RE: LOW-LIFE DOWNVOTING MEMBERS

[yvhobbit]

Actually, the definition of a Ponzi Scheme is a fraudulent venture that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. If they were asking us to pay some sort of membership fee from which the senior members were getting their rewards - this would be a Ponzi scheme. But when steemers choose to purchase more steam power that doesn't directly benefit those who joined before them or those that referred them. It actually benefits the buyers whose vote now weighs much more than that of a user with mere 15SP.

The best comparison is the online game. Those that are serious about succeeding (or winning?) do spend some of their money buying weapons and armor or whatever other tools they need - even though these tools are virtual and are worth nothing in the real world. Same thing here - people may wish to purchase some virtual power with real money and they may not get any material benefits from it, but this doesn't make Steemit a Ponzi scheme.

Comments

[logiczombie]

The best comparison is the online game. Those that are serious about succeeding (or winning?) do spend some of their money buying weapons and armor or whatever other tools they need - even though these tools are virtual and are worth nothing in the real world. Same thing here - people may wish to purchase some virtual power with real money and they may not get any material benefits from it, but this doesn't make Steemit a Ponzi scheme.

Well stated.

[logiczombie]

If rewards were shared equally amount all curators, that would be a much different issue. Likewise, if those members with higher reputations did not have any more downvoting power than lower reputation members, that too would be a much different issue. Downvoting other members simply because you do not agree with what they have to say, has absolutely nothing to do with maintaining a quality forum. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The quality of the Steemit forum is extremely low for that exact reason, because serious social media people will have absolutely nothing to do with a platform such as Steemit.

If Steemit was designed properly, it would have perhaps 100+ million members by now, but as it is, it has only managed to attract a mere 1 million, with less than 5% of those still active.

I agree.