It's not really working is it?
I might not be an expert on Steemit. I'm certainly not here all the time, in fact I have a list of post topic sat next to me that has been there for weeks and I've not done anything about it. I could even be shooting myself in the foot and inviting a mass flagging for even broaching this topic.
I'm going to say why I think Steemit isn't really working...
Quality of content
The basic premise was, users upvote quality content which in turn pays out more to quality producers and less to spammers. It's a GREAT premise and I 100% support this. So why isn't it working?
THE QUALITY OF CONTENT DOESN'T MATTER A DAMN ANYMORE
If a million people liked this post, that would make it amazing content. Of course that would depend on who those million people were but it certainly forms a consensus.
What if only 5 people liked this post? Would that indicate that it was good content?
What if those 5 people had more voting power than the 1 million above?
You're starting to see where I'm going.
What if 1 million people liked this post, but those 5 people didn't, and downvoted it? It would be a worthless post despite being popular with the majority.
So what are you saying?
When you place the opinion of 1 person above the opinion of another person you are indicating that this person has a better understanding of good quality content than the next. When 1 person's view is worth more than the views of a million others, you're going to have a bad time.
When one person can look at a post and say "I'll add $1000 to that post" or "I'll take $1000 off that post", we're giving that person FAR too much credit. But where does that credit come from?
Voting with your wallet
Basing voting potency (to avoid confusing voting power) with the size of someone's wallet if a fundamental flaw in Steemit. I could buy steem, but that wouldn't make me a better curator. That's the crux of the issue.
Amusingly with all of the flak that YouTube has got recently, thanks to declining revenues and Adpocalypse, their model doesn't value any user above any other, with regards to payouts.
What can we do about it?
Well, I have to appeal to witnesses. They are the only ones that can effect (affect? I never know) change here and change NEEDS to happen. Ideas?
- Cap post payouts at $X?
- Make the potency of votes diminishing with SP?
- Make SP irrelevant for voting (dear lord, the implications that would have....)
In short, I don't know. But I'm losing faith in the platform despite doing well. I want it to work, I'd love for it to work, but I can see the writing on the wall.
It's clear though that in this system, the rich are getting richer. The poor are, relatively, getting poorer (yes, you're gaining but slower than others so effectively "below inflation").
The key point I want to make, perhaps badly, is that:
HAVING A BIG WALLET DOESN'T MAKE YOU A GOOD CURATOR