Yesterday, I wrote about having a "backup plan" when disaster strikes... the post was inspired by the DDoS attack on Steemit that rendered the site almost unusable for about nine hours on Thursday night and Friday morning.
Today I wanted to briefly touch on something interesting-- and to me a little alarming-- that arose out of this outage.
Who's REALLY Running the Show? When Technology Takes Over
How is YOUR web out together?
If you're interested in statistics and the nuts and bolts of "How Steemit is Doing," 
For example, yesterday, Steemit passed the 400,000 accounts mark! Go us!
Of course, the current reports covers the period including the site outage. Notably number of posts dropped radically, number of comments dropped radically, number of active users dropped.
What did NOT drop was the number of votes cast.
"So what?" you might be asking.
Well, that simple statistic points to the likelihood that the vast majority of voting on Steemit is done by bots, not by human beings. Which also means the vast majority of curation on Steemit is done by bots, not by human beings.
Community Building
Now, I'm not going to get into the pros and cons of bots, nor why they are good or bad... nor is this about Steemit, in particular-- but I wanted to pause and consider how COMMUNITIES are built.
Connections need a solid anchor...
Shortest possible version: Communities are built by PEOPLE. Not by technology, code or bots. The "tech" is simply a tool used by PEOPLE.
I'm not going to deny that the tech can be used by people to improve a community... the problem arises when we go down a road where we start substituting technology for people, especially in subjective areas like interpersonal dynamics and creative expression-- including art.
I keep thinking of the stereotypical meme of a college lecture hall, in which the professor's laptop is running a multimedia presentation to a roomful of smartphones, tablets and laptops.
Who's actually learning anything, there?
There's little doubt that technology has done much to improve the human experience, but let us not lose sight of the fact that said experience is-- ultimately-- "organic" and not mechanized. Robots and software may be able to "sort" us by interest and emulate some of what we do... but whether we actually like something-- and like each other, enough to form a community-- still requires the human factor, which tends to be fickle and highly unpredictable.
And-- on a more personal level-- why do we JOIN communities?
The heart of the matter...
Typically, because we are looking for human interaction... not because we are harboring secret passions to be part of a botnet.
When I look around Steemit, I won't argue that many find the rewards "cool," but the most frequently heard refrain is that it's the quality of the interactions and the real friendships people are forming that makes the site stand out. Yes, we may be here for the rewards, but as often as not what keeps us coming back is the fact that Steemit simply offers a better way to do social media.
Let us keep this firmly in mind, next time we're talking to a friend and they ask "So what's this Steemit thing you've become part of?"
Have a beautiful weekend!
DISCUSSION: What is your opinion about the blend of technology and humanity? How do you believe communities and community bonds are formed? Leave a comment and be part of the dialogue!
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The Red Dragonfly is an independent alternative art gallery located in Port Townsend, WA; showcasing edgy and unique contemporary art & handmade crafts by local and worldwide artists. All images are our own, unless otherwise credited. Where applicable, artist images used with permission.