image from unsplash.com by Anastasia Taioglou
Assuming Steemit.inc were to combine all the Steem they had access to and make a massive proportion of it available to the community, how would Steemians deploy this Steem Power to best effect?
The community will need to work together to do the following;
define what abuse within Steem is, along with the appropriate response (eg. severe vulgarity, misuse of NSFW, threats of violence, misuse of Steem Power - over flagging, comment reward abuse, over-voting low value posts, retaliation flagging, pay-per-vote schemes, curation trail misuse etc. etc.)
identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of robotic and human curators
decide how many curators the available SP can be split between to produce the maximum sustainable positive effect
decide the optimal proportion of robotic to human curators
define an arbitration process in order to resolve disagreements
define an auditing process ensuring the actions of curators and arbitrators are transparent and accountable
define a remediation process should curators or arbitrators step beyond their mandate
define an election process for curators and arbitrators
decide what the incentives for this valuable work should be
elect curators
elect arbitrators
Elected curators would attempt to discover and address abuse in all it's forms, aiming to balance the concentration of Steem Power and how it is utilised. The aim would be to make more of the Steem reward pool work for a much lager proportion of Steemians and less for the relative handful of powerful accounts, as is the situation currently.
If Steemit.inc were ever to support a plan like this, and I accept it is highly unlikely that they would, we'd have a lot of hard work to do to give ourselves any chance of success. That being said, hard work is nothing to be afraid of and I think this community has ample talent to see it done. What's more, I think it is in the interests of both Steemit.inc and the broader community to think along these lines as a means of addressing the rampant and wasteful abuse that exists, is worsening and will eventually break the Steem community.
Please understand, I accept that defining abuse is very difficult. I also understand the point of view that if the system allows it, it's not abuse. However, Steem does not belong to only those with power. It may be that there is enough support to change Steem for the best, by most people's considerations.
I do not believe it is possible to make Steem a perfect system where incentives are aligned perfectly, but I do believe it can be drastically imporved. If we can, shouldn't we at least try to improve it?
Please get involved. Let's have a discussion about how to improve Steem for all, then at least try to make it happen.
Steemit.inc, if you are listening, please be the bold, beautiful, benevolent whale you were always supposed to be. Today you are the dictator, though you try not to be, but if you give your power to the community and make the community work hard for it, Steem will have the best possible chance. Surely you must see that Steem's potential can no longer be unlocked by a handful of whale investors, if it ever could be, only by a massive community working together. A sense of justice is critical for that to have a chance. It doesn't need to be perfect, just the right amount of justice and we are currently a long way from any notion of justice at all.
Happy Steeming