Human nature has its flaws. One of them is a lust for greed & power. In the western world and in the 21st century this is most commonly manifested in money & power/control.
Although Hollywood has done a pretty good job over the years at promoting these things as ideals that every young entry to society should aspire to, the reality is that if any one single or group of individuals actually achieves that, then they are left with a "Now what?" decision. I mean let's say you want to create a product and you build a startup to do it. The journey to actually achieving some success is exciting. Everyone's interested in what you are doing and it appears glamorous. Maybe you might also be viewed as industrious, or a "risk taker" or someone with the courage to try and make their mark on the world.
But let's then look at what happens when you actually achieve your goal and success. So many people turn from amiable leaders to tyrants. Although all have respect for the accomplishment, what if it leaves the person or group in a position where they now have to fight off every competitor from their winnings? Like a dragon, sitting on its gold.
How do you protect your winnings? Simple. Create a proprietary way that only you can control your enterprise. Patent everything in sight. Copyrights everywhere. Stop anyone from doing anything even remotely close to either copying it or competing with it. Be an evil bastard.
This is Business 101 in the 21st century. It not only manifests in business, but it manifests in politics. Amass around you the armies to maintain your power, and no one will attempt to overthrow you. And if you can control the minds of your citizenry or your customers, better still. You can continue to swindle them and take from them the lifeblood you need to survive (money, hearts & minds, etc.) and grow your power position further and further.
It always ends this way.
Freedom and Open Source
We are the citizenry or the customers that often our entire existence is tied to having the use of a technology that we have some control over. But this comes juxtaposed from the goals of the technology provider. It is a battle. The provider will do everything they can to restrain you in their "walled garden" while you just need to know that you have control over that which is a critical component of your success.
In the 1990s and beyond, the concept of "Open Source" was invented and it is a crucial component of the Internet as we see it today. The fact that most web servers run on the open source Linux operating system, use the open source Apache web server, and run other open source technologies (such as PHP, Javascript, Python, etc.) means that software developers have some control over the tools they rely on to develop their products. Some really have taken this to extremes - the original Facebook & Twitter platforms were written with PHP, which are open source platforms. But because PHP didn't restrict anyone from using it for commercial purpose, it was extorted as a free way to get software out to market quickly, making the founders of these projects billionaires. Meanwhile the PHP language community have benefited only by having something that they can control its destiny and not with monetary gains.
Why would anyone do this? Wouldn't it be easier to just take the money?
Open source and/or Free Software is an ideology. It is championed by those that understand that their own freedom is worth more than money. Sure, you can make money using it. Offer services to help others use it, etc. but rarely does this ever equal what would have been the gains if you had a proprietary system and wanted to be that successful founder of that mega platform. You won't become Zuckerberg by being an open source developer.
But I'm not a developer - I just enjoy making/consuming media on Steem Blockchain
Well sure, but it is all relevant. Bitcoin is open source money. It was invented and given to the community as an open source project and because of it, it has spawned all the other blockchains (incl. Steem) and from it, apps have been developed that sit on top of that blockchain. Because of it, you can make money as a content creator. You can be sure that your content won't be censored because it doesn't meet the business goals of the non-open other platforms.
We've seen so many examples of YouTube censoring content that it doesn't believe in. The most noteworthy is Alex Jones' Infowars feeds. A cartel of proprietary social media platforms got together and within the same week, blacklisted his content from their services. From YouTube to Apple to Spotify to Facebook to Twitter. All of them. Whether you like his content or you don't, the fact is that if they arbitrarily banned his content, then anyone else that finds themselves on stating a view that isn't agreed with is next. I've seen Christian broadcasters blacklisted. Liberal or Conservative content gone. This is a way to control the minds of the viewer.
The only way to destroy the power choke-hold that these mega corporations have over information is to build a better alternative. Steemit, d.tube and dsound have done this. I would have also put dLive in that group, but I have grave fears of their move to their own independent blockchain that I think the promise of that platform may be at its end.
But dTube providers those that want to enjoy video content a place to do just that. Without corporate oversight or without censorship. And still content creators can make money. The Steem blockchain provides a means to achieve that. It is the true decentralization of information and power.
We must respect d.Tube and Steemit
This gift that we have been given deserves respect. The respect we give it is by creating quality and solid content. I mean quality - not pictures of your cat, your kid or your meal you will consume. Really? That is a abhorrence to the platform considering what it can really do. If you want to turn off newcomers to our platforms, that's how you do it. Sure, you are thinking "I can make some money by spamming it with stupid content just to get upvotes". This is how you destroy the long term viability of this incredible invention.
We must create QUALITY. That is content that is BETTER than YouTube. Better than other blogs. Real content, with real information and real value. If we do not do this, then this technology will just die because of a lack of consumers.
What we all must do
Next time you are going to post content, film a d.Tube video, etc. think about the content. Think if you are saying something relevant that people might actually want to watch. And think about how you are presenting it. Is it done using the best video production techniques? Do you even know anything about video? Do you know anything about story telling? Do you know anything about entertainment production?
If the answer to any of these questions is No, then you have some studying to do. I'm not saying don't post anything - I'm saying you have a duty to learn about production and how to engage an audience. Not just put anything out there because you can. That's how you destroy this great gift.
We need content. Lots of it. But more importantly, we need QUALITY content. And with the vast array of tutorials on the Internet, we can do it. I mean just watch a few YouTube videos on techniques and how to be a better presenter. And maybe before you just start filming yourself sitting in your car or something, think about whether your content won't make you look like an amateur 5 years from now. Because the one thing about the blockchain is that it is immutable. This stuff doesn't go away. It is permanent. Is this how you want people or future employers, etc. to see the "best of you"?
Plan things out. Write down what you want to convey and look directly into the camera and realize that the world is watching. Don't do it without a sense of quality. You can do this so much better, and ultimately we all will win the war of decentralization by creating content that is not only engaging, but sucks the power out of the evil corporations that control the general media that most people are consuming.
I really enjoy your posts @k0d3g3ar but I still think cat and food photos have it's place on the Steem blockchain 😐
That might be something that we will never agree on, but I am wondering if someone can make a Dapp with a more specific purpose of creating high quality & comprehensive content!
I would also like to know your thoughts about the following article:
https://medium.com/@bytemaster/universal-resource-inheritance-505e7ca4d048
Thanks for your comment. Two items here: First "cat & food photos". I agree with you here, actually. In that if there was a DApp that provided more of a light touch posting forum for those things (like Facebook or other more social media content worlds), it would work. The problem as I see it is that Steemit is trying to be all things to all people, and when someone wants to put a true "Blog" entry up, that entry typically would be more like a blog on a website that is designed to have longevity and be around for years as a point of reference. If there was a DApp like Imgur or Instagram or something like that, then maybe that is the place for quick family photos, etc. But the draw to Steemit is because of financial upvoting and that is just creating a culture of spamming it with low grade content. That is my beef here. If that content could be moved to its own DApp as you correctly state, then we all win. So for that, I'm in 100% agreement with you.
Now the article. I read over it (it is long). I didn't invest enough time in there to say that I got more than a high level of view of the writer's point. I'm not sure if he/she represents my particular view as a Libertarian. I believe that if you spend your life in toil to earn money, and you acquire assets with that money, you have the right of ownership. If those assets were illegally or immorally purchased, then others may dispute your ownership. But to have assets seized by any 3rd party and re-distributed is no different to communism or socialism and is abhorrent to any free market Libertarian. In speaking for myself, an attack on my assets is an attack on my sovereignty and it won't end well for the attacker. But I live by the mantra of trying not to negatively impact any other party and live in peace.
To have a time limit of ownership feels much like an "estate tax" in that on your death, you lose all your assets. As any family participant knows, you want your assets to pass down to your spouse, children or any nominated party as a part of your legacy. If that can't be done, we have a major problem on our hands. And I see more issues and problems with the author's approach than I see solutions, to be honest.
There will always be those that have and those that have-not. That is the way it has been since the dawn of time. When those that have realize that the quality of their world is negatively impacted by them hording their own assets, then they might find that it is to their advantage to try and encourage those that have-not to learn from their experiences and change behaviors so that they too can begin to improve their lives. In that case, everyone wins. But to redistribute wealth doesn't work. I have seen that up close & personal in Australia where the sense of entitlement has destroyed the hopes and ambitions of regular folk that can choose to live in squalor and be funded by govt benefits rather than take their sacred life and make something of it - something that has enormous benefit to ego by being of service to others. Lazy is a human fault that is hard to fight against, and the biggest teacher of how to avoid it is to burden someone with the responsibility of survival. So if you have of sound mind & body, you have a responsibility to accept that burden and not try and share it out to others. It creates a better society IMHO. There are always exceptions, normally due to physical disability, in which those that have can contribute in ways to help out those that truly need it. But I believe more in a voluntaryist approach to this rather than a mandated, top down, statist approach. Particularly when the state have the power of the gun to enforce it.
So again, no response to the details of the post, but more of a general sense of where I am with these things. The best thing, in my mind, that we can do is to get states out of the business of affecting a free market and let the market itself find solutions to problems in a decentralized and bottom up approach here. It is amazing what humans can do if given the chance to do things.
Thanks for the reply @k0d3g3ar and I think I understand your position as a Libertarian, but I don't think poverty will be with us forever, especially with the use of AI, technology and automation.
Having said that, there is an app like Instagram on Steem and it's called @steepshot. I use it for some of my posts and some of the cat and food photos you dislike might be from there.
I can see your gripe with Steemit and I personally believe this platform will fall by the wayside and Dapps will take over.
If a Steem platform wants to represent blog posts only, it should do something along the lines of having a requirement for a minimum amount of text.
I think Steemit as a platform will fall by the wayside but Steem as a currency will be more stable (over the long-run) than the other SMTs. The price that it is stable at though will probably be in the $1.00 - $5.00 range... not the $100.00+ that speculators are dreaming for.
P.S. Like you always say, that's not financial advice, it's just my personal belief, at least for now.
Good idea on the amount of text. What is also interesting (and somewhat encouraging) is to see the fiscal benefit of posting video content vs. writing in blogs. Those that post on d.tube seem to make 100x the revenue in terms of Steem from upvotes, etc. The only problem is that the same dynamic occurs - they post a pointless daily vlog that has little or no production value, or content. More of a "this is what is on my mind right now" approach.
Remember the early days of Twitter? People would tweet sitting on the toilet or eating a meal. The efficacy of the post was lost. It was originally designed to be a spur of the moment thought, but people learned quickly that doing that doesn't engage a audience or build a following. Here, it seems, people are not interested in long term benefits vs. short term quick bucks and I suspect, to your point, that will be the demise of SteemIt.
Steemit won't die off 100% but I don't think it will thrive either @kod3g3ar. It is too generic and often ends up being the dumping ground for Dapps.
One example is @steepshot. Steemit is supposed to be a blog platform but @steepshot photos with very little text are also published on @steemit.
Another example is @partiko since it is starting to resemble Facebook. People might start treating it like Facebook, but the posts will still get dumped on the Steemit feed.
There is also a possibility that junk Dapps will be created and their content will find their way to the Steemit feed.
Dapps have an advantage over @steemit in that they can create a specific purpose such as streaming, blogging, photography or crowdfunding and can format their website or app to reflect that.
Steemit on the other-hand doesn't have that luxury since it is mainly used as a sample site for what can be acheived through the Steem blockchain.
Because of @steemit's position as the "sample site" I think SMTs will take center stage at one point and Steem as a currency will take a major hit. That is when I plan on investing since I think Steem will benefit from SMTs in the long-run but not immediately.
I would love to know your thoughts about buying into Steem and when you think it is a good time to buy. I personally think the downtrend won't cease until Steem touches 50 cents but I am also looking to see if I can buy-in even lower than that.
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