Are we using Steemit in the right way? Spend a few minutes to read this and leave a comment below

in #steem7 years ago (edited)

Hi everybody,

I want to open a debate about the usage of Steemit, or let's say about the drift that Steemit took thanks to the way people use it.

steem_success.jpg

I'm a new/old user, which means I started one and a half year ago, quitted for a while and now restarted. The reason was that I lost my password, but I cannot deny that laziness played a big role too.

I remember the reason why I started using Steemit: getting rewarded for the good contents I share with the community. The purpose was not just earning money as any other job, but focusing on something I like, share it with the community and getting a fair reward for my efforts which normally weren't rewarded at all.

It was a way to take back the value we all dissipate by using other social networks (for free), which in turn they collect pieces of information about us: the only purpose is selling us other things and create new needs in our poor lives.

@freiheit introduced me to Steemit and now he's moving away because he believes new users are not using this social network in the right way: all his reasons are explained in this post.

Here's a brief quote from his post:

Everyone that goes begging for votes in telegram chats, is killing Steemit.
Everyone that buys votes or sells votes, is killing Steemit.
Everyone that swaps his vote, is killing Steemit.
Every whale that is not here just to make a short-term speculation should start red flagging every single post of each person that has a similar behavior. Whales should infiltrate themselves in telegram chats, to discover this actions and start red flagging people behaving in this selfish way.

I still believe that good contents can be fairly rewarded, even though it's getting harder and harder, especially if you start from zero. A lot of good users are publishing valuable contents like, for instance, this guy @miyata1987 which I don't know but he's make brilliant drawings every day and get unfairly rewarded, while I see loads of poor contents way too highly appreciated.

Another mention to my friends @yoganarchista and @sature which thanks to the good contents and the good rewards are opening a psychedelic bookshop in Berlin - here's the site - so yes, they are getting good rewards, but because the DESERVE IT, not because they buy votes.

We all agree that Steemit can be a great way to make money, but...Weren't we here to fight against the system, somehow? Weren't we here to change something? What I see is that we are applying (or better who's using Steemit in a bad way) here the same bad patterns we're trying to get rid of.

I would like to know your opinions about, more than getting your upvote: I will get as much as I deserve anyways, but right now I would like to hear your voices about the community we are in, about the tool we use every day.

Have a nice and happy day ;)

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Great post, I think you worked out some big problems that steemit has but I think this is a natural process that will solve itself over time. We got to remember that there has not been any plattform like steemit before. The visability for new users is very low that is a problem but it is also the responsibility of every user not only to support the big dolphins and whales with their votes but to also reward new users that can not (yet) give big votes in return. What I really am critical about is people renting their voting power for money while still earing a lot with their posts and not giving back something to the community. Also some people are maybe not sharing the best of the best content but they are doing a lot for the community by supporting new members, doing contests, advertising steemit, etc. etc. etc. They also deserve a reward for the time they spend for the community even if the posts are maybe not the best of the day. How do you feel about that? I understand that it can be frustrating to share greeat content every day and not make it to the tops but I checked out the artist you mentioned and gave him a resteem, maybe this helps him to grow. We are a big community nowadays and the big steempower holders can not manage to find all the good content because there is just so much out there. We can be grateful about that. This makes this community special :)

"People renting their voting power for money while still earing a lot with their posts and not giving back something to the community." This is the point. I don't know if expressed it in the right way, but I have nothing against people who create contests and advertisings. At least there is an effort, and attempt to do something for the community. I'm against who does not do a single thing for the community but is here just to get money, upvoting posts without even reading them.

If I am going to assess my posts, i think i use steemit the right way. I earn money in my first week because of the nudedrawing contest hosted by @yoganarchista (thanks!) , however, I think I will not make even atleast 1/8 of my SBD earnings in my secondweek, which is tomorrow! But, i promise to do my best to continue writing with meat.

Great post! Im new here so im not one to talk but im hoping things will get better (i dont have enough power to make a change yet). Please keep posting like this so people will eventually flag or downvote those who dont deserve steemit. Thank you so much!

In my opinion, swapping votes doesn't hurt the platform; it hurts only the users who swap votes.

Of course, it doesn't. But, it's a matter of principles: I see Steemit as a way to leave people more freedom to do what they want in their life, follow their passions and get rewarded for that. I'm a simple person who believes that we can do more for the society and I hate that everything has to be regulated by money. There are plenty of talents chained to a regular job that they could produce so many good things instead. I recently discovered this guy @davidpakman who's doing a great job with his show. Don't know if without Steemit he could have achieved that, but it's good to see things like that happening.

Then woudn't it be better to educate your readers, rather than censuring them? Thoughtful post, anyways. :D

My mission here is to give a contribution to the community with my small posts, which I try to take care of as much as I can. I don't have any power to censor anybody, I just wanted to point out what I wrote in the post ;) And yes, just a chance to think about it

CensUre is what I meant. Not trying to attack you. It's just a friendly suggestion. Good luck!

I'm relatively new here and still trying to understand the dynamics of the system. But one thing i believe is time will definitely flush out those that are here just for the money without giving anything back to the system. I encourage every content developer and indeed everyone here that contributes in one way or the other to follow their passion and keep doing their thing, with time they will build a good followership and indeed their effort will pay off.

"time will definitely flush out those that are here just for the money without giving anything back to the system" That's one of my fears: that they stay alive and find always a way to fuck us.

Thank you for naming me, and yes, the truth is that my posts are very little compensated. I try every day to improve and do better my drawings but nothing happens. I see other artists who are not so good (not to say bad) that they are very well compensated.
I don't use bots or voting systems to get anything. I try to be honest and frank with what I publish.
Thanks again and I'll follow you!

I've noticed it, that's why I started following and I think you deserved a mention. I don't know who you are but I see what you do and I like it. These are people I like to support and moreover, which I want are more supported by the users who commit their voting power only to feed the same circle of whales in order to get more rewards themselves.

I haven't been here for two weeks yet so I'm still learning a lot! When I joined, I also joined several Facebook pages dedicated to getting upvotes, and at first I felt a little disappointed because I imagined how my posts would just disappear amongst everyone else trying to get noticed. I didn't come here expecting to make a lot of money, but of course the idea of getting rewarded for your time and effort is very attractive. I am happy to have gained 66 followers already, which I consider to be a great start! I am mostly interested in being a part of this community for finding inspiration and support from new people with new ideas. I've lost interest for my Facebook and Instagram accounts for too long and need a new start. As an artist it is very encouraging to be able to participate in challenges, contests and collaborations! I feel strongly that I'm going to be more motivated to post on Steemit than in regular social media. I find this much more including and social, besides from being an obvious leap forward from the other sites I'm on. As soon as I found some interesting people to follow I quickly found lots of amazing stuff, brilliant ideas and great content! I just had to see past the upvoting focus that seemed to be very overrepresented and discouraging before I knew what to look for. It will be a natural process that it gets more interesting and rewarding the more I participate, and I'm excited to see where this goes! :-)

Hi @bronsedi

I´m only for a few days on steemit, but i understand the words from @freiheit - on FB there are groups for voteexchange etc. These guys are killing the basic idea from steemit. They don`t vote the quality of an articel - they only vote every shit to get the vote in return.

This is really sad :(
So we have to fight against this situation with propper and good content and leave the spammer alone.

Cheers from Paraguay

Your points are very valid and I think it's time for those who have vested so much money into the platform to put in much effort to see it work except they are not in for the long run. Like @yogaanarchista said, it's a revolutionary platform so it's bound to have teething problem, but these shouldn't lead to its untimely demise. If majority of brilliant new users keep getting ignored, Steemit will eventually go light on content and we will be left with half hearted Contents using tricks and commections to get up voted and paid. I believe Steemits founder, with the biggest stakeholders should consistently sit to review the state of the platform and tweak how it works to ensure its sustainable, otherwise, some of us will just get a little money for a year or two and the platform is gone and that will be sad.

Finding good content involves a lot of work, you have to work hard to do both, find good content and help the new good creators. It's difficult, it's very difficult!
Upvoted and resteemed. Do you want to know why? Visit @pf-coin.