Source: Public domain vintage image of Charles Dickens sitting at his writing desk in the library - found at: publicdomainpictures.net
Recently, I have been one to rant a little about the lack of decent quality content on Steemit due to a common obsession with making money rather than enjoying writing and expressing one's self for the sake of it. Well, guess what? Here's yet another rant. I would much rather that users/content producers were a little more brave and started to put original content out more often as opposed to only producing an article if they believe that the subject matter is potentially a good earner. Money can come later, but real value for the reader has to be produced first.Potential causes of the Steemit originality deficit:
Some problems can be partially attributed to the Steemit user base. Many are not native speakers in English, nor even that proficient in using the language at all. In my opinion, it is this had led to a large proportion of articles resembling something like high school homework assignments; that are rather short in length, excessively simple and pretty much not worth reading in the eyes of anybody but a high school teacher that would be grading that piece of work. As the vast majority of those offending Steemit users are adults, I'd safely say that they have failed to the standards that I would personally expect from them.
Source: publicdomainpictures.net
More irritating is the fact that some users seem to be completely lacking in inspiration. If you want to comment or produce opinion pieces relating to what you have seen in the media, fine. That can be a fantastic thing. I doubt that I'm the only one that loves viewing such pieces from skeptics on YouTube and would also enjoy viewing them in written form. However, if you are merely reproducing and paraphrasing the content of an article and then passing off the work as your own, you're nothing but a total bore. Don't just try to produce a shortened version of a piece, offer us your own thoughts maybe?What can be done?
Everybody's life has something unique to it that can be shared with others. Everybody is capable of adding their own twist to what would otherwise be seen as being unoriginal and mundane. When we all have cameras on our phones, keyboards to type up on and much more, why can't we all produce something different? Let's look at some examples.Granted, one's family recipe might not be completely unique, but when one is capable of explaining it in their own words rather than simply copying and pasting from elsewhere, it can grab one's attention; especially if you can add photos of your own culinary masterpieces to it.
If you are going to post an interesting YouTube video, please add your own written summary or introductions to it. Likewise for photos. Even a one line sentence or two explaining what it is that you have spotted on your travels can turn yet another insignificant shared personal photo into a mildly amusing short read.
Better yet, host unique content on other blocktube services such as D-Tube etc and use Steemit articles to promote your audio or visual content. In the near future, I intend to host some of my DJ mixes on there (as it is a favourite hobby of mine), but those of you who have sexier accents or are more handsome/better looking than me may even wish to start talking in front of the camera; if you feel that this writing thing can be a bit of a chore at times.
The worst feeling is when I read that great post, then I see a link from cheetah in the comments... darn!
I think part of the problem for steemit is it's still populated by crypto-nerds, if we can draw in more ordinary people that will help with diversity and quality.
You don't get rewards for posting though; you get rewards by being upvoted. You get upvoted because people click on your posts, and they do that when they know your name and trust your brand; that the things you post are original and insightful.
The guys doing the wrong thing are just diving for loose change in wishing wells.
Minimal effort, minimal return, no growth, no following, no long term benefit.
Hopefully, they will eventually see that there is no point in resorting to posting absolute unoriginal crap on Steemit to make a living.
Reputation will become more important here as time goes by; and one big downvote from a whale can kill that, and for what?
Pocket change?
There are sharks in the wishing well.
"it is this had led to a large proportion of articles resembling something like high school homework assignments; that are rather short in length, excessively simple and pretty much not worth reading in the eyes of anybody but a high school teacher"
This is so true! That's the problem with a lot of new steemians - they join with dollars in their eyes, but they expect an "A for effort." Unfortunately, in the real world, "A for effort" isn't what happens - you can only earn money here if you make a valid contribution.
New users should focus on: Meeting people in the community, learning to create great content with a consistent theme, and building the value of steem as a whole.
They should not focus on how to maximize value from upvote bots, yet so many new users seem to spend the majority of their steem time trying to generate money from bots... sigh
I think a lot people habits on steemit change over time. Most people try to produce unique quality content but quality can be incredibly subjective. Especially new steemit authors, many it could be their very first time writing on the internet but I agree their are also many lazy writers, how to sort them out.
I completely agree with you. I would very much appreciate a less boring steemit!!!
you might check Steem Stats Report - Results of yesterday's downtime
in which he reports
The question raises it ugly head and asks itself
of spending hours creating original quality content when it will not even be read? Might as well copy/paste pages from a phone book to get the same number of votes..
hmmm...might do that..if I can find a phone book..
Like in many fields where the initial work involved is effectively just a labour of love; such playing sports, music, art etc; the most successful posters on Steemit that may remain in a few years time could be those that weren't bothered so much about making money in the beginning. They will be the ones that genuinely wanted to just produce great content and had faith in their own ability and didn't need the approval of others or the monetary reward to motivate them. Besides, if things doesn't work out on Steemit for the very best writers, there's always the chance that they could end up writing somewhere else.
you keep saying "great content'..
and yet after an hour...
....it's gone..(95% of the votes happen in the first hour)
Dunno if copy/paste is financially optimal with the online phone books. Most phone/address sites require payment for access. I think that the US Census Bureau might be the new 'insert text here' filler.
PS. Annual Estimates of the Resident Population by Sex, Age, Race Alone or in Combination, and Hispanic Origin for the United States and States: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2016 more information
2016 Population Estimates
Race Alone or in Combination [1]
White / Black or African American / American Indian and Alaska Native / Asian / Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
Both Sexes / 256,013,483 / 46,778,674 / 6,706,210 / 21,419,159 / 1,532,027
Under 5 years / 15,354,937 / 3,683,164 / 561,573 / 1,493,972 / 146,905
5 to 9 years / 15,787,101 / 3,721,222 / 565,105 / 1,480,094 / 144,219
10 to 14 years / 16,018,108 / 3,564,543 / 546,373 / 1,444,300 / 132,041
15 to 19 years / 16,349,518 / 3,663,324 / 543,595 / 1,408,749 / 124,394
?
That is, the phone book jibber jabber isn't cheap anymore but you can find endless drivel at the US Census bureau site. ;-)
I agree with you. Sadly, most people are here for the money and not for the ease of use apparently, self-expression and community thing. The same type of articles on the trending page, and people are buying it. Politics.
I really like this fearless article. Thanks for sharing!
My prediction:
If Steemit is to be a successful project a few years down the road, the ones that are only here for the money won't last. There will be more competition as the project gains mainstream awareness; that may draw some bandwagon jumpers, but could also draw some healthy competition from some better writers that are well educated, possess a vivid imagination and have something other than crypto to talk about. The sheer amount of better quality articles from those new users should drive away many of the third-world chancers that are just rewriting tabloid news articles in the hope of passing themselves off as journalists.
I agree, if there would be other projects like steemit where the real quality content writers would be rewarded, and not just the circle of jerks and their friends, sure a lot of people would go. Honestly, it is tiring to see fanboys and their articles just being recycled every day on the trending page. People run out of ideas these days.
Steemit's economy is third-world anyway, there are more minnows than the middle class, let's not forget the ruling elite that perpetuates poverty around here.
In the end, the quality content being rewarded is just becoming a myth.
I often wonder if we should just forget the idea of Steemit being a real economy for a moment and take a stand, bullying the third world plagiarism crew away from the service, like it was an old school style message board or forum.
We should let those barely literate, uneducated third world cunts know that their ‘work’ is a pile of shit and that nobody with a reading age of above ten appreciates it.
Regular users like ourselves may not have all that much effect upon the rewards that they receive from Steemit; but letting the useless cunts know that they are no longer deserving of our £2 a month Oxfam donations for clean water is a good start. Besides, if they can afford a computer, chances are that they can find a better way to survive than posting on Steemit.
Agreed with the points above. What do you make of the accounts that literally copy entire articles in quotes instead of "paraphrasing"? e.g. @contentjunkie