I've been a part of the Steemit community for about 3 weeks now and this is my first contribution in the form of an article post. I didn't jump into writing content immediately because I wanted to get a feel for the community. So I started off my Steemit contributions curating. What I am seeing, more and more, is Steemers who are super upset about their post getting pennies while memes get thousands.
There seems to be some good conversations going around on the topic, this one being my fav:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@winstonwolfe/seriously-forget-about-the-money
But, I haven't seen any real solutions for true contribution incentive, outside of monetary reward, just yet. I think some sort of a curation minimum would be effective in curtailing the problem; whether that is a point minimum or a time frame or something else to that effect.
It seems to me that new people are coming hearing about this site where you get paid to post... they check out the site and what do they see front and center? The trending page with posts flaunting thousands of dollars. They get excited and their mind starts to race... they want thousands.. but hundreds would be cool too. They adopted this sort of "lotto mentality." Where they think if they just put out a post they will make alot of cash. So they work (some more than others) on a post and toss it out there hoping for their pay day. And what happens?.. the make a few cents.
They might do this a few times before they get discouraged but eventually they do. So, what is the issue here? Why does this happen so frequently? I feel like it is because we don't do enough to show a new steemer what the community is really about.. which is providing value. So, these newbies jump in with the wrong intention. They jump in with the intention of creating a payday vs. creating something that builds value for the community. They get involved for a lotto ticker vs. becoming a contributing member of the community.
Their head is saying.. money money money while they search for topics and ideas vs. saying this would help him or her.. or this might increase the viewership here.. or this idea might benefit this group... etc.
What if we didn't let anyone post until they had some time and energy invested in curation?
This would do a couple of things.
- It would allow them to get a feel for steemit and how it works. I see alot of junk hit the "new" section that I feel could be eliminated with a little time spent on the feed. And it would also force folks to explore, find topics that interest them, engage in few conversations, etc.
- Curation data could be collected and interests and expertise calculated in order to suggest where a newbie might be best suited to actually contribute. I don't think this has to be set in stone or anything (I'm not a communist for crying out loud).. but I feel like a light suggestion as to where they will provide the most value or "make the most money" would be helpful to everyone.
- Newbies will still get paid about the same amount as the average newbie post.. but with ALOT less effort and time on their part. This will eliminate alot of the frustration I am seeing to build... seemingly on a daily basis.
Definitely agree! As I wrote in my post Consistency Creates Whales in order to become noticed in the community is to first consistently curate great content. Thank you!
I totally lurked a little bit before I decided to even write something on here. When I finally wrote something I wasn't looking at it for the monetary value, I was looking at it to join a new and bigger community that the one my blog had already reached. Though when I found out about Steemit, it was put to me in a monetary kind of way. Though the payout would be a nice aspect, I like writing...Does that make me an odd one out?
You seem to be less of the odd one out as time progresses... upon the initial payout everyone was getting greedy and crying about not getting thousands of dollars for their posts.
Nice post and I kind of agree with you. New users should spend some time commenting and gaining knowledge of the platform and what we stand for.
nice pics bro (:
👍great post...