I have been on the Steem platform for 2.5 years now and one thing has remained constant, people complain that whales don't give them enough votes. They also complain that whales don't do enough to clean up the ecosystem and they feel justified in this position because, "they have the most to lose by not supporting the community". No, they don't have the most to lose even though ON STEEM they might lose the most value if there is failure. Most of the whales I know are going to be fine regardless of what happens to Steem.
But, once there is a proposal that pushes taking care of the ecosystem to the majority of users, the community itself, people start saying "what about the toxicity? We can't downvote, what about retaliation?"
Toxicity? Retaliation? Lol. You seem unfamiliar - Welcome to the internet.
This is the problem because while people expect others to provide for them, when it comes to taking an active role and the responsibility for the environment in which they live, most find a thousand and one excuses why it isn't their job.
If it is not your job - Why the fuck do you expect to get paid for it? Oh right - because your content is in such high demand that it deserves value... lols.
You know why Facebook likes your content so much? They don't. They do not give a rats arse what you post there as long as it doesn't encroach on their advertising revenue model. What they do care about is how much shit they can push through your network to support their advertisers and paid social engineering mechanisms. You think your data is worth something? Cute.
Your data is worth nothing to them, it is the data they can push to you and through you to make you buy, and your friends to buy that has value - you ain't shit to them and never will be. Just a number somewhere in an algorithm that leverages you and your economic value to enable their advertisers and allies to benefit by manipulating your actions. And if you do happen to be monetized, you are their bitch. You own nothing, they own you.
People don't get it. Those influencers earning aren't there to just push products for sale, they are there to attract others to try and do the same. While they have 100 Million followers, there are thousands like them pushing the same shit in the same way with 100,000, 10,000, 1000, 100 followers. And, they all follow each other in a mass circlejerk they don't know they are in and don't benefit from - all they do is increase visibility and instances of whatever shit they are hawking this year, month, week, day.
Some people benefit of course - They are called stakeholders. Holders of Stake. Familiar term? Do you own any of Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Twitch, Snapchat? Oh... you don't own shit?
That is okay because you don't really have to do anything there except post and market yourself the best you can - you don't even have to get paid. They do all the hard work, they do all the cleaning, they take care of the ecosystem and the environment themselves because it is their job - and they fucking well get paid amazingly for it. Imagine if they took the algorithms away, turned the spam filters off?
How many "hot girls" want to friend you on Facebook? How many hot girls want to be your friend in real life? Go take a look in the mirror and estimate the calculations. How many spam bot comments are you going to get on Instagram? What happens to the conversations on Twitter? You think that feed is unfiltered? Are you fucking kidding me?
Ah, but on Steem you are worried about your "earnings" on your post so don't want to risk upsetting the status quo to try and improve the system - while still hoping for a fat-fingered whale to accidentally upvote your post. The whales I do know aren't fat, nor do they do much accidentally. For the most part, they do the best they can to both help the system and lower the risk of their own failure - while they will be okay in failure, they aren't retarded enough to aim for it.
Ironically, aiming to fail and getting it is actually success.
I will let you in on a secret, if all the whales went out and upvoted everyone's posts the best they could, price would sink like a rock because most of the content on this platform is shit and most people would take whatever they do get and sell it for whatever they can because, easy come, easy go. You know how many have bought in? Nowhere near as many who expect 25-odd whales to upvote everyone on the platform.
When people will have the responsibility to clean up their environment, I suspect it will be much like the global environment. People aren't going to pick up shit. However, those who are staked, those who do recognize that their value is tied to keeping a healthy ecosystem . they are going to let those 2.5x downvotes fly and I hope they land all over the fucking place. I also hope that those same people are going to use their 10x upvotes on content that they enjoy and think adds value. Not shit. If you produce shit - good luck to you. You can produce shit anywhere.
The toxicity on Steem isn't through downvotes, it is through an unwillingness to do the dirty work to clean it up.
Personally, I know there is a community here I can rely on -
and it doesn't include everyone on Steem.
You might enjoy living in your own filth, you might enjoy the ghettos, the spam, the scam that is fine. I don't have to reward you for it, nor do I have to let the resources I own stake in flow to it. The pool isn't public, it is stakeholder allocated - no stake, no claim. You want a piece of it, convince those with stake to give you some or, buy in and power the fuck up and own some yourself.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]