RE: HF22: Could Be Worse. Could Be a Cat Picture.
Hey! I almost downvoted your post for your sarcastic remark about cat pictures. :-D
I agree with you. Some people just indiscriminately downvote anything that has bid-bots or vote selling regardless of what the content is. I don't agree with those people. I think if you make good content and you promote it within reason, that isn't really a problem.
I do, however, agree with the downvoting of promoted garbage posts that are made just for the purpose of milking the reward pool. Some posts are just a blurry picture with a word salad underneath and they get bid-botted to ridiculous prices. A blurry picture and a word salad aren't worth $75.00.
The problem with bid-bots and vote selling is that it doesn't discriminate between quality content and garbage. You pay, they upvote you. That's probably the main reason why so many people detest bid-bots and vote selling.
It's better to join curation groups. That way, you still get the upvotes, it doesn't cost you as much, and the votes are vetted by people that actually look at your posts and see the quality and effort put into it.
Thank you. I agree with just about everything you wrote. Rewards HAVE TO BE in line with the value of the post for the Steem as a whole, and some, if not many, DVs are entirely justified.
However, I don't see much difference (technically) between automated curation trails and the vote markets I use (Smartmarket and Minnowbooster). Somebody suggests a post, a bunch of people blindly follow/vote, rewards and curation are paid. The markets also have whitelists/blacklists. Not everybody sells their vote for everything.
On the other side, I have seen enough trail-curated content I thought was overvalued but who am I to tell people what to reward? So I simply move on. Again, we're in agreement regarding blatant abuse, but the aforementioned wasn't that.
I'm not a curator and not much of a social animal, so groups wouldn't be for me. I much rather spend my time producing videos instead of discussing who to upvote next and beg for it to be me next time around. I prefer to pay and call the shots myself. My blog is proof that I'm doing so responsibly.
I have real costs for every video (mostly travel) and I'm paying for high quality video hosting out of pocket. (As a matter of principle my videos are Steem-exclusive, i. e. not on YouTube.) I also like to think that my time (filming and editing 50+ hrs a pop) is worth a little something.
Most importantly, I don't object to a considered and measured downvote if someone really doesn't believe in the value of my work - IF THEY VOTE WITH THEIR OWN MONEY like it used to be.
Virtue signalling with the new FREE downvotes is the pitts, though! And to elevate this fascist sh.t to a desirable system policy irks me to no end. Some of the new downvote sherriffs' votes I myself bought only a few weeks ago!!!
And just for the record: I like cat pictures, cats, dogs, and all animals for that matter. Do I get a cookie now?
I’m well aware of the work that goes into a video. I used to do sound for film and TV.
I’m just wondering if the kinds of rewards you can get on Steem are really worth all that effort and investment of your time and resources.
No, strictly speaking the rewards are way too meager in terms of a business, and they will never amount to all that much unless the Steem value goes apeshit again :-)
BUT: I'm not doing it for the money, especially not the $5 - $10 net ROI I have here currently. It's a hobby and I'm an amateur, albeit with some ambition. I'm not expecting more than a little gas money at best.
This may sound strange after all the griping, but it's the principle of it. I'm trying to create something positive here and don't need any self-righteous do-gooders to interfere with the way I drive eyeballs to my screen.
Does that make sense?
It would be nice if I could make enough to subscribe to a service like Artlist in the near future to kick up the level of professionalism another notch.