Disclaimer: This is not me trying to hate on anything. Just sharing some point of views from the now “unheard” voices of Steemit and my two cents. I want Steemit to flourish and turn out great after all. But this needs to be discussed. I don’t like to complain. Don’t think this post does this. But the consequences of the reputation system are bad for some. Feel the need to stand up for them.
Here we go.
There’s a lot of uproar in the Steemit chat.
For those that haven’t noticed yet: there is a new reputation system in place.
If you’re below zero Steemit is done for you.
Invisible posts. Where you earned a couple cents before, your chances to earn anything just approached zero.
Now, the reputation system isn’t all bad. It makes sense in a couple cases.
Users that spam and only post plagiarized content should not appear in the newsfeed. It can get quite bad.
Bots. A debatable topic.
But the negative implications are what bother people.
As usual.
People don’t remember all the good stuff you did for them but the one bad thing you do will stick in their minds for eternity.
Whatever.
People are confused.
How did they get such a bad reputation? Will this endanger free speech on Steemit?
It might. Since, providing constructive criticism has not been appreciated too much so far.
So, if your “truth” offends the wrong people and they flag your posts you’re done. Not sure how much voting power is needed to move people's reputation into a different categroy.
The “just keep on posting and try hard” mindset won’t work.
It is censorship in the form of agreement with the big guys. Or the bigger guys. Anybody with sufficient power to destroy your reputation.
Not saying the “whales and dolphins” are not able to decide which content is best for the platform.
But if you started off on the wrong foot with anybody or made someone angry you’re playing with fire.
Another big thing is the retroactive impact of the reputation system.
Establishing a reputation system is not bad. Explaining it. And then from here on forward these are the rules to play by. Sounds reasonable.
I think anybody could agree with that.
Punishing people for what they did is not so great. Without them being aware of the consequences. Since the consequences have not been in place.
Now, I don’t know how much it takes to increase the reputation rank but I can imagine that for anybody <-2, it’s game over.
Yes, even with “putting in enormous amounts of effort”.
Will this change Steemit? For sure.
Ruin it? Tough to say. I’m not here to predict the future.
But it does have some negative implications as of now. The original post talked about an update already in plan.
Let’s see how it will play out.
Maybe repeated, excessive downvoting of one user will be considered “gaming the algo” and somehow prevented.
Who knows.
Anyways, I just wanted to give a voice to the now unheard.
I don't know how it will evolve from here on out. What happens with the reputation. How much it will/can change.
Maybe the devs will think about this again.
All I can say is that I observe frustration.