Let me start off by saying Steemit has turned into a trash dump of useless content that has no value. 70% of articles are written by people who have no formal education on the concept of the writing craft. 20% of articles are info-commercials, bullshit that pays for up-votes clogging up the trending page and promising services I highly doubt will work. If anyone promises you they can teach you to be a writer in a week, ignore it, it takes years to be writer, only way you can be a writer is writing thousands of words and reading. And the rest is 10% high quality content, which is rarely seen in the trending page, and most of these high grade articles are buried deep in the mountain of chaotic shit.
What is the problem with Steemit? Too many to list in one article, but I’ll go over a few.
The Problems
- Greed - People come to Steemit for the wrong reasons.
- Paid Up-Votes
- The way the tending page is structured
- Most people aren’t writers
- Not enough readers
- People can see the value of your wallet
These are the six biggest problems I see on Steemit today, in no particular order, but rest assured there are many more problems, and this system could be so much better. I see value in the Steemit platform and it has the potential to be huge and be the next Reddit.
1. Greed - People come to Steemit for the wrong reasons.
This is a huge problem. People see dollar signs and come here thinking they can make easy money, soon they discover it’s not as easy as it looks. After being on the platform for a while they notice only a handful of people are on the trending page. The problem this brings is people start writing shit articles of no value, that neither, entertain, teach, or inspire. Anyone who is a writer knows you to have a purpose. Without a purpose the articles are dull, and 90% of time so hard to read a reader gets tongue tied, bored, and left the reader with nothing.
Another problem is these people have no experience writing blogs and lack the knowledge on formatting content and don’t take the time to teach themselves using “markdown”, resulting in poor visual effects. Proper formatting should lead the reader on a journey to the end, pleasing the eye. There is a simple rule in life, better something looks more attention it will receive.
A system that is controlled by greed always fails, and it is for this reason why countries, banks, and business over a period of time always fall. Without an equal balance there is nothing to keep the leaver from tipping and spilling the contents. Greed controls the platform and if isn’t balance it will fall.
2. Paid Up-Votes
It took me a while to realize what was happening why some people keep popping up on the trending page, even though the content wasn’t that good, me knowing outside of Steemit it would be hard for them to get a writing Job. I was baffled. I was reading other content by real writers that was barely making pennies, and then I learned little by little that people were paying for up-votes. People on the trending page write two, three, to four post per week and use upvote bots. There are articles that guarantee you “How to properly use up-vote bots so you don't lose money.” I was blown away by this, so that is the great secret, again it comes to the same old story that has haunted humankind since the beginning of time, those who have money can use their money and leverage it against you to make more money.
Is the use of upvote bots ethical? I don’t know. I do not discourage it, if you got the money to buy upvotes than do it. I believe everyone has a right to use their money how ever they see fit, as long as it doesn’t infringe on other peoples basic rights and pursuit of happiness.
3. The way the tending page is structured
It is my belief the trending page is the biggest killer of the Steemit platform, for the main reason is the way it is structured. When people go to the trending page they look at the first twenty to thirty articles and rarely scroll any further, resulting the same people who are common on the trending page getting most of the attention. The problem is most of these articles aren’t very good, a lot of those are upvote bots and info-commercial type articles. Please don't take me the wrong way, there are some people on the platform who deserve to be the on top and write high quality articles, but the garbage outweighs the bad.
I have a vision of what it should be, but I’ll keep that opinion to myself. There is a debate among the Steemit community if the Trending page should be gotten rid of or not. Some people believe there should be no trending page and only the feed that each user has. That is a debate that needs to be solved. There is a need for a balance, but only time will tell what remains to be hidden.
4. Most people aren’t writers
There is a myth that writing is easy and anyone can pick up a pencil and write a book, only to discover it is harder than they anticipated. The problem is most people aren’t writers and make poor formatted content with mixed messages creating the 70% of trash on Steemit, cluttering the platform, resulting in having to scroll through countless useless content to find one good article, it’s like finding a needle in a hay stack, and most people don’t have the patience and gives up.
Talk to any writer who has been in the business for a while and they will tell you that it takes years to really learn the craft. It can be learned, but it takes time, and you have to write thousands and thousands of words to develop voice and style, and if anyone tells you different then they are probably trying to sell you a service or product, or they haven’t been in the business that long, it is kind of like the crypto currency boom in the summer of 2017. Less than year you have so called experts in investing popping up all over the internet with less than a year’s experience.
5. Not enough readers
This is a huge problem; there are simply not enough readers for all the content out there. There is a lack of balance. If writers have no audience they can’t gain a following and devoted readers, resulting in writers spending less time on the platform and take their skills elsewhere, and what this results in the high quality content providers leaving the platform, leaving the others to create articles of no value.
Without readers no system of this type can survive. There should be more readers than writers, and in a system that doesn’t bring in readers, cannot sustain itself. Take other platforms where writers and readers don’t get paid the quality of content has a higher quality, because the writers are inspired to write. Content created by inspiration has a purpose, and is either, teaching, entertaining, or inspiring. For content to have value it must at least contain one of those three elements.
Steemit is designed to be a bogging platform and not a social media network like Facebook.
6. People can see you value of your wallet
By being able to go to someone’s Steemit page and click on their wallet you can see there value on the platform, this results people looking at peoples wallets and following those with the largest accounts in hopes to gain their attention, hoping to get a high paying up-vote. The problem is they chase those users, ignoring those with lower accounts who publish high quality content.
Should people be aloud to view wallets? I don’t know. I got my opinion and so do thousands of others.
The Rant
It is clear to the average user that they are at a disadvantage. Users soon learn the secret to success on Steemit is not the quality of your content, but the value of your wallet, recognizing that if you have a large account you can make money. There are problems on the Steemit platform, and the bad out weigh the good, the scale is tipping, and if we aren’t careful and take preventive measures the platform can fall. The balance must be restored. There must be solutions, and the solutions must be implemented. There are brilliant minds on this platform and if we put our heads together Steemit could hit new heights that it’s never experienced before. But as it stands it is an unfair system that rewards bad content or those with the biggest wallets.
On Steemit there are some gifted writers, writers who write novels and yet they get rewarded very little, lucky to make a few dollars a post.
This is a blogging platform and yes, it attracts the writers, and in order to keep the writers dedicated to the platform they need their content to be read and enjoyed by other people, the readers. There are too many bad writers, writing crap articles clogging the platform and making the high quality content almost invisible.
Steemit was formed to bring value through blogging and rewarding high quality content, and it is time for these people to get what they deserve. The writers didn’t come here for the money, real writers don’t write for money, but for people to read and enjoy their content. To share what they have in their mind, to entertain, teach, and inspire. Let’s reward the good and stop rewarding the bad. Writers need a following or Steemit will lose its most valuable asset, the high quality content providers who do their best to give good content.
Summary
I am optimistic. I see the value in Steemit, and I believe it will succeed. There are some problems and until these problems are solved it will never boom into another Reddit. It has the potential, the ability to create some of the best content on the web. People see the value and that is why people who are producing high quality content are hanging around.
Follow. Up-Vote. Resteem.
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