People sometimes forget the 'social' part of social media.
I've been watching the heated debates from the sidelines concerning bots on Steemit. Those for and against them all have strong opinions in favor or against using them and I suppose there's some truth in some of those views.
There is another way to use this platform though that can add value to the community without having to resort to buying upvotes and that is to be social. It is, after all, a social media platform, something I think people seem to forget. Their focus is so riveted on earning a reward that the idea of plugging into a community of people with common interests alludes them.
When I first started using this platform almost 2-years ago I was intrigued by the possibility of being rewarded for posting just like everyone else I suppose, but I could see early on that building a community of people with a common interest, something we are already doing on platforms that don't rewards us at all, was a way to benefit ever-growing numbers of people as they join those communities.
Sure, a new user could pay for a service that gets them upvotes right out of the gate when they first join, but how personal is that? Do the people upvoting them really care about what they are posting about and does the poster really care?
Communities centered around common interests seems more genuine, more interesting, and bolsters user retention. We like hanging out with and interacting with people who share the same interests as we do.
It does take longer for someone, anyone, to start these communities, but in the long run I believe it's better for the platform. For starters, people engage differently in a community of their peers. The discussions are centered around the topics they share, not around the pros and cons of using bots.
I don't feel any animosity towards bot use, per se, but it does bother me to see so many heated discussions around it for the simple reason that it makes the platform look bad.
Every time people argue about bot use, whether you should or shouldn't use them, throwing acidic arguments at each other to defend their positions, or worse, attack each other for their opposing views, it is indelibly written on the walls of Google's search engines forever.
Every new person researching Steemit and considering if they are going to join the platform or not will now see these damning debates and it could turn them off from joining altogether. Or they may start to believe that the only way to get rewarded is to buy bot voting power. Either way, we lose a potential new user.
This arguing in permanent ink does no one any good in the long run. I know the platform is young and youngsters go through growing pains, but try to remember, in the heat of your moment, that this is a social media platform and you are writing in permanent ink.
If you Google Steemit right you'll find a platform that seems to talk about itself a lot.
I understand a new platform like ours needs to work things out as it grows, but we can't just keep talking about ourselves and expect the platform to attract mainstream users. We need to start talking about other topics that have a wide interest to a lot of different types of people.
In closing, I just want to remind everyone that being social on a social media platform and building and joining communities around topics that interest you will have the same longterm effect as buying votes without the cost or the damaging debate surrounding it.
I bot a lot, and I support an initiative that rewards users who don't bot. When they asked me why, this is what I told them: a system with a single path to success is a system with a single point of failure.
There isn't a true dichotomy between botting and starting/working with communities, unless the communities make it so by driving out people for botting. It's entirely possible to do both.
Immensely guilty lately. At least I'm spending as much of my time writing curation posts as complaining posts. But I'm way over my self-imposed goal for how many Steemit-related posts I make. At least there's new Steven Universe all week this week, so I won't be lacking in other subjects.
Exactly my point. Google wouldn't be where it is now, for example, if all people posted about was Google.
The wider the range of topics we post about and the more groups and communities that start to form around those topics the better we will do and the more interesting it will be for people who find us.
We need to move on and stop obsessing over Steemit. There are so many more thing we could center our conversations around that will help us attract more users who will want to stay here once they find a community that interests them here.
The social part is a priority for me. I'd rather have good comments than lots of minnow votes. Of course the money is nice, but it doesn't pay for the time I spend here. People should make steemit fun so they want to come on every day
Count me in on the fun part. Call me old school, but I like interacting with a real human myself.
I've built my followers the hard way, by talking to others. It gets me good results and very little of the spam I don't have time for
Interesting analysis @luzcypher, thanks for sharing :)
Bot offers service people paying
The new ones here can not use the bot
Yes, I get it.
I'm just reminding people that to reach a wider audience in the world we need to start blogging about things that interest those people.
Like a good recipe to cook for dinner tonight, or a great movie review, or a wonderful place to visit in the world. Talking about bots all the time and fighting about it is not how we are going to attract new users to the platform. Let's get back to being a social media site.
Communities are more important than bots. It's why people join social media sites and stay on them. Let's keep focusing on building and joining communities. Humans can push an upvote button too, not just bots. A community of like-minded people is what we should be plugging into, that's where the lasting value is and having a real group of people on the other end of that upvote is a hell of a lot more fun.
And while you can pay for a service that pushes that upvote button for you that's not really doing anything for the community. Good content that a real community can value is worth a lot more to this platform and holds more interest for the average user. That's why we join social media sites, to begin with.
I never buy the idea of bot. I joined steemit because my mentor told me i will be rewarded for quality content. Yet even when you post article that took you time and energy to creat, you find the results annoying because nobody rewarded you for that. Just like you said, it is a social network and as such should be treated like that. I havent posted for awhile because it seems like my post doesnt count or add value to the platform. In my own opinion, BOT should be abolished. The whales out there should know that they cant do without small fish like us. They should stop being self centered and me-first attitude.
Create a legacy you will be remembered for even after you might have left the world. Thanks @luzcypher for bringing this up
It takes time to grow an account by just posting quality content. That's why building communities around various topics is so important. It allows you to leverage the power of the community around that topic.
Here's a post that may help you understand the time commitment involved.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@luzcypher/growing-your-steemit-blog-to-create-long-term-results
Thanks alot for the encouraging post. Gracias... I love the illustration you used there.
you want guarantee success in social platform. you want guarantee success. tell me who shall guarante you?
Guarantees? Who said anything about guarantees? I don't know what your comment is responding to.
Sorry! Must have replied to the wrong comment
I've personally been on both sides of this issue and agree... let's move the fuck on!
YES!!!
I think people should take care when they post their tags. Sometimes that's a challenge. I agree with you though, posting about things a general audience is interested in is good for Steemit and bringing in new folks. The ultimate challenge is for Steemit posts to make it to the top tier of google searches (and not just goog but others like 'Ask.'
Tags are very important on Steemit and often misunderstood. It's one of the best ways to get posts seen by people with similar interests. Finding communities to plug into is something that needs to be easier for new people to find. Once they do find their "family" here things get a bit easier.
I did it the hard way and created a community, starting my own tag openmic, but the rewards are steady now because people support it.
Your article is very good and not is there where need it. I do not use bots, and also I not in the top even though my articles are exceptional.
What are your posts about?
You need to find others with the same interests and create a community around those topics. If you do that consistently, you'll find the support you need to get rewarded. It takes time but creates a real, lasting value.
You're very right. Since this is a social media platform where people are supposed to interact with one another, bots are kind of preventing such interaction from happening. If i can use bots to always boost my post payouts, why should i bother interacting with anyone? Though the bots are helping some people but if we look at it closely, they are not helping the platform
Excellent post @luzcypher - building a community is very rewarding but also time consuming - but worth it in the end
That's what social media sites are all about. Just reminding people.
I tried bots and found them wanting. While I was using them, I kept having this nagging sense that my attention needed to be directed elsewhere. I knew that as long as I used bots, I was not paying attention to my audience.
So I avoid using bots to direct my attention to the readers, and to find the community within Steemit that I want to be a part of. Some weeks ago, you left a link in reply to me and reading your article completely changed my perspective. That was something I needed to gather the determination to just keep going on Steemit. Thanks for helping me to turn myself around.
I'm glad I could help and agree that engaging with real humans is where the true value is in social media.
I'm not so sure this is actually an issue. It's well understood that Steem(it) is in the crypto-sphere and heated debates on what is essentially governance and culture is to be expected, or even encouraged. When things get nasty it's not nice obviously, but there are plenty here on most topics (definitely not all) with moderate voices such as yours, calling for sense at the end of the day.
To be honest the spirit of lively debate and industriousness of people here has been the thing that has kept me coming back. It was by getting involved in these discussions that I got anywhere on this platform at all, and probably some contributions and timing.
What I think actually looks bad is obviously low quality posts getting super high rewards. This is doubled edged. The average person sees that "deserving" posts are undervalued and it's all about the in group, which they have no access to, so why bother posting. The scammers see this and thing, wow, if only I can figure out how to push up any garbage I can get some of that coin.
All in all, I always back calling for civility. But the free dynamism here cannot be tamed! What I would propose on top of this is inviting people into the conversations, if they want to. I also predict that if the platform really matures these more or less technical and cultural issues will take up less and less bandwidth as people really settle into "doing". That all depends on how things shake out, especially to do with hard forks and big money coming in or going out.
Also the irony is not lost on me of arguing about an argument for less arguing 😂
That's a good point that I'm in agreement with. Guess I'm just ready for that day now. From day 1 of joining I've been "doing" more than debating and it's the main reason, I've been on the sidelines of these debates. I'm just too busy building and engaging in communities that have interests other than talking about Steemit all the time. As interesting as the platform is, I think it appeals to people who are already on it, not the people we one day hope to reach and invite to join us.
Hahahaha! It's not lost on me either. It is the first time I've said anything about the issue and I guess I am just ready to move on and talk about other things. People have been getting pretty mean to each other while defending their positions and I feel it reflects poorly on the platform as a whole.
One of the things I like about Steemit is people are generally nicer to each other here than on other platforms. It's a bit more like how people really interact in the real world. But seeing people lose their civility over certain discussions saddens me. Enough is enough. Like you said, we should get on with the business of "doing".
Agreed, but always tempered by the need for at least some to discuss the platform problems of the day. I do like it better when things "just work" but on a big (hopefully soon to be massive) ecosystem like Steem nothing works for everyone all the time, and that will always spur debate.
As they say, Steem on!
Yes. So much this. It's okay to talk about the pros and cons of different approaches, and point out things that need fixing, but focusing on having fun, making friends, and contributing interesting, authentic, unique content to the platform is the way to go, in my view.
Totally agree with your points and exactly the way it should be however its not. We hit over a million user how many are active? how many are bots? there are not a lot of people that interact on this platform, peoples first reason for joining is the money aspect else you would be on a more mainstream platform. Hypothetical question if steemit stopped paying people to use the platform how many people would carry on? You may be optimistic and think ab fair few I would be shocked if 10% carried on. Your point about posting more diverse topics I a good one other than "how to make money on steemit" and all the other steemit related articles
It is a well-known rule in internet culture that 90% of the culture are consumers and, at best, only 10% actually create content. I haven't checked the stats for Steemit lately but that's what it has always been since I started and has been even before Steemit existed and I don't see that changing anytime soon. That's why content creators like movie studios, broadcasting networks, internet providers, and publishing companies make the big bucks and the rest of the population pays to consume it.
that's a good fact. I wonder if there is a way of checking how many accounts are actually active and how many are bots would be an interesting fact
There are people posting about that but I can't remember who. It's hard to keep up with all the stat posts. But since the start, it's been about 10% of the people who sign up stay active. Pretty much the same as most sites, especially sites that require you to put some effort into creating content. Video sites have the highest retention rates.
Thanks, I appreciate that. I don't even upvote myself anymore.