So a 'savvy' user from the third world should be'savvy' enough to put 6 months pay into promoting a blog? The use of bots is growing exponentially, and somehow if you think focusing wealth into these services is healthy for steem and makes it appealing to the average social media user, well - we just aren't going to agree on that.
Do you hear yourself. This is exactly how STEEM power works. You're actually making my argument for me. You have probably read about Kashminer, so then you know what this does for Kodak. I know this is a slight OT subject, but my point is really around an example of boundaries in trying to raise capital to get your business going.
Kodak has been bankrupt. They're fizzling out. There's a solution on the horizon, but they need an influx of cash. Hmmmmm...but they only have a little bit to start with. They want to play the long game, but they need something to get going.
This is exactly how voting bots work. You need a quick influx of SBD. You setup a bid. You get some quick capital. You turn it around into STEEM power and you're going.
Yeah, there are a lot of things you can do good/bad. It's a feature though. You can't blame the feature for what people do with it. This is a monetary system. No matter what feature is added, people are going to find a way to abuse it.
What is this third world craziness? Are you seriously going to try an use an extreme to make your case for you? You have that little to stand on that you're going there? Ok. Here's my answer. India. You want to make it sound like being under privileged is some kind of a handicap and that someone like that couldn't possibly over come it and compete with a first world country or a world wide super power. :/ Here's the argument:
You start one guy (@jeff) off with 0 SBD, 0 STEEM, and 15 STEEM POWER. Start another guy off with (I'm still laughing about that third world nonsense) 5,000,000 STEEM power (@grumpycat). Now @grumpycat downvotes @jeff and all anyone ever sees is @grumpycat nonsense about not being lazy. Meanwhile, @jeff can't get anyone to look at his comic art portfolio.
Welcome to the real world.
@grumpycat is striking fear into the hearts of the users trying to game the system, knowing that they could lose their ROI with one flag.
Yeah. Users that game the system ... aaaaaand everyone else.
Unfortunately, when greed is rampant, it is only consequences like these that can cause change.
Actually, greed is not rampant. It's competition. Competition is what created the voting bots. I'm not saying there aren't greedy people out there. I'm just saying it's not rampant. Everyone wants more money. That's not greed. Trying to get more of anything is just competition. Greed is so much more than that. Greed is what created @grumpycat. Had you ever considered that maybe @grumpycat is one of those users trying to game the system? In the last 11 days @grumpycat has bid on 6th day voting bots. Did you know that? @grumpycat is that which it is fighting against. @grumpycat also abuses self-voting. Hmmm...interesting. Here. This is what greed looks like:
it is only consequences like these that can cause change
@grumpycat claims to exist because what might happen to the reward pool otherwise. Basically, @grumpycat is about fear.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” --Yoda
I think that accurately depicts where things currently stand. You say consequences like these cause change. I say nay. I say why don't you let the voting bots destroy the reward pool and let the community fix it. Let things evolve and correct themselves organically instead of trying to force solutions with totalitarianism.
Economies always ebb and flow. Let @steem ebb a little.
"I say why don't you let the voting bots destroy the reward pool and let the community fix it."
Ok - so how is that going to happen? How is the community going to fix it later, if not now? .. and yes I know about grumps alt accounts, and the many others that start flagwars and do the same thing.
You are laughing about the third world, I think you just have a totally different view of what steem is than I. I think he whole idea of this site is to make a place where people can share ideas and be rewarded for the proof-of brains concept. That is simply not going to happen if , like you say, we let bots destroy the system. Third world is NOT an extreme case, go to the introduceyourself section and count how many first vs third world ppl sign up every day, its probably 1 to 10. I dont see what the endgoal you are arguing is: you want a free for all and to be able to game the system any way you see fit, but if grumpy does it, its unfair? If this is what steem is to you guys, then it's basically over. If you want it to be the next big thing and steem to actually be worth something, then just handing it over to the bots is not going to move it in that direction. If you want this to be a pay to play platform, i guess you will get it... But what I am saying is that dont expect people to come flocking here to share their creativity, when gaming the system has no consequence and they can take a picture of their foot and game it for 5 grand.
There you go making my point for me again. I already said what it is. You're implying a third world citizen is somehow under privileged and therefore not savvy or not capable of using capital to build themselves up (this why it's extreme). Now here you are realizing exactly what I was getting at and asking what I was getting at. LOL.
Yes, there are people from allover that are on this system. The person that wrote this post is in fact one of them and enjoys many comforts. So you see the "third world" argument is moot. Whew. You finally made it here.
Listen to the fear.
Should I quote yoda again?
I'm not saying light the world on fire. I'm saying, how do you know the system will not evolve? How do you know it will absolutely be destroyed? Have you seen it in the future? The answer is you don't know. It's uncertainty. Uncertainty can create fear in people that are generally afraid of change and evolution. Think on that.
You fear what will happen, but you don't even know what that is; therefore, you don't know what you're afraid of or you fear the unknown.
Should I quote yoda again?