Your reply is 1/2 good advice and 1/2 opportunistic, morally relativistic tactics and selective vision. Dude if I delegate SP to others I want it to be for their benefit, not for mine. The precise reason I’m “whining” is because strategizing and taking advantage of every opportunity (regardless of what it does to the platform) gets many people further at steemit than real dedication, community building and high quality.
You offer some good advice, but you seem to think success is a one-fits-all solution and it’s not. “You got to give to receive” you think you and your friends are the only ones doing that? The only difference may have been that someone noticed. Or the biggest difference may have been the bots. Or it could have been self-centeredness.
The fact that you gave so many likes to the #1 guy just makes it sound like you know how to kiss ass. I don’t want to be rude man, I’m just returning the favor and being honest. A lot of your outlook is that of someone who is winning at a pyramid scheme, mixed with some nice positivity.
I do agree that we get in our own way and I’ve had my share of that, and sometimes selective vision is a good thing, but sometimes it’s just negligent of something that needs to be addressed. I’m not just looking at my position, if I were doing that, I’d be rich already because I know a bunch of ways that I COULD get rich. But if every great user I knew had success like @spiritualguy and I was lagging behind, I wouldn’t make posts like this! I known users who are honest and hard working and write amazing stuff and don’t even complain about it. Maybe delegating them some sp will make a difference, but I’m not going to do it so that they vote me back.
I’d like to push steemit in a direction where it can help as many people as possible to live life on their own terms. It’s not just about cashing in on an opportunity, it’s about shaping the future. Things may “work” now but could also hurt the sustainability of the ecosystem. I see a lot of the same contradictions in this system as I do eith the world economy and the same desire to ignore them so long as we are doing ok ourselves and can help out a few friends. I want more for us as a species.
You also have to remember, not everyone comes from the same place as you, even if we are 100% responsible for our own success and failure and we bring all pain and suffering on ourselves, some of us have different challenges than you have had. For some the challenge is learning to work together, for others it’s to be more positive, and then for others the challenge is learning to stand up themselves. We all drive things forward in our own way and we all grow at different speeds too. But it could be these very “whining” that save some our platform in the end and allows your Steem to be worth anything in 3 years. It could be thiscother outlook which teaches you something about yourself that you were missing, something which may have later hurt yourself or others in some way. I feel I should warn you to be more compassionate to those who are in different situations from yourself and your friends, if you wind up looking down on others who don’t manage the the same success, you aren’t the success you think you are.
I appreciate your honesty, about a third of your advice, and your reminder that the most of our roadblocks are mental. Thanks for a very interesting reply.
LOL, at least you got part of it. Get over being offended and see that there is a FOREST that you can't see because of all the trees in the way. ;)
Yes, we all have different roadblocks. The trick is to figure them out, and how to get over, around, or THROUGH. A lot of folks have ESL (English second language) roadblocks, and Boot Camp addresses that as well. We really work hard at helping our new minnows and trying to make it easier on them, rather than harder. Still pretty new, but it's paying off for many. Plus I am Profit sharing with the minnows helping me run the place. Good People!
You bring up "moral relativism" and hint at "lack of compassion" but cite no examples of either. Rather than hammer that for what it is, I'll just ask for examples. I guess you don't like bots but why not? "@spiritualguy" as you call him did a 1 week comparison w/o bots of any kind and while SBD IN vs SBD Out was basically a wash, SP Earned was a lot lower w/o Bot Promotion. Overall, careful bid bot usage increases the earned SP quite a bit and overall STU's earned are more than not using a bot. I rarely used bots but I was slamming my SP with what I call the "Brute Force Method" but that was mostly from lucky timing and following good advice from a trusted friend. Not the "Steemit TA Hounds", either LOL
As far as compassion goes, if I had none in this case I'd have said nothing. I see more GOOD from you than not, but Making Bots a "moral issue" is stunting the growth, IMO. What is so wrong with Bots? I operate 2 of them and they are about as user friendly for the Small Accounts as anything else out there, I take a tiny Sub-¢ent Vote and multiply it BACK to the person in my system, and most times it is like 10x larger or MORE. We are helping all entry level people get a vote that they might normally not get at all, providing a Community where they can network, and I also cruise around and up-vote good commentary and we are also doing Minnow of the Week, and so on. One of our more advanced videographers just got a Curie Trail Vote, in excess of $200. I personally promoted his trailer, and the main film got the Curie nomination and the big payout. Better than I ever got! I made $100 on a story post once, which is great. If my protégés do better than I ever did, I am all about that! My personal Satisfaction is greater in helping than my own "success", for I am more of a teacher/motivator, I believe that is my calling.
As far as my misconceptions of your post here, take what little good you find, leave the rest, but just note, 4 eyes are better than 2 and maybe someday you might get a small nugget of truth once you understand it from an outside viewpoint. I'm far from perfect and so is my perception, but maybe it will help. Take the good, the positive, that which you think might help, and DON"T SWEAT THE REST, That is not why I mentioned anything.
Oh, one other thing, I never said "whining" ONCE, but you said it several times. ;)
But I did say "crybaby hysterics", that was more of an attention getter than anything. It was too successful, I did not intend that level of fixation. My Bad...
BIG PS: DELI helps Everyone, I just added that on the rare occasions when you do up-vote each other, well, it is kind of a "social acceptable alternative" to the self-vote. Once I got my SP up and I could back up my comments with a good up-vote, (when deserved) it really did get attention. Helping a newer person get a Slider is a big boost!
You also mixed up my prior "unrewarded" forum upvotes with experiences here on Steemit. My networking is OUTWARD and DOWNWARD. Whales have too little time and exposure for people on our levels. "Statistically" Dolphins are the upper 1% so a true Whale is like the 1% of that group, or .01% or less of the total population. Even as successful as I have been, I find that Whale "attention" is something you rarely want to have. Even most of @spiritualmax's public attention from Whales has been negative. At least at the start of that sequence. Most of them are busy with the larger issues, it is really the Dolphins and the Fat Minnows that do most of the work that we are discussing here.
I’m not offended, just a little tired of hearing the same thing from those who have profited from the established tactics of bot usage and being noticed by whales. I do admit my outlook is not perfect and I’m open to hearing different points of view but this is one which I’ve only heard from users who have had relatively short grinds or who are some of the more powerful people on the platform now.
I’m sorry if I misquoted you or misunderstood you but when someone says you are using “crybaby hysterics” and you don’t agree, 40 minutes already feels like a long enough time to put into a reply. I have no need to prove anything to you. We can have our different opinions.
I do not frame things in terms of business and branding and I’m more interested in the idea of friends than “followers” and perhaps this is a huge handicap I give myself. You may want to call it foolish or too stubborn or even judge mental but my experiences and intuition led me to this point. About the facts. I saw taskmasters post and the evidence, I’m not refuting it but it seemed like a very negligible change to me and I don’t see any reason to believe that it is a “trend”.
I just want to see MORE dolphins on this platform because no matter how decent the dolphins and whales are, the fewer there are the longer and harder the grind is for most people and the more we are pressured to conform to tactics that don’t come natural to us. I see many people, whales and dolphins included doing the same thing, but as a minnow, I believe there is more that I can do than just appealing to them for help because hey are already spread thing. This is just an attempt at that.
I was not offended, and I only tell you that so you understand my tone was not angry, but I did come close to feeling offended, so thanks for giving me a nice challenge :-)
I think we're coming to an understanding here, I mean the longer I think about and look at your "Zombie Post Initiative" the more I like it. I have often thought about re-branding my older stuff, in ways like this and differently, and I see no real downside. If one were to use plenty of "Quote" markdowns and add new insights and opinions, I don't see where anyone would have a problem with a "remake" of prior content. I've seen some of my own that I think would do a lot better with my current audience.
I see a lot of positive stuff from you, keep that UP! It was meant as a nice challenge, and I know you can do it.
Our Community Vote Bots are not big timers, it's a nickel and dime thing. It keeps the new folks from getting discouraged and the ones that do best figure out that they must Network to Succeed!
Spiritualguy writes quality and works hard, maybe just like you, but he spends even MORE time "strategizing and taking advantage of every opportunity " - that takes work, dedication, and steals countless hours from my routine.
That means that not only am I working hard and getting quality content out, building communities etc, I also work HARDER and research for good opportunities, make connections, establish meaningful relations and more...
It is hard work, what I do, it's not luck, kissing ass and I even go the extra mile as to spell people's names right.
Plus, what you speak about here is kinda just giving out excuses. bots make out for 1.7% of all votes in the blockchain, so they are not really a problem, read @penguinpablo's
Finally, the distribution of wealth in the blockchain has no problem either - check @taskmaster4450 last post. There's data behind it all.
Plus, you know ways to get rich but you don't do it? Heh.... that's funny.
Don't whine at the system and tell how broken it is just because you don't analyze it properly... I had a lot of concerns similar to yours, but I researched it and found hard data on why I was wrong.
With the time you're here you should know better already than to tell bots have such a lousy impact when they're 1.7% of votes AND DIMINISHING..
Plus, relative power of whales and orcas is also DIMINISHING, and it will continue to do so in the future as more people sign up and the platform adjusts according to its smart design.
I know your frustration, I had it once, I wined about it and got flagged at 100% by @smooth and his alts - by the way, he was right on doing so, I spoke to him and understood it.
Man up, pineapple head, Spiritualguy wants everyone to be successful, but truth is, only some are willing to put in the effort. There's no better place to reflect effort than the STEEM blockchain...
Effort put in, hours of work, thought and grind are REWARDED here.
Sorry I got your name wrong and I know you work hard, I don’t question that. But I’ve seen people work at a same level as you and create the same level of quality, more than a few, I went through a period of working that hard that hardon my posts too (I still work hard although not less of it goes to my posts and more of it goes to showing respect and support for people who have had a hard time getting noticed).
At a certain point, it becomes hard to justify putting all that effort into your post if no one noticed. I’ve forced through and have been relatively succesful, but I don’t believe the grind should have to conform to certain tactics that many of us don’t like and all I’m doing is exploring other ways to make the grind a little more natural and enjoyable for us. I admit I am frustrated, so if you want to think we are just whining because we weren’t not chosen for some whales speedy growth program (not saying you didn’t deserve it, you did), OK let us whine a bit so we can be honest with ourselves, please try to admit that you may not have all the answers for everyone, a thousand roads can lead to the same place. You’ll see that I made a point to say there is no need to blame or demonize anyone, even people whose behavior we disagree with, and that it’s important to stay positive.
Yes I know ways to make money that I don’t use. Many companies make more money harming the environment, does that mean everyone should? Sometimes you don’t like a method of getting something you want enough to look for some other way, is that so wrong?
Regardless of the statistics (which I imagine are incredibly hard to get accurately, although I will read more about it) when you open the trending/hot pages, you see most of the posts here have been promoted to an insane degree by upvote services.
All I can say to your last comments is that it’s very easy to say that when it’s paid off for you. I can also say that perhaps you point to a reality that myself and some of my favorite steemians need to level up a bit to be even more clear, focused and positive than users like yourself who found their place here rather quickly and easily if we want to be succesful without taking every single opportunity to make money when it doesn’t make us feel good and doesn’t reflect who we are.
"because we weren’t not chosen for some whales speedy growth program (not saying you didn’t deserve it, you did)"
A speedy growth program? I got a 500 SP delegation from @underground and that was it for the "growth program". 500 SP is what makes the difference?
Yeah, I was still a Minnow then and living the Dolphin Life LOL
Even TASK is not a whale, just a great big Dolphin. All of us Dolphins and Near-Dolphins with Taskmaster were working with and for each other, but beyond the SP it was mostly just pats on the back and encouragement, Right Maxey?
That's a main motivator for the MInnowBootCamp, trying to have extra help for the enrollees. And thank You for Your Support! The payments just went out, did you see your wallet yet?
Yeap.
@spiritualguy could be your alter-ego LMAO