What is quality? Here's the google dictionary definition below. It should make it pretty clear I believe.
Quality: The standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something. A distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something.
Now…What do you see as quality? A difficult question to answer without knowing what is being rated or judged and probably one with many and varied answers.
A quality person is different to a quality pizza, modern-day car or a tennis player for instance. They’re conflicting things so one can't be rated as greater in quality than the next. But they're still quite possibly quality in their own right.
To accurately determine quality similar things need to be measured, as google said above. But yet, is a modern day vehicle able to be compared, and rated from a quality perspective, to a vehicle from 1917? Kind of, but they are probably still too dissimilar to accurately and effectively rate them.
Staying with the vehicle concept another thing to consider is what purpose the vehicle has. Can a Lambretta scooter be effectively compared with a MotoX bike? Could one determine one’s quality over another? Again, maybe but probably not effectively. Both are vehicles, but completely different. So the purpose of a thing may need to be considered, and we all have different purposes for things do we not? src
Let’s compare two similar motor bikes, that ought to be easy…One, a Honda CBR1000 and the other a Yamaha R1 (1000cc), both road-going sports bikes, similar size, weight, performance, features and cost. Let’s add in a person to rate the quality of these bikes…Umm, let’s use an 11 year old from Somalia. Hmm, maybe a true and correct assessment of quality might be hard to come by in this case. Let’s use Valentino Rossi, 9-times motorcycle racing World Champion instead. Now we’re talking. We’ll get a very qualified assessment of the quality of both bikes based on his experience, expertise and personal choice. After all, he raced both bikes.Now Valentino, would you mind assessing the quality of the stem-cell sample taken from a donor and its suitability for the transplant-recipient? Hmm...Quality isn't so simple to define maybe.
Based on the ridiculous examples above I would have to say that quality, and determining or judging it, depends on many, many factors including the item, thing or person. Also the application, suitability and purpose of the item, thing or person. Also, the person doing the judging comes into play along with all their experience (or lack of), prejudices, opinions, allegiances, education (or lack of), culture, intelligence and so on... Agreed? (FYI...Doesn't matter if you don't.)
WTF am I trying to get at here? Well, I ran across a steem user complaining about the lack of any good content here; The lack of any quality content were the words used. They also complained about not getting any whale-votes. The user also suggested a tag, purportedly to be used by the content-creator when the post was of "good quality" making quality content easier to find; Easier for the whales to find I think is what they were alluding to. With HF21 coming up and the flagging changes that come with it I thought it might be relevant to mention this occurrence.
As I tried to establish previously quality, good or bad, is not an easy thing to define, certainly not collectively, and for each of us it will be different. I suggested to the user that the assessment of a post, a determination of good or bad quality, can only really be up to the curator, the individual absorbing the content. Sure, the author can call it or tag it as quality, but does that make it so for everyone else? No it does not.
I used my own blog for an example. I think my posts are ok, not amazing, life-changing or containing of any intellectually-oriented content, but ok; I never finished school and so I do my best. But, you may think they suck ass! That'd be your right based on whatever parameters you were working around in your judgement of quality content too! Have at it. Does your opinion of it mean I then change my mind to think it was shit, or someone else for that matter? No, not necessarily. If you think it's poor quality then it is, to you. It doesn't mean others will, or do.
In my mind there’s a couple of things to be addressed here, foremost is the misconception that quality is a simple thing to define when clearly it is multi-faceted. It is up to the individual who has their own parameters in mind, conscious or unconscious. Secondly, is the belief that steem is devoid of quality content. Wrong. It can be a elusive but a little effort will unearth some excellent content...In my humble opinion of course.
With HF21 on the way the issue of judging content to be of quality or not is going to arise a little more, at least for a period of time, and it may be quite a contentious topic. People will flag others simply because they disagree, don't like the user for whatever reason, or because a blog doesn't use the right spelling or punctuation perhaps. There'll be lot's of self-justifications for it I'm sure. Justification for prejudice is the same in real life; There's many rationalisations for it.
Obviously the user I refer to has a clear idea of what they determine to be quality as far as other people's work goes, and finds most of the content on steem wanting; Lacking in quality. I perused 10-12 of that users blogs myself and can only conclude that the user considers their own work to be quality, especially considering the whale-vote comment and that's that user's right of course! It's a free space to explore and post with impunity and if one finds a blog to be lacking in quality they have the ability to click-through and leave...It's pretty simple. Just in the same way we all have the right and ability to see quality in the places we choose, on and off steem.
I feel there is some very good quality here, in blogs and in the people that write them. I also believe each content-consumer can assist in lifting the "quality" of the content they read through engagement with the creator. It makes for a better experience. I certainly feel many of those I follow are quality people, in their own way of course, and engaging with them, even on content that I don't find very interesting or well-written, makes for a more quality experience in general. After all, the content created by someone else is their's and they can create with impunity here on steem. And that's what freedom of expression and speech is all about is it not? A person having the ability to express themselves in the way they choose.
I see many poor quality blogs, [in my opinion], and I simply don't comment or vote - I move on. It's my right to do so, just as it is those user's right to blog about what they want and in the manner they want. However, sometimes I engage and with the creator and find that my experience improves. I'm not saying you have to, but for me it seems to work sometimes.
Looking for negativity [poor quality] will find it, the same for positivity and here on steem it's possible to find both. The choice rests with the content-consumer.
Anyway, I just wanted to say all of this. I'm not really sure why...Maybe because I expect to see a few flags on my blogs. I mean, surely not everyone actually likes my work right? I'll probably get flagged for posting about guns or culling or my wife, or travel experiences, my cats, weekend activities, hiking, camping, my creative work, photos...Get the idea? I'll probably get flagged no matter what. Why? Because everyone's idea of quality is different.
I'm not sure how I'll feel about getting flagged, probably not so good especially if the work meant something to me...But at the end of the day if it meant something to me, enough to write and post about, then a flag can't change that. It will still mean something to me after a flag. Quality is a personal thing and if one feels they have created something of quality, then they have regardless of other people's opinions.
If you find this post to be of poor quality you know where the flag button is. It's your right as a human to express yourself.
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P.s. Since writing this blog I noticed my blog on my wife's candle-making was flagged by 