Meandering Musing: Steemit Reckoning

So… I’ve been thinking on writing this blog for awhile. I eventually decided around the end of my now concluded Metastasis would be an appropriate time. However, the list of things I wanted to write about did not include what I stumbled upon somewhat recently.

Now, I initially tried to get into Discord and network in the community. I still try to do that, to an extent. But for a variety of reasons, I’m just never on Discord, especially not during the Ramble due to my work schedule. I try to respond to all comments left on my posts, but I spend very little time and energy commenting on other people’s posts. This was never really an accident, as I didn’t come to social media with the intention of consuming, but rather to create and share. Ah, but I’m starting to ramble myself. Let me cut right to the chase.

https://steempeak.com/community/@dreemsteem/see-ya-later-alligator

I think this post actually happened while I was traveling, but to be honest, I don’t look through my feed as regularly as I probably should. I just haven’t gotten into the habit, instead mostly logging in to post content, check my replies, and then get to work on other things. I saw this post at least two weeks after it was actually posted, and I was rather surprised. It led me to this post.

https://steempeak.com/community/@shadowspub/attitudes-have-consequences

So, though I feel I’m missing quite a bit of context that I would invite other people to fill in if they wish, the general consensus seems clear. Creators are feeling disrespected, and some have jumped ship. This is something I’ve seen on other platforms too, and people on other platforms have openly told me that Steemit had some deeply rooted issues, but I never expected DreemSteem to abandon ship like this. She was the one who got me even remotely situated in the Steemit community, and I have no doubt that my content would have never gained even a tenth of its viewership if she hadn’t given me some pointers.

This leaves me with a very serious question. Should I continue posting my own content on Steemit if there is this general antagonism towards creators? Even with the much better reception to Metastasis than I originally expected, it is still at the level where I could walk away without feeling a substantial loss. I’m more interested in long term viability, and that is severely limited if content creators are being taken for granted. A platform cannot survive without the content, so if rewards are volatile and sparse at best for creators, the platform will always be on thin ice, even if it seems to be chugging along in the meantime.

But my problem is not just the dislike for creators. My original intent with this article was an open letter about some weird activity.

I don’t give out a lot of upvotes. In fact, I give out almost no upvotes, because I can never make time to look through my feed. And yet, my activity feed shows me giving out upvotes to people. Granted, they are small percentages, and I don’t have a problem with the upvotes going out to those people. Someone might as well reap the benefit, after all. The issue is that this system is opaque, and I don’t have a clear reason for why this happens. Is it because I’m following them? If that is the case, why am I also getting random upvotes the moment my content is published? Again… automation isn’t always a negative thing, but it raises a serious question.

If things are all moving towards automation and implicit rewards, then that makes upvotes mean less. I got a lot of upvotes on some of my content, but very few comments. I find that to be a problem, as it makes me wonder exactly how much upvotes actually show support for my content, or if it is instead just the system trying to gauge what it thinks my content is worth, independent of actual human interest.

Meanwhile, we have this, which I realize could very well be the cause of the creator-curator rift I have thus far been almost entirely unaware of:

https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitblog/hf21-sps-and-eip-explained

I won’t bother posting the graphics, simply because it is unnecessary. Basically, 10% of the total rewards pool, which I think shakes out to about 13% of the old content creator’s percentage, has been directed to another program. The fact that nothing was taken from the other wedges shows a rather clear disregard for content creators. The comments seem to support this opinion.

I’ve written a lot about this. I’ve talked a lot about this. When you start taxing the backbone of an economic system, even a purely digital one, you create a chilling effect. If there is less incentive to create, then less people create. If there is even the appearance of anti-creator policies being implemented going forward, creators will try to preempt the penalties and decide where they can move their content to get the best returns for their effort. It goes without saying that, if Steemit loses all or most of its creators, it won’t last. It doesn’t matter how many new features you add if the core rewards system is inherently broken, and only getting worse.

After this post, I’m considering taking a week long hiatus from Steemit. I’ll still be active on Minds, at least until I’m away on travel. All of these various issues are quite troubling, and I may need to rethink if Steemit warrants the amount of energy I’ve spent on consistently producing content for it. It is far from the only platform I can use.