Welcome to steemit
It is perfectly normal to feel slightly bewildered, mainly because it’s a slightly bewildering place.
Bewildering initially because no doubt you’ve seen the HUGE payouts some people are getting for their posts and already compared these to your own meagre pay-outs: hmmm.. Something amiss there, right?!?
The truth is, you’re probably better off ignoring those large payout posts: the size of the payouts are typically a result of either those people being part of an early adopter voting circle (a few dozen people), or the result of newer wealthy users buying votes through bid-bots.
This in turn is a result of two factors: firstly - steemit is ‘capitalism’s bitch’ - one the primary functions of the platform is to attract people (and their phatt wads of capital) who want to promote themselves and their businesses and to make money doing so… that’s what you’re seeing at the top of the trending pages…
NB this is NO DIFFERENT to your being exposed to all of those annoying adverts on Facebook or YouTube, but at least with steemit the ad revenue is going to the bid bot owners (see below) rather than the Corporations.
HOWEVER, unless you have $1000s of dollars to invest NOW, you are not going to be earning anywhere near this amount of money for your posts. So please just put those figures out of your mind: see @surfermarley’s stream for a more realistic idea of what you could earn for a decent blog without using bid-bots (however it’ll take you at least a year or more to grow to her level, and there’s no guarantee there!).
The second factor that makes steemit bewildering is that it’s transhuman… it is an environment occupied by both humans and bots… such as the bid bots which provide people with upvotes for cash - basically people with high SteemPower (say over 100K, compared to your 15) will ‘lease’ that steem to one or more bid bots and then other account holders who are prepared to pay for upvotes will buy the votes of the larger account holders… it’s typically a win win situation for them.
There are other bots you'll come across on here too btw, some of them quite friendly, some of them protective.... if you get bottd, just go check them out, it happens!
The reason I say that these two factors (steemit being (1) a transhuman environment (2) its being capital’s bitch) combined make steemit bewildering is that you end up with fantasy trending pages - people with seemingly massive payouts of $100s of dollars for mediocre posts.
HOWEVER, 90% of the value of these votes have been paid for, so a post worth $300 is really only worth $30…. why do people ‘buy votes’ through bid bots.. mainly because if they top trending, they get extra visibility and thus extra ‘real votes’.... But for the rest of us, this is what I call ‘fantasy trending’... please ignore it!_
NB - there may be the odd genuinely good post that reaches trending, but it will be the exception!
So where’s the ‘reality’, where’s the humanity on steemit?
Fear not my ickle non-bot dependent friendling, there are those on the platform who embrace their humanity, the human community, and believe in the principle that quality content should be rewarded through manual upvoting (‘curation’)....
So, if you are one of the many (i.e. not rich enough to invest several $thousand) merely here to produce quality content and to try and get some little reward for it by engaging with like minded people, then this post is designed to set you off in the right direction… I wholeheardelty recommend that you forthwith unfollow the banfields of the platform (and his banobots), and follow instead the 44 people below…
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The following llist of 44 (actually it might be 45) people have all worked enormously hard to make steemit a friendly and supportive place, and share the view that quality content should be rewarded by primarily manual curation, rather than working hard to market themselves and extract as much money as they can for themselves.
I recommend that you follow every single one of these people because they are the kind of people who will show you some humanity, and help you connect with other people-people.
NB - please do keep in mind that there are limits to how much anyone individual can ‘engage’ with new members, so don’t necessarily expect detailed replies or massive upvotes from any of them… I’m simply here bigging up some of the biggest ‘community operators’ that ‘keep it (hyper?) real on steemit.
44 good people doing good things on steemit
this is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list. And I’ve selectively put banners in every 10 names or so, based on how pretty they are, to break up the post!
@abh12345 - impossible to dislike blockchain hippy who runs the curation and engagement leagues and produces some excellent data analysis posts.
- Example of the curation and engagement leagues here! (NB- I recommend everyone join!
- Nice illustrative ethics post… Are the selfless delaying the inevitable? - a consideration of how much he could earn if he when ‘full asshole’ and did nothing but upvote himself, and a discussion of whether we’d have to change the reward structure if everyone did this!
occasionally blogs about steem - recent example here. Defo worth a mention here because of his focus on manual curation.@acidyo - creator of @ocd and manual curator, also one of the highest repd steemians… he mainly live streams games and runs the fantasy football league on steem, but
@aggroed - is a PAL (Peace, Abundance, Liberty) witness and MSP (Minnow Support Project) Founder.
- Probably most closely associated with the @minnowsupport project
- Hosts the steem witness forum: example episode... (https://steemit.com/witness/@aggroed/steem-witness-forum-starts-this-morning ) - NB that particular episode includes some major witnesses here on steemit!
- Hosts the Minnow Mayor Town Hall radio show - example episode - https://steemit.com/msp-waves/@aggroed/minnow-mayor-town-hall-tonight-at-9pm-est-0100-utc-with-special-guests-wwf-of-the-moie-ungrip-and-an0nkn0wledge
Runs a host of (community minded) upvote bots - outlined on his home page.Hosts the Minnow Support University (with @Isaria) - a good source for newbies.
@andrachy - the content director for steemit, so if he doesn’t give a shit about the place we may as well all cash in our steem and invest in EOS immediately! NB - before he got his official post he did have a history of producing quality content…and one can hardly blame him for being a little bit invisible on the chain ATM given all the background work that must accompany his relatively new role.
@anomadsoul - possibly the world’s most down to earth digital-crypto nomad, although I do worry that he’ll burn himself out trying to keep up with the replies to everyone’s comments. ATW he seems to derive an enormous amount of pleasure haranguing people to show their faces on D Live, perhaps that’s his therapy?
- Part of OCD - latest mega post on OCD’s efforts here - (https://steemit.com/busy/@anomadsoul/operation-curation-delegation-discovering-underrated-gems-for-the-past-10-months )
- One of the curators of the sndbox-alpha summer camp, sociology and psychology cohort link to winners here - and not/ only (delete as appropriate) I’m one of them!
- He also runs the occasional ‘upload a video of something’ competition - such as those in the ‘My2018 series’ - latest example here
@anthonyadavisii - does development work on and posts and resteems a lot on abuse on the blockchain - bot use, spamming and the importance of flagging.
This is a good post indicating his ethics: the toll road to trending: the single biggest self-inflicted barrier to entry on steem
His comment on this shitpost is indicative of the important anti-abuse work he does.
@arcange - WITNESS, developer of steemsql and steemitboard amongst other things
Produces the the daily and steem statistics from the steem database, which tell us how many new and active users there are every day, along with a whole load of other useful information too!
@AusBitBank - Another 'good orca'... witness and manual curator - lots of resteems of posts on more technical aspects of steemit issues as well as community/ charity type posts, also part of of #teamaustralia.
@canadian-coconut - co-founder of @FamilyProtection - posts and manually curates around the topic of state interference in family life, proponent home education.
@carlgnash - @curie curator and sponsor of @abh12345’s curation leagues - doesn’t post very much, but active curating in the background, resteems a lot of the best posts on steemit. Also runs ‘@r-bot’ a bot which only curates good content.
library posts’ which shows you how you can organised your posts into ‘hub posts’...@creatr - a Christian surfing anarchist generalist inventor - quite an eclectic mix of blog posts, and very community minded… also has some nice ‘
this post for example on self-voting analysis.@crokkon does some of the deepest data analysis on steemit - worth following if you want a statistical insight into what’s really going on - see
@danielsaori - runs the steemit comment challenge and (jointly with @davemccoy) the @dustbuster (GOOD) bot...both of which newbies should check out.
proposing changes to voting power distribution@davemccoy - runs the @dusbuster account with @danielsaori immediately above and extremely active in engaging with new users. Also offers up many sensible suggestions about how to improve things on steemit - as with this post here
how to use steem analytics to easily uncover how all of those mediocre posts at the top of the trending pages are, for the most part, just self-promoters who have used bid bots to buy their way up there.@eroche - writes some very clear data analytics articles, often on issues of inequality of rewards on steemit - like this post on
this one on self-voting.@felixxx is a witness and does a lot of humorous posts on ‘steemit issues’ - posts on ideas about possible steem services and runs meme competitions, many of which tap into steem issues, like
@fulltimegeek - one of the few ‘Orcas’ supporting community initiatives on steemit and fighting the abuse of rewards pool from more selfish investors. Doesn’t post much himself, but he’s there in the background working away.
@glenalbrethsen - is one of the most prolific commentators I know, despite having only joined in December 2017, and maintains a pretty good blog too!
@golendawne is a homesteader and curator extraordinaire - lots of comments and seems to resteem just about every community curation initiative going!
@guyfawkes4-20 has invested an enormous amount of energy in working for community initatives on steem over the past year: he’s involved in ocd and snd-box and produces some great philosophical blog posts too.
@hendrikdegrote - not so much someone to follow as he doesn’t post, but worth mentioning as he’s just about the only whale (as in account worth >$5M) I know of that I’ve noticed on @curie’s curation trail.
@isaria - very involved with the @minnowsupportproject, puts a lot of effort into music curation, definitely worth a follow if music’s your thing.
@jamesc - describes himself as a blockchain developer and activist for a voluntary society. One of the few whales who makes massive delegations to community curation accounts, such as @tribesteemup
@jaynie - established the #steemitbloggers which focuses on supporting and resteeming undervalued high quality content. Blogs on food and gratitude.
steembasicincome the complete overview for what it’s all about!@josephsavage has to get a mention here as he’s the creator of @steembasicincome - check out this post:
@KrNel - Witness and one of the highest ranked reps on steemit (76) - interesting, often sociologically themed, posts on a range of philosophical issues.
@Kafkanarchy84 - huge proponent of voluntarism, based in Japan. Very down to earth guy and a varied, interesting blog/ vlog - everything from philosophical musings on anarchism and freedoms to japanese culture and whisky reviews!
Distributing wealth should be equally profitable@Kevinwong is another one of the extreme minority of Orcas who is a proponent of using his enormous VP to distribute wealth more widely rather than to simply to accumulate it for himself. Many of his recent posts are about such steemit issues, lots of interesting thought experiments such as in this post…
@liberosist - seems to know more about the evolution of the steem platform than most people and has written some very articulate articles analysing changes to the steem ecosystem - most recently this post: [the account based voting revolution] which outlines the possible shift from stake weighted voting to account based voting.
@lynncoyle1 - master curator, well involved with projects like ‘pay it forwards’ and consistently near the top of ‘the curation leagues’, also worth a special mention as she’s got a Margaret Mead quote in her strapline...
video overview of the issue here@lyndsaybowes (along with @hendrix22) - one of the people leading the way in the fight against reward pool abuse (people posting crap and using sock-puppet accounts to make $1000s every day, taken from the rest of us) - nice
@lukestokes - one of the top witnesses and writes/ comments widely on steem issues. Very articulate guy and on the side of community initiatives rather than vote-buying and swapping.
@ned - well, he is the CEO.
@paulaG - simply does some of the best data analytics posts on steem: such as this one outlining the declining popularity of steemit in Q1 of 2018 with a 121% active user churn rate. Also the sponsor of the curation leagues.
dollar a day charity project, also big into MSP-Waves 0 I particularly enjoy his weekly alternative lifestyle show - example here.@pennsif - great guy based in Wales, trying to show that steemit can be used for good things, sucha s with his excellent
this post outlines how he’s changed his witness votes, basically unvoting anyone that only ‘trades votes’.@pharesim - witness and another rare orca whose on the side of the little guy -
solicitingpower.com which showcases a lot of the best steem projects worth delegating to, many of them curation projects.@roelandp - witness, organiser of steemfest and he also put together the web site
why is there so much crap on the blockchain@spritualmax - lots of informative posts on the steemit platform, a good recent example is this post on
such as this one pointing out that steemit does have quality posts, they’re just hidden under all of the dross. I also think this account is a good indication of the maximum you can realistically expect to earn on steemit if you’re 'honest' (i.e. not just rampantly self-marketing.@surfermarly writes a very positive vlog about surfing and her life, with many posts on steemit issues,
@surpassingoogle is one of the most supportive people on the platform! A witness and major league player but constantly r esteeming post from every level of account!
latest update here.@taskmaster4450 - posts about cryptocurrency and especially steem - I really like his regualar updates on equality on steem, focusing on how much of the rewards Whales are taking -
@tarazkp (https://steemit.com/@tarazkp ) - describes himself as a prolific thinker etc. Writes frequent, well thought out, balanced, posts trying to hold people to account for abusing the steem ecosystem through the excessive use of bid bots and misuse of delegations from accounts such as @mrdelegation
pay it forwards’ curation contest in which people nominate three steemians with <50 rep to encourage engagement, very much working for the community, encouraging new steemians.@thedarkhorse - runs the weekly ‘
@teamsteem - witness and I’m including him here because he’s definitely one of the good guys. I’m sure he used to post more about steem-issues, however. He’s recently put out a slew of (very highly rewarded) posts just about his daily-life activities with karenstudios in America, and I personally have no interest in this Zoella style vlogging, but if watching other people have fun is your thing, he’s a nice guy, so I’m including him as he’s worth a follow!
@timcliff - has been here since the very early days of steemit, is very down to earth and iis one of the highest ranked witness on steemit. Very accessible.
@ura-soul posts on peace, healing and ‘evolving’ - very nice guy, and worth a witness vote too!
@v4vapid - manually curates mainly posts highlighting the role of the corporate state in keeping us all stupid!
details here:@whatamidoing - Established the deadpost/ #steemitzobies initiative - - the general idea is that you submit an undervalued old post in the comments to the weekly ‘deadpost’ post by @whatamidoing (posts have to be at least a month old and valued at <$5) and then people vote for their favorite post via the comments, and the most popular ‘dead posts’ are rewarded.
recent post reminding us about the benefits of steemit@whatsup posts a lot on steemit issues, including the bernie haejin flagwar, and self-voting issues, and general problems newbies have with the platform. Well worth a follow. I really like this
makes the argument for bid bots. Very well considered articles, worth a follow.@yabapmatt - is one of the few people you’ll hear defending voting bots, and arguing from the perspective of someone who runs a voting bot. This recent post, for example, simply
Final thoughts…
That’s all for now folks… the above is part of a qualitative database I’m putting together as part of a sort of literature review of steemit…my gradual attempt to understand the platform a little better!
If you're interested in further details on community and curation, you might like my overview of steemit curation initiatives
And just for emphasis: this is a subjective list of those people I’m aware of doing good stuff on steemit, no doubt there are many, many more!
Thanks to Asher for organising the #welcometosteemit competion - i do like a competition. I just modified this post to make it fit in with that! As I said above, it's more part of my attempt to develop a full understanding of the platform by investigating the various 'movers and shakers'.
Peace,
Karl.
Wow, only 44. We've got a problem ;-)
But seriously, the biggest problem on Steemit is discovery and not quality. There are plenty more good writers around, you just haven't found them yet. And they might leave before you do.
It's not exhaustive, I just stopped when I had some alliteration going on for the title!
I made a list...and a good one! My Mom would be so proud...lol.
Seriously thank you for putting me in a list with so many amazing steemians. Not sure if I've earned that yet, but I will keep doing my best to help promote the smallest members who deserve a little more attention.
I honestly think Pay it Forwards is a great idea, I'm glad that it's so popular. I'll probably switch to playing every fortnight though, I want to focus on generating some actual content that isn't just about reflecting on steemit, and that means hitting the books/ news analysis!
This place needs a user base in order to be sustainable.
My addition to the list if you/we don't mind:
@yoo1900- he curates four minnows with reputation less than 60 everyday, and he makes posts showing the links of the posts he curates and also allows minnows to post their links in the comment section for consideration for the next day
@donkeypong - he is the founder of @communitycoin a steem page dedicated to funding for SMT's launch. @communitycoin showcases posts of awesome writers on steemit, this in turn exposes them to steemians (yet to discover them) and to interact in the comment section
How about @surpassinggoogle - you don't want to miss him out of this. @surpassinggoogle is one of the most liberal whales here. He has brought in a whole lot of innovations into the steem blockchain. He is the brain behind @steemgigs @teardrops and just recently, @ulogs. @surpassinggoogle in my opinion is the most liberal whale on steemit. He is a witness as well
@ejemai - this is an awesome steem ambassador from Nigeria. He is so committed to the Steem community in Nigeria. He is the founder of @stach and @stach.pay these are hubs where steemains can gather so as to have access to internet facilities just to make their steeming a lot easier.
@dobartim - awesome man with a heart of gold. He has the most number of contests and giveaways as far as I've known. He also has gone further to create a steem-school discord group where he interacts with minnows and creative commons
@tojukaka - awesome Stemm ambassador from Nigeria. He is currently running a 62 day gratitude challenge and giveaway worth 62SBD. Toju is selfless and genuine in his pursuits in promoting steem.
@thejohalfiles - this in my opinion is another whale I term very liberal. I don't know him for posting, but when it comes to liberal-curation, I'll give it to him.
These are the few I can muster for now. I may update the list if others pop up in my mind.
@revisesociology thanks a million for this insightful post. It's highly commendable and I see it as a guide to help newbies navigate their way through steemit.
Regards,
@marpemusic
We certainly don't mind - thanks for the additions, I was never going to cover them all!
Awesome list of people. Thanks for sharing.
Just a heads up. @teemsteem and @pharism is spelled wrong.
It should be "teamsteem and "pharesim". At least if you're talking about the people I think you are. :)
Even though I know most of these people you mentioned, there's a few I haven't heard of before. So thank you! :)
THANKS! I will correct, that was always going to happen!
And spiritualmax link didn't work this end, but I have here terrible internet so maybe its just me hahaha! Big love dude, its great that you thought to do this list! Upvoted and Resteemed.
Cheers will correct!
Thank you so much for the mention, I'm sure happy to call most of the Steemians on your list allies! I appreciate you highlighting their good works.
Thanks, and to you for being prepared to stick your neck out.
really good list (and not just because you included me) There is so much going on all the time and things on steemit can feel cluttered. Clean down your follow list to just the accounts above and you will have a mega interesting and good variety of content . Nice work
thanks @paulag,
I'm actually planning on entering all of these into a spreadsheet so I can later add in more people and links to 'classic articles' so it can serve as a sort of (selective) qualitative database of links to posts on arguments around 'steemit issues'.
More for my own reference that anything else... as I'm concerned if one wants a decent understanding simply of 'what's occurring on this platform' one needs to start with a literature review, and as I see it a spread sheet is the most efficient way to store the info...
I was just about to give up on browsing because of all the useless posts I found, and then I saw this. Some of these people I've never heard of, I'll have to check them out. Great list, and thanks for sharing! :)
Hey thanks, NB many of these don't post that much, but work in the background.
It's not that good a post really - just a basic list, but glad you found it useful.
I notice you post on #steemiteducation - great # that!
awesome way to look at it! support & amplify the supporters! i follow many of these steemians so i have to agree that you have great taste ;) great entry!
Thanks, of course it wasn't designed as a competition entry post: more of a reference post, so I cheekily re-purposed it.
It's actually quite handy as I had planned to post this on Saturday, but now with this out of the way it means I'll be free to spit bile about the Royal Wedding - not against the people Harry and Meghan, just the institution they're part of!
And who doesn't like a win-win.
Definitely worth a look.
Great list btw.I visit #nobidbots now, instead of Trending.
Your comment gets the 'most useful advice from the most succinct comment' award!
What a great idea, I'd never actually thought of that. I did have #nobidbot as a tag but found another relevant category to go with. Also I didn't want to insult yapabb too much who I put on the list.
To think I got depressed for seeing those huge money attached to some dull posts and I began to question myself? Thank you for this enlightening posts. I hope to make Your list one day.
Yes just ignore the trending pages... me... oh I'm far too selfish to ever make this list!
I do the same for the most part. I ignore trending and hot and use GINAbot to find what I am really interested in reading.
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This is a great entry to @abh12345's contest and a wonderful compilation! I am truly honored to be included in it. Thank you so much!
oops, I just realized you spelled my name wrong; there's no "e" :)
So sorry, will correct!
No worries at all! Considering the content, I just wanted to ignore it haha
Thank you so much for including me and my work in your list. Your support makes me warm at heart =)
Glad to hear it! And long may it continue. I think your stats posts are a great first indicator of the health of steemit - or lack of it given the recent slowing of the growth rate!
Extremely useful for all new followers, those are some of the people new users need to try and emulate, to learn from, and to see as real people with the real interest of not only steem at their hearts, but of the new users, and all steemians interest being held close.
I actually learnt quite a lot putting it together too. Some of the people above I never even followed, but just found them as certain other people had reblogged some of their stuff recently, or spoken highly of them.
Cheers!
Thank you for including me and the A Dollar A Day project in your list. Humbled to be in there with such great steemians.
I love these who's who lists. The above definitely lists a lot of the rock stars here, and I'm honored to have interacted with many of them. Most of them are my friends, and by a friend I mean someone furthering individual liberty. Lots of love to them for their continued efforts!
Good comment, well said! I agree.
This post has also been a good way of my finding a few new people to follow, via the comments!
Yes you say right here,ignore other payout and try focus your own content.
that's impressive, learnt really a lot from this post! We need way more than 44 people, let's try to be the next ones who will do some good for steemit`ians :)
I personally never go in the trending section. I made the people I follow list quality so my feed is full of the type of blogs I like. I also find cruising the subject tags is cool, you still seems fair amount of people putting blogs in wrong category though.
Me too, it's definitely the way to go with this place!
I think some people maybe just use an additional popular category to increase their chances of voting.... I'm actually 100% sure that never works.
Yes sir those people you mentioned have really been doing good and greatly in the steemit community.
He has been putting smiles on our faces right from the start. Also I would love to add @surpassinggoogle too..
There are many more I could have put in!
It's just a matter of too little time.
Okay sir, I do get you..
Sir, all the names you mentioned are wonderful people but its funny that you didn't mention @surpassinggoogle. He's really helping the platform.
Yup - point taken I just ran out of steem, excuse the pun!
Yeah 👍
Wow! Thank you for this. I resteemed and will study. What a great resource.
Hey great thanks!
I like Tim Cliff which you mention here and also I like @Cernovich.
Excellent post. All good folks. you could rename it the "Saints of Steemit"
They are a path of all steemian to get the proper way in a wonderfull socmed using the blockchain steem. Thanks for this excellent analysis.
Regards from Indonesia,
@bahagia-arbi | A Steem Ambassador and @fundition Ambassador
Thanks for this great overview of "friendly" steemians. Happy to reblog this post for you, @revisesociology You have my upvote and follow!
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This is a great entry in the competition of @abh12345,@lyndsaybowes and a wonderful compilation! I'm really honored to be included. Thank you very much