So for those of you who are new to Steemit, there is a major functionality of Steemit that is exploited that I believe is causing the #1 issue for all users; that being a follow for a follow.
What Is A Follow For A Follow
This is the #1 tactic new users are using to gain followers very quickly. Basically, what is done is you go into other peoples posts and say "I'll follow you if you follow me", and therefor both users follow each other.
The other way this happens is new users look for Steemit users with a lot of followers, and follows all of them hoping some of them will follow them back.
The Problem With This Method
For Full Disclosure, I've done this and regret doing this. It is the worst thing you can do for your channel in the long run. Before I go into the full problem, I want to point out some statistics I got from following users.
Each Follow =.001 users
Weekly Active Users = -10%.... This is higher then normal channels as many new users just give up
So going back into the problem, when users cross the 1000+ followers mark this basically makes it so any content in your feed is unwatchable. To put it simply, every 30 seconds you go back to "Home", you will see brand new content then the last 30 seconds. For content creators like me, this is disheartening seeing that followers are not able to find your content that you normally post.
The second biggest problem is active views of your posts are very, very low. A shocking statistic I have for you is a user who has 35,000 followers might get 100 views, and 50 likes. On a good day you are getting .003% of the likes from your total followers & .006% of the views.
Impact & Solution
I personally believe this is the worst killer of Steemit as you can post as much as you want, but if users are using this tactic to make money, It is hurting them and other channels in the long run.
A simple fix Steemit that will help mitigate, not prevent this would be for Steemit content creators to have the option to hide their followers and who they are following from the public. This would be able to cut down on users spamming feeds and would lead to a more prosperous community for all.
What do you think? Agree or Disagree, let me know below.
