I'm Taking an Extended Break from This Shithole
The more I scroll through the Trending Page, the more ashamed I feel of being a part of this community. It makes me feel dirty. I feel like I'm whoring myself for the sake of a few bucks by being part of something that's clearly designed for people with severe mental capabilities issues.
I've been thinking long and hard this morning about whether I'd even admit it to anyone I know that I use Steemit these days.
Probably not.
Why?
Because they would spend three minutes browsing through the posts and comments, and go "Wow, what a completely fake and shitty community that consists of people with a collective IQ of 2".
This is not everybody, of course.
My girlfriend actually does painting and photography, and even though she's not one to really care for money, she did take a quick look and what I described above is basically what transpired.
She even questioned my self-respect, which got me thinking and here we are.
I do feel like I owe it to the people reading my stuff that I do finish whatever stuff I have on-going, but I will decline payouts, so no need to waste voting power on them. I'm doing it purely because I owe it. I probably won't engage with you in any way, so comments are unnecessary, as well.
Steemit was supposed to be an answer to Facebook and YouTube, etc. It was a decentralized social media platform where one wouldn't get banned for 30 days for using a dirty word.
When I joined, I thought it would attract intellectual people with intellectual content, and there were some of them here, but as time went on, those with self-respect left this platform behind after seeing what it became.
The same bullshit artists trending every day, no matter what changes are made to the algorithms, and people with constructive things to say get ostracized for being toxic, blah, blah, blah. I've made this point a million times, and it was mundane then, and it'd be mundane now.
But seriously, it's almost March 2018 and Jeff Berwick is still on the trending page? Am I the only one who doesn't want to be part of a community like that? That guy is responsible for scamming innocent people out of money and everybody fucking knows that!
Everybody, it's fucking public knowledge.
Yet fucking there he is! There he is because no one gives a shit. And he's going to continue being there for as long as this fucking place exists.
People are afraid of saying anything because everybody fears for their "position".
Goddamnit, guys, make some money in the fucking real world. Don't be so dependant on this shit. Are you proud of yourself for sucking dick and that being your only talent? Because you sure as hell shouldn't be.
And it's not just Berwick, he's just one of the best examples.
Steemit was an interesting experiment, but now it's one that I declare failed.
No one is here for the content, everybody is here to make a quick buck. That's all. That's my biggest gripe, too: everything here is just an excuse.
Every post is an excuse. The content doesn't matter, the posts are there for the sake of being there so that people can upvote. That's all.
Every comment is just an excuse to fish for upvotes. Everything is fake.
And if I feel like I'm a loser for being part of something like this, I step out. In all honesty, it's embarrassing to me to be a Steemit member. It's embarrassing to be here. Take the money out of the equation, how many of you would be here? None of you. None of you would be here with all the bullshit going on.
As far as the CEO of this place goes, allow me to quote a somewhat famous person:
"He’s a millionaire who should be a billionaire. You know why he’s not a billionaire? Because he surrounds himself with glad-handing, nonsensical, douchebag yes men who are going to tell him everything he wants to hear."
This place will never get any better, mark my words.
See you later, maybe. This place sucks.
Sadly I agree with you.
It’s a shame because it could have been so good, there are great communities behind the scenes active at discord etc however the auto voting has made people lazy, the voting bots have ruined the platform, censorship is prevalent with bullshit opinion flagging by some who want to shut down truth/free speech or are just jealous talentless cunts who create fuck all but division and the management have their heads up their arses.
I took 6 weeks off at the back end of last year as I was sick of some of the shit I was seeing and came back refreshed however I’m at the stage again where I can’t be bothered writing anymore.
Reading this has at least made me feel like I’m not the only one thinking these thoughts.
Well said dude.
The reason I am still here (And I support every word you just wrote) is because I've found some real value in here.
Art communities are actually being financed out of steem. Families are being fed. People are being educated. These human beings from places like Philippines, Venezuela, Nigeria... heck, even my own country.
A dollar a day can make a difference for them. There is no other place where that can be found, not that I know of. Not like here.
So, I still have a little hope for this place and steem. Not much, enough for me to stay a little bit longer.
I'm just not ready to declare this a failed experiment. Not yet.
Maybe I'm that stupid.
No your not stupid and all the things you said, make sense.
I think this post is bork!
If he really didn't care about the money, he would not accept money for this post..
throwing in the towel is bullshit. He'll be back, there's no good alternative that's any better in my view.
The tone is a bit dramatic that is for sure, but i think this recurring discussion about what and how to make Steemit better is important. I am not impressed with what I see in the trending section either - and like many in this comment section I just ignore it. But I do think it is a problem both for creators and investors.
I agree with you that money is and should be part of this. I am here to earn money from my art. But that doesn't mean that quality selection is not important. It would add another value to the network besides the working technology, and added value is a stronger Steem.
Maybe self-voting should never have been part of the algorithm? I have reinvested most of what I have earned here in SP, and I can give myself 2,5$ or so for every post, but even so I am willing to give that up if the actual quality of the site would be improved. (Just an example... probably not the fix that would end all problems :)
What a point! This is so correct.
Nevertheless, @schattenjaeger expressed quite some valid points but I don't support entirely abandoning here.
I call for more policing of this platform by people of high wherewithal.
Thanks for Always being the bastion of support for minnows.
@eurogee
@surfyogi I'll burn the rewards. Burning is much better for the platform as a whole than just declining them.
Also, posts with declined rewards never get any attention from my experience. Unless you're a big user like @steemitblog, etc. they just get dismissed.
I agree. I have been discouraged as of late, because it seems like everyone in my "community of friends" is up and leaving, and I feel left a bit high and dry over it, but I so want this place to work. I agree with the other comments as well about other countries who use this website to live. So many people are making money now that never had that opportunity before. It would be such a shame to pull the rug out from underneath all of those people. Cruel even. I will keep up my #fight4steem as long as I can. Though, I do hope some things change.
Thank you for this word. In fact there is no state of utopia where everything is 100% perfect. Throughout the ages, countries, solid institutions only get better with time and through trials and errors experiment.
I totally agree with @schattenjaeger but if we all leave, this place will fall but if we stay back and fight for what's good like @fulltimegeek and other notable Steemians are doing, with time, sanity will be restored here.
Thanks KS for expressing your opinion.
@eurogee
Relaxing can be a good thing to do :)
I am taking a different approach by helping build a community up around a common interest.
I know there isn't many people here just yet, so things can get a little stale, but every post you make that is quality will make this place better! :) I am super positive right now, just took a nap and had an energy drink lol.
You’ll be back, faggot. You’ve been banned everywhere else, and you can’t stand being alone. Go make your own feed and stop looking for hand outs like a welfare recipient.
couldn't agree more
This place doesn't suck, it is just like a knife. If you use it to stab and hurt people it is a bad thing but if you use it to cut food it is good. You don't go into a home and stick your nose into its cesspool and judge the place as a cesspool and is full of shit. #steemit is a place for kind-hearted people to show love and care for other people in a flash unlike in FB or other social media where you will die before you get a buck or never.
yeah, but will it remain the same when all the fleas from facebook come to suck up... I'm over-exaggerating a bit, but this place was flooded with spam and scam and now it's reward pool bs, and bidbots, ..... I wouldn't say it's not a cesspool too, it's kind of everything just like any other place,
Do you know how many people have come here and made great stories, shared and left because 0.00 and no interest, no real way to float up unless a whale votes you then all the other guys just follow you, because they get scraps from time to time too.... Yeah it's great, but it's not really that great.
I'm very new here, but agree with @cryptopie. At least here you have control over who you put into your feed. If you're essentially following the money trail, then expect to be deluged by junk.
This may be true but I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet.
I can empathize with you 100%. One thing that @liberosist said in another post resonates with me and I think it lays out the crux of the issue but it could be further expounded to include the drivel that is promoted by manipulators.
I've seen comment scammer make a killing and more often then not they are not stopped. I've seen people systematically bid bot lackadaisical posts and walk away with rewards and reputation. Honest people often get left in the dust. It's just the way it is or seems to be currently.
Those of us that want to see thoughtful, articulate and meaningful material on the blockchain are often dismayed when we see repetitive garbage be receive inordinate rewards through inorganic or circular voting.
Perhaps, if after a few months, if the community fails to stop the rampant manipulation from individuals like haejin, tradewonk, and many more like them, I too will need to take an extended leave of absence.
On the flipside, there are a lot of awesome people I have come in contact with so it's been a mixed bag.
Hope you are able to become refreshed and maybe come back to a cleaned up Steem. I am but a minnow but I have big ambitions to implement controls to deter the junk posting. We need flags and more of them.
Sorry but we have a great community; just not a great social media network, yet..
but give it some time and it can be. And if not, there will be competitors that deserve to win. So either way, I stick with it. It's too helpful to too many people and it supports a lot of great creative people. It also is the most scalable and best UI for crypto going today and chicks dig it.
Also, u may have noticed, it's a great way to make friends. Many new great friends. And business partners, and clients, and... it's not facebook!
Sorry man, I don't even look at trending and it's not that important, for now.
Many new changes coming to Steemit like Communities that WILL HELP IT SCALE IT'S CURRENT PROBLEMS, and STEEM should increase in value. So it's a good investment too.
Also just because you don't like Jeff B, leave me out of it. He hosted a fairly successful thing in MX last month and helps points the way for many in crypto as far as a philosophical way forward.
Later dude..
Yes, overlooked your comment :) Agree.
I’m going to miss these posts (when I manage to catch them in my feed) they make for a nice occasional reality check.
See you around.
I never look at the trending page. I follow people that post content I like. If you only look at your feed things start to look a lot better. I find new people to follow through resteems and occasionally searching recent posts for certain keywords. In any social network with hundreds of thousands of people or more you are going to have a pretty low signal to noise ratio. Steemit is no different in that regard.
Eventually you will. You'll feel the lake drying up and you'll want to find out where the water is going.
It did. I tend to think a lot in metaphors. Some of which are better than others.
I hear you and I'm glad, that you are giving your anger a voice. I'm here for exactly posts like yours - this is what I really want to read - it's real and it matters.
Yes, I'm also here for money, but over the past weeks I got in touch with people here and developed deeper connections than ever before on Facebook. There is a lot of gold hidden in a huge pile of shit. At the moment, I am able to find this gold very easily - this somehow gives "mining" another meaning...
I think losing you as a free and clear voice of the community does hurt and I hope, you will return soon....
I don't think he's angry, maybe just disappointed, hopefully he comes back, but it's a slim chance for that(if he's serious about stepping back), it's his choice tho and hopefully he's not gone for good, I left my notions in this post, but I do agree with most of it. Still it is what it is :) and we can do what we can with it.