What if I told you that your reputation means nothing to me? Would you go mad? Would you flag me? Hate me? Or probably verbally assault me? I couldn't give a care in the world. We all know how things work on Steemit. You can use your reputation in order to phase or impress noobs, however that's all you could ever achieve with it. Apart from demonetizing posts you disagree with or sending posts to the trending page. Same patterns being constantly repeated regardless of quality or content, same upvotes from the same people to the same authors. Yeah, you might like people's work, who am I to judge?
I'm just a guy. That serves as a disability nowadays. Being a guy, your worth is only measured by your wallet. You have a million duties in the world as a man and you're always the one to blame if the skies are falling down. I was born Greek and therefore had to serve my country's military for nine months getting paid 6 euros a month. A slave to the government for almost a year, only receiving 6 euros a month! There's no way one can survive in Greece with such amounts of money available. I sacrificed my youth in order to get my Engineering Diploma and as I graduated I had to leave everything behind, including my career, in order to become a servant to the government. I did it as I was forced to do it. I do love my country, but I'm no freaking slave. I need money in order to survive and pay for my house's expenses, however the government couldn't give a FUD. Nobody gave a FUD if I'm a scientist or not either. I was born a guy, therefore I'm a slave. I've been totally disrespected and exploited by my country's governments over the years. I know what injustice feels like. I've watched them rob my future. I couldn't give a FUD about your parentheses.
See this whole phenomenon is not new to me. I hate to say it but we will sooner or later resemble Facebook in the way the upvotes are distributed. Nobody but minnows upvote others with no bias. Most whales around just upvote the same people all over. The same friends of theirs. They can do whatever the FUD they want with their stake. I'm just using my brain and practicing my right to post my humble opinion. If you keep upvoting whatever the heck appears in front of you blindly, then people like me will stop providing knowledge and quality. I will stick to making memes and creating a network through discord etc. I will stick to gathering SP and upvoting myself and my buddies as well. If we don't reward quality, then we won't make it the norm.
I joined Steemit on March 2017 but had to join the Greek army on May. Needless to say I had no internet, no computer, no time and no right to be online, so no time for Steemit. Eventually, I started using Steemit again in late November. My account is more than 10 months old but no serious progress. I come across users who have been using the platform a lot less that have already surpassed my progress on Steemit. With less than half my posts. With little to no quality in their posts.
I grew up with everyone trying to convince me that I should just focus on my studies as the only way of gathering wealth and therefore providing a better life for myself and family. I was a talented musician, but they wanted me to be a scientist. I was a talented athlete as well, again they wanted me to be a scientist. No money for Musicians or Atheletes son, study. Well guess what, there's no money or jobs for scientists in Greece either. Even if you do get hired, you're paid the minimum wage of a worker. I sacrificed my youth in order to become a useful member of society only to be disrespected and left with no choices but to either move away from my family in order to get a proper job abroad or waste my skills in Greece.
Then I got introduced to Steemit and started writing. I thought I could finally make some money based on hard-earned skills acquired through sacrifice and effort. By the way I'm trilingual. But then I noticed it doesn't matter at all. It is not about quality nor information, it is more about networking and acquaintances. Want to prove me wrong? You can't. Same upvotes are blindly given to the same people by the same people.
You're free to do it! Like I'm free to point it out and laugh. Thinking long term, I can see Steemit not achieving its true potential of becoming the biggest blockchain based library ever and it's a pity. I can see Steemit becoming another social website where celebrities' word matters a lot more than scientists' or lecturers'. It is not about knowledge and information anymore.
I will keep doing my thing, I will keep sharing my best knowledge. I will also keep dissing. You can flag this post all you want. I used to care about my reputation level, but not anymore. It means nothing. It only indicates how much you have earned so far, it has nothing to do with credibility, knowledge or work ethic. I've seen users surpass my reputation level within a month, by only posting two paragraphs of nonsense twice in a week.
With great Steem Power comes great responsibility.
Thank you for your attention!
Ah, I enjoyed this mini tantrum.
