Is Steemit a Scam?

in #steem6 years ago (edited)

In the last few weeks, I have taken to posting almost all my content on Twitter. I don't have many followers as I simply haven't used my over TEN year old account until recently.


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Facebook, forget it? I get a resounding silence when I link something on there to my 200+ ‘friends' The Facebook lot just want to read one-liners, not some 700-word ‘thing' that I have written about music, or meeting smackheads in an old mill.

So let me refer you back to the click-bait title, Yes it's a scam that's why I have almost 30,000 STEEM invested, of course, it's a scam, go to Google and type in ‘Steemit Scam'. Actually, don't, I'll save you the time.


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Many of the results are from 2016, yes THREE years ago when STEEM was first unleashed to planet earth. Considering it's 2019 and STEEM has not folded I think we can disregard those.

One is from our own @heymattsokol (Matt Sokol) who has recently returned to the platform after trying some other avenues. It was his concerns over bid-bots that caused him to leave and I’m right with him there.


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I have a lot of respect for Matt, he gave me motivation when I was about to quit almost a year ago, and now he’s back Steemit is a better place.

One says it's 'flawed', I agree it is, but so are most things in life.

I would say this one is really the only true blast on Steemit (below). The person attained a reputation of (41) and got kicked off YouTube. (41) is a very low reputation and considering his #introducemyself post got $17, that would have pumped his reputation decently.


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Jonathan Roseland claims he has worked his ass off, well maybe he has on other platforms but it’s quite easy to attain a (50) reputation without too much effort on Steemit. His 'ass' was worked off somewhere else I'm thinking.

He calls Steemit ‘a classic pyramid scheme’. I have to disagree there. I have over 750 followers and if it’s a pyramid I should be taking a cut of their rewards, right?

Wrong, I don’t because it is NOT a pyramid scheme. There are no referral incentives that I’m aware of.

I started this post as both something to read for the Twitter crowd and also for prospective scammers who might come looking for a get rich quick scheme.


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You won't get Rich Quick using the STEEM blockchain.

If you are interested in joining Steemit then get that out of your head. 'Jonathan Roseland' is correct in this sense. Maybe he thought it was the land of milk and honey; well it’s not.


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Don’t look at Trending

It’s false, fake and those rewards you see have been paid for by the author. I took the time to look at the top FIVE trending posts. ALL of them have paid votes. They may 'earn' $300, but they had to spend $300 to gain it.


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Trending is full of content of varying quality and most of it has been upvoted by bots, which is a form of advertising. If you join Steemit, I would advise you to shy away from any form of 'paid votes'.


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'I can earn more at McDonald's than posting my masterpiece on Steemit'

This is very true. If you enjoy burgers, flipping meat and splashes of fat on your t-shirt then you should go apply. They lead us to believe the prospects are fantastic looking at some of the signs in the outlets promoting staff recruitment.

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It’s not all about the money; it’s about the engagement, the community and the satisfaction of creating. If you want an outlet for your creativity and want to gain some crypto then this is the place for you.


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'I don’t care about ‘satisfaction’ I just want money and loads of it.'

Then Google ‘get rich quick’, and take your chances as you in the wrong place, There's no such scheme in existence and I won't con you telling you it's on the STEEM blockchain.


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Those videos look great don't they? Off you go!


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It costs me real money to gain a STEEM account, everything else is free, why should I pay?

Not strictly true, if you are willing to wait then apply via www.steemit.com. Accounts take a few weeks to create if you want a free one. If you don’t want to wait then they a cost around $2.50 from @steem.ninja, for an instant one with a 15SP delegation thrown in.

Yes, this is a referral scheme, but nothing related to how the STEEM ecosystems works. I can also create FREE accounts instantly, drop me a message and I will create one for you. You can find me on Twitter using the handle @BrynRogers.


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Delegation, Voting Power, STEEM Dollars, STEEM Power, Witnesses, this is too complicated for me.

Yes, it's complicated to start with and there's a learning curve. It was hard you learned to walk and drive too. Life is about learning. Nothing comes easy and is handed on a plate.


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But... I have never written before in my life.

Neither had I when I joined a year ago. It's refreshing, invigorating and creative, try it. If you get some rewards (you will), it will feel so much better. I don't claim to be a great writer, and you wont be judged on your quality.


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Can I get by without buying any STEEM?

Yes, but your progress will be much slower. If you are a decent writer, don’t put out your masterpieces right away as you will not have an audience.

These take time to build. It’s the long game, not the short one. Remember that and you will do well.


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What if I buy some STEEM and power it up?

You will gain more influence and have a bigger vote if you do this. Explaining voting power is beyond the scope of this article but it’s essentially stake based. The more you have the greater voting power you yield.


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How much will you get for writing this?

Probably around $5-$6. ‘Is that it’, I can hear you say. Yes, that’s it, but you have to remember STEEM is trading at around 50c now.

When I started it was around $2. I earn STEEM, not US dollars. If it was $2 then it would be $20-$24 dollars. Does that sound more palatable?


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You might be earning $5-$6 but I won’t

Of course not, you have no audience, Do you expect them to flock to your blog and vote you because you have now arrived. There wont be any red carpet, but there are many incentives that new Steemians can use. As I said before, ‘The Long Game’. Persevere; keep going and the followers and money will come.


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I hear about bullying and people being kicked off Steemit.

You can’t be kicked off. There is no ONE supreme authority. It’s all community driven. Rewards are not paid until 7 days after you gain them. During this time they can be removed by others if they disagree with them.

If you are here to write content and not abuse or game the system, nobody will remove your rewards. We all want STEEM to succeed.

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I’m not going to say Steemit is the answer to your financial troubles or to make a quick buck. If you are interested for this reason, then turn around.

What you will find is friends, a vibrant community full of enthusiastic people, and a solid crypto-currency that is not a shitcoin.


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If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, resteem, engage me or all of these things.

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Yeah man, good thoughts all around.

My thinking hasn't changed too much from when I wrote the article about leaving Steem. After a 6 month break, I do still see a lot of the same problems - bid bots, weird lack of communication from Steemit Inc - BUT, idk, the community is really resilient and strong. For all its flaws, Steem is still a unique and powerful ecosystem. I don't know if I believe it will reach its full potential, but for now, I'm glad to participate.

Side note - that "Why I Left Steem" article I wrote on Medium has received about 4,000 views now, mostly from Google searches. One of my most popular pieces of content ever, kind of crazy!

Well its good to see you back. Many look at negative articles before positive ones.. look at the title of this one.. I'm still responding to comments days later.!

I agree, this was a useful post for newcomers. Matt also played a role in my decision to remain on the platform back in 2017, so I was especially sadden to see him leave -- and very happy to see him return.

I've tried all kinds of approaches on the platform. I eschewed upvote services for an extended time. During that time I was simply converting rewards into Steem Power. I recognize the danger and damage upvoting services represent. It wouldn't bother me if they disappeared, but as long as they are here, it is also possible to use them in moderation as a gradual method of transforming rewards into Steem Power.

Standing bloody ovation!

Thanks @adetorrent, it just comes out when I start.. like a river. I put it on Twitter.. maybe some will see it and come and see what the crack is!

Wow - 110 comments! I'll understand if this one gets overlooked... but actually if you Google "[almost anything] is a scam" you'll get at least a few results. I think it's called reverse marketing.

There is a nicely written post, my friend. Very well done indeed.

I really don't have much to add, you've covered it well. Like you I am not here for the riches, but for the engagement. I like hamburgers well enough but am pretty sure I couldn't stand the smell of my clothes after a shift at McDs.

Thanks for a wonderful post.

I like burgers too, but dont go to Mc's too often, there's much better ones around. Thanks @bigtom13.

Wow this post was excellently written! What a catchy title to get our attention. You covered some of the things I wrote about in my post today.

It truly is a learning curve here but getting plugged into communities and with helpful people sure made my journey much more smoother. I quickly learned that this plattform was about community, interaction and involvement. If people come here to make a quick buck, it won’t be fun for them because it won’t happen that way.

I’ve been here since 2016 and have worked my way organically to the rep I am now, building a community I love (@needleworkmonday) because I knew I would be here for the long shot. I figure I might as well gather some like minded people together that I can share with, it has made my journey even more enjoyable.

I look at earning crypto as a bonus. I have always thought about starting my own blog site but I have heard how hard and lonely it can be out there. Here, it’s like an instant community if you work hard for it. You literally have people supporting you and rooting for you...excited to see your posts. It did take a long time getting where I am at and some may look at me and say “but you’re still a minnow”. Yes that’s true but the people I have in my corner, the people that now support me and the communities that encourage me and vise versa, is so much more than my status. I do hope to become a dolphin one day but that isn’t my main focus . My main focus is to continue making quality posts, adding value on this platform and staying connected with the communities I am involved with.

I appreciate this informative post you wrote. It will save a lot of people time once they realize what Steemit is really about ;) Resteemed!

Thanks @crosheille, even better coming from one of the 'old crew'. I guess I'm new here being only a March 2018 starter, but I think I have learned a lot in that one year.

You are very welcome! 😉

Yes being here a year you can definitely learn a lot. Within six months I was starting to get the hang of things around here but after a year is when it started to really feel like home.

What a great post, I think some come onto the platform thinking they are brilliant and everything they write or share is gold and they should be a millionaire within a year, if their expectations are not meet its something wrong with the platform and not that their expectations of their own vision of themselves that perhaps may be flawed

Nice post! You liked though, rewards are at almost $13 now! You are such a scammer :) Just kidding. This was a great post with some really well thought out points. Thanks for sharing it!

It did rather better than I expected, though my fingers are worn out with all the replying I had to do!

Nice read, I disagree with some points but I enjoyed the post over all.

I realize that Proof of Brain was the original concept, but the problem with people thinking staunchly in those terms is that it heavily limits Steem's potential. For example, Steem Monsters is a perfect example of how people wish to use it in other ways.

I was actually drawn to Steem when I realized its SEO value. This blockchain is absolutely perfect for the web3 idea, because it can just swarm the net. I believe we'll find Steem frontends all over the place in 3 or so years. If I'm right, bidbots are destined to be a big deal, and I think we might just have to accept that reality.

Why I value Steem is that it has the most features allowing clever ways of funding projects and people. Upvote emissions + delegations is just brilliant. Its decentralized Patreon, ...on crack. The only way to make it better is for us to jack MakerDAO's idea beind decentralized crypto loans with Dai.

Steem is perfectly poised to do the same thing with STEEM as collateral for loans in SBD. Smartest thing we could ever do as a blockchain community.

I believe we'll find Steem frontends all over the place in 3 or so years.

Hope your right, the more access points the better.

Most of my points are releated to the blogging section. I know its a lot more than that these days. When I started there was little else. Theres been huge developments since I started and its only going to get better.

My experience has been very similar and agree that a big part of the attrition has been due to false expectations when arriving. However, I also think that the value from the community comes in many ways that is not only financial! I have enjoyed learning about many topics here as well as gaining perspectives from decisions I make on a daily basis with subjects that interest me like investing. This has expanded as more Dapps have come and brought me to consider my health and fitness with @actifit or some entertainment with @steemmonsters. This has demonstrated how it has become an ecosystem expanding the community to new experiences on the same technology which I believe is an indication of value creation.

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There's so much more I could cover, but it was over 1000 words already, and yes.. there's lots more to gain than some crypto. So much has evolved since when I started, and if anything its now easier to get attention, maybe not from the community initially but by using the many dapps.

I remember I found out about steem almost a year ago by some random video that was titled something like ' earn 300 by posting random pictures'. Not being braindead I of course realized that's too good to be true, but I did took a huge interest in steemit and I wanted to try it out.

Previously I have tired out a few social media platforms to post my art and find people who are interested in similar things as me - improve skills and form a community that help each other out in this journey. Of course I haven't found such a thing, people only care about how much 'likes' they get.

When I finaly got onto steemit it was so refreshing to see a community that actually cares about good content. There are curation groups that look for undervalued content and try to help out the creator! Wow I said to myself, never have I seen such a thing happen anywhere else.

Ironically I did found out about steemit because of a 'get rich quick' video, but I'm definately staying for the community and want steemit to stay strong and succeed.

I'm so glad you stuck it out, and you are getting some attention now. People do see talent, but not right away and what you do is great. Its informative, and is a form of tuition for other artists.

I'm in agreement. The community is what makes this blockchain worthwhile. I started out with a free wallet, and made it to minnow by my one year cakeday. And I waited almost 3 weeks for my wallet because I thought it would be a good idea to jump into Steem in December of 2018! Who thought that was a good plan?

I was active on Tsu for about a year and a half before they shut down. They ran a similar concept to Steem: make content, get upvotes, get paid. But the community wasn't nearly as nurturing as it is here.

It's amazing when you think about what a bunch of people around the world can do. But I'm glad you're here, just like everyone else in this thread!

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