I have been here since early december. When I came, there was only a handfull of let's plays in D.tube, and I hoped that adding variety of different let's plays would get me great attention, and grab some decent followers. I got some but not enough, and even less I got people with meaningfull upvotes.
I think that at about january, there was huge influx of new let's play videos. I tried to see if there was anything intresting, dropped few upvotes + comments. Had about 0 interaction back. Most of those people were some youtubers who just vomited few videos only to be disappointed to their payouts. Yes, you can't just expect to make money by dropping a video and then forget it. Quickly thought solution to this has been that they get voted by D.tube or some curation-bot. Those made them earn a little, but much less than from youtube. I think all of them gave up.
Now looking at let's plays of D.tube and Dlive, there are only few who actually make consistently money with their videos. and
, who have been here for some time, have their devoted followers, who do not give a damn to look for other let's plays. There is also
who has a whale friend. Yes, having a whale friend matters shit ton on this platform. Yes, I have not asked them to come and see me, because I heard it is not cool.
My own experience with trying to curate content, thats creator does not give a damn about comments, and making let's plays, hoping to improve, but getting damn demotivated when there aren't too many new faces, has been very exhausting. It is supprisingly hard to curate and produce.
Attempted solutions!
One suggested and currently popular idea has been that vote-bots are going to help people grow. That is not a solution, because at the end of the day bidding to a bot is just going to help you by how much you were able to bid. Person without much get's less than a person who already has plenty. It is just self up-voting. Besides, D.tube takes 25% cut. You likely just loose. Ironically whole concept of those bots is just to "centralize" the curation.
One of the other attempted solution has been all these D.tube/Dlive upvotes, in hopes to retain the content creators. Problem is that right at the moment you stop receiving those, you are dead, unless you are already one of those few I mentioned above. This approach also seems to make a bubble. Bubble were big creators get constant upvotes from D.tube/Dlive and their own followers. Everything outside is unmeaningful, as those content creators don't realy wonder outside their already established content feed. They just end up like some artists who run on a social-security, and constantly compliment each others "important" content on their small "community".
Solution!
I heard some time ago about a whale who had delegated 5000 steem power to bunch of others. I don't remember who he was, but his idea was that problem of steem is that there isn't a middle-class, thus creating it very hard for minnows and other small deals to make any money. What he hoped to achieve was that by spreading that power to small deals is going to help them give meaningful upvotes, because he understood that bunch of people are going to be able to curate much more efficiently than a whale.
People looking for let's plays are very few if any. People who use youtube don't care about using D.tube or Dlive, because they don't have to. With steem block-chain, they could get paid, but they don't. Because no one upvotes them and they are likely not going to invest into steem. They won't give money, they won't make money, why the heck would they move from youtube to some buggy Dlive or D.tube. Doesn't make sense.
So as a solution, I suggest that those with plenty of steem-power paired with 100% voting power constantly, delegate it to some small viewers with promise that they will use it to curate others content. Or simply start looking at their comment section and find real people and give them good upvotes. Not some 5% upvotes (unless you are a serious hodler-whale) but some upvotes that will actually make them earn enough steem-power to make them give more worthyfull upvotes.
When we get viewers with meaningfull upvotes, it is also eventually going to eliminate need of any "centralized curation-plan" for those who come from youtube, because they can be discovered by viewers with meaningfull upvotes! If we don't make strong viewers, and more content creators jump aboard, it is going to be harder and harder, and we will just have another wave that dries out!
Resteem if you agree or find this important. I want that people see this.