Can anyone make an argument that those of us attempting to follow good-faith social norms, and create quality content on this platform, are not simply suckers acting as an ATM for certain abusers and whales? Particularly, those of us dumb enough to have traded Bitcoin for Steem?
Because absent a good one, I'm running out of reasons not to simply post numbered comments and self-vote them rather than spend hours a day working on researching and composing quality content. I would actually make MORE money that way, doing no work, than I am now.
I'm deadly serious about this. My next 10 posts might be "placeholder." (This is not satire.)
In the following image/post, there is several times more money than I've made in 6 months of full-time work (at least 40 hours/week) and 6500 "posts" on my blog, and I actually bought a lot of Steem to boost my influence ("it was the style at the time.")
Those are worth about $900 each, given SBD were $11.33 at the time.
A few good faith witnesses are wasting using their voting power, that could be building the community, to try and stop some of this - but it's like catching water in a colander.
STINC sits by with enough stake to neuter both this and the hateful flagging wars without breaking a sweat, yet instead chooses to tacitly endorse it as an accomplice by doing nothing.
Why should we bother to create any original content, when we can simply cut and paste someone else's content from YouTube (or wherever), slam it with a $500+ bot vote immediately after posting with a bid at the last second, and profit off of all the other bidder's losses, despite no views?
Hell, let's skip even making the content. Why don't we just abuse a bug in the bot voting logic to steal votes from curation guilds!
Has it taken only 24 hours for me to owe Transisto an apology? Is he simply more jaded than I and therefore ahead of the game on this topic? Is he right?
Why would anyone bother to use their VP to responsibly curate, or prevent abuse, on this platform when we could simply-vote ourselves for 10x the gain or more?
Transisto, perhaps on this topic, I owe you an apology after all.
If you see me lowering myself to this level, and I'm going to tell you, I am this <-> fucking close, remember this post before you decide who is most deserving of your ROI donation, self-harming prisoner's-dilemma, logic-failure, flag.
We also have a Radio Station! (click me)
...and a 5000+ active user Discord Chat Server! (click me)
Sources: @Droucil
Copyright: 50 Shades Of Whatever
I'm not sure what people are supposed to do here honestly. That placeholder one kills me though. Just the post that I counted amounts to at least half of my salary as a Special Education Teacher in California.
If I could do that a couple hundred time I would certainly speed up retirement out of my position. However, the abuse is so blatant that it makes me sick. I'm not sure I'd be able to show my face to my students again if I did something like that.
Although, I feel like using bots or having connections is needed, at least at the beginning. Otherwise, I feel like much of what gets put on to SteemIt gets swept into a deep abyss to never be seen again by anybody.
Retire a day early on me. Or like, 3 hours. Shit.
I'll take 3 hours gladly! That's almost half a work day not counting all the after hours I work!
However, thank you for bringing more light the problems here. I hope that this will bring some corrections here due to public awareness. I think it will but I believe it will be a slow, slow process.
A very relevant meme. I heart you.
imagine a public daily list of rewards and flags per user to double check if such things happen
There is a tool that helps you see some of this (I forget the link), but the fact is visibility is not the problem. Control of the "abuse" is.
" I hope that this will bring some corrections here due to public awareness. I think it will but I believe it will be a slow, slow process."
I hope your optimism proves to be warranted. Things seem to have only gotten worse in the last month...
everyone gets a day
lol @dzboston33 that was too funny. Not laughing at you though. Laughing with you. I am guessing you are from Massachusetts, based off of your steemit name. Yes its expensive living in Mass. I would be happy if I can even retire at 65 ;)
@mawit07 Haha. Nope. Last name, I live in Southern California though and it is quite expensive here! My wife and I, hope to retire before 65. Haha. But we will see!
Well anyway cool last name. California is not cheap either. Lets both hope our dream of retiring at 65 happens ;)
I wish I could give you a day, one day I'll be able to give you that day. Just you watch!
I'm sure you'll pay it forward at some point. I can't remember what your rep was a month ago, but I think it was lower than this! You must be doing something right.
I, in particular, appreciate your regular generosity.
Sorry for you reaching this <-> close state
This is not going to change (sadly) and will increase by the increase in SBD and steem values.
People are becoming even more daring with their abuse now. Place Holder, eh?
Shakes head!
Aww, thanks to your new avatar, I barely noticed you!
I'm glad to see you're still posting. Taking a month break and only tending to my comment backlog has done me good. I think I'll be posting again shortly.
I hope the drama has subsided.
Steemit is not about retiring early. It’s about truth and honest discussion. Let’s talk about something real. Or if you wanna talk about the flaws of steemit, let’s talk solutions.
If the masses are upset about the “fairness” of steemit, that’ll be resolved in due time via software updates. If not, you, I, or someone else will set up a competing site that solves the worries of the marketplace. Steemit will have to compete at the end of the day. There’s no way they’ll have any type of power or monopoly over the decentralized social media industry.
The first people that get into any crypto that takes off, like steemit has, get rich. So calm down, post good content, have thoughtful discussion, and carry on. If the fairness of payouts is a concern to you, rack your brain for a solution.
"Steemit is not about retiring early"
We'll take the authority of your 0 blog posts, 31 followers, and under 1k sp under due consideration when determining how much of an authority you are.
The more you figure things out, the less optimistic you will be.
" If not, you, I, or someone else will set up a competing site that solves the worries of the marketplace."
Oh, great, I guess my over 100K is perfectly fine at Steem then. Why am I even calling attention to the crippling disasters that are going to destroy this platform at all?
We'll just tell the investors, like myself, paying for these abusive rewards that it's "the freemarket (aka oligarchy enforced by insta-mined and flash-mined distribution, or the opposite of a free market)"
This is a sad but true vision these days unfortunately...
I can't tell if things are getting better, or worse. Loading the trending page has become painful.
You don't like the trending page lately?
First off, kudos to what you do for a living. I have a couple of friends who teach Special Ed. From what I hear, it's hard and frustrating at times, but rewarding. Somebody needs to make a difference in these kids lives!
Now regarding the bit about "using bots or having connections" to succeed at the onset... well... now that's the problem isn't it? The fundamental idea of Steemit's user curated content is terrific, but the inherent lack of centralization is also what's killing it. So the idea of "if you can't beat em'... join em'" comes to mind here. Anybody who's has a significant amount of Steem, as a rational economic player, should be expected to work in their self interest to succeed one the platform. And if the means are through self upvoting placeholder content or using a connection to a steem whale or using a voting bot... well, it's hard to discern if one methodology of success is more egregious than another. Arguments made that using connections or bots is just as artificial as self upvoting. So we're presented with a sad, but true, race to the bottom where people are forced to something people may deem "unethical" to succeed.
So going back to your first point, i regrettably agree with you. I'm also not sure what people are supposed to do on here. LOL. It's a strange moral dilemma mixed with economic incentive and lack of oversight which makes the Steemit situation "unique". Maybe in the grand scheme of things, it's just one large social experiment?
we need to have a public daily list of rewards and flags per user to double check if such things happen
This information is already visible via several tools, but alone it is of very little use. That's kinda my point - there is no will to fix the issue.
" the inherent lack of centralization is also what's killing it"
This is an ironic outcome for a crypto-based social media site.
Reddit is a propaganda tool now, but at least they have moderators.
There appears to be no good middle solution.
Look were i found him: https://steemfollower.com/top.php. Saying the price of 1 SBD is $11.33 he made $3882.057949.
Yeah, that sounds "about right." Ugh.
Completely agree with you. I am a football coach and I work with kids each day of the week. One month of my salary as a coach is approximately 70 SBD. Looking at posts like ones in the article is discouraging. At least for me.
It is, but at this point for us minnows there isn't much we can do. I have faith in the platform so I'll grind and invest a bit when I can and turn this into something awesome!
I'll try to do the same.
Using Steemit as a purely time-investment, rather than money, platform is a viable way for many of us to "keep a toe in."
I think the best solution may be to grind without investing your own money, beyond an acceptable amount to start. Don't overbuy like I did.
I feel the same.. I teach art and piano and gets around 52 SBD monthly (when it costs 11 usd). art is a thing I work hard on almost every day and Im so happy I can get some more reward for it here on steemit. last month I made more money here than at work.. in one way it is a big motivation.. on the other hand when I see what kind of posts or comments swallow the reward pool it makes me sick..
"last month I made more money here than at work.. in one way it is a big motivation.. on the other hand when I see what kind of posts or comments swallow the reward pool it makes me sick.."
It's a real rollercoaster, isn't it?
If the above is true, don't get discouraged. You're living the dream, almost, and may be able to do this almost full-time. Keep working at it.
It is for me, too. My day job used to make less in a month than those posters make in 20 clicks.
Glad you will be able to retire 3hrs early
Not sure about bid bots though. With people like "placeholder" and @icedrum who will bid a beating amount of SBD to win on the expense of everyone, I say it is better to hold on onto your job for another extra 3hrs and use the extra salary in something that could benefit you instead.
Sigh!
Well, placeholder as far as I can tell was not a bot just a whale upvoting himself like crazy.
This is correct. Two different forms of roughly the same problem.
", I say it is better to hold on onto your job for another extra 3hrs and use the extra salary in something that could benefit you instead."
Have to agree there. The bid-bot game is no longer recommended by yours truly.
Dammit @lexiconical, your level of salt is rising, and I'm right there with you. I saw that same post from 'checkthisout' with all that junk upvoting crap in there, and he/she made more money in that post than ALL my 6 months of hard work of writing and posting and photography and editing and comments and replies.
While I'm happy with how I've done, those gaming the system make me feel like...I should be gaming the system. Am I a dumbass for not? Are the clever people taking advantage, and I'm missing the boat? Should I not be trying to do things 'the right way'?
I shouldn't have to think this way on a social platform, and yet I am.
Whenever money is involved, this will happen, and that's why I'm afraid of this whole push to monetize and tokenize every facet of our online existence.
"I shouldn't have to think this way on a social platform, and yet I am."
QFT, friend.
I'm off for a
brine-soakshower.I agree with you, when you monitize something, people will find a way to take advantage of it if they can. At this point, I have taken to using upvote bots myself when my posts reach day 5. I figure at that point, anyone who was going to see it and upvote has already done so. At that point, I am trying to increase my own investment. Unless you have a bunch of SP (which I don't), there is not a lot you can do to influence the community unless you are a developer.
"At that point, I am trying to increase my own investment."
This also really helps your voters, as they get a higher curation cut.
That doesn't stop GrumpyCatFascist from taking down anyone who does what you said...with the 3.5 day limit "rule".
Steemit is a world-wide platform. Character flaws aren't specific to demographics.
The fact that developers aren't rushing to change things is symbolic of a potential Gomer Pyle-like "surprise, surprise, surprise" in the making.
Peace.
"The fact that developers aren't rushing to change things is symbolic of a potential Gomer Pyle-like "surprise, surprise, surprise" in the making."
I can't tell if this would be a good thing or a bad thing.
STEEM's market cap is under $1B for first time in a while.
Interesting.
I'm noticing a lot of investors backing out of several Steem-supported projects; so, at this point optimism is a choice. ;+)
Best regards.
Peace.
This is pretty fricking crazy.
Dayum..
Well, I'm not surprised. If you read my last post, you'd see how I compared Steem to the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary period
I think the politics of Steem are that of plutocracy...
Yeah, there are for sure some crumbs to be found around this website, but the vast amount of the platform's resources are just being re-absorbed by the
"landed gentry""vests"...They have the most amount of Steem, just like the early american landed gentlemen controlled most of the land and controlled the trade...
At the end of the day, the minnows are just a way to legitimize the platform and draw in some investment and pool more resources in, no?
Unless the minnows organize and demand some change, I don't see how this is gonna change.
I think many of the whales on this platform don't care about the platform, they just wanna use us to collect massive rewards and make it look like it's "fair".
Lol, while everybody is screaming how Bitconnect is a ponzie, it's articles like this one that make you realize a clever rip-off can come in many shapes and sizes! 🙉 🙊🙈
We need to organize a revolution @lexiconical
Stage some kind of revolt...
We let America go to shit because of greed and complacency and acceptance of the status quo
Let's not let repeat that mistake with Steemit
"Well, I'm not surprised. If you read my last post, you'd see how I compared Steem to the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary period"
I did this in a recent post with this image:
"Unless the minnows organize and demand some change, I don't see how this is gonna change."
Doesn't really matter if they/we do, as it is STAKE rules, not majority rules. Those who benefit from the status quo most are those with the stake to change it (or, are conspicuously silent.)
This is what the abusers are counting on. The level of Whale apathy to reward abuse is incredible. Okay, we're decentralized, but at some point the accounts with the most power must act to correct a broken system. STInc controls the accounts with the most SP, so it is STInc which will eventually have to step forward to protect the product.
"The level of Whale apathy to reward abuse is incredible."
It makes sense when you consider most of them are, themselves, "abusers" in terms of taking a lot of rewards and not providing any quality content.
Have you got any ideas Yung Crypto Ben Frank ?
LMAO good one!
I have been talking with witnesses about implementing a mass vote system so when users like this get caught out then the witnesses can initiate a vote
Would this effectively be a black-listing process? If so, it would represent centralization and probably get complaints...
Not centralized because it is the community who votes for the abusing member to be put on notice. Then the witnesses can evaluate the situation and vote amongst themselves. It's perfect because the centralized platforms have a ban hammer- this effectively puts the ban hammer in the hands of the community. The thing is, right now we don't have ANY solution for those looking to cheat and scam the community...We are effectively helpless, we need a method, and a decentralized one to defend our community
Hah, did you reply to yourself?
Dude how is responding to this now relevant! Where the Hell have you been xD
I miss you bro
There are always going to be users who take advantage of the rewards pool at the expense of everyone else. Despite the fact that a lot of users are doing it, it is still only a small portion of the overall rewards pool going towards it. There are still many users (myself included) who use their voting power to reward quality contributions.
IMO the solution to the problem is more downvoting. I wrote an article about it last night, and that is what I am going to keep pushing towards.
Indeed.
Have you considered this option?
https://github.com/steemit/steem/issues/279
FWIW, the "opposition" (the same opposition threatening to go back and re-upvote the Grumpycat votes after flagging) knows it will stop their ability to abuse, and is against it:
nextgencrypto commented on Aug 16, 2016 • edited
This is nothing but another method for Dan to control who he wants to see earn and who he doesn't. I expect we'll see him and his inner circle stifling whales they wish to see stop earning as soon as this is released.
Just a reminder, this is being implemented because of the feelings of 1 person who will use his control over the witnesses to push through anything he wishes. Don't let it be disguised as fixing voting, he's trying to suppress accounts he doesn't agree with.
I’ve discussed it in other channels, but the main problem is that what will most likely happen if an account is blocked this way is it will power down. They will either cash out all of their STEEM, or power up a new account and turn it into a ‘wack-a-mole’ game.
For the most part, the same effect can be accomplished using downvoting, except it is easier to target specific behavior (rather than the whole account) and stop the downvoting if the bad behavior stops.
So, wouldn't it be better to half-screw them for 13 weeks continuously, than to do nothing at all? How is adding another hoop to jump through, and forcing them to go through power-down cycles not a good thing?
Why not just downvote?
As a user who has returned after several months of being away from the platform, I totally relate to your frustrations with the way rewards are distributed. I have written extensively on the subject of steem's value relative to other cryptocurrencies in recent posts and I am convinced at this juncture that the disarray the platform finds itself in has contributed to the lagging performance of steem despite the epic bull run witnessed in the broader crypto market.
Ned recently tweeted that steem should be a Top 10 crypto. To me this is wishful thinking if one considers steemit as it exists today. I agree only on the basis of the platform's inherent potential, but the potential to me is squandered by the lackadaisical execution. And your post points that out clearly. If this isn't raising concerns among those that have an ability to effect constructive change, then I don't know what will.
Yes, I would say top 10 is quite a joke at this point. Assuming, of course, that Steemit is any part of this equation.
If this is all a dress-rehearsal to "tokenize the web" and nobody actually gives a fuck about community, blogging, meritocracy, reward distribution etc. then perhaps he's right.
After all, Ripple, premined garbage was #2 market cap briefly today.
Agreed. I think the value of steem is inextricably tied to the perception of the value of this platform. And with all of steemit's deficiencies, I simply am dumbfounded by Ned's assertion that it warrants a Top 10 valuation in the global crypto space. I would agree with such a valuation IF the execution of the underlying idea behind steemit (reward for quality content) was done correctly. The entire ecosystem of voting bots proves that this is simply not the case. If you have a chance to comment, I would appreciate your insights on a post I recently published entitled "Reflecting on the Value of Steem - Part II".
"Agreed. I think the value of steem is inextricably tied to the perception of the value of this platform. And with all of steemit's deficiencies, I simply am dumbfounded by Ned's assertion that it warrants a Top 10 valuation in the global crypto space."
He fundamentally disagrees with your premise. He thinks the value proposition here is almost entirely SMTs, because he's going to "tokenize the web". (lol)
Pretty nefarious things are going on for sure :(
I'm not sure what steps are necessary to create something abusive like that, which yields that much return (how does it work? does it require a big investment on their part to get started, or what?). But when I googled for ways to auto-upvote @qurator, on the first page of the google search results I came across a BitcoinTalk thread where the OP was selling 4 accounts on Steemit pre-setup to yield $100 a day each. The post was several months old. In other words: abuse is widespread and 'common' or even popular?
And it's no surprise really... We all know it's easy to abuse Steemit, it happens all the time on a small scale, so of course it happens on a grand scale. If you can make 1 bot that can yield $100 a day (6 months ago), why not make 10 bots? 100 bots?
I never understood how the money distribution really works on Steemit, anyway. There's something really strange going on when I can give someone $1 and in return they give me $1.50, and still somehow make a profit off of that. In all my months on Steemit I still have not been able to figure out how in god's name that can be sustainable. If it's profitable for me, and for the upvote bot.. well, what if both parties were me? even more profits? wtf?
And where are the devs in all of this? Or where are they at all for that matter? Other than the release of SMT's I have no idea what has been happening with regards to Steemit development. Communities are apparently coming, great. But these abuse issues have been known for a very long time now.. what's the solution those running the show are thinking of? Do they have one?
Additional 'shower thought': What if this widescale abuse is somehow tied in with the unexplainably high SBD price? If you've got a money printing machine, you can pump any coin you like, even SBD?
"I never understood how the money distribution really works on Steemit, anyway. "
If you can even say it "works", it works very slowly. I believe 94% of Steem is in the hands of 1% of users still, but do your own due diligence on that as it's from memory.
"Do they have one?"
Flag new users for tag misuse, perhaps? There's 6-degrees of Kevin Bacon between those two somewhere.
" What if this widescale abuse is somehow tied in with the unexplainably high SBD price? If you've got a money printing machine, you can pump any coin you like, even SBD?"
The plot thickens. You have your next post. Prepare to do more research than the reward will be worth.
I wish I had the blockchain analysis skills to research this. If I did, I could probably make a living out of it selling my services. Unfortunately, I don't :-/
I do think that where there's smoke, there's usually fire though.
Wouldn't it be funny if with the Tether-scare, it turned out it wasn't Tether pumping up the price of crypto, but SBD ? Unlikely, but entertaining thought ;)
"Unlikely, but entertaining thought ;)"
It would be a good story, but mathematically impossible due to SBD's tiny market cap.
I'm genuinely glad you posted this. I understand the frustration and was having a similar conversation (argument) over this not too long ago. Thank you for going into detail to show those giving what litttle they have to those who are strictly here to benefit themselves a reason to now know who they think are well. This is really great and thank you again..you're awesome.
Your positive attitude is a light at the end of the tunnel.
As is your honesty 😌
Thank you for posting this. It needs to be said, although it does make me really sad. With SBD being high lately, I've at least been able to make decent enough money to put some time in, but when it's lower, that is much harder.
Is there a way to change it? Things like this are points against the common idea here of anarchist utopia: power always corrupts. Just because that power comes in the form of wealth and tech knowledge rather than governmental power doesn't mean it will be any better. If it's this unjust just on a virtual platform, what would the world look like?
This all said.. in the end, I'm so grateful for Steemit, as imperfect as some of this apparently is. I'm a singer-sgonwriter and writer (some videos up on my blog if interested, but zero pressure) and have been slugging it for a long time, and this is the first time I've been making any kind of supportable income so far. It's a ray of hope after some really hard years.
So.. I hope it improves! I appreciate your efforts. Thanks. xx, Kay
It is refreshing to hear you are living a success story. Congratulations.
Yes, but it was opposed by the same people who benefit most from the status quo:
https://github.com/steemit/steem/issues/279
Dan Larimer, Creator Of Bitshares/Steem/EOS: "bytemaster commented on Dec 27, 2016
I still think that the first principles are right on this concept. Unfortunately, having logical first principles and appealing to the masses are two entirely different things."
Not sure how I missed this response! Just looking at it now.. a good capture of what you are talking about, for sure. And "success story" might be a bit of a stretch just yet, but it is certainly making a difference for me. It was a difficult run for a lot of years as a musician and writer!
Well.. happy new year, nonetheless! Let me sing a new year's song for you to welcome 2018 - hoping it's a better year with some changes to the platform that may curtail some of the worst abuses.. maybe I'm super naive, but fingers crossed! xx, Kay
"Not sure how I missed this response! Just looking at it now.."
No worries...I am currently committing an even worse offense!
Steemit is a vortex. We all get a little lost! Lately I've been trying to look at/upvote (where deserved) the blogs of people who upvote and comment my posts, which is great, but now I'm slower and missing out on posting on things like this/keeping up on threads.
And keeping up with posting a song or article every day or so is already lots! lol. Always just a lot..
Hope you're well!
I recommend slowing your pace, or down-sizing the length of your posts, any time you feel overwhelmed. Really helps with burnout.
I wish there were a way to embrace that some people want to self vote with spam, what if they could create a certain amount of value if the clearly state it is spam or if they dont and try to pass off substandard stuff as higher quality they get in trouble. I think Milton Friedman had some good ideas about trying to manage systems and actors' incentives.
I don't really care what we do, as long as whatever it is is equally enforced on Minnow and Monster alike.
Impossible without centralization?
That checkthisout comment voting kills me.
If only I receive that money, I can build a new house for myself here.
When I first joined steemit, I thought this is a place where good content gets good rewards but that was not the case.
As long as this abuse is there, we will not see a growing steemit.
And no matter how hard users(with less fame) work, especially minnows, they will never make it to the trending page(not without the vote from bots).
"If only I receive that money, I can build a new house for myself here."
I know what you mean. Makes it almost impossible to keep posting in good faith.
I also saw content that was not original or that simply didn't make sense. I must be sincere and say that in the beginning I didn't find my path, but slowly as I started learning I got to be more focused and try to provide consistent content. Thus, I have come up with some topics to write on a daily basis and as I go deeper with talking about that all should add value in the end. We cannot stop the others, but at least we can do and be in peace with ourselves that we left something meaningful behind. And because of that I want to share one of my favorite quotes which can also be a motto for providing original content.
"I also saw content that was not original or that simply didn't make sense."
Yes, these are users slamming the bid at the last second trying to make a larger profit, pushing the ROI for everyone else negative.
It pains me to see people draining the pool for their own gain like this. There are thousands out there working hard to produce some good content and they just get a few crumbs. It could be far more without such behaviour, but we can't do much about it unless the whales decide to take real action. Maybe they think it's not worth their time. I just know that it harms the reputation of Steemit. Any such abuse is recorded in the blockchain and can come back to haunt the perpetrators. They probably don't care as they don't plan to actually do anything useful to others. It's just another profit opportunity.
Bingo. There is no downside. They are almost forced to abuse once others are already abusing.
The rate of abuse is increasing, to my eyes, and that increase may speed up even more.
If it degrades into pure self-voting then I suspect it will all collapse as there will be value in the service
Who do you "trust" to tell you how much of the pool goes to abuse?
Either nobody knew about grumpycat, or the key people knew and didn't care. Either way, it makes the above question tough to answer, doesn't it?
Others have exposed this behaviour and it's obvious abuse when you see it. We have various tools that show who is getting a large share of rewards and so it's not too hard to investigate. Most of us don't dare to flag them, but there are those who will do it. It's just not enough in some cases.
I can completely underdstand your thoughts - It feels hard to accept that doing nothing and self-voting would bring soo much more than curating and posting.
However I still hope, that Steemit will grow and that my investement will therefore rise. I see our STEEM as shares in the network and therefore I want to act in a way which, at least in my eyes, benefits the network and therefore the growth of STEEM and ultimately my investement. This is why I f.e. run @welcoming. Not because it earns me so much - But I think it can help my investment and other people at the same time.
Of course, the short term value would be way greater otherwise. But I hope there are more people like you, @droucil, ... and me who think like I think about this. And I think we can succeed in the long run.
It seems hard atm since the abuse is rising - but hey, the prices, user number, ... are doing so as well.
I know, it may seem a little naive to think so - but hey, that's just how I want to look like it.
And still earning decent rewards of course helps with this. Yes, I could earn way more money by abusing than running @welcoming and manually curating a lot with this account. But I prefer decent rewards + the feeling of doing something good over earning more but feeling bad for abusing.
" Steemit will grow and that my investement will therefore rise."
In order for this to occur, IMO, abuse must not be grossly more profitable than all other options.
Great post @lexiconical. upvoted fully through steemfollower.
Thank you! I'll keep an eye out for your posts there.
Damn, I was holding out hope that @lexiconical could find the silver lining I had missed.
Not that there was much chance I'd be stopping my power down anyway.
Too many cliques that I'd never be a part of and I've always been too much of a Luddite to get rich on Steemit with bots.
Oh well, it was a nice dream while it lasted, and I do still get to read some good content.
As I was warned early on by another quality user of rep 72+ who now appears jaded, "almost everyone around here is dirty."
I mean, you can literally vote yourself money with a click. Anonymously, on the internet. Is any of this a surprise?
The stupidity is really those of us that thought they could invest here and operate in good faith for any period of time without going fucking insane.
Well, I hath gazed too long into the abyss, and now it gazeth into me.
I've been thinking about this since I was on Steem and a lot more so since the super linear rewards were drop. I want to write about non linear reward and why I think they with vote negation might solve those issues.
What are your feeling about non linear reward curve and vote negation?
https://steemit.com/steem/@dantheman/evil-whales
https://github.com/steemit/steem/issues/279
I believe Dan was correct on both in retrospect. Vote cancellation, in particular, would have eliminated this whole current flag war. Bernie and Rancho could just flag each other instead of Haejin.
Main problem:
bytemaster commented on Dec 27, 2016
I still think that the first principles are right on this concept. Unfortunately, having logical first principles and appealing to the masses are two entirely different things.
I do think so too. It's not a strong conviction but at least I tend to think it would.
It would at least be worth a try, how much damage can it really do given the current state of distribution?
I learned long ago @lexiconical that there are 'shades of eye-brow raising' in the Steemit playbook.
I can't remember who said this, (it might have been you ;+)... but 'investors' are watching the flaws, and in-fighting on this platform.
I'm of the belief to do what lets you look in the mirror and love yourself in the morning. Gaming anything and anybody comes with a personal price tag often more costly than the dollar could ever repay.
You know the inner workings of the system more than many. If being part of the push-back team is what you have peace about doing, then by all means, push back.
Conceding to wrong behavior will never make it right. So, by all means, choose right, even when all around you are shady dealers. Your reward will arrive, even decades and circumstances removed from the crypto world. Payback for evil can be a real downer.
Peace.
"Conceding to wrong behavior"
Is it wrong if the majority of the stake thinks it is fine to do?
This is like having a law passed you disagree with, but now it is the cultural norm you must follow to survive.
Adapt or die.
I'll presume your question is rhetorical, as you are a very wise person.
The bottom line is play the Steemit 'game' or create your own!
Ha! Now, that's an idea. I have to believe you and @jerrybanfield, et al are sitting in your virtual conference room designing the next Steemit, removing all the shades of blur.
Believe it or not; but that's the 'American' way of life. Those who push back usually end up on one of two ends of the sword. Trash talk all you want; but, don't you dare do anything to create 'change' that might disrupt the 'agenda'. Just, who in the world do you think you are???? lol!
Those who defy and over'throw' are few and far in between.
Keep doing your work for the community. Everything will work out....somehow...
I find it quite interesting that @ned doesn't have an open contact line...lol...I've said for a very long time...no one is listening to you/us.
Btw, I'm having fun. I'm learning the more I enjoy this platform for its core purpose, the happier I am. I'm reminded it's real world; not, utopia.
Peace.
I stopped expecting some kind of cosmic "payback" a long time ago, good or bad.
The universe doesn't give two shits about what we puny mortals do.
In the end, all you have is yourself and your own viewpoint.
And no one can take that away, it has to be given away.
Do what's right because it's right, not because you expect some kind of reward.
Wow, that's so Tao, but saying it's Tao isn't.
No matter the perspective, I agree with you on this point.
Peace.
If only this worked out better for people.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Sadly, cynical...but on so many levels TRUTH.
Hey!
Snap out of it! ;+)
There's a reason it's called LIFE! It is what it is.
IF is moot; and, a good waste of productive energy!
Best regards!
Peace.
Naahhh! They just prefer to flag things like this. To show people "The hard work" they've been doing for the Community!
I hear this is a good way to sneak your foot in the door for a job as a developer at STINC.
See what I did there?
Hard to not be angry at this. I barely get a SBD in rewards a day and there are people out there that get that in a second! Life is so cruel and unfair. Not even steemit is immune to this.
I admit I personally upvote my own posts so that I at least do not see $0.00 by day 7 of my post. I am getting better now as I have saved enough to buy some bot votes. ;) Hope one day I get to buy a $500 dollar vote! Yeah true success story then lol. Get my sarcasm here?
How do we fight back when there is so many of us scraping by just in hopes to one day earn something on this platform? Whales that want this platform to exist long term is I think the only ones who can stop this. Why is Ned not doing something about it? Just one down vote from the steemit account more or less keep people in line and play fair. No?
"I admit I personally upvote my own posts "
Nothing wrong with that. I advise all minnows to do this.
"How do we fight back when there is so many of us scraping by just in hopes to one day earn something on this platform? Whales that want this platform to exist long term is I think the only ones who can stop this."
Exactly, you as a minnow can't do much. Keep your head down and make what you can. Try to operate in good faith.
Oh appreciate the response but the upvote stings as my post is over 7 days old so no gains for either of us. Oh well.
Lexi, rise above it. Two, three, four wrongs do not make a right. HAve you seen timcliffs new post called, Let's Make Downvoting Great Again!? Check it out it might be worth an upvote.
Oh, you mean like the very similarly titled one that I wrote, "Make Flagging Great Again", got flagged for, and then had Transisto fund a downvote bot to automatically follow my account and downvote any comment I self-voted on afterwards?
Like that one?
https://steemit.com/curation/@lexiconical/make-flagging-great-again-on-self-up-voting-and-a-suggestion-for-improving-curation-on-steemit
https://steemit.com/sadkitten (@ tag removed)
PS - Sorry Kubby, not trying to be a dick, just jaded and I seriously already wrote that post and it brought shit down on me.
I totally get where you're coming from. There is some serious garbage on this platform that get upvotes for what seem to be no reason at all. Comments like "wow great post" or "this was great" are worthless and prevalent. And many of the posts which surface to the top are a couple lines + reappropriated (stolen) content. While I support STEEM and hope for the best, the current system for curating the best content is flimsy to say the least.
Well, I hope you don't decide to leave. I appreciate you and your content and you bring much value to the platform.
At some point when your suggestions for change are both ignored, and made impossible by the stake of those who most benefit from the status quo, you become simply an accomplice by continuing to hide what's going on here with the "noise" of real content.
Incidentally, I'm also the dumb money investor paying for the exits to fiat from these same parties.
Hey man, I feel ya.
What we have been seeing is peak mania in crypto and along with it peak stupidity in bidding up SBD which has unleashed peak greed and abuse on this platform.
We are due for a reversion to the mean and I just hope the mean here on STEEM is perhaps not a total feeding frenzy.
Keep it real man. People are showing true colours so just take notes and learn from it. The dark side beckons but you're better than that.
"but you're better than that."
Not for much longer. I can do math.
Steem shows real nature of human beings - that many will take the easy way out - lie, cheat and steal their way to the top of the heap - but in steem it was possible without having to, you could have invested in the quality content and your community to get big. yet people found a way to cheat and rig the system, and too late now as big toxic whales are not being stopped. So how to fix these issues? How to make it great again by stopping these toxic players in the system? It can't be just by educating users to downvote - that is just preparing for civil war inside steem community...
I don't believe there is even a solution without centralization. So, as far as being a crypto, perhaps no solution.
It might be that combining Facebook (toxic) with Money (often toxic) and Oligarchic Distribution (money-printing, toxic) to create a robber baron class was a fundamentally flawed idea.
Whodathunkit?
40% of bitcoins in circulation are owned by 1,000 people, who all have the influence to “game” the system by manipulating the marketplace for their own personal gain. Facebook uses ALL of your content for their own personal gain. So, what’s your point?
Every single user on here has the right to game the system as much as they can to their abilities.
Or...
They have the right to produce quality content, gain a following, and change the world.
Steemit isn’t a zero sum game. This software has discovered a way to unlock the value of an honest social media platform and disperse that value to the people.
There are whales in every successful crypto that will become richer beyond their wildest dreams. But they only become that filthy rich when the system proves valuable to the masses.
My advice to everyone is to produce thoughtful, honest content, so that when steemit goes mainstream, you’ve got the following and the reputation to make REAL dough. And you don’t look like a person who was picking up pennies off the sidewalk back in the day when it was all-too-easy to do so.
Anyone who thinks it’s a problem that whales can game the system while ordinary steemit users ‘don’t make enough money’ is failing to comprehend the obvious truth that the entire world is currently using Facebook for free, while the Facebook whales (i.e. Zuckerburg & co.) make billions and have inifinite power and influence over the content.
How is steemit not a massive improvement over that?
"So, what’s your point?"
Sigh, you're going to make me do this?
"40% of bitcoins in circulation are owned by 1,000 people, who all have the influence to “game” the system by manipulating the marketplace for their own personal gain."
Can they affect distribution? No.
"Facebook uses ALL of your content for their own personal gain."
Yes, and they are one of the most soulless and evil corporations on the planet. Is this your barometer of success?
"Every single user on here has the right to game the system as much as they can to their abilities."
No, they don't; not in practice, at least. You have missed my point:
https://steemit.com/steem/@lexiconical/code-is-law-only-when-i-want-otherwise-it-s-abuse-the-shaming-syndicate-of-steemit-our-own-brand-of-sjws-and-social-repression
https://steemit.com/steem/@lexiconical/steemit-is-ruled-by-a-communist-party-flags-wars-look-worse-to-investors-than-the-rampant-abuse-they-claim-to-fight
The robber barons want to prevent you from doing what they can do, and they blocks changes that might allow this to be changed.
"How is steemit not a massive improvement over that?"
Getting raped and taken as slave wives was also a big improvement over being put to the sword when Genghis Khan came to town. Would you like to lobby for that as well?
You said I missed your point and you quoted me two of your articles. So I read both. You’re very smart. Well written. You make me smile with your talk of free markets, your nod to anarchism (steemit having “anarchist undertones”, love to hear it), and your understanding of the US financial system. You’re a truther. A resister. A freedom warrior, no doubt.
In my humble opinion, your fatal flaw right now is you’ve been stuck in the resistance for so long that you can’t recognize a free market, aka freedom, aka light at the end of the tunnel, when you see it.
You are in a free market right now. A real-life free market. I’m talking about the crypto space, and decentralized computing in general. The government can’t touch us. And if they do, via quantum computing, or what-have-you, we now have the wherewithal and enough people awake to adjust accordingly. Until the system falls, you and I and all our awake brothers and sisters will remain two steps ahead. If you have any doubts that this is true, you have not seen the bigger picture.
So you, as a free market proponent, should know what that means: we will win. But at the moment, things are messy, because it’s just the beginning.
The two posts you linked, plus this one here, are pointing out simple, and relatively mundane and temporary market inefficiencies. But you’re fighting it tooth and nail as if the poor people of steemit are being oppressed and taken advantage of. Dude, we’re making money to post on a website. Relax. Seriously, let’s take a breather here. You even compared this situation to the sword of genghis kahn and slavery.
Our relationship to governments are involuntary. There is a gun involved. They point guns at us, tell us what to do, and since the vast majority are submissive and obey in ignorance, you and I have to as well. Alas, we are oppressed, controlled, and manipulated at every turn in order to keep the masses from catching on to the fact that this is the true nature of our relationship with the government.
What’s my relationship with steemit? I post on it instead of Facebook, make money, and don’t get called a nazi. Yay!
You have legitimate concerns with the steemit platform. Shift your focus to that, and come up with solutions on how we can improve. Like the ‘selling your vote’ thing—that was a brilliant thought that lit a lightbulb on my head. Loved it.
But I want you to rest assured, in a decentralized environment, a free market, the few cannot oppress the many. The many will just leave and go to the next best thing. You of all people know that in a free market, your competition is not far behind you. Show me a better social platform than steemit right now and I’m powering down and moving my business over there ASAP. I have the freedom to do that because nobody is pointing a gun at me here. I’m just sitting here freely making money, talking to a bright individual like yourself. Let the whales jerk themselves off with thousand-dollar “placeholder” posts, while you and I have thoughtful discussions and get paid to do so.
The people are waking up. But in my opinion, you are being counterproductive and scaring them back to Facebook. But hey, to each his own.
If I were you, with all that Steem you got, and all that passion for Steemit being so flawed, I’d be promoting thoughtful improvements to the steemit platform.
Long term, the masses will demand the most efficient and honest social media platform on which discuss their ideas.
And let me tell you something: they’ll get it.
I love me some crypto/Steemit/Ron Paul. And despise dollars/Facebook/Big Brother. Keep fighting the good fight, gentlemen!
Ron Paul Nation! Stop the wars...all we need is love!!
GAFA - The original Sin of internet. A brillant article from Coindesk about how bad things are, and in my opinion has drastically improved.Bravo @kevincox, well thought out post. It's indeed a massive improvement from
I started out here with nothing, I am just happy I have SP worth $25 dollars at the moment, that's three times more in my native currency of PGK. So I am not complaining at all.
The fact that the masses haven't got on board the steem bandwagon, is all the more reason that makes me smile. As when the tides come, we will all be winners.
And off course, pressure from the masses will eventually resolve abuse over time. A fork will have become imminent by then. And we make more dough. :)
Very smart post @gsari when the dust settles, the abusers will prove themselves to be short-sighted and greedy. The true winners of steemit, if steemit becomes successful, will be the true content creators and curators. The masses will make sure this is the case, or they’ll simply move elsewhere. Either way, you and I will win.
No, it will be whoever made the post money, which far and away the abusers are winning. Where did these blind arguments come from?
Do you not understand that these 30 left clicks made more than 6 months of work on this platform?
Thanks @kevincox, you've motivated me to write a blog post, and speak my mind. Really dig your bold positive stance. https://steemit.com/steemit/@gsari/are-we-seeing-a-spill-over-fait-mentiality-on-steemit
Yeah, if only he knew wtf he was talking about from being here more than 10 minutes and having 40 rep.
@gsari, looking forward to reading your blog in the future! Good luck with it and God bless you and yours this holiday season.
Thanx @toddlo, have great festive season with you and yours aswell.
@gsari what kinds of things do you think you'll be blogging about?
This platform is gonna be full of Charlie She....I mean....DONALD TRUMPS!!!! #maga
We are going to be so tired of winning! Drain the swamp!!
The D.C. swamp and the steemit bot swamp!
One day I'm so bullish on Steem I want to sell my alt bags and get more SP. Then I read this post and the comments and I'm like "welp I guess this block chain social media thing is never going to work lol"
The true answer is somewhere in the middle. We need intelligently designed functions that take game theory into account.
I'm brand new here, but I have faith. Can't wait until we launch a full on app though!!
As someone who just joined Steemit and is starting to get what the platform is all about, this all makes me second guess everything about it.
I don't have any plans on investing any real $$ here, I was going to put half of my earnings into steem power and cash out 1/2 to my crypto holdings.
I new to blogs and blogging. I only saw a social media platform when I found steemit, now I'm realizing it goes much deeper. The ideas are there, but I suppose the human nature is hard to suppress.
"The ideas are there, but I suppose the human nature is hard to suppress."
This does appear to be the problem.
99% of all votes on Steemit are by bots.
they can't read...what you write does not MATTER to them.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket!
True enough.
I am sad to see you go, but I can understand your reasons. I hope that at some point the platform can provide what you are looking for and you feel willing to come back. You have done good things here, despite all the troubles.
Fair well wherever you go, and don't be a stranger on Discord.
"I hope that at some point the platform can provide what you are looking for and you feel willing to come back"
I'm really more concerned about what it is providing that it shouldn't, than what it's not providing.
I'm not disappointed in my rewards. My motivation is destroyed, as expected based on human psychology, when my "cubiclemate" is making 10000x my salary for doing no work.
Absolutely true. It is disheartening. My comment was more to the effect of that maybe one day this kind of abuse of the system is prevented or resolved in some way. I hope it will be at least.
Yeah...
I'm planning a post on Steemit at depth. The moral is that Steemit is actually buckling under its "success". That is, Steemit is actually here to earn money. So it's succeeded with the currency going so high.
Except that the side-effects of the currency skyrocketing is leading to grave issues for the social network side of Steemit, which I'm starting to believe is more of a marketing ploy, to the tune of, "Our cryptocurrency doesn't have value out of nowhere, it's actually backing something!" Except the relationship goes in the other direction, with rewards to work coming out of nowhere, and as such, aren't at all tied to the intrinsic value of said work either...
I put out this meme on Steemit the other day. I suspect it might've hit the point too close on the nose for people to laugh at, if they even got the reference.
Steemit is a place to earn money. And when you realize the goal is to earn money, "effort" and "hard work" and such only become relevant if you don't have other ways to get it done. And that brings us back to the meme, because this market is the same as the real life market - we're not equal here.
"Except that the side-effects of the currency skyrocketing is leading to grave issues for the social network side of Steemit, which I'm starting to believe is more of a marketing ploy, to the tune of, "Our cryptocurrency doesn't have value out of nowhere, it's actually backing something!" Except the relationship goes in the other direction, with rewards to work coming out of nowhere, and as such, aren't at all tied to the intrinsic value of said work either..."
You may be spot on. Ned is on record stating they don't really care about Steemit, that SMTs and "tokenizing the web" are the vision.
It's creating a platform to entice others. If only those others knew that the platform they're going to base their system on isn't actually working.
In a few years time... some researcher in behavioral economics, game theory, sociology, or some shit will do their thesis on this community. It really is a terrific experiment in economic incentive, motivation, and "morales" (whatever that's supposed to mean)
I feel like this may end up being me. I think I've already written most of it.
Are you optimistic that this will be a positive social experiment?
Also, I'm trying to upvote your comment, but it's being buggy and won't let me at the moment. Will come back to it soon. ^_^
Haha, 2017 has been a particularly regretful year for optimism that "humans will do the right thing". Fix cough the cough environment cough plz. So based on recent events, I'm quite pessimistic. We're all a bunch of liars, cheaters, and stealers out there and to great extent, our ability to be "clever" and "game the system" are met with applause.
So sad to say but I am sort of in the same spot as you. Working to make quality posts just doesn't seem to pay off. It is actually more profitable to just make a quick post and use voting bots to get paid.
When I was a more naive Steemian, I was concerned both auto-voters and voting bots were going to take over / ruin Steem. However, I was forced into using both of them to succeed here.
It doesn't even matter, because you can't stop bots without centralization.
I don't know what we're supposed to be doing on this platform anymore. Is this all just a proof of concept for Smart Media Tokens?
The only thing I know we are doing for sure on this platform is trying to make money. After all, I am an Ethereum miner that was looking for another way to earn cryptocurrency without having to buy more mining rigs. I joined this platform originally with the intention to just make money. Right now, I am not sure if I am here to make money or to enjoy the community, or maybe a little bit of both.
I don't know about you, but I enjoy this drama WHILE making some money.
It better not break at the end though. I like this toy.
Agreed! Who needs Facebook nowadays anyway?
Man, that thought feels dirty. Are we just tiny parts of a grand social experiment?
I haven't cashed out yet to fiat, but maybe if/when I do I'll be a bit less salty about my part in all this. At least I'll be walking away with dollars in my pockets, and maybe no small amount of blood on my hands.
Hopefully none of us will be cashing out anytime soon!
Use the witness vote system already in place to allow the witnesses to inact a ban hammer of sorts, boom done. And it's still decentralized.
Witness voting is stake based.
...annnnnd we are back at square 1.
A community brings this to the witnesses, witnesses vote amongst each other to impose mass vote, users do the research and make the final choice. Rarely used, but would show fuckers the potential losses of coming with that bullshit. We already have mass voting built in. And think about it, how else does a decentralized platform protect itself? Fb,YouTube centralized control mass bans people, I'm not talking that we do that- but we have to protect ourselves too. That's why the flags are in play, but they aren't working.
Thank you for showing us this because we all benefit from observing these transactions on the blockchain. That is a great strategy you shared here to last minute hit a voting bot with a big bid and then clean up the curation rewards. For this reason it is ideal to use voting bots that do some good and give back to eliminate the pure profit motive and unhappiness from getting a vote less than bid for. Sometimes for things to get better they have to get a lot worse.
For being an author, I have went through this same dilemma. Why post on Steem when I can make more filming a video course? I keep posting because when we focus completely on rewards and compare to what others are getting, we are guaranteed unhappiness no matter how much we are making. When we focus on how we can help each other, the rewards on each individual post are less important.
"That is a great strategy you shared here to last minute hit a voting bot with a big bid and then clean up the curation rewards."
Honestly, that's the least of my objections in this post, and practically thrown in as a cherry on top.
"Why post on Steem when I can make more filming a video course?"
The real question is, why post on 6500 times on Steem for 6+ months when someone else will just make that with 30 clicks? What incentive is there to provide value to make this platform work when this goes on?
PS - I'm fine with my rewards.
The problem is my cubicle-mate is doing no work, and making 10000x my salary. Right in front of my face.
It's hard to find a more effective way to kill productive motivation than that scenario.
I feel ya' Iam just starting to become aware of these issues in more depth However, I think ONE key to moving forward - and not get distracted by this kind of b.s. - is to focus MORE on the "social capital" building rewards from my efforts. That is, I have met LOTS of good people here, and if the whole thing were to go "belly up" I will have STILL gained SIGNIFICANTLY, above and beyond the ~ $500 in BTC I investing to get things rolling. Just my take on things...
Good investment level. Don't add more.
Agreed. It was just BTC profit which SUCCESSFULLY served its purpose of getting me over "the hump". Now I have ENOUGH of a network to be able to turn out $10+ for each post and I am CONTENT with that for now. IN ADDITION to that I have made SERIOUS GAINS in learning and connections which are worth FAR BEYOND the initial $500, so there are ZERO complaints on my end. In fact, I would even CONTINUE engaging with this platform if, for any reason, the monetary incentive should disappear. As you are surely aware, "social capital" is AS VALUABLE, if not MORE than monetary -- but BOTH are ideal...
Most of the people who pretend to be care the community are all hypocrites, they do and earn by doing the very same thing that they are punishing others doing that and acts like god. If you have VP that normal user can't counter then you can do anything here as you want and those won't be considered as abuse. Because noone can raise their voice at all. If someone do he and his voice will be burried under the ground.
Sad but true.
rich are becoming richer and richer ..
I feel what you want to pay attention at.It's a real problem of such platfrorms. I've come here from the Russian clon of Steemit and there was the same situation, endless copypaste and plagiarism. There were some methods of struggle with it but rather useless.. and allpeople were shouting about quality content. Then boosters came there..and what do you think? all those shouters start to boost their posts without any wish to make smth unique and interesting. Money makes people keep silent -)
Here on Steemit I am calmer about this problem because I can do nothing with it.. Do you think anybody can?
I'd be writing anyhow, and steemit at least gives me something for it. For someone who doesn't start jonesing when they go too long without writing, though... I dunno.
I'm fine with my rewards.
The problem is my cubicle-mate is doing no work, and making 10000x my salary. Right in front of my face.
It's hard to find a more effective way to kill productive motivation than that scenario.
You mean Steemit is not all unicorns and rainbows?
Really, the vote bots need to be moderated closely by responsible humans and bidders should be vetted/held to some sort of standard. I'm not sure what the standard should be, but the way things currently are definitely lends itself to the kind of maddening manipulation and abuse you outline here.
Meh. Placeholder...
Definitely can be frustrating, especially when fairly new to this and trying to figure out what works. Thank you for your Post.
Following.
@ohicklin
and thank you again for your support.
You got it, friend.
Surely there are enough honorable people on this platform to counteract these leeches. One possibility is a limit on selfvotes to a percentage of SP or once a day or something. Reputation could also be used as a scale for how much one could selfvote. For me, (a little minnow) i think i will delegate some SP to someone willing to take on this abuse.
Good job to you and the others who are pointing this out. Those who run Steemit better take notice and act accordingly soon, or people will lose faith in the crypto we are trying so hard to promote as the next best thing in 2018.
Down with bots and self voting! Give money to the hard workers!
I have been talking with witnesses about implementing a mass vote system so when users like this get caught out then the witnesses can initiate a vote. Flags obviously don't work and we lose more as a platform by allowing this bullshit
Thanks for your post / Resteeming / Not sure how all this gets resolved
I appreciate the resteem, Clumsy.
Don't trade all that AG in for SBD yet...(or ever).
Nope. This place isn't content driven. Far from it. If you got no Steem, you got no engine to take off on the platform. You probably already noticed, but some whales are in Kahoots with the voting - They circle jerk each other to get a bigger cut of the pie.
"STINC sits by with enough stake to neuter both this and the hateful flagging wars without breaking a sweat"
And why "neuter the hateful flagging wars"?
They are bullish for STEEM and more so for SBD.
You realize they have millions of unused SP/VP, right?
That placeholder crap needs to be ruthlessly downvoted
Self Vote Abuse is completely out of hand. Steemit Inc needs to step in and sort it out as they're the only ones with the amount of Steem Power required to counter it:
https://steemit.com/steemitabuse/@steempolice/steem-has-no-future-unless-self-vote-abuse-is-stopped-steemit-inc-and-whales-do-your-part
Yeah they have like 40% of all steem from their pre mine lol. Come on guys
That's a very conservative estimate, or the amount we can prove they have.
Which would be already plenty enough to shut down any self vote abuse we're seeing, and without breaking a sweat.
"STINC sits by with enough stake to neuter both this and the hateful flagging wars without breaking a sweat"
STINC and @ned zzzzzz...............................
@lexiconical thanks for bring this to light. i hope the community and developer can address and improve this problem for the overall benefit of the community. upvoted your post! you deserve it
Thank you, friend.
Do whatever the Steemit system has setup to allow you to do to become the millionaire you where ment to be. It's not abuse.
