Steemit is a model that is forever evolving. In this sense: IT's ALIVE!!!
But how can this be?
I'll try to answer this to the best of my abilities and as I understand it.
The first thing is to stop thinking about Steemit as a fixed environment. Noup!
I like to see it as a model that constantly interacts with users and changes as it does. What this means is that the model evolves the more users interact with it.
If you think about it like that, it's easy to see that rules have no place here because the longer the interactions goes the better the model will get.
*But how does a model gets better? *
Well, as confusing as this might be, by making up new rules! [ Irony alert }
The difference, for me, is that rules are emergent. That is, rules appear as the need for bettering the model arises.
Let me give you an example:
If you are new here you might not know that back in the day ( and this means 3 weeks max, so much have changed so fast here ) if you voted first on a post that went viral you'd get a big chunk of the curator reward on that post. So what happened?
Users interacted ---> Someone created bots who upvoted everything and got all the rewards.
The model reacted ---> If you vote in the first 30 minutes, you're giving up on a big part of your reward.
Boom, a rule came to be! A better model took its place. The evolution continues. The system WORKS!!
A lot of these kind of rules emerged, but we still consider steemit being "ruleless" and that's still true.
Now, you might ask, how do we know these rules are good?
First, the concept of "good" "bad" or "fair" is one that has no place here as there is nothing about the model that has to do with morality. It's all about the users interactions. If all the users were assholes, the emergent rules would be "bad" but good in the context.
Does this makes any sense? [ hope it does ]
So, we know the rules are good for the steemit by virtue that they emerged. As things change some might dissapear or change. But at the time, they were good for the model. That's all it matters.
Why is this awesome for me?
Well, there are 2 really great stuff coming out of this.
1. The model will evolve asimptotic towards perfection.
This is the model will get better forever but never perfect. Still, in 3 months, Steemit will be a different beast, a better beast.
That's great news.
2. The users are pushing the model forward.
That's the greates consequence for me. We are actively partcipiating in the evolution of this model and in making steemit better. Our voice matter. YOUR voice matters!
I can't think of any better moment for that old quote to be true
Be the change you want to see in the world - Ghandi
It's your time to get involved and make a difference. You have immense power to change the model and bring it ever closer to your vision of "perfection".
Write about it, contribute, distribute, involve yourself in all this and at one point in the future you too could say, truly
" I helped!"
Get to work:)
Good luck!