Disclaimer: This is not me trying to hate on anything. Just sharing some point of views from the now “unheard” voices of Steemit and my two cents. I want Steemit to flourish and turn out great after all. But this needs to be discussed. I don’t like to complain. Don’t think this post does this. But the consequences of the reputation system are bad for some. Feel the need to stand up for them.
Here we go.
There’s a lot of uproar in the Steemit chat.
For those that haven’t noticed yet: there is a new reputation system in place.
If you’re below zero Steemit is done for you.
Invisible posts. Where you earned a couple cents before, your chances to earn anything just approached zero.
Now, the reputation system isn’t all bad. It makes sense in a couple cases.
Users that spam and only post plagiarized content should not appear in the newsfeed. It can get quite bad.
Bots. A debatable topic.
But the negative implications are what bother people.
As usual.
People don’t remember all the good stuff you did for them but the one bad thing you do will stick in their minds for eternity.
Whatever.
People are confused.
How did they get such a bad reputation? Will this endanger free speech on Steemit?
It might. Since, providing constructive criticism has not been appreciated too much so far.
So, if your “truth” offends the wrong people and they flag your posts you’re done. Not sure how much voting power is needed to move people's reputation into a different categroy.
The “just keep on posting and try hard” mindset won’t work.
It is censorship in the form of agreement with the big guys. Or the bigger guys. Anybody with sufficient power to destroy your reputation.
Not saying the “whales and dolphins” are not able to decide which content is best for the platform.
But if you started off on the wrong foot with anybody or made someone angry you’re playing with fire.
Another big thing is the retroactive impact of the reputation system.
Establishing a reputation system is not bad. Explaining it. And then from here on forward these are the rules to play by. Sounds reasonable.
I think anybody could agree with that.
Punishing people for what they did is not so great. Without them being aware of the consequences. Since the consequences have not been in place.
Now, I don’t know how much it takes to increase the reputation rank but I can imagine that for anybody <-2, it’s game over.
Yes, even with “putting in enormous amounts of effort”.
Will this change Steemit? For sure.
Ruin it? Tough to say. I’m not here to predict the future.
But it does have some negative implications as of now. The original post talked about an update already in plan.
Let’s see how it will play out.
Maybe repeated, excessive downvoting of one user will be considered “gaming the algo” and somehow prevented.
Who knows.
Anyways, I just wanted to give a voice to the now unheard.
I don't know how it will evolve from here on out. What happens with the reputation. How much it will/can change.
Maybe the devs will think about this again.
All I can say is that I observe frustration.
I wanted to weigh in here as well having now had a day to see the reputation system in action and I too feel the power of it soon becoming a double edged sword.
As you stated, punishing those for past behavior when they never knew it had consequences seems to be a bit biased. Our court system has statutes to prevent this sort of thing to the very reasons you mentioned. If it becomes illegal today, going back even 2 weeks to punish people for committing a crime before it was a crime seems a little to (pardon the pun) "Minority Report"ish to me. The new Rep system being rolled out without much consideration for the backlash may have been a bit hasty.
The idea of punishing pre-crimes before they were crimes seems as if it has certainly caused frustration among some users who were always told this was a free speech platform and an open forum without fear of censorship.
I'm not denying the merits of having such a system in place, but I do question the method in which it was just poofed into existence with retroactive consequences for past behaviors.
I for one was not affected negatively and many of us were actually quite assisted by the new system. There are others though who were not so lucky and are now suffering the effects from their lack of etiquette, trolling, botting, or other similar offenses.
I understand that in this day and age people should know how to maintain a sense of reasonable decorum online, but I'm sure each and everyone of us has had at least one incident where we hit send before considering the consequences and lived to regret it. There's no backspace in cyberspace, once it's out there it's all but irreversible.
Just as the sayings go, some bells can never be un-rung and people can not unhear the things you say. While this seems like it would be common sense to anyone online who has used social media, a simple look at many popular feeds would beg to differ and seem to serve as evidence to the contrary...
Especially on the Blockchain. I don't know exactly, who was punished and for what. However, like you explained in detail, retroactive law practices should be prevented.
Thanks for your detailed comment.
I personally think it's an excellent move, and I couldn't be happier about it. Am I speaking out of a position of privilege with my ranking?
Definitely.
Did I use coercion to obtain my ranking?
Nope.
Did I genuinely care about each and every member of this community and do my best to increase the well-being of everyone involved?
Absolutely.
Do the people who (both here and in chat) seem to care the least about the well-being of others now have the lowest reputation scores? From my perspective, yes. Is my perspective subjective? Yes. As someone interested in #anarchism and voluntary interactions, I'm fine with rules, just not rulers. Real life involves consequences, both good and bad. For those who spent the first few months of their Steemit career causing problems for those around them, I have very little sympathy. Could they create a new account and start fresh? Yep. I think this is an important step forward for the platform to create a place on the Internet where you can actually read the comments and have constructive debate.
Flagging for disagreements seems silly and petty to me. I hope it doesn't happen. Maybe someday they'll implement a downvote instead of a flag (though I know, in the code it's just a downvote, regardless of how the Steemit.com UI displays it).
Either way, I upvoted your post not because I agree with all of it, but because I agree the discussion should be had. Thanks for letting me share my opinion. :)
I agree with you. I didn't check why exactly those accounts have been punished. Of course, there has got to be a reason for a bad reputation and I didn't address that in this post. Not good at least.
Rules are okay but only if they level the playing field.
Thanks for your comment.
I'm further encouraged to see some wrongs being righted as some accounts are being corrected by influential upvotes. It seems like, so far, the system is working. :)
The beauty of Steemit in action :D Like with every endeavor it is about building relationships. Classic social network strategy. As well as real life survival strategy.
I'm happy if it works - it's not a bad idea.
I do believe in the reputation system overall...as this will lead people to be responsible for posts & comments. Instead of just hiding behind a screen, this now pushes for people to treat the others the way they would want to be treated. You bring up some valid points and maybe there will be tweaks along the way to counteract ratings that may be too harsh.
Sorry, I don't agree. I wrote on how i am going to move my phd research to steemit and i got 6 downvotes for nothing. I dun understand why those 6 downvoted. I think they were just envious of the payouts. When such a reputation system is in place, politics among people start to be at play. Innocent and powerless people will be pulled down. Just watch
I say the rep system will likely save steemit, not destroy it. Its a fantastic idea and helps keep those who abuse the system in check.
It is definitely a work in progress. Small steps will get us there, through trial and error. It's definitely worth trying, though!
Thanks for this post there are many changes that I think the devs are just throwing out there. This place is going to evolve but to which direction, Lets hope its the one that the community needs not the voting power holders. most are pissed about the crazy new changes there should be a voting in place and not weigh it by steem power just any above a certain SP level.
excellent Post!
It'll be interesting to see how difficult new users find it to gain traction.
I think you're right. The reputation system is, in general, a very good idea. However, one potential unintended consequence is that it increases individual acts of self-censorship to avoid the (probably very small) chance of annoying a whale and blowing one's hard-earned reputation. These acts of self-censorship might be individually rational but, collectively, do enormous damage to the value of the network.
So, yes, this does need some careful thought with regards to centralization effects and unintended consequences.
@sunjata
That's correct, there is a censorship in place.
How this will get manipulated!!! just by simply voting
This self censorship you bring up, I am pretty sure that is the goal. It is the panopticon theory, where you freak people out enough that they police themselves. Be careful what you think, or you will be made invisible and unprofitable.
Interesting development for a free speech blockchain based social network...
yes, i was almost destroyed. after out for some volunteer work most of yesterday, woke up with a negative reputation. what did I do to deserve this (-5).
after some bit of search and my last post, at least I am positive (4) now and not so depress as before but certainly a roller coaster half day.
Glad it worked out for you. Perfect example of an unfortunate incident.
Yes, unfortunate that I also exit from steemit. I saw a few others got back too but seems other humans are still affected. Hope it works out for them too.
An armed society is a polite society.
The reputation system can help make something like this possible. Take a look at this proposal if you have the time Decentralized Steemit Marketplace I would love to see more info along with the reputation number. Fish status or different colors for *power posters etc
It's destroyed me dude. I'm sitting on minus 6 and I post original stuff a lot. I don't spam or 'bot' as well. I think the algorithm played up
People are now unable to see your comments by default.. Check my response to your latest post.
I like the reputation system but hope it can be tweaked over time to be as fair as possible and allow people a second chance.
To anyone who feels they deserve a better score - make a post about it and state your case. I've already seen some people do that, and they are getting Upvoted for making a good case for themselves.
So being a five, I am hesitant to post a reply to anyone with a higher reputation score since they can affect my reputation and as a result my visibility / rewards. This is from a direct experience yesterday when I felt in alignment with a popular poster and linked to my article that I thought shared their point of view. I upvoted them and discovered later that they had downvoted my comment. I can understand someone seeing a short reply with a link as spam but everyone with this new power - please yield it wisely.
Great post. I upvoted you. Check out my article from today https://steemit.com/drink/@jessicca/tips-to-stop-drinking-soda