As a lot of you already know and have probably noticed yourselves, over the past 2 months or so some of my posts have been massively downvoted from the account of . Over the time, I have wondered why was this happening because, as of today, the 12th of June, I am yet to receive a single answer about the reasoning behind this. Some people have suggested that I should go to the discord channel and practically beg for it to stop - but as I firmly believe that I have done nothing wrong, I will not do such a thing.
Instead, I want to write about the concept of gatekeeping - and why is it such a detrimental factor to a site like Ecency?
In light of today's post, I will be using a comparation between Ecency and Instagram, probably the most successful social media app out there alongside Twitter and Facebook.
A very good question that I want to put out there:
How did these three apps become the most popular apps worldwide?
And yeah, first answer will always be: thanks to the awesome programming team behind them!
Yeah.. wrong. Incorrect. Of course they had an awesome team behind them - but it is the USERS that brought worldwide fame to them.
And which kind of users? Well, if take a look at the top 10 most followed Instagram accounts worldwide, we will see a very interesting thing:
1Instagram - 642 million followers
2cristianoCristiano Ronaldo - 589 million followers
3leomessiLionel Messi - 470 million followers
4selenagomezSelena Gomez - 420 million followers
5kyliejennerKylie Jenner - 392 million followers
6therock Dwayne Johnson - 382 million followers
7arianagrandeAriana Grande - 372 million followers
8kimkardashianKim Kardashian - 358 million followers
9beyonceBeyoncé - 310 million followers
10khloekardashianKhloé Kardashian - 308 million followers
Notice anything? Yeah. The popularity contest is without any single reason of a doubt won thanks to successful footballers (2 of the top 10), an actor (1 of the top 10) - and yeah, you guessed it - beautiful girls (6 of the top 10).
Because to me, the 6 from the top 10 most followed instagram accounts are not only followed thanks to the fact that these girls have successful careers - they all are outstandingly tallented - but they are followed also thanks to the fact that they are pretty.
What is the reason for their massive following on Instagram? And why cannot we have the same thing here at Ecency?
Simple reason - and yes, we slowly got to my intro-point: Gatekeeping.
Do not misunderstand what I am trying to make a point of here: I love Ecency. And I love HIVE. I have found so many extremely talented people that blog on this platform that I can surely without a shred of a doubt say that I am in love with this platform.
But is it problem-free? No. And gatekeeping is proving to be a HUGE problem to the whole platform.
Why on Earth are accounts that post daily pics (and I have noticed that it is not just me here, a lot of other girl accounts are receiving downvotes too) downvoted just because they do not contain words? Are words the ONLY metric for which a post deserves an upvote or a downvote? Isn't a picture worth a thousand words?
And yeah, apologets will reign supreme - as once wisely remarked: You do not ask why anyone is upvoting you, why are you so upset for a downvote? Why are you questioning it?
I am not questioning the downvote. I am questioning the GATEKEEPING. Because it is unbelievably frustrating. I want for this whole thing to be fair. Credit where credit is due.
This is my post from 4 days ago. I posted a pic of me and my friend enjoying a drink: @goddesseva/enjoy-the-silence
It instantly got downvoted. WHY? Is there any legitimate reason why this has been downvoted? Instead of trying to get people to join the platform and expose more and more beautiful people on the platform - and no, I am not limiting the 'beautiful' part only on physical appearance, but also beautiful souls, capable people, intellectual minds that can contribute to grow this platform and for it to become a mainstream space that all of us will enjoy - we have accounts that hold gazzilion HIVE power and act as gatekeepers.
This is not the way forward. This is not how Ecency will outgrow its competitors.
Upvotes are such a beautiful system that Ecency has and it can prove to be an invaluable tool in the fight vs Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Why? Because people there post stuff on a daily basis FOR FREE. Who reaps the rewards there? Zuckerberg and mr. Elon Musk.
On Ecency, WE THE USERS reap the benefits. A very easy decision then, for anyone sane out there that will have a choice to make on which platform they should devout themselves too.
But no. We have curangel out there. A single account, doing everything it its power to gatekeep millions of people out of our beautiful platform. Disgusting.
Rant over. And yeah - PLEASE, try downvoting this as well.
Kiss for everyone else, wish you all a magnificent Monday and week ahead of you.
As for you curangel.. I do not wish to spend any more words. You are not worthy of my words. :)