Are you experiencing lower pay on your posts? Is someone picking on you?
Now must be the time to PANIC!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAhHHH!!!!
Ok, now I got that out of my system.
Let's have a rational discussion about the matter.
I've heard complaints from some talented up and coming authors on steem that payout is lower, and why aren't thier posts doing as well. I also have noticed that my posts don't seem to grow in value as quickly as they did a short time ago.
We can easily see from @paulag's most recent post that activity is down on the site, overall. So, in case you were wondering if you made someone mad, or what about the conspiracy against minnows, you can let that stuff go.
"The number of votes for posts on the trending page ranges from only 7 to 844. This is considerably different to that of the August report where the highest vote count was 3678 and there were 4 authors that received well over 1k votes per post on the trending page." @paulag - The Data behind the Steemit Trending Page
So... What Gives?
Is it the season? Is it the instability of Steemit.com? Is it the feeling that we are 'home alone' and the developers are off in vacation land, which some people seem to have? Is it the bitcoin frenzy that's going on right now?
Probably a combination of those things. It's hard to know, because we are so new, that there are no easy patterns to point to. Only calculated guesses.
From my experience on steem for the past 4 months, I am realizing that steem is one of the more stable cryptocurrencies around! We have ups and downs, but have stayed close to the $1 value for 1 Steem for that whole time! That's incredible. While bitcoiners are riding the rollercoaster, we experience a relatively smooth ride. That's nice.
What do to besides panic?
Mindset
First of all comes the long term mindset which is very important here. Anyone who has been here more than a month must have the long term mindset. Otherwise who would stay for pennies, or less than pennies a day?
It's wonderful when we get a quick return on our efforts, but if this place has shown me anything, it's that diligence and longevity wins the day.
Keep working, work harder, smarter, or be more patient.
The devs are working on HF20 to include SMT functionality, as well as more sustainable account creation. This will come with some changes to the steemit front end. Probably big changes. If you see that the devs don't talk much, and they aren't as focused on small things about our current front end, consider that they might be working on the "Big Change," not trying to plug every hole in the current infrastructure.
Let's not become gripers and complain a bunch.
Let us accept what we cannot change, change what we cannot accept, and learn the difference.
Many of those big whales you see today, were using steemit consistently when there was no value to the posts and the price of steem was down to pennies. So if you get too sad, try to remember how good we have it today.
Use our resources!!!!!
Off Site Editors
If you are having trouble with steemit eating your posts, use one these off site editors. I'm not sure why anyone would want to create a post in the steemit editor, so clunky. Here are some editors I've found useful in my time here.
- hackmd.io - Realtime collaborative markdown editor
- Saves text as you work.
- Allows multiple people to easily edit a document at the same time.
- MarkdownPad -Editor for windows
- Haroopad - My favorite editor for linux, but also available for Mac, and Windows.
All of these editors offer a side-by-side view of your post showing you the preview while you write it, as well as support for multiple coding languages! However, make sure to double check in preview how your post looks before you hit send. Each editor works slightly differently in the way it represents markdown\html
Other front ends for the Steem Blockchain
Many people do not understand, that while steemit can be malfunctioning, the steem blockchian is specifically designed to be safe against attack, computer glitches, or localized power failures.
These options will keep you Steeming, even when Steemit.com isn't working too well.
Don't Panic
Help New Users.
Finally, let me remind us all how much it takes to get started here. If you find a new user who seems to be lost, please help them learn some things!! This is the future, and it's in our hands... we must help the newbs find their way.
Since there is lower account creation, and retention rate has always been a problem, whatever we can do to help new users ensures the future of this platform.
I created this simple guide to help new users get started. Feel free to share it with others, and\or recreate it for your own blog.
REMEMBER!!!!!
If your posts are valuable, and worth more than you get paid, then they shall provide value for years to come.
Every post, I write so that it can continue to provide value, regardless of pay. This is an important part of the mindset which will help you to succeed in the long run.
+1 for Home Alone. Still an awesome Christmas movie. Holds up. One tier under "A Christmas Story".
love home alone
Under-rated super-classic.
First of all - great post @inquiringtimes! I have a few comments / thoughts...
The reward fund of STEEM should be fairly constant, so if there are fewer votes then that would mean that each vote would be worth MORE than it would be if there are more votes overall in the system.
Since that doesn't seem to be the case then maybe there are the same amount or even more votes being cast overall but they are being spread out among lots more posts. If that's the case then that's probably a good thing since it will help spread out the value more evenly, but it will make it harder than it was to grow a following and grow your rewards (which again I think is fine - easy money never lasts!)
The other problem of new users getting discouraged because they don't get much traction as quickly as they expect is really just an issue of unrealistic expectations. I see a few such replies in the comments on this post.
Sure if you got in super early this was possible, and the people who got in early and built big followings can post pretty much whatever they want and get a nice reward for it. Even though it's getting harder I think it's still REALLY easy to make money here as compared to anywhere else I know of.
Just need realistic expectations and you can't get discouraged by people who joined early and built a big following or have a ton of SP.
Thank You!!
Yes. All great thoughts. I appreciate your clarification! Votes being spread out amongst more users is definitely an upside I didn't consider, and a lower price in steem can definitely affect the percieved value.
Meanwhile, I'll keep finding creative new ways to get the type of traction I'm looking for, while aiming to create content "for the ages".
The number of active users may not be growing as fast as it used to, but it probably is still growing faster than the reward pool. Also, we're back near $1 Steem now versus to spike to $1.6x right after the SMT announcement.
Meh, I am in this for the long haul. What we are experiencing now is no more than a little bump in the road.
I'm right there with ya, buddy!
I wonder if new people are coming on board at the same rate they were a couple months ago. If there are less, could be because of that and many have stopped posting.
I say this because it looks like I have 1500 followers, but nearly half of them haven't been active in a month or more. The number of inactive followers has been growing.
This could explain the drop in vote quantity.
You provide good tips for the meanwhile. People who stick recognize this is a journey not a destination.
What is your prediction for the future of Steemit.com?
Can't say I could really make a prediction, but like most anything else there will be ups and downs. The price of steem doesn't appear to fluctuate like other coin, I'd guess that to be a good thing.
That's a good point.
No complaining here even though a recipe post I just did which took 4 hours only made me .04 cents :( I am having a blast so be it :) Thank you for this post, reminds me to keep marching forward!!! Love you Friend!! SUNSHINE247
keep on shining :)
Thank you Friend .. I appreciate this very much .. Life is GREAT and so are you!!! SUNSHINE247
Hi @inquiringtimes! @tattoodjay is sending you 0.1 SBD tip and @tipU upvote
:)
@tipU - send tips by writing tip! in the comment, get share of the profit :)TIP TIP TIP TIP TIP!!!!!!! Thanks for roaming Steem and tipping where deserved Friend!!! SUNSHINE247
People get too concerned with the monetary aspect of steemit. If I only get one penny on my last post, it's more than I would have gotten for posting on any other social media platform. And to me that's awesome! If you're here for the community and platform, then you have nothing to worry about :)
Maybe a SMT can be created to give credit to all those quality posts lost in the feed. To give them a payout long after the 7 days window. Like a tip.
I'm on steemit for the long haul and realise you get out what you put in. And I am willing to wait out the doldrums.
Holy shit THIS. I feel naive at times because I still don't fully understand a lot of things on Steemit, but you gave me a key visual that helps me better understand how Steemit is. I've also read that when Steemit first started, users posted in good faith with no payouts AT ALL for a month or so coming in.
We do in many ways have it easier as well. The stable price of Steem (and SBD) is a good indicator that Steemit isn't just going to disappear and fall away, if anything we should stick it out just as much as the platform does.
The slow down can be a good thing, a post may stick out, and it also leaves plenty of room for us to plan out our articles and how we want to go as well. No doubt that big things are coming.
The writers are meant to grow (in number and in ability) with Steemit together.
Real talk,, smile