RE: STEEM's Biggest Villian
I don't think that would much affect Steem price for long. Extant whales would get fiat for their Steem, which they would not reinvest in Steem, but spend on hookers and blow (at least that's my assumption based on my knowledge of extant whales), while the SP of the new whales would not encourage anyone and would have a negative impact on user retention as normies fumed at the shitposts making $200 on trending while they got nothing.
The White Paper assumed that 30% of rewards would inure to those normies, who are presently only getting around 1% of them. Casinos don't long survive and profit if they don't parade some winners from time to time, and 1% is woefully inadequate to lure in gamblers.
I don't think 30% is a joke really. It's far more than most folks get IRL, compared to banksters.
Distributing Steem to ordinary folks and great authors would encourage them to post, comment, and interact, and ordinary folks are innately social - they want to benefit others. It's why upvotes on Fakebook and Reddit exist. Handing out 30% of Steem as rewards to those folks would distribute Steem more widely, and they would gladly upvote their friends and good authors more if they could. They're not spending it on hookers and blow, like whales. Those that do never become of greater import to the Steem society. Some folks need potatoes more than they need bigger upvotes to hand out. I am glad if I can help them with my upvotes, because I want them to have potatoes a lot in that case.
Potato buyers would not have ire at Steem as a result, and would be likely to invest in Steem if they become sufficiently potatoed, and also to recommend it to their friends, putting upwards pressure on the price.
Angry folks that see the $200 shitposts on trending while they are reduced to eating recycled food will never invest in Steem, and never recommend it to their friends, and they will leave, putting downwards pressure on the price.
User retention rates indicate the latter is happening a lot more than the former. That's bad business.
I've concluded that we need to admit to ourselves that the whitepaper got it wrong. We can't get any good measure of a post's value based on the weight applied to a post or the number of votes. This, because the stake-weighting is real, and so are the bot armies and vote trails. That said, first thing needs fixing is the trending page to hide problems like $200 shit posts. Algorithms will do it better than the community can. It's not optimal, but it's the truth. I'm just talking about the way things are presented on trending. The page should show multiple popular tags which include the best of the newest articles in each.
I reckon the White Paper got some stuff wrong, too.
Whose gonna choose the 'best'? I reckon trending will work just fine if we eliminate profiteering, which isn't that hard to do. The Huey Long algorithm will fix it quick. Prolly plenty of other ways to do so too, and if better minds than mine set about figuring them, better proposals than mine will come up.
You know what, after reading the whitepaper; I’m no longer opposed to Marky’s actions. I want him and his downvote posse to get the lid on this bucket of crabs and jam it on tight. This is because Steem is a trap and we’re all doomed. If he can win big enough at flagging, it will prevent new stakeholders from falling for Steem’s machinations. I find the crabs in a bucket mentality disgusting and systems designed to get people to operate in such a manner is a trap. The fewer people who fall for it, the better off they’ll be in the long run.
The communal downvote mentality is a communist training program. Set these folks loose in the real world and they’ll eat each other alive. Steem got some things right in the realm of gamifying content creation, but the whitepaper is using all the wrong analogies. It’s clear to me the authors of the whitepaper are the real profiteers, and everyone else pushing the dials and turning the gears are fodder for their end game. Guess what’s for dinner, we are. It is heartening that other systems are taking this open-source model and running it in a better way regarding distribution, and also by not encouraging a culture of rampant flagging.
Going forward, I will stop orbiting Steem in favor of WeKu. I’ll still syndicate to Steem, but they’re only worthy of my sloppy seconds at this point. Perhaps I'll make occasional exceptions for contests. One need only need look as far as the WeKu whitepaper to realize that they’ve done a complete overhaul of the Steem model. I think they’re pulling it off, and when BTC rises, the smarter money will settle with the sounder whitepaper. Whereas, the intention behind Steem comes off like a scammy, cruel, joke. Next time I’ve got to approach the unknown with a bit more skepticism.
As far as your observation on who will choose the best, it doesn’t matter, and this is because the system never worked. I’m not saying an algorithm will fix the problem in its entirety, but it can make it less imperfect by judging content (not based on stake but) based on quality, syntax, grammar, spelling, and the length of an article. The video content would be more tricky. There would have to be different algorithms to satisfy the order in which videos get listed.
You’ll never eliminate profiteering. The ninja miners have that secured from the start. While you add content for peanuts, your adding value to a platform that the profiteers have already owned, increasing the value of the shares which belong to them. The best way you can stop profiteers from profiting is to stop giving the platform content. If that were my intention, I wouldn't publish on Steem at all.
All of your points are well taken. I am aggrieved to think I may have imparted my cynicism to you in our conversation. That's why I don't talk religion LOL.
I haven't been to Weku in a long time. My first visit there did not inspire me, but I do hope they're improved.
The only profiteering I have considered on Steem is regarding rewards, and that's not that hard to make uninteresting to stake weighting manipulation by simply reducing post and comment rewards below a cost effective level.
I also feel that the ninjamine deeply devalues not only the token, but the platform and community. Maybe I should have another look at Weku now, and see if that community has grown where Steem has instead shrunk.