...probably. Ok, so before all those people I've just insulted by indirectly claiming that my post is better than theirs start chasing me away with torches and pitchforks, let me be clear. I've read some great blogs today that were very well thought out, well written and there's a good chance that they will read this post and believe their post is better and they have read better than mine today and some of you will be right. But, hopefully by the end of this those people will agree with what my point is. Which I will get to eventually...
...or right now.
Go to Steemit.com (not your following feed, just all new posts) and count how many posts you skip over before you find one that you actually take the time to click on. Then count how many posts you click on that you actually upvoted and commented on in a meaningful way. Then acknowledge the fact that you didn't do any of this because you know it's a fruitless exercise. It is packed with random people posting low res photos they've taken from Google, memes that no one else finds funny, topics you simply just aren't interested in and languages you don't know how to read.
Quality is relative and subjective.
If you are just starting out in Steemit it is super difficult to find people that are worth following and reading and upvoting. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of you out there, but from a beginners point of view, learning what good quality is takes time. You may find one or two that catch your eye from tags that interest you, then you pull on threads until new, more interesting content comes your way. After all that you end up following a bunch of people you actually enjoy, as well as legacy followings that were your first and you just don't like unfollowing people.
Then things get even harder.
Once you've managed to collect a decent number of quality content producers, you suddenly end up with a feed that is full of self-curated interesting material that would take you all day to read in its entirety and leave meaningful comments that trigger meaningful discussions, that takes more time to continue. So what do you do? You assume the content is good in most cases and upvote it all anyway, then cherry pick the titles or topics or photos that stand out from the bunch enough to warrant a more in-depth look.
Which brings me to this post.
If you've read up to this point then one of a few things has happened:
1. The title and photo was clickbaity enough to get your attention
2. You were insulted by the premise that my post could be better than yours and you were seeking justification for such a statement.
3. You click on all my stuff anyway because you like my photos and then figured you'd read the post because you wanted to comment with something that referenced it rather than just saying "nice photo"
It's also a game of averages.
Something to think about if you consider yourself above average intelligence (not necessarily a genius, just above average) is that because of how averages work, the majority of the population is less intelligent than you. I bet that explains some of the less than enjoyable interactions you've had with people. The same goes for your views of the quality of content you churn out on Steemit. If you work hard on your posts and consider yourself as someone that puts more than the average amount of effort in, then the majority of posts on here is going to be of a lower quality in your opinion. And just like you seek out more meaningful interactions with people that are at equal or greater intelligence levels than yourself, you'll do the same with content on Steemit. If something isn't up to the quality standard you set for yourself, you may reject it before even giving it consideration and thought. Seriously, who has the time to give everyone equal consideration?
That is why my post is the best thing you'll read on Steemit today.
But to be fair, and also because I just thought of it now and I'm typing this without giving it much thought about whether I should include this, I want you leave a link in the comments to a post that you thought was a subjectively better post than this one. Even if it is your own. Although of course I'd much rather comments that just agree with me, because let's face it, don't we all.
Mt Cook, New Zealand
Camera Settings
Canon 5D MKIII
17mm
F13
0.4sec
ISO50
Intro Post
Website kieranstone.com
Instagram @kieranstoneau
Facebook Kieran Stone
The picture drew me in, the truth kept me reading. I rarely go to the new area
After following over 300 people, my feed is decent enough to keep me entertained.
My favorite recent post of mine, too old to upvote but pretty pictures to share:
https://steemit.com/travel/@jamethiel/the-end-of-a-long-week
That is pretty interesting going searching for the last resting place of ancestors!
I upvoted your comment to make up for not being able to upvote the post 😁
Thank you!
Lol... I read it becasue I saw you posted something and I read most of your things if I happen to find them in my feed ; )
You are right though in what you say... however... I'm fairly new, I'm still finding my feet and yet I see some posts and I have one person in mind here but I'm not going to name names... their photos are always very average or what I would think to be below average in most cases... (my opinion) with very little information (which is sometimes okay) but I see their posts earning heaps and I always think why!?! I don't get it, I don't understand it... so it's an interesting field out there, it's not always about what you do and how good you are because from what I have seen people can post utter crap and still have amazing results time after time.
Good post never the less ; )
I don't think the monetary amount is a good indication of quality in most cases. Even I will get a little boost in the amount from bots, still testing the system.
Average photos can also be subjective, as I've seen from entering lost of competitions and being stunned by what the judges consider better than mine. I get it's a matter of opinion but it doesn't make it easier!
I judge the success or failure of my posts on the engagement of comments I get. Even if it gets a low money reward, if I've got a lot of good comments, I'm happy. So thank you for making me happy :)
Oh you're very welcome! : )
Yeah I think you're right on the monetary value, it isn't a good indication at all. I just don't know how those people do it, they clearly know something I don't, lol. Yes I find some contests are judged very well while a couple of others aren't very consistent. I guess at the same time they're maybe trying to give everybody a shot which is nice. I think @derangedvisions new contest is going to go very well having the different skill levels.
Oh I wasn't talking about the contests on here by the way. Photography competitions and awards in the real world is what I meant.
Oh you're going beyond me now, lol. They still have those? I haven't heard of a "real" photographic competition in a long time!!
The monetary rewards assigned to posts are uneven because Steem Power is unevenly distributed amongst the user base. There are only so many whales and dolphins with enough SP to reward posts properly - most of us can only hope to give a cent or two from a 100% upvote, and even then only ten times a day before we run out of voting power.
If people are posting "utter crap" and getting richly rewarded it is because their posts are reaching the attention of the right people and those people like what they are putting out. They might like your work better but they are not seeing it - yet. Keep at it!
Hahaa, thanks @davewuk. I'm happy doing what I'm doing. I'm sure I could be doing it better if I knew what I was entirely doing but it is definitely the community that keeps me here! : )
World of Photography
>Visit the website<
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Total contest wins: 12
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The photo is what drew me in! Stunning!!
haha thanks! I'll take that as agreement ;)
Yes i read it ;)
Here is the thing. There should be no reason to go to the main worldwide feed. We need more methods to find and stay in touch with our smaller tribes / communities.
Hivemind hopefully helps that... we need more places to hang out here where people with similar interests or skillsets hang out.
To a group of photographers and great writers and people with high levels of education they see the level of writing and pictures from many people throughout the world and steemit lacking. But to those people that is their life and their world and theyre trying to rock it in the way they can.
Say aaaaameeeen. Main worldwide feed od hard to break through, but I do not know better way to find something interesting at the moment...Discord is fine but it is hard to find groups (I would like to know, how to do it efficiently). But there were some articles tha said about concept of groups on Steemit. I Hope, that this could work. And the most important thing is to have possibility to search groups. That should help newbies (like me, still) to find their place on Steemit and have more posts that can interest them in one place
How do you know what interests you if you only seek validation for your own beliefs?
For example if I am interested in sports, I will search for groups that are dedicated for that. Group will have posts connected to sports theme so diets, equipment etc. So it's more likely to find article I will like/need
But that's my point. You're looking in comfortable places. You're looking for what you already know.
Firstly - yes. Because it has to be something to start with. It's easier if you find other people with the same hobby. That was the reason to create community forums, I think. It was great to meet new people.
But I am really curious what is your method to find new, interesting things?
OH I like the word tribe... : ) That's even nice than community!
But what is the point of creating a wider community if people just segregate themselves into smaller tribes and don't look for anything new? Factions form, differences grow and pretty soon it becomes an "us against them" vibe.
I don't like the idea of only seeing content from people I choose to follow. I already know I like that stuff. I want to be challenged and have my thoughts provoked. I want to see high ranking quality content from anyone as well as stay connected to those with similar interests and traits.
I agree. This is the problem of self confirming bias on facebook which got us it to where it is now.
Some familiar content is required for new people to 'stay' when they first arrive so that groups are helpful. Buy you want things to be a little different and so they challenge the viewer from within their comfort zone.
You'd really like this guys videos.
Brother @kieranstone , steemit is mixed up with different type of communities, those who started it ,wanted it to be social media with quality post or contents so as an author can be rewarded but now is mixed up ,there are some professional posts,funny like,avarage and below .There for it is mixed and sometimes even if you want to rate for quality content you land on different ones. It is diffucult to filter, as you said you can see a trending posts with high gains but not means to have quality contents.
It took me a lot of time to observe what rules apply here on steemit sometimes if you still remeber I posted as a challenge to get 100 bests authors on steemit,atleast to save my time looking for the best. I got not more than 10 authors mentioned including you.
Do you know y I got few people while there are plenty I believe? Because my post was regarded low and because was not upvoted even to 1 SBD. Thats perfect example how steemit works .
I ended my observation that only one rule works here thats is- randomly pick!!! If you are lucky your post will be picked , not by content.
I admire your work , and I know for sure you are doing it professionally and not for steemit only like many others. I have resteemed this post.
Lets keep up ,time will tell ,things can change into better!!
Together we steemit!
Nicely said!
Thank you @jayclar30!!
I think one problem people have is that they believe things are worth more than they are. I've learnt from my time on Instagram how to integrate and grow my presence on a social media platform. It's not about worth, it's not about fair. It's about strategy. One of the most important parts of that is to not take those that follow you for granted. Take the time and make the effort to gain valuable followers, then work just as hard keep them with genuine respect. Just a small thing to notice if you are interested in a comparison. I've been here for less time than you, and I've made double the amount of posts, mostly in comments on other peoples posts. This is not a random thing. If people are doing well here it is because they know how to play and they play it well.
Yes , I am here longer than you ,but I spend less time than you think , most of the time I am not engaged on steemit. Since Feb this year I hardly got online eccept from the last week.
But the short time I know steemit is not that straight as you just said.It is diffent from other media.
I must admit it's a bit hit and miss on here, some days I find it easy, so days it's a slog. What is - I like to vote down to around 80% each day, that's 20 odd votes given I vote a full power. Some days I really struggle to find 20 posts I find interesting enough, I can always rely on my feed for 5 or 6 worthy posts, there are usually a few thingsI want to support - generally competitions I enter, or have entered and won early in my journey but then the rest, well, that's a crapshoot, tags that I post in, but they need to be specific -'photography' is a hundred terrible photos for every good one, 'Australia' is interesting occasionally, but just because I live in the same place as someone doesn't mean I will like everything they say. Other days I fly through the 20 votes with ease, and then I just keep going until I get run out of things I want to support. Also if the post has $40 of votes on this, then I'm less likely to vote for it, becuase, well they don't need me do they?
Oh a why did I read this post - the Photo, it's always the photo for me.
The photo is usually the bait ;)
I don't have any trouble finding things I want to read on here. Usually it's too much!
But how do you find things you don't know you'll like until you've read them? The money value isn't trustworthy...There are designated curators on here but that is still subjective based on the people running it. This is my dilemma.
Door number 3: "You click on all my stuff anyway because you like my photos and then figured you'd read the post because you wanted to comment with something that referenced it rather than just saying "nice photo"
Also, that is a gorgeous photo. And what you said is pretty much spot on. Steemit is hard. You should join us in Team Aus on Discord. It's fun in there. https://discord.gg/8cHkqu
Steemit is hard!
I don't know how interactive I'd be on discord. I barely read Facebook messages. But I did go over there and level up
I saw! I was having breakfast so I missed you.
Can you send me the link? It says that invite has expired?
Oh weird. I thought I set it to never expire. Well here's a new one anyway. https://discord.gg/ADueaXX
Thanks. I see its just the Team Australia section in the PAL discord. I thought you might have had a new dedicated server.
Clicked for the title, stayed for the photo :-)
Joking aside, I do fully agree that Steemit has a discovery problem and good content doesn't always surface like it should.
If I was to offer one tip it would be that certain times of day seem to be better for posting than others and your timezone might be working against you. The feed moves fast and you need to be on top at the time there are the most eyeballs looking at it - if a big curator picks up your post it'll go off like a rocket - if you post while they are sleeping, it will sink without a trace :-(
At the moment I'm OK with just posting when I have time. I missed nearly a week recently so I can't really pick and choose my posting schedule.
If I find a way of finding good content from any genre then I'll post about it ;)
You can - there are tools that can automatically schedule your posts for you. I've been looking to see which is the best one myself, if I find something good I will let you know.
Agree it is very time specific. But having lived though the Instagram chronological days you need to post outside of your time comfort zone to increase the breadth of user base. If you keep posting at the same time it becomes self for filling and more lucrative to post at that time always and then you end up with a user base that is active at that time and you have to post then or your engagement plummets.
It's hard but it is worthwhile to actually go out of your way and post when none of your followers are online so your in the feed at those hours and can find new followers who are active at those times. This provides some resilience to your engagement levels . The true followers will pick it up anyway regardless of the time of post.
It's certainly an interesting idea, I'll bear it in mind. One thing I would suggest however is that it can be problematic to take things that work on one platform, like Instagram in your case and Reddit in mine, and try to apply those on Steemit. This is a very different, and more challenging enviroment than "regular" social networks.
Yes agree. Each platform is different. I was referring to the old Instagram as well with chronological feed. I have worked reasonably successfully on lots of platforms (500px, EyeEm, Flickr, Google+, FB, etc) and they are all different. It depends what your trying to achieve on the platform as well. In the case of social media influencer work the breadth of reach is important. If you have two posts at say 5pm and get engagement of 4k likes per post, then people often report that they have had an engagement of 8k between the two posts. But they are not likely to be different individuals. You might have only reached 5K people as 3k people are overlapping. If you post at 8am then 5pm and get 3 and 4k likes per post, then you only got 7k likes in total but you might get 6k unique visits as the reach is broader with less overlap so it's worth more to the client.
In the case of Steemit however I agree that for short term benefits where the upvote itself is your reward then scheduling the post and keeping a narrow but engaged follower base at that specific time when the site has maximum activity is a good way to go. In the long run however if you want to post more than one post per day to increase rewards you need to develop multiple follower circles active at different times (ie perhaps 3 times zones peak Asia, peak Europe and peak Americas).
Just post 6 times a day with A+ content...easy
For sure.
In theory it would work.
In theory.
I tried posting at different times. It's a hit and miss but mostly miss lol! So I don't know what works. I guess I don't have "true followers?" I should go and find them.
Ha yes. I am still looking for them also ;-)
It is the only post I have read today ! So you win by default. Not quite in the same league as @derekkind ISS eclipse post; but who's judging.
They just need to change the calculation basis (algorithm is a dirty word in social media) on the trending page on seteemit. Perhaps even make it customisable in settings (ie change between trending for likes rather than $ or some other hivemind induced interaction variables). Then people can adjust it. The bid bots are unfortunate; and I have swung back and forth between frustration with them and adoption. The fact is they are here to stay; it's exactly how the system was designed to work (a decentralized laissez-faire market, you can't tell someone they cant sell or buy a vote). There will be other platforms arrive (ONO, Appics) which have a more hybrid curation approach then steemit. But you just have to look at the hysteria around IG changing to algorithmic feeds and individualized trending pages to see that people actually like simple predictable chronological feeds and trending pages. The quality issue is just a matter of platform maturity and mass user adoption. Steemit is a system like any other social network and as you say in some of your other comments the people who take the time to learn the system and how it functions will succeed here, much like in real life.
Nice photo by the way!
Default! The two greatest words in the English language!
De Fault! De Fault! De Fault!
I think Facebook got it right with the "top stories" and "most recent". But people still complain about it when it has the best of the algorithm and the chronological order. It even has more options there, and you can be friends with someone but unfollow their shitty attention seeking posts.
Facebook is pretty good if you think about it
Yes. It's just the reach killing of the commercial pages which makes it hard.
Oh sure if you're a business. But for the vast majority of users it's great. Facebook could make it so you had to pay $1 for every person you wanted to see your ad and I wouldn't complain though. That is their business and I can either use it or not. If the ads don't work for people, they will stop paying, and Facebook would have to change their approach.
Yes I don't deny its their prerogative.
Clickbaited! lol!
I like looking at beautiful photos just like yours. So when I go through my feed, either the photos get my attention first or the title. Congratulations, you got me on both lol! I would not want to comment links to any post because as you have said it is all subjective. Someone posted that steemit is about kissing asses which is true. Everybody seeks for a whale. I check my feed less and less because I go through my replies and comments instead. There are lots of things going on in steemit that I don't like to be bothered with so I just do what I do and comment on topics that interests me just like photography. It's hard to keep up with steemit since I am not here all the time and I only come here when I have the time. Stressing myself to compare that my post is better than others is a waste of time. I work with what I have.
And yeah, nice photo! :D
The prospect of money brings out the best and worst in people. In the case of Steemit it's been pretty good so far. Good communities developing. It is never a good idea to compare your work to someone else's, especially if they are showing signs of "success". But effort is something that can be noticed with or without success, and a lot of content on Steemit lacks effort. But it makes it hard when everyone you're following is putting in a lot of effort! Time is a valuable commodity.
Time and effort are valuable. There are posts that took me hours to make and get dismal votes lol! So I'd rather not dwell on the votes I get. I like the interaction and engagement and fun. I hope my upvote worth $0.01 can be appreciated lol! That is the best I can do for now. There is so much posts that needs attention and appreciation. We can't upvote or resteem all of it.
very interesting post.
I love it.
Thanks :)