Steemy Sunday Souped-Up Super Steemit Rant (why is there no "s" word for rant?)

in #steemit7 years ago

Sunday morning. I woke up and started browsing through Steemit while my ever amazing husband made me breakfast. This is something of a routine in the morning, especially on a Sunday when I don't have to drag my body out of bed in winter. So I spent a little more time here. This should have been a positive experience, and in many ways it was. BUT my irritations which have been not so gradually building up got the better of me. 

1. Trending Page

I see the same freaking 5* people EVERY. SINGLE. DAY., although we have a veritable influx of new users due to the platform's success. I have been here for 11 months and I don't identify with most of what I find there, which is a pity as I would also like to join a few interesting discussions in that section. I venture to say I know this place pretty well, after being here a while, and the trending page leaves me with a sense of disillusionment and quite often severe irritation at the constantly vapid content that earns obscene (from my point of view and I presume the POV of many others, especially in third world economies.) 


The trending page possibly provides false hope and earning expectations to the many brand new users who were convinced by family and friends to join when the Steem price increased dramatically. When you don't have an 11 month emotional investment in this platform, where will that sense of disillusionment lead? Out the fucking door.


Also, especially since HF19, but even before then, who of you have ever really won a curation lottery by upvoting these dare I say quite boring trending posts. Isn't it the point of Steemit to offer an alternative to the other base and shallow social media sites? For me Steemit offers me a greater opportunity to:

  • Think
  • Indulge in fantasies of changing the world
  • Debate
  • Learn about new cultures and the way those cultures inform mindsets
  • Enjoy wide and varied content
  • Meet interesting people

I have done all of this...but none of it has occurred on the trending page and even recently the hot page which has become a pre-cursor to the (you guessed it) trending page. 

2. Followers

I know this has been covered by others...but followers numbers do nothing for you unless they really are followers. IE people that actually read your stuff and then make a considered decision to vote and how much of their voting power they will use for their vote. People who have been on Steemit for 3 weeks have more followers than me. Super great. Instagram/Twitter vibes. I can understand a couple of (well spaced) milestone posts. Steemit is exciting, but weekly updates make me want to puke. I am honoured if someone wishes to follow me, if they enjoy my content. I know what I blog is not for everyone, I can only approach things from my own point of view and skill set. Logically this will not appeal to everyone. I don't flatter myself by thinking my followers doubling in a couple of months has anything to do with ME. It is because I have been here a while and have built a reputation, which attracts new users.

3. Family and friends

It took me forever, but I finally convinced some family and friends to join Steemit. Why? Because I love them and also wish them to reap the benefits. This doesn't mean I will abandon all those whose content I have enjoyed since I started here. I'm not sure about other long term members, but I have clearly picked up on family groups voting almost exclusively for each other. Earth to Steemit...do you actually want this platform to survive??? Resteeming is a good way of providing your family and friends more exposure without the whole #rewardpoolrape #circlejerk connotations!


4. Self voting

According to me it is your own fucking decision to do whatever you like. How can those with their vast financial rewards who engage in RPR & CJ activities tell those who barely make a buck their actions are morally reprehensible? Every single time I read something which strikes a chord in me, which is pretty often here, I will vote for it because I feel it shows my appreciation. BUT in poorer economies those few cents from a self vote provide income, and since we constantly vote the same 5 fucking people onto the trending page so no one else has a hope in hell of hitting it big, how can we sit in judgement against others?!


5. Value our new members

Once we were new too. Many of us were engaged in possibly dubious activities to gain a following or to gain an income, which face it, is why most of us are here. In the Steemit guideline section, it may be useful to submit an article about Steemit behaviours which cause the most irritation and leave it at that. When you see those annoying begging comments and posts, simply ignore them and instead of irritation, react with compassion. This market can seem impossible to get a break in and it is human nature to desire instant success. Simply guide new user's to Steemit help and move on. At one stage when the price of Steem was languishing, many thought the main hope for Steemit was mass adoption. Now we are hopefully in the initial stages of precisely that mass adoption, we act like spoiled, entitled brats??? Way to go.


6.  We have a "new" section

All Steemit members, whether you have been here a little while or a year...visit the new section. Of course there is crap (ahem trending) but there are thousands of people like you and me who have something to say, there are undiscovered talents, awesome human beings, loyal friends, talented photographers and artists. It will be a travesty if we lost all those wonderful people due to lack of attention.


7. Comments

This is directed mostly to those of you with massive reputations, massive following and massive egos. When someone leaves a comment on your post, it means they spent time supporting you! Considering the hundreds of comments many posts receive I can understand not replying to many of them, but I upvote 99,5% of comments made on my posts, even if it is just at 1% voting power. The slider of whales goes below 1% so I feel there are no excuses not to make your supporters who played a part in propelling you into Steemit stardom feel valued. 

Hopefully I am all ranted out now. I would like to say Steemit has helped me financially. It has provided (a little) hope for a better society. I am thrilled by the permanence and transparency of the blockchain. So remember every selfish action and every unselfish action is recorded forever! And to all the friends I have made, old and new, I appreciate every one of you and wish you every success, here on Steemit and in life.

Thank you for getting to the end of this rant, if in fact you did?! @onetree

*5 is an arbitrary number that refers to a handful. Sorry (not) if it is not to your liking.

images: the ever bountiful pixabay

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Resteemed, happy Sunday I also have no idea what the trending page looks like but Im not really posting anything special these days.

I haven't seen much from you lately, maybe we are on at different times?

Upvoted, followed and resteemed. I agree with 90 % of what you have just written. I would just like to add one statement: The problem is not the people, it's the system. I have a really hard time blaming people for simply using a provided infrastructure (i.e. voting for themselves).

Anyway: Thanks a lot for a post and have a nice day. :-)

I, too, think the system needs to be adjusted. Just like any mobile game, if the economy is broken and the rewards don't make sense, people will quit playing.

And I'm so effing sick of all the BOT posts, and I've only been here a week. Even though I'm freshly-hatched, I am very frustrated at the barrage of junk posts and am finding it hard to locate what I actually want to read about.

The system is a problem, but I find it difficult to consider how alternatives would be implemented. But people can also take responsibility for their actions. There is a certain lack of that in our society. Thank you for taking the time to make a thoughtful comment.

I agree with most parts of your article (resteemed) and fully understand your feelings. I always upvote comments on my articles (if at least they upvoted my article, too - not because of the money - most upvotes aren't worth much money anyway, but as I consider it as a symbolic gesture).
I don't agree with the selfvoting part, because in my opinion in the long run it is bad for interaction and communication between users. In addition one (not the only!) motivation to write good articles decreases. Check this out for example:
https://steemit.com/@sandrino
Many minimalistic no-text-posts per day where every of them brings the author about 30 dollar, that means several hundred dollar per day just earned by self-voting. Of course I could do the same ... others may follow. And it is even worse since HF 19 as every 100 % vote has a fourfold higher impact than before.
I fully agree with the trending page again: there is kind of an 'exclusive club' upvoting each other and expecting upvotes in return from their 'colleagues' instead to reserve more votes for smaller accounts. But also the newbies are to 'blame' (this word is too strong, I know) as most of the time they either vote the trending posts or themselves. As I said, normally I support every commenter on my articles, but if I am aware that he upvotes his own comment, but not my "great, nice and wonderful" article, then - sorry - I will not upvote him, too.

In case you are interested, you can read my article about HF 19 and it's consequences here (please don't upvote it, as it is too old already).

The sandrino account IS shocking. The newbies vote the trending accounts, but those votes hardly contribute to the payout. As you said...it's an exclusive club. Thank you for your well considered comment.

This is the same concept as all network marketing. Some people get rich, others ...

Yes...so much for the better society.

Great post @onetree!

Let me comment on your points one by one.

1- Trending page: It's a bit daunting to see some of these mega posts with their humongous payouts and you just know you can't be there anytime soon. Why? Because you're damn new!

2- Followers: I know what you're talkin about.. my followers have been growing daily and I don't get that much attention when I make a post.. it's kinda stupid that I'm starting to think they're mostly bots.. but it's always good to see the numbers growing.. kinda gives you the feeling that you're getting better.. more popular?

3- Family and Friends: I've talked about steem to a couple of friends.. but will they ever sign up? Who knows.. maybe one day when Steemit really takes off they will all join in a snap!

4- Self voting: Well... that's a tough one.. but I believe anyone is free to do whatever the hell they wanna do with their votes.. It's theirs after all. With only one exception: Creating spam posts in bulk just to upvote them.. this just gives a bad image to Steemit and I would classify it as blockchain abuse!!

5- Value our new members: Yeah I know it's kinda sad when you see someone begging for an upvote but in reality I know how hard it could be for anyone new to get some post views.. because I only started using Steemit just recently so I'm kinda in that same situation... But I just hope there will be more ways for new users to get noticed in the future.. let's see if the Communities inclusion will help with that.

6- We have a "new" section: Funny I've always considered the new section to be the same as home for some reason. So Weird. I should start looking at it now, thanks for the heads up!

7- Comments: I certainly try to upvote every single comment on my posts too but sometimes my voting power is so drained and I need to give it some time to cool off.. not that I'd be giving much anyways but I know it's always nice to appreciate people's comments on my posts.. I'm going to be powering up pretty soon in order to get my own slider.. yay!

Thank you for that well thought out comment! I truly appreciate it. I agree 100% about the spam posts. If your SP is under 500 and you don't have the slider, it is perfectly understandable not to vote on comments.

Yea it's so irritating to say the least. I've seen some accounts create like 30-40 useless posts within 24 hours just so they can upvote themselves.. making like $10-$25 per post. I don't think this fair in any way as it just doesn't create any value.. Hopefully Steemit INC will do something about it on the next updates.. Fingers crossed

Hopefully...

Hi @onetree, I read every word and it's refreshing to see such honesty. Thanks for sharing 🙏🏽

Thank you @fleur much appreciated!

Thank you for this honest post!

Brilliant post! Thank you for saying the truth.

Sometimes it's good to get things off your chest!

I have been posting on steemit for 19 days therefore I follow with interest what EXPERIENCED steemians post. Thanks for the RANT, I think many will find it useful and perhaps it will even have an effect.

Won't hold my breath, but I did get it off my chest!

Quality post … as always.
I value every points and observations.
As in the real world; some ways of doing by some bloggers are below all.
The way you pointed that out is very good, to the point and most of all respectful. Thank you very much @onetree

I value your kind comment! Thank you