Hello !
:)
Sorry for the catchy title, but I had so much joy when I discovered steemit, and the more I dive into it, the more I discover that there are huge issues with it. It has been turning my hope upside down so hard, that I felt I had to release this pain, writing it.
Those problems are so visible that probably a lot of people talked about it on the network, but paradoxically, it seems to be a taboo subject, because when there is money involved, people tend to forget or hide problems sometimes.
I really love the Steemit concept ; earning coins according to what you bring to the community (wether it be knowledge or art or entertaining...). beeing rewarded for your positive impact on the network.
Let's be honest, it's actualy not the case right now, people try to bypass the system to earn money the easiest way possible, killing the network itself doing that... There will be a point of no return, where users will be sick of useless articles that everybody likes to earn more money. Relevant articles will be hidden under whales, and the huge bot community will focus on curate always the same writers, avoiding new and different content, which will increase more and more the frustration, untill the down of steemit itself.
So here is (in my opinion) 5 of the top priority things to do before you selfishly destroy the network that you love...
1/ Stop F#CK##G using BOT !!!
Pardon my language, but you are killing Steemit ! Using bot means you are here only for the money. Whatever the excuse you'll find, don't try to avoid the truth. Using bot to "like" at the perfect moment the usual whales, in order to have the perfect curation, is like allowing the writer to say whatever he wants and endorse it without hesitation.
It's dangerous for you, because if the whale that you instantly curate become extreme, you'll endorse this idea, and the whole community will know it. If somebody says he like racism, neonazi stuff and esclavagism, you'll endorse it without knowing it. Worse than that, in blockchain everything is irreversible. Anybody can see in the logs what you liked, and you will not be able to remove it.
2/ If you have nothing to say, remain silent...
Still on the same topic, but not specific to bot : If you are curating whale articles just to earn coins, you should stop...
Steemit is a social network, where everybody is sharing their life, their passion, their knowledge, and their POINT OF VIEW !
When you endorse an article without reading it (or even worse, reading it but curating anyway while you disagree just to earn coins), you are doing PROPAGANDA !
Yes propaganda ! Because a big amount of bot, means a big amount of fake appreciation.
When newcomers will arrive on steemit, they will see some articles with a huge amount of curation, so they will think that they are the best articles of the network, and the share thought of the Steemit community, so those newcommers will start thinking like those whales articles, and that's how you build a fake reflection.
It's exactly like the concept of beauty in our countries. Magazines show you how should be the perfect woman, the whole majority of people follow the path, and if you don't, you are rejected of the social group, and that's how you build a propaganda image in your brain and you start liking thinks you actualy dislike...
3/ Giving away 0.001 SBD and ask for ROI (Return on investment)
We are living in a world where the huge majority of people want to be seen and to become famous... And comments sections are becoming like instagram sections... It's full of "Curate me and I'll curate you :)" , or other self-absorbed sentences.
Recently a guy (via a bot) sent me 0.001 SBD and told me literally : Remember me when you are rich.
Sorry but the only thing I'll remember is that you try to lure people that never receive notification, to receive something from them in case they will succeed on Steemit...
Imagine that in the real world. You give the minimum amount possible to a homeless guy (1 cent), and you say to his face : "I hope you'll remember me when you'll be rich"
Sorry but it's disgusting... It seems that there is no moral anymore on steemit, just bots...
So please, remove bots, and start beeing human. Be patient, and build interesting content !
4/ Time to improve/fix Steemit itself
Unfortunately everything I said before, is linked to a human factor. We can't change our nature, we can't change the fact that we'll easily be lured by the money, easily corruptible, and I'm not an exception...
One quickest way to fix this problem would be to change the functioning of Steemit itself.
When I arrived on the platform, I realised that it was really well thought, to avoid the chase of money and to focus on quality content.
They configured it to avoid spamming, to prevent people curating every articles, to have quality content valued, and to put aside content which is useless to the community. They thought about a reputation system, to avoid spammer of "no quality" content... A lot of ideas have been put in place, unfortunately, you can't see the future and think about everything.
Unfortunately, at every step of their existance, humans try to find a way to bypass things, especially when money is at stake...
Today, the bypass are the whales...
The vast majority of people will curate the whales, because they know it's the quickest way to earn STEEM without doing anything. Of course most of them don't even read the article, they just check the number of curation and comments to see if there is potential revenue before curating it.
And it's a really negative effect, because with a chain reaction, whales become bigger day after day, and they think their content is pertinent and relevent. Maybe it's the case, but maybe it's totally not, but there is no way to know it, because people will continue to see those articles as money maker and not for it's content...
And that's why there is a flood of articles on steemit that a lot of people might not want to see, but that will continue for a long time, because nobody says no to a free wad of bills.
5/ Some little ideas to fix the whale issue
I haven't been on steemit for long, so I don't really know how is coded the social network, and if some developper could see those "claims" , but as you can see, every single of those points written before, are all related to the whale issue.
You might not see it coming, or worse that that, you deny the reality... But whales are going to detroy steemit if they are not managed correctly...
SO PLEASE !! LET'S THINK TOGETHER TO FIX THE WHALE LURING ISSUE !
Unfortunately I have no precise ideas at this moment to suggest, but I think it would be something like :
- Reducing the reward when curating big users (reducing more if you curate the same user several times a day ?)
- Impossible to curate something that you didn't read (time of reading linked to the lenght of the article)
- Remove the possibility of using bot
...
Have a nice day :)
And remember...