My thought on SteemSports is that it is driving a lot of engagement and is another way for people to interact with Steem that can attract a different type of user. I think most types (not scammers) of users should be encouraged to interact with Steem, and if SteemSports fills a niche as it seems to be doing, I'm all for it.
What has me concerned is the frequency of their posts: 4 or 5 per day with automatic whale upvotes is a lot of the Steem pool to be absorbing. I would hope the voters on these posts look at the big picture and see how much of Steem's posting rewards are going to SteemSports, and consider if it's an appropriate amount.
As for whether to significantly change Steem to accommodate these games, it should hinge on whether or not it makes Steem a more valuable platform for investors to invest in. Any rewards that users cash out would be given value by the people buying STEEM on the market.
As one of the voters (though my vote on steemsports is rather small -- at 30% vote power by itself my vote generates <$1 of reward), I'm pretty sure that I believe that the steemsports method adds more value to the platform than most of the other posts which would otherwise get rewards if steemsports didn't. At least the rewards are widely distributed to dozens of people, and it gives users who aren't themselves bloggers a way to earn (by playing games each day). Those who enjoy sports probably also find value in the fact that each steemsports post is also a sports blog post, generally well written, that discusses the game, players, etc.
I would like to see more competition for this type of post (distribution-oriented, though not specifically sports or gambling), that invites wide distribution and user involvement rather than just one blogger posting something that may or may not have any lasting value and receiving all the rewards. It may turn out that sports gambling is not the most popular format, though it does seem to be for now.
Great point! Some are overlooking this simple fact.
Steemsports posts contain quality researched content, that is also great search engine food on one of the world's most popular and universally discussed topics.
I actually find that rather insulting to the people trying and failing to get a small reward from the platform maybe once out of ten posts while steemsports gets 10 - 100 times what they get 4 or 5 times per day. This is only encouraging everybody who wants SP to compete with these types of vote buying posts. And though you think giving and redistributing the liquid rewards is good for the community, it's hardly likely that any content creators who come and see the same authors on the trending page every single day and more than once a day would see it that way.
I'd like to see the "home page" of the web site improved. Trending (misnamed) is simply a leaderboard of the posts with the most rewards (most weighted votes by SP). There is no reason that necessarily has to be the home page. It should should content people are interested in. For those looking for original (non-sports) content creators, it should be easy to see that and find it.
That does not mean that people should stop offering games, sports blogging, etc. just because others don't like it.
@smooth
boom.
If each user could select 5-10 topics of interest (generated from tags used on steemit) in their settings that could be used to direct topics of interest to each users home page.
See 4th screen shot (Favorite Tags): https://steemit.com/busy/@busy.org/busy-december-news-2-alpha-release-updates-road-to-the-beta-what-s-next