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RE: Everything is Becoming Buzzfeed
I have the same frustrations and fears. To be honest, when I'm feeling particularly cynical, I feel like Steemit could fall into that same category, because everything is produced and valued solely from/for the upvote. Since you have a better understanding of the blockchain and the Steemit environment than I do, I'm curious how you think crypto could pull us out of this slippery slope instead of push us further into it?
At least with Steemit, it requires more then clicking through and viewing the article. You (or a bot) has to actually vote for the content.
But I do worry that bots voting on content is undermining the quality.
Yeah the bots are really where my cynicism comes from, because it makes it very clear that people aren't actually absorbing the content, they're just voting for their own benefit. Even curation trails make me feel a little weird sometimes - while I'm glad good work is getting more support through them, it's sad that 99% of the upvotes that come from curation trails are from people who have never even opened the article. But anyway, I do think there's a lot of potential in Steemit.
It'll definitely take a while before the mass of Steemians turn their heads away from the payouts, especially since the $$$ and voting power is so explicitly stated in this interface... I do feel so refreshed when my articles are challenged and my opinions confronted. It reminds me of the days I was a part of debate club in high school and people weren't afraid to voice potentially unpopular opinions or hurt a few feelings for the sake of learning.
Yeah I think there will always be the people who use the platform just for the monetary gains, but this post is a perfect example of how it only really takes a few active readers to get the discussion going, which is enough to keep me coming back to Steemit and posting more and more.