Learning to recognize the bullshit fast is probably one of the most important skills a new Steemian could have. Hell, it is an incredibly useful set of skills to have in the real world too, however, today I am strictly talking Steem-iverse. Where ever there is opportunity there will always be those looking for a way to manipulate that opportunity to their own advantage and most often without regard to the system or others damaged by their poaching ways. Sadly, Steemit is no different. Or is it? At Steemit’s core is a philosophy and framework designed specifically to snuff out “trash for cash”. If that is the case, you may be asking yourself “Well… why do I still keep seeing all these bullshit posts everywhere?”. The answer comes in the form of a one word answer and that answer is… “You”! You are the secret to Steemit’s success and literally the guardian at the gate. Let me explain.
Steemit is built with the inherent philosophy “Quality is King”. Web professionals, marketing specialists, and SEO experts are all extremely familiar with this concept. The rest of you very well may have only the vaguest idea of what I am referring to. This section is for you! If you are already up to speed in this department, you may wish to skip ahead to the following section and get right to the tips. Otherwise, here we go!
When discussing or debating “quality” of content, I feel it is important to establish the criteria by which quality is defined. For all intents and purposes, the definition of quality will be empirically relative to meeting a set of standards and NOT an opinion of the content’s worth. These empirical standards are defined in the original Steemit whitepapers and various soft fork and hard fork publications put out by the official Steemit team. If you are not familiar with those documents already, I highly recommend taking the time to become more familiar with the fundamentals of how this incredible social community works. Steemit is truly a different kind of beast from the inside out and if you intend to leverage Steemit to the fullest you should at least know how it works (check the bottom of the post for various reference links). The super shortened version goes something like this… Original content welcome, keep it legal, create value (be creative), make that cheddar baby(!), you are all governing yourselves, aaaaand “GO”!
Plagiarism is the exact opposite of original content. Stealing people’s work and claiming it as one’s own is public enemy number one. You may have noticed the trending topic over the weekend. Aside from being annoying it also breaks the second concept “keep it legal” as Plagiarism is absolutely, NOT a legal activity. I could keep explaining how bad plagiarism is but I’m sure you all get that already as we all work too damn hard to have someone else living off our talents.
Public enemy number two has got to be the trash-for-cash community. The trash-for-cash community regurgitates other people’s works. Giving the originators of the content credit but providing no real content of their own to again capitalize off someone else’s work with little to no effort of their own. These individuals are just as bad as the plagiarists and can be just as difficult at times to identify.
This leaves our third public enemy to steer clear of, the ponzi-spammers. This last group of undesirables is just as detestable as the previous two groups if not even more. The ponzi-spammers are like the leeches of the Steem-iverse, only taking away from the community what they can steal without contributing to the community in anyway at all. Even the plagiarists and the trash-for-cash community provide some visibility of content by sharing - all be it unoriginal and under false pretense. The ponzi-spammers are beyond lazy and unwilling or unintelligent enough to create their own content. Instead, their m.o. is the rape of the system. Pure exploitation. Trying to figure ways of using the system against itself and exploiting vulnerabilities for the express purpose of personal wealth with zero respect or regard for the exploited system.
Not all these baddies are evil geniuses. There are plenty of morons in the mix that will be easy to spot as well. Either way they are a complete waste of time and will leave you spinning your wheels for nothing. The plagiarists get flagged down eventually right along with any upvotes wasted on lies. Same with the TFC community. The ponzi-spammers only take. We are the guardians at the gate! It is our job to get these assholes out of here and back on facebook or wherever they came from.
Tip 1: Check out the Author Stats – Reputation VS Interaction
Clicking on the author’s name will bring up their blog page. Look for the number representing their reputation represented inside a circle in the header section at the top of the page. Comparing this number with a few of the other numbers will give us a great way to deduce a few things about the author in question. For example, an author with a relatively high reputation (perhaps 50 or higher) would most likely have a proportionately high number of followers and posts. In under a second we can easily identify an imbalance clueing us into a need for closer inspection almost instantly. Should the reputation be closer to a noob account (like 30 and under) but still reflect tons of follows/followers and posts, that is a strong sign something is off with the account. Either the content is low quality for natural reasons (just poorly created, useless content to the majority of current Steemit users) or there is something nefarious going on. If you are a glass half full type of person you can dive into the author’s body of work and see for yourself. Otherwise, beat feet and move on.
Same for the reverse. Someone with a high reputation but literally no posts, comments, re-steems or follows but has 1,000s of followers is probably up to shenanigans. Beware!
Tip2: Post Volume, Not Post Value
This one is just as short and sweet as the title. Quality original content takes time to create. Creating more than 4 posts a day while maintaining a high standard of quality is no short order even for the super talented. After the 4th post every post following loses 20% of the potential earnings. By the 9th post per day, all profit is forfeited. Any author worth a damn won’t post more than 4 posts a day. If you see 5 or more daily posts, that is a clear sign someone is on the grind. Either out of ignorance as to how the system works and in the hopes of working their way into some wealth or intentionally trying to nickel and dime their way forward (again ignorant of the deterrents in place).
Don’t worry about the post values. There are a ton of factors involved in predicting the success of a post’s potential profitability. A low value is not necessarily a bad sign. Even comparing a user’s following to their average post price won’t give you an accurate prediction without clicking into a post and checking it out yourself. Consistent $20-$30 posts could just be a sign of a limited audience due to a niche topic or maybe they always post at the worst possible time? Instead look for parallel trending patterns. Meaning if the post payouts trend up at a rate similar/relative to the increase of followers. That is a strong sign of consistent interest retention and a testament to the quality of the followers that the author or artist might have.
Tip 3: ReSteems NOT Tail Coating
Sharing content other Steemians have created should only be done via ReSteeming! Anything else is stealing, credit given or not. Saying “This video was great!” and embedding a fellow Steemians youtube directly into their own posts, cuts out the original content creator. That’s gratuitous money that should be working a portion back to the original creator. It’s sleazy, lazy and not worth your time. If you see someone trying to ride someone else’s tailcoats. Show some integrity and take a second to see if you can hunt down the originator on Steemit and follow them directly. Cut out the middle and starve the spineless cowards pretending to pay tribute when in reality, they are hoping to profit from someone else’s hard work. Even if the originator of the content is not on Steemit, doesn’t give anyone the right to profit from it on Steemit without permission via express written consent and credit.
Tip 4: The Wallet, Duh!
Check the wallet! Blockchain transparency at its finest. You can see everyone’s wallets and payout histories. With this information, you can compare with the blog history and social interaction stats and get a great idea of what type of Steemian you are interacting with. Priceless! Have standards. Be picky! Remember this whole Steem-iverse is designed around the concept of quality. Watch for the signs, do your homework, and hedge your bets!
Tip 5: Resource Credits
And finally, the big one. Plagiarism. When someone has the stones to simply cut, copy and paste. If a content creator is being straight forward the resource credits will be posted either accompanying each instance where applicable or sometimes saved until the end to help preserve the presentation of the content. Take a second to see if proper credit is given. “Quality” content creators will never have a problem throwing in the extra couple lines somewhere within their posts.
Choose Wisely
Using these tips should help you better assess and align yourself with a strong supportive community to help your blog succeed fast. So, there you have it. 5 tips to quickly and easily get an idea of exactly who you are choosing to rub elbows with!
https://steem.io/SteemWhitePaper.pdf
Resources
https://steem.io/SteemWhitePaper.pdf
https://github.com/steemit/steem/releases
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