Greetings all,
Perhaps like many other content makers, I was initially very enthusiastic about getting on board with this very promising platform. The Real Wolf was just a puppy back then...but I digress. The recent dust up over Steemit inc. has renewed my interest in Steem and Steemit, and after a long break, it feels like returning to a town you knew but haven't been to for a long time: You thought that you knew the place, but everything is different than what you expected to see.
No one is happy when external conditions don't match up with the way they want things to be. Just try to take a toy from a toddler before they are done playing with it and you get the idea.
Now say that you are posting content. The toy in this case is the 'wisdom of the crowd' phenomenon.
For the unfamiliar, an example is if a crowd of people are asked to guess the weight of a cow. While one person may guess 100 lb, and someone else may guess 10,000 lb, the groups average response will come remarkably close to the actual weight of the cow.
That is the promise of Steemit, and to the extent that Steemit fulfills that promise, that is the reward for great content, it is what makes Steemit a great platform, and it is some of what adds value to Steem.
I guess you can see where I'm headed with this. Steemit as currently devised, has all the wisdom of the crowd as, say, the Iowa Democratic Caucuses.
So my point is this: To the extent that it is a 'pay to play' system; that one member's voice is amplified like Jimmy Hendrix through a pair of Marshalls with subsidized robo votes while another's is silent as a fart in a hurricane; the wisdom of the crowd phenomenon gets thrown right out the window. All that's needed is to plunk down some cash and an army of yes-bots are at your disposal, ready to inform any and all that your shit smells like a Carolina pine forest, just after the rain...in the springtime.
Now since I had this epiphany the value of Steem has dropped like 80% (like I said, I've been away for a while). Now I'm not a crypto expert, and will leave it to smarter people than me to improve on this situation. But the dramatic drop in value no doubt has something to do with this issue. Let's face it: a blockchain based paid advertising board is just not that cool.
Which brings me to Justin.
Recently the witnesses and others in the community have been shocked to find that some guy with deep pockets has now come along and wants to call the shots here. I've seen commentary that bemoans his autocratic behavior as an affront to the community...etc. From up here in the nose bleed seats, we could have told you a long time ago that a Justin was bound to come along. He was literally built in to the structure of this thing. My hope is that the movers in the community will come up with solutions to this problem: One person with a lot of coin is not going to generate the wisdom of the crowd, nor the best content. Perhaps it is something of a Catch 22: Of course investors want to be compensated, but to the extent that they influence voting and dilute the voting power of the rest of the community, they let the air out of their own tires.
For the best content to rise to the top, the system needs to be truly democratic. Otherwise people will self sensor their work, thereby creating a preponderance of shitposts and phony comments designed to please a relative few higher ups and only worthy of a true autocracy.
So here's to hoping that this situation will drive changes that will truly bring the wisdom of the crowd phenomenon to this community. I don't claim to understand all the mechanics of this thing, but I hope that some of you reading this now do, and are in a position to make the changes that are needed. A Steem powered life raft perhaps...this ship appears to be taking on water.
Keep up the great work and thank you for your time.