Like many people on Steemit I’m coming up to my one year anniversary. There seems to have been two really big mass migrations to Steemit – August 2016 and July 2017.
I first heard about Steemit last August because James Corbett @corbettreport talked about it in a video. And around the same time a lot of people also heard about Steemit from Jeff Berwick @dollarvigilante
Not being part of the current influx, I have no idea who told the latest bunch of newbs, but I guess some famous person on one of the big censored platforms like youtub and fakebook was talking about it and then moved over here, bringing a bunch of followers with them.
A lot of people on Steemit are in search of the holy grail – the secret to success. But the thing is, we are all different. We not only have different interests, we also have different ways we want to see information presented.
Some people like to watch videos, while others think that videos are usually a boring time wasting pain in the arse, and just want to see things written down so they can read them at their own speed.
Some people think that resteeming other people's posts is the key to growing Steemit, but others think that resteeming is an incessant flow of noise that clutters their timeline, so they are constantly unfollowing people who do a lot of resteeming.
Like most people, I have my own preferences, and I have ideas about what I’m looking for on Steemit. But I am the first to admit that my own tastes are probably not the majorities tastes and may well prove to be spectacularly unsuccessful in terms of both popularity and reward.
Although Steemit is not mainsteam media, the more new people who sign up, the higher the percentage of them who are likely to be mainstream sheeple.
What initially started out a refuge for free thinking anarchists, for geek social misfits who keep blathering on about computers and crypto currencies, and for conspiracy theorists who harbour irrational fears about fakebook, might later just turn into the next “social media” platform where a bunch of conformists group together to affirm their existing beliefs and flag any dangerous lunatics who do posts about freaky shit.
And that is exactly what I don’t want to see happen on Steemit. We are all different, and we all want to see different things. Personally, I want to see more freaky shit, from posts about used panty dispensing machines in Japan, to in depth articles about the eugenics agenda of vaccinations.
I want to see that information presented in short well written sentences, with lots of pictures. I don’t give a toss where those pictures came from, I will either like them or I won’t. But I will probably like them best if they stand out like dogs balls.
Steemit is a vast flow of information, but to me, much of it is a boring and badly written sea of crap that I’m trying to sift through as rapidly as possible to find the bits I’m interested in.
So the secret to Steemit success? Well this is the sort of thing I’m looking for myself - but keep in mind that we are all different, and hopefully we will remain that way…
On my feed I first want to see a heading that jumps out and screams “LOOK AT THIS FREAKY SHIT!” followed by a first line that really draws me in eg. “Japan has more used panty dispensing machines than any other country”
And alongside that I want to see a thumbnail of an image that leaps out, grabs me by my eyeballs, and makes me think “holy crap that picture is awesome”. But I do not want to ever see the words “Image Source” in the tag line for fucks sake…
Once I’m on the page I want to get started with reading a few lines of text, while the first image loads (so don’t put an image at the top of the page because it will bugger everything up)
And from then on I want each sentence to hold my interest. There are hundreds of other posts on Steemit, and if your post bores my pants off I’m outa there. So make it snappy and then include some more pictures.
And that’s it really – grab my attention, hold my interest, and go on about some shit that freaks out the sheeple. Plus lots of pictures. And if you can regularly do all that without constantly resteeming a bunch of boring crap, I might even follow you!
Images by @sift666 - except this one of a book about pissing...
Coming soon – Next I’m working on a post about drinking your own piss:
MY MINIMALIST STEEMIT SIGNATURE
For more info, see MY WHOPPING BIG STEEMIT SIGNATURE
Excellent post and very well written which seriously addresses the issues with Steemit as a unique platform. I agree, conformity and acquiescence to the social media hordes seems inevitable at this point. Popularity and the masses will bring it, along with the usual suspects (drivel & spam) but hopefully this platform will evolve. At this point all we can collectively do is manually separate the wheat from the chaff.
Thanks, so true, and lets see if we make some conformists heads explode!
i am an August steemit baby so 1 year is coming up in a couple of weeks, i have found authors i like and anyone that bores me i un-follow.
I like your posts because they make me laugh and i agree with your stance on a lot of things
steemit has changed a lot in the last 12 months - some good some bad :)
I can cope with a some spam if my posts are earning over $40! - although actually I hardly ever get any spam, so maybe the spammers can tell I'm just waiting to mock them :)
Nice post. I envision Steemit as a place to red pill the shit out off libtards and make a few friends along the way.
Still seems very right leaning to me 😉
Which way are libtards leaning now? - so long as Steemit is leaning away from that!
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Libtards who stray from fakebook may have an exciting time here! :)
Hopefully Steemit will remain the place for free thought. Personally I like short posts that get to the point, I do not want to read a novel here!
You hit the nail on the head again. Glad I found your site, you make me laugh and make me think. I try and include some humor in my posts. Without humor whats left. Drinking piss Huh, if it's going to keep me alive so I can read your next post, why not.
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HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ON STEEMIT. VERY WELL DONE AND KEEP IT UP GREAT WORK !
Definitely worth an upvote and a resteem :]
I surely do unfollow people who repost too much :)
You know, I wondered why the second photo works so nicely - the face of the lady has similar geometry to the car's front :D
And the little girl with the gun is great as well!
Many thanks - I often admire your photos, so any feedback is much appreciated.
I hadn't even realised the similarity of her face to the car, but now that you point it out...
People with cell phones always crack me up!
Good post and I agree with you, even tho I like other kinds of posts, but that is reely what you are saying, Everyone has different taste. About the July "flood" (started in June) is a group I belong to, it's the people, mostly photographers and photo lovers, from Tsu. After Tsu went under this group has stuck together trying to find a new plase but all the sites we have tryed we had give up on, except Steemit, it's so close to Tsu. We stick together with our "same interest", photographing. Most of us are not looking at anything else or partisipating, except fave use Walpower and things like that. The other wave I think is what we got regularly on Tsu, bots, and buggers who believe it's easy money, but they will disappear when they find out it's not.
Thanks - that is the first I've ever heard of TSU!
Being a "newbie" and retired, I found your post really useful, particularly the "do's" and "dont's". I'm still finding my way around, and taking it all in - slowly. Where are all the "oldies" posts though. It seems to be mostly young people, unless I'm looking in the wrong place. I love the young people and what they have to say , but I can't pretend to understand some of the jargon and technicle stuff. Jan
It's certainly big and confusing, but not young at all. Many young people are semi-literate cell phone addicts and their posts are appalling!
Much of the good content is being written by older people - here is a 72 year old talent to start with - @richq11
Thank you . That's good to know that I'm not in a minority, and now that I know fellow oldies are out there, I can be on the lookout. Jan
it was the recent rockets of money in crypto that created the july 2017 influx imo..
thanks for sharing
I connect with your statement to the effect of 1 size not fitting all . I find there are many paths here and its that flexibility i find attractive .
i like this post.....FREAKY SHIT! MORE FREAKY SHIT!!!!!
More freaky shit coming soon!
Subscribed, to not miss Your post about Urine. Brrrrr=)
I think this is the right way to approach steemit!
I think my biggest fault is that I want to see the best in everyone so bad that I will literally blind myself to not see the bad in people.
Yet you seem to be looking for a fault in yourself, when maybe that isn't a fault but a gift. I have spent many years trying not to see the underlying motive behind just about everything, but it's my default setting!
Well you managed to hold my attention to the end. That's good writing. Either that or I'm easily pleased?
I joined at the end of June 2017 after hearing about steemit from a buddy.
Celebs the fonts of all knowledge don't do anything for me.
I like the idea of this place. I'd love to see it stride across the web like a giant sweeping away the other crap.
This is how it should be.
I don't think it will attract the selfie obsessed as this place requires some thought and the dross will not get upvoted or resteemed.
All content or art is subjective.
A matter of personal taste.
Happy birthday.
You were hanging out to get to the part about urine therapy!
He looks happy enough!
It's all about taste ;)
I want to comment first on the sentence "they are constantly unfollowing people who do a lot of resteeming." according to my own way of working here,
Personally, I unfollow people who make useless re-steems just to write a comment saying "re-steemed & Upvoted" and then get an upvote from the autor and see them as annoying users.
I think you understand me at this point
but in the other hand, there are many users that only re-steem valuable content like @xpilar and other users
but anyway, everybody has his own preferences like you said
Yes, I find that even now following about 140 people who don't do much resteeming, I can barely keep up with my feed.
............ You're taking the piss right?
I got right into this for a few months 15 years ago - it has a lot of solid reasoning behind it.
In theory think a bit like homeopathics. In practise think drinking a glass of flat warm beer. Really really disgusting beer!
As long as you know there's a reason why urine comes out of the body in the first place.
Although this is not the kind of post I do on Steemit it has been great seeing this!
I arrived here in the second big mass migration you mentioned, I heard about Steemit from a Cryptocurrency trader. I love it! But, whithin the short time I have been here I have come across many posts like this ( not this well written though ), in which people show a certain degree of frustration with what began to be posted in the platform. I cannot really compare it with how it was before, and what is also great about your post is the fact that you highlight diversity and respect people's differences, but if what the Steemit community wants it is for it to grow popular, is there any other way than embrancing and welcoming the masses, with whatever they have to share and post?!
Good points - you got me thinking about a few contradictions here too!
Firstly I found Steemit because of a video, but I seldom watch videos. James Corbett is exceptionally good at doing videos though.
And I'm no fan of resteeming, but some of the best new posts I see on Steemit are from resteems.
Here is big thing that has changed a lot in the past two months - a year ago some of the most popular people on Steemit today were starting out posting great content. But now they just constantly repost other people's content.
They seem to have taken it upon themselves to decide what other people need to see, but If I just want to see everything I could look at the "new" tab myself.
As far as the masses go, I will probably just ignore 99% of them.
My main point is that we have to decide the value of our own posts, because often the payouts are not due to the post, but the number of whales following the poster. There are people on Stemit earning $500 a post while other people posting far better content are earning less than $1.
So all we can really do is post what we would appreciate seeing ourselves, and if that ends up working well, then great!
I agree !! That's what I have been doing so far and hope to keep on doing in the future.
I like what you said about resteemig. I just hope Steemit users don't get too caught up on the the money side of things ( I know it is difficult ). Only today I read a post of someone saying he is beginning to resent the extra effort he is putting on his posts for the little return he gets.
Here on Steemit the concern in relation to quality content seems to be a lot about the money - I might be very wrong! But, one does not see in other social media platforms people stating things such as ' that post got 100 likes and the other far better one only had 3 ', with no finantial gain or loss there seems to be little worry about quality!
Anyways, I am not, by no means, implying this is your case. Quite the contrary, you emphasize throughout the meaningfulness of what is being shared here as well as acknowledging how different each one of us is.
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I appreciate it!
Being paid for posts makes it really hard to not access the value of the post, and then even our own self value, based on the payout. It's taken me the best part of a year to mostly not do that, and I have to admit I still do it a bit.
Now most of my posts are earning 10x what they were earning a few months ago, but I have to admit if I did a post now that only earned $4 I'd probably think I was a worthless loser and start wondering how to buy upvotes.
Back in my days of posting on fakebook I used to assess the value of my posts by how many unfollows I got (I didn't get any likes)
Well, @swift666, I came across a comment of yours @freezepeach and had to check out your blog. I like your irreverence in general and your blog so will probably continue check in. Very interesting to hear your experience here on Steemit, and at least I seem to be following in your footsteps regarding payouts.
I had heard about Steemit for sometime before entering and am off to a slow start. My main interest is regarding decentralization as a way into the future and out of the control heavily present especially in economics. I liked the idea of a gifted currency but am disenchanted with the weight here of the whales. Will probably be posting regarding those themes.
I may not meet your standards of posts but that's not terribly important, though I have been drinking my urine for 30 years. I do like the artwork and photos that I see here, especially with the old car, fantastic situation! Nicely crafted posts.
Keep up the delightful impropriety and cheers.
Seriously - you have drunk your own piss for 30 years? - That is impressive, I only lasted a few months and then it became too much to cope with...
Thanks for all your compliments, I really like hearing stuff like that :)
One comment about whales that got me thinking differently is that they invested a bunch of $ in the platform, which we could do too if we wanted, so they are entitled to pass it round between themselves as they see fit.
Since taking that on board I've stopped being disturbed by what they do. And I've long been aware from seeing someones reputation go down from 52 to minus 2 in a day, that you NEVER want to pick a fight with a whale!
I understand the investment concept. That is something of a problem in itself if Steem really wants to serve as a currency. The principal role of a currency is to facilitate trade. Stocks and investments are to buy and hold while a currency's function is to spend it. Also a currency needs price stability to be able to safely guarantee what future expenses will be in doing business and longer term planning. Right now cryptos resemble stocks much more than currencies.
My main concern regarding the whales is that using money as a measure of content and influence which will over time be damaging to the Steemit platform. It's what happens currently and for far too long in society and yields dysfunctional results. My suggestion is to have another option to voting that is based on quality such as a one to five star rating system that determines what is trending and is not tied to rewards.
In the long run Steem will need to have some desirable economic base that appeals to others outside of itself or perhaps an internal marketplace if it is going to be able to pay for its maintenance costs.
I saw that you have another post, I'll check it out. Cheers.
I think the secret to the urine therapy is don't drink too much. As you mention it's a bit like like homeopathy so a little bit goes a long way. I do three swallows not a big glass, it's not beer after all! Urine has also been used as an eye wash successfully for some conditions though I haven't tried that.
Mmmm source. I once had image source in the first paragraph if my blog, fixed that one sharpish!
Currently blogging about whatever, whenever on stuff I'm interested in - if there was no enjoyment, I wouldn't be here. Peace!
After I posted that I wondered if I was being a bit harsh on "image source" - but then I looked at my timeline and the top post had "image source" in the tag line OMFG :)
Ha! Noob error which should be spotted and edited!
How you been doing? I remember you posting a lot of ass as replies in the past - old habits die hard I see 😛
You make me sound like some sort of freak that would do an entire post about arses! :)
https://steemit.com/life/@sift666/how-s-your-arse
This post has received a 15.00 % upvote from @lovejuice thanks to: @abh12345. They have officially sprayed their dank amps all over your post rewards. GOOD TIMES! Vote for Aggroed!
whole-heartedly agree. even though at times it can be discouraging posting the content you would truly like to see not getting too much success, I believe you'll be grateful in the long run- happier too, posting content you enjoy means you're less likely to burn yourself out.
Yes - I've seen a few people start out doing several posts day, but three months down the track they have a full burn out.
In the longer term sticking to what you are into and taking it gradually seems to work.
There are even people here who post nothing but fetish porn photos and even they seem to build a big audience in the end.
It takes all sorts!
Hahah different strokes for different folks!
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I like your third philosophical question:
"What is the gender of a football? "
That true i try to create content that i am comfortable with
I don't think I absorbed a single thing from this article beyond used panty distribution. Which I would know nothing about if not for Orange is the new Black, which elicited a great big eww from my brain then and continues to now. With a dash of ugh and a wrinkled nose, haha!
Hm. I wonder, did you happen to see my playground series? It's not at all like my book and it's not a children's story as the name might suggest. I'd be curious as to what you thought of it- I've been revising and putting it back through, just episodes one and two so far. Eventually my two cool characters will be talking about vaccinations which is what made me think of mentioning this to you. And this time around I have included pictures, no image source since I took them myself :)
I'll go and sniff them out!
Oh Godddd, ewwwww, hahaha!! Men who enjoy this have the snouts of actual dogs I'm convinced.
PS - you have inspired a future post - "Clan of the Cave Dog"
Always glad to inspire...did I hit a nerve, are you in possession of a dog snout, hmmm? Haha!
New Zealand has an entire gang of them - The Mongrel Mob!
my computer is having a spazz...
Thanks - I have just read them and they are awesome.
I read your other posts, and Deb has told me how good your writing is, so my only excuse is that I hardly ever do any real reading on Steemit.
But now I'm keen to read the rest of the playground series!
Wow, you think they're awesome? Well that's a great way to start the day off! I'll be putting up episode three tomorrow :) As for my other writing, well the books are a whole different thing and might not be your thing. I've been pretty surprised about how many guys are reading them actually, for some reason I thought they wouldn't appeal as much to the male of the species,lol.
I love Deb. :)
Looking forward to it and I'll check out more of your other writing as well!