Trending page drama! Do you want to see things change? Open your eyes to human curator projects!
The best solutions are often found right under our nose!
Steemit.com is still in Beta, and new projects will keep sprouting like mushrooms. There are no written rules on how to use the platform, and things are wide open! In my honest opinion, this is how the platform was meant to be working! But, I also understand that it can cause a lot of frustration among users.
Voting bots and trending page drama!
At the moment of writing this post, there is a lot going on about the voting bots and the fact that people use/abuse those bots to get their posts on the trending page. I believe that the community is divided between those who are pro bot and those who feel strongly negative about them! I don't want to say its 50/50, but to me, it feels that way! Which, as a reaction, causes a lot of discussions among users. A discussion is not bad, it opens doors and in most cases shows what the community needs are and shows what steps need to be taken to allow growth of the platform itself and its users!
Reading a lot of the replies on posts that point out frustration, anger, the need for a change, made me realize that many people share their opinion without offering a solution, changing their own behavior or start changing things their selves! You can scream all you want, but nothing will change until the first step in the new direction is a fact.
I can only express my own opinion, and if you want to see change, you need to open your eyes to projects which are already there or start a project to make that change happen.
Personally, I am not against bots and I have used them in the past and might use them in the future. Granted, I never use a vote bot to get myself on the trending page. I merely use them to get a little bit more visibility on my projects or stories. I do see them as a promoting tool, a way to advertise your work/projects and I am not stating that this is good or bad but it is what feels good for me at this moment. I believe the vote bots will not leave, nor do I want them to leave! But to make a change there needs to be an option provided for those who want to embrace something else.
And here comes the funny part!
Okay, maybe I am the only one who finds this funny but one of the solutions is already there, yet not many people see the real value behind it!
Human curators and their projects!
I think most of us know @OCD and @Curie, two curation projects which have been around for a long time by now. It shows if you look at their history that supporting projects like these brings value to the platform and happiness to those who are getting recognized for their content. A win-win situation if you ask me. Next, to these two big accounts, there are a lot of human curators starting projects or already building an audience. Sadly, they are not being seen or lack the support where it's needed.
To be able to make a change, support is the most important thing to have! Be this support in spreading the word, help with the project itself or delegation. Without that support, a project like my own will never grow big enough to make a difference, and that is a sad thing!
I am not writing this to find investors for only myself but for all those smaller projects out there!
If you want to see things change we need your help!
I run a project called "You got snekked!" A curation project I started after winning a huge amount of SP from MSP-make a minnow! I am one of those persons who wanted to use that delegation for something good! I debated on what to do and found human curating the best way to give back to the community! The plan was to do this for a month, the time I would have the delegation, and start something different after the month would be over. However, I fell in love with my project because of all the wonderful feedback I got while running it! I decided to keep the project running no matter how small.
Along the way I found out how HARD it is to get support as in delegation! But, I do understand why this is happening! Selling or renting out your SP makes you more than when you make a choice to delegate to a project like mine or others. However, if none of these new curation projects get the support, they need there will be no change in that sector at all! I asked questions, I entered my name on lists, I read and did promote my project everywhere possible and it did not make a difference! This setback is not going to stop me in any way because I believe in hard work!
Human curating projects can only make a big impact with support of the community!
Again, I can only speak for myself and the way I see things for my project. I am proud of the $2.00 vote I can give! It took me almost two years to get there by working hard. The moment my vote grew in strength made me feel like I was and still am on top of the world! However, my vote will not make a difference on the trending page! Seeing I vote with my account on the posts we curate it's not manageable to bring the good content we find to a high enough level.
I am a human curator and this is what I do!
I spend hours and hours, and I really mean hours, scanning the feed to find interesting posts, well-written posts, great content that might bring value to the platform. Of course, what I find good might not be good for all others. I realize that this will be a never-ending struggle. And I know the curators who started to help me on this project do the same. I write two posts a week, Monday and Fridays, sharing links to the posts which have been curated by us. So, not only do we give them a vote and reply, but we also provide more visibility for them because we tell our followers about this content!
I power up as much as possible to grow my account so I will have a bigger impact! I do not have the funds to buy Steem every week nor monthly to become a whale in weeks! Gosh, I wish! I also vote for my own posts to force a faster growth in that direction. Which is not liked by some on the platform either! The struggle you see, is hard! You want to make a difference, but the odds are against you! You keep the smile on your face even when things become though! You wonder, should I scream to be heard? Should I make a scene to be seen? In all honesty, even I wonder at times if what I am doing is worth it!
Lucky for me, I know that what I am doing is worth my time and effort because I see the value in projects like the one I do. So, to those amazing people out there, who want to see a change and are looking for a solution...Have a look at the human curator projects who are already there! Look for those who are willing to spend their time on reading and finding good content for the platform! The best solutions are often found right under our nose!
If you want to know more about my curation project "You Got Snekked" feel free to contact me on Discord or steemit.chat. I can be found there under the same name or Snekky. I am more than willing to talk about this, opinions and other solutions but as long as no steps are taking to make a change happen we will all be stuck in the same room with the same fights over and over! I am not saying that this is the best way to solve the problem but at least it's a step in the right direction!