In Defense Of Whales

It seems that bashing the whales on here and calling for the demise of Steemit is in full swing. All appearances make it look like this is becoming quite a pastime for some. It saddens me to see so much pessimism even if some of the points brought up are valid.

Today, alone, I came across two articles calling for the demise while pointing out how whales do nothing but upvote each other reaping in hundreds of dollars per post. One article went so far to say that experienced bloggers who join here have no chance of earning that kind of money on a post. My response was "why should a new person make that kind of money on a post?". If one does not have a following and few/none read the post, no matter how good it is, where is the value in it? Doesnt the same hold true for writers of magazines with poor circulation? Do they continually reap rewards when people are not reading their works? Of course not. So why should things operate on here any differently.

I acknowledge only being on here a short time. In the past month, I can say that I have received at least 3 upvotes from whales. And yes, it is wonderful to see posts that were worth cents going to dollars. Certainly it is a bit of luck that those whales came across my posts. However, I put in considerable effort my first month here writing articles and interacting with others. I view it as partial payoff for the efforts I put in.

That aside, I do know for a fact many whales are involved in other aspects of the site. Do they upvote each other and reap huge rewards? Most likely. But, for some, this is not all they do. I will mention Hive account@jerrybanfield who I know is a lightening rod to many on here. Whatever your perception of him, nobody can argue that he consistently posts original content that is helpful to people. While I do not agree with all he says, I have found some of his videos beneficial. I also know he is acting as a witness for the site, something that I presume takes up time that could be spent on other things.

(And no, Jerry wasnt one that I got an upvote from..so this is not a quid pro quo)

Another thing I learned about Hive account@jerrybanfield is that he had a huge following on Facebook. I am sure it took a lot of effort and time to cultivate that over the years. My point is that we have no idea what it took for any of the whales to make it to the place they are at. It is easy to point the finger while proclaiming them lucky or that they took advantage of the timing. Well, Steemit was available to all, from what I understand, over a year ago. The fact that most of us weren't involved in it is not the fault of the whales. Should I be upset at those Tesla shareholders who got the stock at $60 simply because I didn't buy in there? I think most rationale people would laugh at me doing that. So, then, why do people on here do the same thing?

My observation is that many whales spend time upvoting people. We all realize how voting power is limited and there are hundreds of thousands of minnows who they could upvote. There is only so much to go around. I can understand that so many people want a piece of them that it gets to the point they are pulled in a thousand different directions. Perhaps we all should try to put ourselves in their shoes for a while.

Will the whales and the rich get richer system eventually bring down Steemit? It is possible. However, there is a system in place that offers many the opportunity to advance themselves. For me, I can say that my posts are earning more now than they did two weeks ago. I am still at the lower end of the pond yet I am moving up. Isn't that what this place is all about?

One final thought. I hear many mention that whales had the advantage of buying Steem when it was cheap; as low as 6 cents. I will acknowledge that gives one a huge advantage. My question is would you have bought at that price? We saw Steem go from $1.50 to under a dollar in a couple weeks; how many of those posting about the travesty of the whales bought Steem when it was $.90? Perhaps we will look back on Steem at a dollar and say, look at those who were here a year ago who could buy it cheap.

Maybe I am naive in all this but these are my observations. It seems the ones doing a lot of complaining don't really take a lot of action. I have yet to see someone with 5,000 posts on here write an article such as what I am describing. I am going to hypothesize that they simply got different results than the person who joined a couple months ago with a few dollars and posted a couple things believing he or she deserved $75-$100.

I received a great suggestion when I first joined from Hive account@igster. He told me this isn't a get rich quick site and to just have fun on here. Worrying about the money will not lead to success. Find stuff that you like, post about it, comment on it, and upvote the articles you find. Do that enough and you will develop a following.

Thank you for reading. I hope this counteracts some of the negativity that seems to be mounting on here.

If you found this of benefit, I do appreciate the upvote. Also, if you feel it contains a good message, give it a re-steem.