RE: Why are so many “power account” payouts down? And why so drastically?
You make points. You even make points I've made in the past.
But the thing is, it's not apples and apples - it's apples and oranges. Hell, it's more like apples and kayaks.
That's how distant Steemit and sites like YouTube are from each other.
I don't buy it that the payouts are so heavily affected by new users. Not since the vast majority of new users struggle to get a single vote outside of their own self-vote.
If I were to start here today, I'd never make a dime. I'm not even sure it's worth it to join Steemit today.
I sort of agree that right now, given how things are and how small the audience is, no one here "deserves" to "make a living" off of this - if we use a very limited definition of "deserving", and if we compare Steemit to a site like YouTube - like I myself have done in the past.
But since this is not YouTube, this is Steemit, however.
The rewards are going somewhere, and people are expressing frustration over where they are going.
It's subjective, of course, but something being subjective - by its very nature- opens it up to public opinion.
You are correct that steemit and youtube are miles away from each other, but the behavior of people are exactly the same, no matter what platform you are on.
To break it down, in all social media platforms, there are producers and consumers. The consumers have attention to give, and producers want money. Thats how relationship of attention = money was developed. The problem is that there isnt a direct relationship between the two in traditional platforms. In terms of youtube, the equation becomes
attention + advertisers = producers + money.
On the left is the flow in, and the right is the flow out.
On steemit, the intent was
attention+investment (SP)= producers + money
If no one invests in the platform, through locking in SP, then the producers make no money because the upvotes aren't there. But thats not the only way this equation can become unbalanced.
Another way for it to become unbalanced is by removing the attention element. Bidbots remove attention in two ways.
First, the person who invests into the platform no longer gives their attention, allowing producers to make whatever they want. The second way, is that the attention no longer drives the producers to make what the person giving the attention wants to read (that was a mouthful).
The only solution to fixing this is centralization. There will never be a collective force big enough to fix the problem without centralized governing body.
I think this is possible with a large enough SP account that makes the right moves for investors. The pitch would be that if you continue to support bidbots, you'll lose money. Earn less, but earn it for a longer period of time in something thats worth investing in.