I just read a post by @guyfawkes4-20 and I have read several posts by @tarazkp and others, who have expressed their dissatisfaction with what is going on on the trending page. There is a disconnect somewhere in the way this platform is running, I tell you.
Now I do not like bidbots or any system that helps poor quality post get visibility to the detriment of quality content. In my own opinion, if you can write a 59 word post, slap a picture to it and get a payout of $500, why will you want to write a 1000 word post, sir? Why will you want to exert yourself for a post that will get a payout of $10 at the most? Why will you want to write even?
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Also when someone who is not yet blogging on steemit, sees the steemit trending page on Google, what does he or she see? Dollars, dollars every where, right? It is an advertisement in its own right, i tell you. He or she would want to join up and make that kind of money.
Now when he or she does join and in the first month, despite his or her best efforts, his or her wallet reads below 10sbd, the next thing would be to find out how those posts on the trending page do it and what will they find? Some advertisement, right?
That being said, what is this disconnect I was talking about earlier?
When I joined steemit, I was told by @unlimited921 to interact, comment and make friends. He said that is the way to grow in the platform. He was very correct because I can say I have grown on this platform because I have made friends, I have commented even when I had bandwidth issues (wew! thank God that is over now) and I interacted with people on discord as much as my poor network and data would allow me. It has been awesome, I tell you.
But I am not on the trending page, I don't expect to be and neither should you except you are willing to pay the bots who now own the page, to go there. You see the trending page is now an exclusive club with a gate fee called bids. Only the rich and the stars dine there. The hardworking man on the streets of steemit has no reason being there. That is decentralisation for you; deal with it... or not.
So many times, even a curie upvote does not get you to the hot category and you would think that with the number of people who comment on your posts and tell you how much your post has helped them, you would have found your way there.
I wish these categories like 'trending' and 'hot' have no importance but they do have. You see, people want to be a part of success, they want to identify with what is believed to be success. Here on steemit, success is for sale. Do you see how easy it is to be successful? So what are you waiting for, why are you not bidding and taking your own chunk of the reward pool? You won't need to spend hours on a post, you won't need to drop posts on post promotion channels; the followers of success will come to you. Just post whatever and let the bidbots do the rest.
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Pursue Excellence and success will follow, pants down.
Three Idiots, 2009
When Rancho said that, he did not know that steemit will come to disabuse his theory. For here on steemit, pursuing excellence is a fool's errand. We pursue success here and excellence follows in the shadowy distance, naked and hungry. We want to be rich and famous no matter the cost but is that not the way of the world? If everyone keeps doing it, then there must be some right to it, right?
While reading the post by @guyfawkes4-20,i came up with some ideas. I do not know if they are doable or if those that are in the capacity to make changes have ever read my posts, but I felt that I should share this idea with you.
The trending page as it is at present, is determined by how much a post makes, I think. Correct me, if I am wrong. I feel that the criteria that determines how a post gets on the trending page should be amended or better still, changed.
You see, I am not here to stop those using bidbots, it's their choice. After all the system allows it and I will not support the removal of that freedom of choice. What I have in mind is something that will remove the veneer with which those who use bidbots hide; visibility. I am here to give the opportunity for us to show who we truly are and what our motivations are. I believe that if my suggestions are taken, people will see the truth and hopefully, make correct decisions. I will not be surprised if this changes nothing, but one has to try, right?
Most of the users of bidbots claim that they do so because they want visibility for their posts. If this is true, then it is the fault of the platform and not their fault for making money the determining factor in aiding visibility. Basically those who claim to bid for visibility are being forced to bribe bots so they can be seen and it should not be so.
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The criteria for a post to appear on the trending page should be adjusted. The focus on how much a post will make on payout should be removed from the criteria. Rather, these three options should be implemented;
- Posts with largest number of comments and interaction between the writer and his audience should be considered as worthy of being on the trending page.
- The number of human upvotes not the worth of the upvotes, should also be a factor for a post to be on the trending page. The larger the number of human upvotes, the higher the chances of appearing on the trending page.
- Finally, posts with the largest numbers of resteems should also be considered on the trending page.
If these three options are combined together in the selection of posts that appear on the trending page, the need to pay bots for visibility will be null and void.
Why did I pick these three options? Well because they encourage community and interaction which is supposed to be the mainstay of the platform.
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For instance, if people comment on your post, and you reply their comments, there is interaction. Also, it shows that your post is worth something to them. They are willing to engage with you on the topic under discussion.
Also, the number of human upvotes on a particular post shows those who actually find value in your blog. They know you make posts to their liking, they read it but they may not have the time or inclination to comment on it.
Finally, resteems imply that the visitors who resteem your post found it valuable enough to share with their own audience.
This will not stop bidbots or the pursuit of success but it will stop the self deception and those who actually seek visibility genuinely will know what to do.
The questions then are;
- Are my ideas feasible? Can it work if implemented?
- If these my ideas are implemented, will you still pay bots for upvotes?
Your comments and opinions will be highly appreciated. Criticisms as well, so we can in talking find ways to make this platform something lasting.
Peace,
©warpedpoetic
Maybe most users of bidbots claim this but I believe the vast majority of bidbot users do it for profit. Why? Because if you want visibility on the trending page, you need to spend at least 100SBD on bidbots. There aren't that many users who spend that much. Most bidbot users spend much much less. So why bother spending less if it doesn't give you any visibility? The answer must be profit.
I agree. This won't eliminate the use of bidbots but maybe it will reduce spending big money on bidbots.
There are bidbots where the actual voting comes from human accounts. For example, I pay 50SBD to the bidbot and I will get maybe 20-30 votes instead of 1 big vote from the bidbot itself. But your proposal would still be better than the current situation.
Exactly! @adigitalife. With my suggestions, we will be able to separate those who use bidbots for the visibility and those who use it for profit.
That will make it a bit tricky but it is better than counting the worth of a post. There also curation trails with human upvotes that amount to 0.00$. It is a mess, men. I don't know, maybe wiser heads can develop on what I have suggested and come up with something better.
What if a curation trail and a bidbot's trail is counted as one person. Even if it is say curie with over a hundred on its trail, it will amount to one person. That could make it work. In such a case only manual upvotes will be counted. So we will know how many people actually engaged with the post. What do you think?
What would be the purpose of separating the "visibility bidbot users" from the "profit bidbot users"? The users we see on the trending page are just a small fraction of all bidbot users. Let's say 2% of all bidbot users buy their votes for visibility. Then what?
I agree that the trending page right now is useless and should probably be changed with a better algorithm. But I don't think changing the trending page will have much impact on vote buying.
Well as long as vote buying is not the only means of appearing on the trending page, that is a start. Stopping people from buying votes is impossible except the platform itself is restructured in a way where bidbots and other forms of vote buying will not be necessary. Until then, getting it clear that it is not visibility but profit that brings people to vote buying is a start.
For, whoever does the maths will realise that it is those who have money that trend not those who have the community at heart. This also means that the constant harping on community and interaction and engagement.... Is bullshit. The platform only cares about those making money not those making quality content.
This issue has been overflogged and there seems to be no end in sight.
@vanessahampton, the issue is just tiresome. That is why I offer a solution that will be satisfactory to both proponents and opponents of bidbots. I don't know much so I may be wrong but someone has to think of a solution, right?
Thanks for stopping by. Stay safe.
I do occasionally use bots but its not like I don't know that I dont have enough to get in trending section, like @adigitalife said its mostly to see if I can get a profit which is basically just gambling but hey 🤷 . Also I do like your criterias but we all know sooner or later people would find a way to abuse that system too and ironically that would be after all those interactions and they formed communities in which they understand each other. Lol. Not saying I like the way things are currently working(cant stand the trending page) but Im just being realistic. I mean imagine if a 1000 thousand people were to decide to comment or resteem a simple picture, would that really be better for the trading page?
@ange.nkuru, it's a choice actually. If the picture has added value to your life, fine. The VP is supposed to show a users appreciation of something. If you decide to upvote a picture or even a one line text, it's your choice. It reflects on you not me.
The truth of the matter is that, after all said and done everyone is here to make money. This notwithstanding, can it not be made, without adversely affecting the platform from which it is made?
People will always find ways to abuse an idea because we are human beings and we always love the path of least resistance, but that is not an excuse not to try. Right now, we can blame the system for the way things are set up but if changes are made and the situation is hijacked again, then we will know what we may always try to blind ourselves to, what I am trying to blind myself to; human beings will do anything for a buck and we will never change.
Thank you for stopping by.
I have no problem with people liking pictures but my issue is like if there are only groups of people who only comment and resteem their friends posts, then we're back to square one again with newbies and solo dolo people who spend hours working on their posts being burried again. Now Im not saying we remain idle Im just acknowledging how complex the issue is, like you said humans will do anything for a buck and I wonder what measures steemit's team will take to balance it all out.
@ange.nkuru, making friends on steemit is not the job of the platform, that is the job of you, the account owner. It is what you owe yourself as a member of the platform; to interact, exchange ideas and make new friends.
Yes, people will upvote and Resteem their friend's posts that cannot be avoided either. It is a part of perks that comes with being a member of a community.
My introductory post earned me 0.003. I cannot hold anyone responsible for that. For I have no control over who chooses or not to upvote my post. Any upvote I get, I am grateful for. Do you not have friends here on steemit? Did you know them before you joined steemit?
That being said, the problem is indeed complex and my solutions are not the answer to the problem but it is a start. It might not get us there but it will take us somewhere. Yes it will be difficult for newbies, but it won't be as bad as it is now.
Value of upvotes still needs to be included otherwise there are going to be the armies of low quality posts, with low quality circles commenting, engaging and resteeming. As you know, for some countries small rewards go a long way and in some places it only takes a small amount of people to game it.
for example, under that set of rules, I will never come close to appearing in trending as no matter the value or quality of the discussions under the post, I will be luck to get 20-30 comments. That is easily gamed by 1 person with multiple accounts.
The upvote metric also with the circles of independent voters vote trading to hit trending would explode. There is also no actual way to see if it is a bot or human voting.
But, add the value metric in there and it again becomes worthwhile to some degree but again, now the bots are back in play as they could run all of their engagement scams and then order a bot.
Not such an easy a problem to fix.
This is quite true but it should not be the major criteria. Every other aspect should also be considered. If there is no engagement, e.g. comments, then even if it is on the trending page, it should not be the highest trending. Why I say this is because there are blogs were the writers post but do not interact with those who come to comment on the post. After all they have a voting trail that upvotes them if they fart, why do they need to talk to anyone?
If they are going to be vote trading, they better be commenting sensibly on the posts that they are upvoting. They should actually read the post. For if it's just upvotes, they won't still get to the trending page. They will need comments too.
It is definitely a difficult problem @tarazkp, as is everything involving money. But we have to start from somewhere.
I hope people who know better will think of a way forward in making a better system to make the trending page worth the name it bears.
Thanks for stopping by sire. Do come again. Peace
This is motivating especially the way you grew up here...
Your steps thou I follow..(though in order to achieve in your path praying for a better network because that's one of the things that is limiting me)
On this your saying
"Posts with largest number of comments and interaction between the writer and his audience should be considered as worthy of being on the trending page".
I strongly agree with you, because with that steemians would know that hard work really pays and it would encourage people like me to strive for it by working hard.
This is actually what I learnt from you and @jesse12 👇
(That is that not the way of the world) mostly here on steemit, when you talked about "We want to be rich and famous no matter the cost".
And you just made me remembered about that movie"the 3 idiots".
And finally, first your ideas are feasible. It would work effectively and move the steemit community to a greater height.
Secondly I don't think their will be need for paying boots, if your ideas are implemented.