Introduction
I read this post by @clixmoney yesterday that got my brain turning. I also ready the comments. It was eye opening for me and had me rethinking my whole approach to curation. This post was supposed to come out yesterday, but I couldn't finish it as I was still digesting my stance. So, this post is me writing to come up with my own conclusion. It is not my best work, it is merely me thinking on a keyboard to come up with my course of action.
Everyone is an investor
If you are investing any time on POB, you are an investor. If you have any stake in POB, big or small, you are an investor. I was originally attracted to St**m (which turned into HIVE) as a writer. I enjoy writing and have always considered writing as a career path for myself moving forward in life whenever I feel like my body is done in the construction industry. Being interested in crypto, this platform was the perfect fit. I could write and earn crypto for my effort.
I quickly learned that the distribution mechanism was far more complicated than "write and get rewarded." I went down the rabbit hole. I learned all about hive-power, upvotes, voting-bots (i'm old school) etc.
I writing this post as an addendum to this post by @clixmoney. I feel that it is an important topic that could use more attention.
The days of vote bots.
I remember writing a post, then going to check the vote bot calculator, dropping my bid and BAM! A few minutes later a nice upvote would show up on my post. I tried to only use these bots if I put in a significant effort on a post and wanted it to be seen. Clearly, there was abuse and vote bots went out the door.
In my early days, I was far more concerned with my ROI than I am today... although I still am concerned with it, I am much more concerned about the long term success of the platform. I was using minnowbooster's comment voter. It was slick (and pretty scammy). You would lend your upvote to minnowbooster and it would upvote other people's comments and in turn, other people would upvote my comments.
It was pretty ridiculous how much st**m these comments were generating. I felt iffy about using it, but went ahead with it as I was early on and was out to maximize my return, not care for the blockchain. I had an orca that always upvoted me. He called me out on it.
The exchange went something like this...
"I really like your writing, but I am going to refrain from supporting you until you stop using minnowbooster." -Orca
"I have mixed feelings about using it... I lose a portion of my voting power but I do earn a lot." - me
"You could follow a trail like @curie that support good content. You won't earn as much as with minnow booster, but you will at least be helping st**m grow in a better direction." - orca
For the record, I was making way more using minnowbooster than what the Orca votes were paying me. He got me thinking about the blockchain, and caring about the direction it goes.
I thought about it and went for it. I quit using the service and followed the curation trail. The gains were 100x less, but the feeling of growing a sustainable blockchain was worth it. With that decision I left the early days behind, where I "came for the rewards". I now believed in the long term vision and decided to "stay for the community."
Things are flipping
@clixmoney wrote a post calling for all 100% manual curation. He brings up some good points and his post is worth reading. I feel that "the usual suspects" do dominate trending, and perhaps I am one of them... although I like to think that I put together good posts and have been working hard to have my say on how POB grows. Regardless, I feel that his post is worth reading, as well as the comments.
I joined a curation trail and became one of the "good guys." Now, being a follower of the 2 curation trails (that I know of) on POB, am I one of the "bad guys"? This is the question I am asking myself.
For the record, I am following @calumam's trail as well as @vempromundo's trail. I feel that both of these user's would do a better job curating than I would.
@onealfa showed a picture of @calumam's trail
There is a lot of POB power on @calumam's vote. That said, @onealfa has a lot of power on his vote too (about 1/3 of @calumam's trail vote). How much is too much? This is a legitimate question that I don't have the answer too. That said, the default answer is always, everyone is free to do what they will with their stake. The community can have their say and we can all act accordingly.
I joined both trails as I am not a curator. I will read a few posts a day and upvote if I feel I should. I do want my POB-power to be used as I want curation rewards and to reward good contents.
What is the point of POB?
Are we here to make money, write content, read content, build community, build a successful platform, all of the above? I don't have the answer to this and I also don't know which way to sway my opinion. My wife @unicorn-tamer thinks that there is a flaw in the system and that curation trails shouldn't be a part of it.
I am not so sure if that is the case for myself. I am sure that my vote goes a lot further on a curation trail than whatever my votes would look like. That said, are curation trails a problem? Do they centralize the voting too much? Should I try my hand at manual curation only?
Coming to the decision
After looking at @onealfa's list and seeing how much weight that vote has, I left @calumam's trail. I also left @vempromundo's trail. I feel that they both do nice work and appreciate the effort that they put into POB, and were aiding me (nicely) in passively growing my stake, but I am on board with the manual curation initiative and proving that I have a brain on the curation side too.
I feel that curation trails do add value to POB, and I hope that they do spread the vote far and wide to get people involved. I also feel that there needs to be more trails than two whale run trails. I signed up for them both as I feel they both have the good of the platform at heart, and I am signing off to take on the task of manual curation.
Conclusion
I feel that there is a place for curation trails. I hold no moral high ground when it comes to growing stake. I feel we are all here to build wealth. Wealth, however, is more than a balance sheet. It is an attitude... an awareness of abundance. If there is more than enough to go around, why do I need to worry about making numbers go up faster. I should be more concerned with how this platform looks to people who knock on the door. The numbers may go up slower, but may add more value as time goes on.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this. By no means am I bashing curation trails, nor the two trails I was following. I feel that there is a place for them and nobody should feel bad using them. These curators may do better work than me, but I will try my best.
I used to follow along the STEM curation trail. I have a soft spot for STEM and I don't have time to review everything out there. StemGeeks is another great group. It's hard NOT to feed into a curation trail run by someone whose curation method you trust.
I favor theMarkyMark approach to data analysis. It's what I use at work. Jesus, it's part of how I defend the numbers. Check out his post on LasseCash, for example. Present the information and discuss trends and variations. Address any concerns that appear in the numbers and determine, as best as possible, the cause of problem with recommended solutions. Provide comparisons between datasets to show significance.
When someone posts a chart to present information, the first thing I look for is a trend. It's usually easy to find. However, if someone is going to list it up just to point out that there's a lot of stakes involved then I question the presenter. Note, this isn't against you. This is against the common display of information I see out there.
Sounds great, so people have a lot of stake. And? It's that way in other tokens as well as HIVE. Some people will always have more than others. The data becomes valuable only with comparison. Convert the value of POB to HIVE and then compare it to other stakeholders in HIVE. Show me that the concerns you raise are valid in the comparison. Anything less is a disservice to the platform and investors that people are apparently to protect.
My point is your concerns are valid as is @clixmoney's. A problem in the argument is that manual curation is a beautiful concept very difficult to maintain if the goal is the growth of wealth distribution. The idea of reading through and voting manually is alluring. Yet, do we all have time for that action? Some people do and bless their hearts for that ability. Honestly, I applaud them, but I can't do it all the time. So, what do I do? I place my trust in someone's ability and must VERIFY their behavior acts in accordance with my expectations.
I favor both manual and curation trails. I don't think there is anything wrong with them. It is the responsibility of the investor to make sure their money gets used wisely through BOTH methods.
Totally. I have nothing against trails, I think they are very useful and helpful. I will feel better manually curating at this time. Thanks for the comment and keep up the really good work. POB needs you!
Do you not think though @scholaris, there is almost no engagement on Stem due to the fact that the content is mainly voted upon by trails and autovoters? It's sad because I love to read and ask questions there and almost no one ever answers!
I know there is a bit on StemSocial. I don’t know if there is a bot in StemGeeks. I got some good engagement though when I posted. Nothing like here a POB though
This word I heard a lot. It doesn't much with building a community I think. I also heard the word APR a lot. It's all about money I think. I check my APR and I see it low. 11% only. That's because I'm doing mostly manual curation. Maybe some have much higher APR and ROI, but is that the most important for us and for the future of the blockchain ?
The seccess of the platform is what matters more.
I don't think those who are maximizing their earning are bad. Just each one has his/her own priorities.
I never joined a curation trail because I don't want someone to upvote from my behalf. The same about downvotes. I do that manually to avoid any conflict of interests. Only I can decide the value of a post upvoted by me.
Trust me, there are so many and little communities who are doing really great to be followed in case you're following anyway. I know that from my experience building @dcooperation. When someone is small, he/she do his best to go somewhere. Sometimes they do even more than needed.
Here is how I think of this. Wealth is a lot of money. We all want that. As long term investors we want to hold more than we are holding now. So, we want the price of our stake to be much higher, as well the upvote and what we earn from curation and creation. If now we do everything to maximize our earning, that will be a priority. So, we aim to grow mostly our accounts. But if we do our best to build a healthy community and attractive for investors, even if we are holding not that much and the price will go crazy, we may earn much more not because we hold a lot, but because we did everything to make the price go crazy ! In my opinion that should be the priority. Why I need million coins if they cost dust, while I can have some thousands that can cost millions.
So, taking care of the community, is also building wealth. ☺
Thank you for reading. Your post basically sparked this whole train of thought and you know the outcome. The conflict of interest point is bang on. I see that loud and clear at this moment and I am happy to be my own voter.
An excellent and well thought out post! I am absolutely a curator and have always manually curated. On this account, I have almost never voted anything I haven't read.
I think the other problem with curation trails is that they stop people from voting on comments because they are always looking at their RC levels because reading and replying to comments on your posts is curation too.
Many find it strange that in the past, I had no objection to vote buying but as most of the vote selling services didn't care what posts were being voted upon, the whole system went to hell and was abused. I still believe there is a place for paid votes providing there is some serious moderation by the providers...this will never happen!
Good luck with your new manual curating, there is a lot of great and well-written articles on Hive, and thanks to POB, it's getting easier to find them!
PS Thanks for giving me someone new to follow. I'll get around to your back catalogue sooner or later!
Thank you! I am excited for what is to come.
I always liked manual voting.
In addition to you reading, interacting or at least actually reading.
But, I also understand the track part, if the main curator does it manually. It goes from the head of each one.
xD
Ya. Trails are good to keep the votes flowing. But, I think I should get on the manual train.
Hi @allcapsonezero Well I am not an expert when it comes to healing paths or automatic vows, I am just a newbie with a great desire to find a place that is really worth going on and showing what I have, I believe and feel that @proofofbrain is that place that I have searched. However, I understand, I support everyone managing their investments as they think is the best, but if the community wants to make a difference between so many platforms, they can put in a little effort and support people who create quality new and original content. . it does not mean that the healing pathways are not working well. but I know they are targeting specific people already known and renowned. On the other hand, if they do manual voting, they can value new talent a little more. Depending on the content, they can provide support. You have to take care of the investments, but helping people build their own investments is also a great contribution. It is never too much to offer the opportunity to give new income a vote of confidence. If you've made up your mind,
applaud your courage and willingness to support manual voting.
Thank you. Stick with it and good things will come. Especially if you write good posts.
This is a really good analysis. Its a bold decision to leave the trails. I just hope your vote would still help the good content to be rewarded with your vote value.
I have decided I will take some time daily (if I can find any) and vote. It likely won't be as wide spread, but those trails have enough power without me... so, there might be some diversification of the votes.
There is a lot of things happening here these days, undelegations, drama, mini(or the seed of one middle size) flag wars, people getting off of trails... well...
I'm a minow, and I returned to the hive ecosystem a few days ago, something things I'm still trying to understand and keeping up, I've never used a votebot, and don't intend to do this, and I'm never get in a trail, maybe some day I will, so, I really don't understand the subject a lot...
But I like the :
part.
I'm thinking a lot about that these days, to much agressive or superficial( saying less that can be said about some contents) content being highly upvote, to much people talking about what other people have to do, but without following what they say(Do what I say, don't do what I do...). This can be scary, this can be prejudicial... I think that a middle ground is urgently necessary, I think that there is time to get things in the right path again, but, if nothing happens, things will not be good....
You seem to have your head screwed on straight. I hope things can work out for the best here... your attitude will help for sure.
Yeah it's been interesting seeing how things have changed since the St**mit days, and I can't say I miss the prevalence of bots from those days.
Luckily in the @skatehive community we've had people mostly focused on sharing the passion of skating, rather than just ROI, which kept my experience positive from the start. I also think it helped me understand the vision of what Hive is, and can become.
One of the things I really try to focus on, is to vote for content of people who are community minded, rather than just on the people who make the nicest looking posts. Sure those others posts usually do better, but those community minded people are the ones who bring everyone together, and that is Hive's strength.
SkateHive is actually working on some things that I think is going to benefit all of Hive, and deserve support from everyone. But soon, I think everyone will see.
This is great, I love reading about your experience on Hive. Thank you!
I follow both those curation trails but I usually manually curate but at times I get busy and have full voting mana that goes to waste so I set 100% upvote on both trails only if my mana is above 98% on @calumam's trail and 99% on @vempromundo's trail. I personally agree with the manual curation just have been busy of late so use those tools to maximize my curation and not let my voting mana sit at 100%.
Ya, I don't feel there is any issue with letting your VP work. I also feel both of these trails are decent.
Beginner question: what is a curation trail?
You essentially lend your voting power to another party (that hopefully has proven a credible curator). They vote, and your vote will automatically be applied alongside theirs. It is a form of automation.
but is different from delegation, so it is like i am using little robots to vote what you vote, right?
How do I join @calumam voting trail?
hive.vote then go to curation trails.
Manual curation is appreciated and Autovoting is reprehensible
Your post is reblogged and upvoted by me. It is a good post. Thank you @allcapsonezero
Thank you! I wouldn't go as far as to say autovoting is reprehensible. I feel that there is a place for it in the world of the investor, but it can become a slippery slope that I wish not to navigate anymore.