Here is the deal with that....
What is it that this place is after?
Is it quality content or is it people who come to the blockchain and participate?
If it is quality content you seek, which has been the case with steemit from what I can see, you are looking at a much smaller user base who are serious about blogging and posting.
On the other hand, if you are looking for massive growth, dopey memes and cat videos is the way to go. That is the stuff that goes viral.
In the end, you will probably have both...or some type of mixture. Eventually, the steem blockchain needs to evolve into a place where all kinds of content is here, even that which some object to on ethical grounds.
For example, original content is great for dtube but what will really make it grow is music videos, tv shows, and movies. Yes people complain about pirated content yet when something is more than 20 minutes old in this era, it is ancient.
We also need people posting news, legit news so that this place is a news source for people. It is a wonderful place to get crypto but mainstream basic news, not so much. Again you run into the copyright police on that one.
Sadly, I dont think there is anyway around gaming the system. There simply are going to be people who take short cuts and try to get around stuff. I write an article, takes me an hour, and of late I get maybe $15 give or take...does it upset me to see someone who is posting a silly meme get $7 or $8? Sure...makes me think I need to find a meme site.
In the end, I know people, whoever stops by my blog, do so because they value the content I create. That is what keeps me writing. As for the money aspect of things, I realize my monetary reward will be from the appreciation of the steem token and, as ETH showed with the stupid kitty stuff, goofy stuff can be very profitable (I am not sure what that says about society today).
Great discussion points @transisto.
I would expect content on Steem to be more beneficial to humanity than what you can see trending on the outdated attention whore advertisement industry. Most content monetization scheme are still about bating you by appealing to your most basic instinct and switching to deceptive mind controlling ads.
I hope Steem will find it's niche and won't be drowned with users and stake holder that think success is measured mainly by number of users, posts and comments. More total views would certainly help STEEM valuation but not at any cost, viewer's attention are not all worth the same.
Explanation for high upvote : https://steemit.com/steem/@transisto/temporarily-pausing-my-anti-abuse-efforts-while-sbd-is-off-the-chart
Sounding like god over the fucking internet.
More 'beneficial to humanity'... give me a break! God - yup. Praise be to this man.
greenman you are right bro..........///////
This is a very valid point...the question is what viewers attention is worthwhile? Is it the hard core liberals and conservatives (ideologues) who we find in the political section? Is it the mainstream news people? Or is it the people who spend 15 hours a day on Facebook doing whatever it is they do on Facebook?
I started writing, when I joined, about technology/futurism stuff....very little interest. Even now, I write about steem and the potential here...still, relatively speaking, not a lot of interest. I feel the commenting on this site is severely lacking...most of what I see is the "great post" garbage so I see where you are coming from with the upvoting meme and the tnx crap. That isnt dialogue and that is what I think is missing.
I guess there is a balance that needs to be navigated....growth is necessary but not without solid footing in terms of quality content. One way to become my space is to be a site with dopey content because then the next site that is a bit dopier ends up pilfering the masses.
I agree that Steemit should get viral , i agree it is hard to set boundaries and there will be always people who take shortcuts. However, i totally disagree that we can do nothing about, that's why we have forks , platform is evolving. Take as example reddit, they have many rules that don't suit casual users. They call it a platform for arrogant techies , but ot got viral and reddit found its own community that comply with those rules. Steemit should also be unique, fair and with its own laws. You want to earn ? Follow the rules.
Very interesting points. One question? What rules?
And steemit could establish a bunch of rules, as a centralized entity, yet people can just use busy.org which is a totally different site to access the same information. That is the beauty of the blockchain, and from the perspective you are bringing up, the negative.
Other than calling @greenman out, is there anything that can be done about that. We dont have moderators around here...there arent admin. Reddit has all that. In fact, is what he is doing "wrong"? Transisto brought up the point that he thinks it is careless redistribution and could attract others just looking to game the system. However, notice he didnt call for a ban, boycott, or any retribution. I sense he is bringing this point up for discussion and awareness.
Steemit is at a point where people need to decide what we want to make this place. There is a risk, since money is involved, that people are going to do things simply to profit without any thought of anyone or anything else. I guess those people will always exist. However, what does the average person on here want....what is he or she thinking about in terms of individual long term contribution?
That is what I sense is being raised by this article.
Not all rules are written :) If the system does not fine spammers, it does not mean society cannot. I have mentioned before, Steemit is evolving, maybe there will be content moderators in the future , who knows. And yes because it is decentralized users can raise issues and that might influence development of the platform in the future.