What most people fail to realize is that some of us have lots of influence (and whalevotes) because we put 3 years of hard (and often costly) work and sacrifice into supporting the tech that made steem even possible! When others left, WE sacrificed and many times even paid large sums out of pocket.
Apparently that means I unfairly have too much support and should be downvoted/flagged for my LEGITIMATE work!? Hint...some of us intentionally chose not to have a witness in steem. Whilr some of us run a witness and decide to use their sp to screw those who are literally at the foundation of steems very existence.
I certainly didn't expect overnight riches. I believe in the technology and want to see it succeed. You early adopters helped it get started.
Oh i know man. Its just that abit really has cut my pay here substantially with his little (ill thought) "experiment".
What most people dont know is that i have paid nearly all my earnings toward building tools for steem and bitshares to use to the benefit of both...just doing blanket flagging of legitimate posts and work because its "unfair" newbies arent paid anywhere near what im paid (after 3 years of largely unpaid work mind u) is definitely not the answer.
You will build a following who will support you over time. Dont worry about that. But i guess YOU DO have to worry about someone who has a witness and never has to write posts to earn steem coming in and saying "you dont deserve all this support" and stomping on your face with a shit-covered boot...because they have no clue what its like to actually build such a following.
Upvoted and following. Their is good thoughts in that fuzzyvest
(replying here due to nesting)
The idea behind the experiment is to see what happens if the whales don't vote, and the voting is left up to the dolphins and minnows.
I believe they have been trying to privately talk to as many whales as possible, so everyone is aware and in agreement, but obviously they either have not talked to you in private yet, or they did and you didn't agree.
If all the whales are not "playing along" then the experiment doesn't work. Due to the n^2 algorithm, it would just give a ton more influence to the whales still voting, and the dolphins/minnows would still have no say. Based on this, I think the plan is to 'cancel' any whales who are still voting through downvotes.
At the end of the day, it is just an experiment. The plan is not to make it permanent, and the whales can chose to end it at any time.
You don't seem to agree with it, but personally I am very thankful to the whales for doing this. IMO, the distribution of stake is one of the biggest issues right now, and if we don't find some resolution to it, then the value of everyone's stake goes down. The 'experiment' is obviously not going to be the final solution to the problem, but the fact that they are trying to come up with a solution is a very good thing IMO.
Experiments with people's feelings.
Nice for posterity of Steemit.
The funny thing is...i am easy to reach and am one of the people who has been around since day one. Abit knows how to reach me and NEVER did he even try. Instead...my post about the VALUE of steem being in its censorship resistance and the easily 15-20 hours of time spent promoting steem behind the scenes is SHAT on...
Any way this is cut...it was a terrible plan and terrible execution.
I don't really think that is what this is trying to accomplish. I agree that the early adopters earned the stake and influence that they have, and I oppose anything that aims to take that away in a way that is not fair to the original stakeholders.
The overall intention is to find a way for the platform to scale to a larger user base, where it is not just the early adopters running the show.
Also to note is this current test is just an experiment. It is not a permanent change, and it is being done voluntarily by the stakeholders themselves.
You must really want that abit witness vote ;)
Here is the fact: downvoting by abit is an experiment doomed to fail. If he intends only to do this for a short period...why try it at all?
Like i said before...i do legitimate work posting to this platform where for THE FIRST TIME in years i actually get paid for my work. And because my sacrifice has earned some backing from whales, it is considered unfair by abit to the point where he will FLAG my content? There is a reason why it is called flagging---it is meant to warn people that this person MAY be misusing the platform. Am i doing this? To those who know me...it should be insane to think this.
It is precisely these halfassed, partially-thought-through ideas that hurt this platform.
Just because abit can run a frigging witness and code doesnt mean he has the skightest clue about the psychology of incentivizing loyalty to the project.
Hint abit: if you want steem price to go back up...maybe you shouldnt have sold so much steem so early on when some of us were using what we were EARNING to try to continue improving the platform!
Abit will not stop my work. Ive done it for FREE for a long time before he could rape me in the ass here on steem...
I guess abit thinks i dont deserve what whales who upvote me want to give. Ill say this though...the last people you want to shit on are the ones who will do their work for free....because its THEY who will hold up the platform when terrible decisions like abits "test" have pushed away all the people who started actually gaining traction.
Is it obvious to anyone else that abit doesnt know what its like to have to rely on upvotes of people who deservedly trust him in order to get paid for his work? Must be nice sitti g in the ivory witness tower. He acts like hes givi g power back to the people??? I say he gives his steempower away then instead of trashing mine. I mean after all his job is largely automated while mine actually requires consistent work.
Fuzzy - I have respect for your opinion, but in this scenario I think you are overreacting a bit. This is not a permanent situation. The community of whales is merely running an experiment.
I agree 100% that the communication regarding this was handled poorly, and that you should not have found out the way you did.
I don't know how long the experiment is supposed to last, but seeing as it is not intended to be something permanent, I don't think the impact on you or anyone in the community is going to be that significant.
I think everyone that is involved wants to find a solution that is fair to both the original stakeholders (who earned the influence that they have, and deserve to keep it) and finds a way to address one of the bigger issues that is causing everyone's stake to go down in value.
I find myself on your side, downvoting is more than just taking rewards, it hurts feelings, and that can't be measured in usd.
It honestly is the only thing that makes sense. Im glad to hear you are thinking rationally. Maybe you should run for witness. I think its unfair witnesses are paid because they dont even post to blogs to earn their funds! (Joking...but u can see how quickly idiotic, unchecked reasoning gets out of hand).
Lol, I'm just trying to make waves so that maybe a whale will buy my silence,...
Downvoting is a necessary evil, I'm not sure that this is good way to use it, but I certainly support his activism.
I can't be a witness, I don't have the coding skillz.
Mine stopped advancing on the TI-99 4A when I left for the army.
Do you support my activism? I literally made a post about how i got Steemit coverage among thousands of people who are looking for censorship free alternatives to reddit and other platforms. It was the culmination of MONTHS of outreach and getting shot down by other players in the space...and i got on here to spend 6 hours detailing WHY STEEM is UNDERVALUED (censorship resistance) and then @abit downvotes it? Punishing me for getting upvotes from whales who actually appreciate me reaching out to these people...
Maybe i shouldnt reach out to people? That is my response. Maybe i shouldnt use my expertise and beyondbitcoin brand to help steem since i can get attacked like this? Maybe i should warn others as well?
This is the kind of response you get to half assed attempts to redistribute wealth. I have no incentive to use what i have earned to help steem if steem will shit on my amazingly taxing efforts....
Flagging IS a necessary evil...to be used ONLY in cases when someone has BLATANTLY misused the platform. Everyone who pays attention to my posts will realize i dont misuse the damn platform....and the whales who follow and support me do so because they have learned what kind of person i am AND KNOW MY WORK IS VALUABLE!
What this is...is an unnecessary evil. If you need more clues why...ask me if i plan to tell more people about steem as THE place to go when censored by other platforms. Instead...if this persists, i will just get a second job where abit cant demote me and my work. Sure its in his power, but he and all other whales should really consider if its good for steem. Hint: kilking the oaks that have weathered past storms is usually a BAD idea.
Flagging is used for blatant misuse (child porn and other extremely illegal/damaging behaviors).
THIS flagging war (errr...i mean "test") is blatant misuse of the platform.
As for the witness, dont thibk its above your capabilities as it definitely is not if you are willing to take 20 or 30 hours to realllly learn. You DONT need coding skills to be a witness. All you need is to set up the software and let it run on a protected system....(and have a backup in case something odd happens to force you to restart your witness).
Absolutely, @fuzzyvest, I support everybody's standing up to be counted.
It sounds like you have done a lot of things for the community.
Thank you!!
I don't agree that this test will achieve the goals desired, but I do like it when somebody gets his dander up and starts to push back, I'm insurrectionary.
I hope that you get out there and make some waves, too.
You definitely deserve some recognition for what you have done.
We, those outside the inner circles, need to know what you have contributed so that we may pay proper tribute to your achievements.
I don't like the downvoting, and I wonder why @a**hole can still be seen on the interface.
Perhaps comment downvotes should hit reputation, also?
Why have you stopped putting out original content?
I would assume that given the opportunity I will learn more of the coding, atm, my internet connection is intermittent and limited.
Well downvoting actually was taken away early on (which abit SHOULD know) for the reason that we are seeing now played out here.
If u go to look at the flagging feature, it soecifically even states it is to be used to combat misuse or abuse of the system.
Though i appreciate your understanding here, i promise you i wouldnt be even saying what ive done unless my hand was forced (i rarely give myself credit). The onky reason i do is because od hos absolutely ridiculous this is.
Replying here due to nesting.
My support really has nothing to do with witness votes. I have been discussing changes with many people in the community to look for ways to balance out the interests of the original stake-holders, with those of growing the platform to scale to billions of users. It is widely agreed to by most people in the community that the distribution of stake is one of the bigger issues holding the platform back from growth.
You can read some of my views on the subject here:
https://steemit.com/steem/@timcliff/whales-can-the-community-buy-out-a-portion-of-your-influence
Also, this is not just @abit's initiative. It was discussed among many of the whales, and there seems to be a majority consensus behind it.
The majority consensus to flag people with whale accounts who gain support of whales?
Ok so what happens when a bunch of "whales" just power down into 100 small dolphin accounts and start upvoting things? Where does this madness stop?
The problem with steem isnt the distribution at this early stage. Its that we have groups of whales who decide its a good idea to start MISUSING the flagging feature of steem!
This is ridiculous. The system at present is FINE. Steem has been ive for less than 1 year in Beta!
The way to fix steem is to actually change the N^2 aspect of rewards, not to flag peoples content! There is historically consensus on killing poor jews too...
Based on the fact that all of the whales were not contacted prior to the experiment, I agree that the execution was bad. There should have been better communication.
Dude...i literally just recruited someone who is promoting steem to people who have been censored on other platforms as well as to her 60,000+ followers.
I was planning on taking the funds from that post and giving them to her to incentivize her learning more about it. So I need to know: Do you think this is behavior whales should punish? Because very few others will actually take the time to even do such outreach and never give up until results are produced. And im sure minnows who havent done shit to prove themselves will complain about not getting paid fairly by whales. This doesnt make it right for them to wish me to lose support because I am willing to spend hours upon hours doing something they are not doing...
Ill tell u right now if they had informed me of this bullshit, id have just stopped trying to even get her. They DISSINCENTIVIZED me from doing what I DO BEST! Considering im one of the people who is credited with having an important role in steems creation + the FACT that i have not even asked for my own personal witness (like many posters here have done) should tell you I am not the kind of person you want to hurt...because givi g resources to me means giving resources to someone who GENUINELY has cared about this platforms best interests from day one. Last I checked it is people like me who build and give steroid injections to entire communities. These are the kind of people i WANT to reward! (Or at the VERY LEAST not punish!)
SO...what are the consequences of these whales actions? Did they REALLY help? Or are they shooting all of us in the faces?
If you have been involved for so long, why is it that you can oppose a very core idea of Steem, that every is free to use their votes as they wish, and that this freedom is essential to the health of the blockchain?