Proposal: Add Promoted to Visible Post Payout - so Promoted Posts will climb higher in Hot and Trending

tipu (67)in #steemit • 7 years ago (edited)

This post in one image:

The current Promoted section in steemit is constructed like a TV network station that has a separate channel for commercials. No one watches it because they are separated from all the good channels (hot and trending). And if no one watches them, no one pays for them.

Add promoted to visible payout (post $$$ value)

So if someone spends $500 on promotion - his post will display $500 value and this will almost guarantee him to get into Trending - at least for some time. If he spends less, at least he has high chances to getting into Hot.

This is madness!

No kind sir. Currently almost no one uses Promoted functionality (and it is very important function - more about it in a second). The only thing that spending SBD on Promoted gives, is showing up in Promoted tab - and no one checks it anyway.

What happens instead is almost everyone is using Voting Bots. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm the last to tell you what you should do. I use voting bots myself!

But there is a problem

If you send 1 SBD to voting bot and receive 2 SBD - you have an inflation. If everyone does that, SBD and STEEM are getting worth less and less because we're increasing the SBD and STEEM supply, but the demand stays the same. We're printing new SBD but it is not followed by any valuable work. I know, this is part of STEEM economy, but still we're mass producing SBD not thanks to people voting on our good, valuable content, but because we're paying to print more SBD for us.

You have to also remember that because so many people are constantly paying to voting bots, they become huge steem power holders - they centralize STEEM with each day. Who knows, maybe one day everyone's vote will mean nothing and only by buying vote from voting bot you will be able to earn anything?

But let's leave voting bots alone, some are not that bad.

Let's talk about Promoted

This is where the Promoted kicks in - it is designed to do the opposite, what voting bots are doing - they create deflation. If you were not aware, when you are using Promoted functionality, you're not paying anyone - you're destroying those SBD. Exactly like throwing dollars into fire - no one gets them. This reduces the supply which leads to one thing - we're all getting richer because SBD and STEEM are getting a little more valuable witch each burned SBD.

But no one uses Promoted ><

Thankfully, there's a simple solution - add SBD paid on Promoted to the visible post value - you know, this small text filed under a post that you check every 3 seconds when you make a new post ;)

So if I have 0 votes, but burned my precious 200 SBD on Promoted - steemit.com will display that this post is worth $200 and I'm instantly in the hot section. Simple.

And it's not unfair! People already spend their SBD on voting bots so what's the difference. If we can show people that it's worth to burn SBD on Promoted - it will be good! The more SBD they burn, the more STEEM and SBD will be worth!

And if they Promote spam and bad content - they will only loose money because no one will vote on them and they will be kicked out from Hot and Trending. But if it's a good content - their investment should return because their good content gets good visibility and probably many votes.

Simple!

#steemitdev #steem #witness

7 years ago in #steemit by tipu (67)

$23.58

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lukestokes (76) 7 years ago (edited)

Upvoting for the work you put into this, but I disagree on some points.

A post's value is what it is. That number should not be displayed differently and even if the display changed, that wouldn't change the underlying blockchain value of the post which (presumably) the condensor code (Steemit.com) uses to sort posts into Hot, Trending, etc.
Voting on posts doesn't change SBD inflation. The same amount of rewards are going to be given out by the blockchain no matter what. More votes by different people just spreads it around more. We're not mass-producing SBD any more or less with the introduction of pay-for-play voting bots.
There is a reason (some) people like Steemit. There are no ads. Content is voted on by individuals (or their bots) and organized based on the power of influence through vested stake in the platform (Steem Power). In theory, those with the most to lose by promoting crap content which drives people away from Steemit instead of to it will be the most motivated to promote good content.

If we flood the "normal" channels with promoted content, then we fundamentally change the dynamics of Steemit. Now it's no longer about popular posts showing up in Hot or Trending, it's about who has the biggest bank roll or rented delegated Steem Power.

Here's an alternative approach:

Buy Steem. Power Up.

It's really that simple. You'll get 6.7% increase in creation of new Steem Power, you'll drive the price of STEEM up for everyone, you'll earn more in curation rewards for the long term, and you won't have to pay a bot or a delegation service (who are making nice profits of their own).

In the future, I think the proper way to handle promoted posts will be to show clearly how much money was spent to promote the post (I think, like votes and views, that's also an important signal) without having to click the arrow for details (maybe a small _{Post Promoted by $10.00} text at the bottom of the post). I also think there should be an option to earn SBD for those who want to see ads/promoted posts. Instead of 100% going to null when posts are promoted, what about a percentage going to a fund which pays out to those who choose (via a custom_json setting on their profile) to view promoted posts in their stream, much like Twitter or Facebook shows promoted posts.

This, I think, could work well.

$0.27

6 votes