burning building won't be able to go in the flames if she feels that is futile. The "hero" that might die in these situations doesn't evaluate the situation properly.
Animals work on the concept of "reciprocal altruism". Google the term.
We are nice given the right circumstances.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment once again.
I agree with your answers but have you ever wonder why people do what they do? I know it's a moot point but it's mind boggling.
Because we crave meaning in life and fear our own death
Excellent article, man.
Yes.
Glad you liked it man!
Like you said, Some whales, for example, have invested heavily in the platform from the very beginning, to succeed on this platform, you need to work hard in another word if want to become a whale, you need to learn how to swim, by the way, your post is really informative thanks.
Yeap, this is why they shouldn't be taken lightly. Without them we might not be where we are today.
Shouldn't be taken lightly, but whose influence shouldn't then be abused in perpetuity either...
indeed.
I believe it too
Steemit is definitely a place where people can earn money but in a healthy way. place like facebook and youtube also help producers generate money but in a centralized format, whereas steemit provides more open space where people can be fairly compensated while they can share and comment on different isseus in decentralized way. thats why i love steemit so much!
nicely put
Hmm, I guess you are right about not making a big fuss over how ppl make money here. As demotivating it may seem, when low quality posts make high quality revenues and when some authors basically use minnows as their taken for guaranteed workers, giving them nothing in return; but ultimately law of averages comes into play and things balance out. But still nothing wrong in warning members (especially new steemians) about the scammers selling their scam products here. :)
Of course. This is what we are all about. We all create and distribute value.
Musical reply! #steemradio-rock
lol. awesome
I first came here to make money but now I find myself reading extremely interesting and knowlegeable articles. I am enjoying my time here and the tokens are a bonus
excellent
Very well written, thanks for sharing. I am really enjoying this social experiment in freedom and self regulation.
thank you.
who isn't?
:)
God I am so glad I found this platform!
I've got hope for this planet again.
There are a few people here that I've discovered who represent the classical, deep philosophical thought I had all but given up believing in.
While the different authors contribute in their own, unique styles, it's the overarching philosophical concepts that speak to me. I may edit this post to include some of their names later, I'm simply overwhelmed by some of the content right now.
As I type this, your post is 2 days old and there are over 800 upvotes already.
Please accept my tiny little minnow vote with the deep gratitude I cast it with.
lol. I am a minnow too so don't worry. the only difference is that i arrived one year earlier.
thank you for your mind words. I hope I can fulfill your philosophical cravings.
Just keep writing and posting.
Of course, I doubt you could stop now.
Definitely, I was able to enroll my son 3rd grade this year for $400 that I have earned since last year. I also managed to buy a camera for my street photography. So it does matter. I am saving again for his next year tuition. Thank you ;)
You see? Success stories like yours matter
It is very important. You have plenty of social boards for interaction like this.
Facebook sucks the time and life out of everyone using it while we post our most intimate things. they in turn advertise and collect data.
I'm here wishing ALL my friends on facebook were here. When they upvote me, it will be worthwhile. I do believe if STEEM gets big enough, big advertisement players could potentially buy steam power and do what facebook is doing.. and then THEY COULD reward US for looking at their ads.
indeed. thank you for your thought.
I believe that STEEMIT is my new resource for info. I used to go and watch endless YOUTUBE video
s on how to everything, and be flooded by ads, big turn off, I dont have time to listen to ads during the videos. Now I just search what it is that I need without the ads, and hey if I make a buck commenting or posting on things that are useful to others, then that my friend is just a bonus. Thanks for sharing your thoughtsyeap. really good information in here. raw and uncut :)
thank you for the comment.
What a rhetorical question to answer... Steemit really has me just reading incessantly and keeping my mouth shut, as I have no retort at the moment!
:)
I like to use steemit instead of facebook when blogging my thoughts. 😃
who doesn't