This is a re-post of a comment I made under Dan's recent post and I wanted it to get some more exposure and responses from the Community. I've been asked to re-post a few of my longer comments/rants as separate post but I didn't really see the point, until now. Sometimes comments simply get lost or for whatever reason people only like replying to the the original post. For that reason I am re-posting this one on it's own with some minor adjustments for clarity. It's kind of ironic I'm re-posting this, isn't it? ;)
Original Content
Over the past few months we've been testing content in an attempt to find out what would be upvoted here on Steemit. One thing we've noticed is that "original content" has a different meaning for different people.
What does "Original Content" mean to Steemians?
For some "original content" means that the author of the post created the content that is being posted on Steem. That content could have been created 10 years ago, posted on several other social media sites and will still be considered "original content" by the voters.
For others "original content" means that the content the author posted here on Steem is the first iteration of said content (it does not exist anywhere else on the Internet). To me personally, this is my definition of "original content" when it comes time to vote on Steem.
CrossPosting ≠ Original Content for Steem
Crossposting content from other social media sites does nothing to help the search engine rankings for Steem and some would argue it hurts Steem, especially when large quantities of duplicate content exist. Some content creators take the time to create an entirely new piece of work here on Steem and I feel that they should be rewarded more than crossposters who simply copypasta year(s) old work. These crosspost should also include a disclaimer alerting voters to the fact that the material is not original to Steem and provide a link to the original version.
Search engines love original content and hate duplicate content. A website's ranking and reputation is lowered if it contains duplicate content, especially in large quantities. Currently Steem voters appear to be rewarding anyone that can copypasta years old work from one website over to Steem. We found this out early when we posted a three year old blog post here and no one called us out ... well one person almost did by pointing out how it did not seem to fit with the times. When we explained how old the post actually was it made sense to them, but we still got the upvotes.
Crossposting Bonanza = Less Rewards for OC
Does this mean we can go back and copy every article we've ever published off of our blogs here to Steem and they will be upvoted thousands of dollars? The short answer to that question is apparently ... yes. There are people doing exactly that right now and they are being rewarded handsomely for their duplicate content that took no more effort than to copypasta from one site over to Steem and do a little reformatting.
At the same time we have content creators providing truly original content to Steem that exist nowhere else on the Internet that receive little to no upvotes. Personally I find this troublesome from a search engine optimization standpoint and for the future of Steem. Will Steem simply become the place where people come to dump their old content that received no compensation in the past to make a quick buck here on Steem? Is that what the Steem Community wants to happen? Is this truly "original content" by the Steem Communities definition?
Crossposting Bots
Currently we have a bot that will crosspost for you. I feel this bot would better serve the Steem Community if it's actions could be reversed. Have the author post the content to Steem first, then crosspost that content to the other social media sites, if that is possible.
Make your vote count!
Is crossposted material as valuable as original content to Steem? It's not to Google or any other search engine. In fact it is far less valuable and carries a "fine", if you will, for it's existence on Steem. The Steemit.com website will be pushed down in the search engine rankings due to the duplicate content. Voters need to vote appropriately when dealing with a known crosspost, but without the author pointing it out, it is up to the Community to do a little work. User 
We're unable to get rid of the post and save the site from the duplicate content, but we can at least stop rewarding this behavior which can be detrimental to Steemit.com's search engine rankings and reputation. It is up to each individual voter to decide whether or not to upvote crossposted content, but keep in mind that your vote could ultimately make Steem a duplication machine for content from other social media sites like Reddit, Medium or Tumblr, or make Steem something unique that stands out on the search engines and is known for truly "original content".
Conclusion (tl;dr)
- Should a content creator who crosspost be rewarded?
- Do we want Steem to become a duplication factory for old Internet content and continue rewarding crosspost even though it hurts Steemit.com?
- Personally I would rather reward content creators who are posting truly "original content" here on Steem; content that does not exist on any other website and thereby increases the search engine prominence of Steem, instead of giving it the reputation of a repository for duplicate content and hurting it's reputation with search engines.