I haven't written about my views on the platform, for quite some time. While I was writing the article about a Free Society - How strong is the case, I was thinking about a real problem with the Steemit platform. Don't get me wrong, I love the platform and all the efforts which the developers are taking to improve the platform. I actually want to highlight even further that I believe @dan and @ned is doing a wonderful job, at actually listening to the users of the platform. They are improving on the issues and concerns, which are raised by us , the end-users of this system. For me this is showing real leadership and the creator's of the platform's commitment and will to make this work over the long term.
What is happening on Steemit today?
There are many posts and articles written about the issues of really good posts, disappearing into a big black hole. Let's face it, when you publish an article, it disappears within minutes, from the top of the new list, into the black hole :) There are only two ways currently in existence, of getting your post out of this hole, and the weight is heavily leaning towards one side of the two options. Option 2 is when you have enough followers, which I believe is not the case in 95% if not 99% of cases at the moment. Should all of your followers up vote your posts and most of them are heavy hitters, you might be pulled out of the hole. Maybe to page 25 or 30 of the trending pages, where most people are currently spending their time. So Option 2 is not really workable at the moment.
Option 1 is the one which we all fight for while writing content. When you receive a whale vote, you will probably end up on page 10, 9 or even 8 of the trending list. From here on forward it is all about a second and third whale vote, which will take you up to page 5 or even page 4 of the trending pages. From here it is all about the topic you write on and the quality of your work. The system is working great, but very much dependant on the Whale vote.
What about the middle class
We currently have a situation very similar than to what is happening in most African countries. We have the Super Rich, and of the poor. We do not have enough of the bigger accounts. Yes, some accounts is starting to showing a glimmer of becoming the middle class, but … and this is a huge but , there is not enough of these middle class users on the platform.
Most importantly I do not believe these users are being created quickly enough. Yes the wealth is definitely flowing downwards, as per @liberosist, post Steem Power Distribution. By the way, @liberosist, I believe it is time for an update on this :) I guess you are waiting for the end of the month?
So here is the bottom line - We do not have a middle class on Steemit and we are not in the position to create this level of users fast enough. In my opinion the middle class should be a combination of high hitting dolphins and tuna's - or whatever you want to call them for that matter,
Tuna's
Image Credit
Tuna's in my opinion, should be in the position to contribute around 20 - 50 SBD depending on their vests. This will mean if you have 6 Tuna votes (50 X 6 = $300), you are out of the big black hole and up to at least page 5 or 6 on the trending list. Now this is where the stuff really starts happening. If you now get a whale vote, which will be easier, as you have a better chance of being noticed higher up the trending pages. If you add the 1 Whale vote to the article, and you are on page 3.
Dolphins
The same conversation of the Tuna's can be used for dolphins. Higher end Dolphins should have at least add 10 - 20 SBD per vote and baby dolphins should at least add 5 - 10 SBD to the accumulative pot for the article. Now we have a much wider audience looking for the good articles.
Let's do the math
4 X Tunas + 5 X High End Dolphin + 100 baby dolphins + your following = (6 X 50) + (5 X 20) + (100 X 10) + (100 X 0,05) = $1 405 and all of a sudden we have 6 + 5 + 100 + 100 = 211. In the example, we empowered 211 users to decided if a post should trend. The masses of the votes will then follow. Currently if 1 whale doesn't see you, you do not have much of a chance to get out of the hole.
I believe we all know this and most of us also believe that this will be default happen through time, as the eco-system maturity develops.
Statement - In total we are currently 79 280 users on the platform. From this only 4675 people were active yesterday and 13 807 people were active in the last 7 days. In my mind all 79 280 (Minus the scammers) of us are early adopters of the platform. Surely we can find good enough content writers and ambassadors within this group of people to empower as the middle class. I believe the middle class will be created through time, but I am not sure that it will happen quickly enough.
Question - If we are losing good content creators from the platform, as a result of their content not being seen. How do we create a middle class faster?
Your comments would be appreciated .
Happy Steeming
I think some sort of "Internal Market for Voting Delegation" , similar to what is described here as rshares/SD market https://steemit.com/witness-category/@arhag/witness-arhag-update-aug-9-2016-to-aug-18-2016
could do the trick really fast
Really good article! I already wrote about the importance of whale upvotes and the 'Joshua Bell phenomenom' (https://steemit.com/steemit/@crypt0mine/steemit-whales-successful-blogs-and-the-joshua-bell-phenomenon)
We need a middle class. And we are too dependent on whales. We waste tons of quality content. I even saw an artist that posted once, received 0$, reposted one week later and got 263$ on exactly the same content.
Great comment and I read your article which is also great. Let's hope that a heavy weight bumps into this post of mine and lets see what the reaction is.
Great post! Part of the fun is stumbling into terrible posts and then finding gems hidden way down in the 'new' feed.
I think we should remind each other that this is supposed to be fun. Yeah, we work hard to create content. Some of us are better at it than others. And yeah the rewards can be awesome and really crappy.
If everyone helps a little bit: a comment a day, at least 20 upvotes a day, etc. then this platform could blossom into something really amazing! But we also have to remember that it will take time. I'm seeing great ideas on how to improve the voting system and the developers are reading them and taking them into consideration. I think we already have all the tools we need to grow the middle class.
Indeed. Also love to stumble across a good post. It is just a bit frustrating no to have the power to assist that article with enough vote love :) I am in general a person that can't wait :) Hence writing the post. In my heart I know that we all need to wait, it will eventually happen. But that is just the way I am :) I think I am worse than my own kids that can't wait to go to the sea, or on holiday.
However, the threat is that should we have a massive event, in the media, and millions of people flog to the platform, the current ecosystem will struggle to handle millions of new users creating content. We will lose a lot of good content producers as a result, because, the few Whales, will not be able to identify all the good posts and we will loose those millions again. Just my opinion though... This platform changes all the time ...
Yes, Steemit is definitely not ready for a huge migration from other sites, but it is still in beta. I do hope that people realize this. Beta means the platform is in a testing stage. It means things will be re-built, re-worked, tried and changed. We (the ones who are here early) will definitely make a big impact on the future of Steemit just by sharing our ideas and suggestions.
It does feel a little like it's Christmas Eve and we just want the perfect place to share everything we have and get acknowledged/paid for it right away lol
@jacor glad I saw this in my feed. The question certainly is how do we advance the growth of the middle class on a shorter curve than what is currently happening organically.
Right now it's a slow pace as the early adopters (us) who stay with it and post quality content regularly will be those that become the middle class as more and more users join.
What we don't know is how long that will take? How much does the user base need to grow. What kind of growth in active users do we need?
The robinhood initiative I read about today seems like a good idea to help the growth of the middle class...outside of that kind of blank in ideas.
Good to hear from you again @scaredycatguide :) That is indeed the question. How long will it take. Please read my comment to @mscleverclocks as I want to highlight the last paragraph :)
That is a very good point. Being that is how human nature works - the "herd mentality." When steemit does get a mass media exposure that mass wave of people come in - it's a total cluster f*ck and the consistent quality content gets lost in the sea. However, that wave dies down as all the people leave that didn't hit it big on their first few posts and we (quality authors) begin to float back to the surface until the next wave comes.
Wish I knew how may waves we have to ride out.
Well, I've found that the best way to get your posts noticed and have them earn at least 30+ SBD on every post is to be a hot chick. I think if we simply all work at being a little hotter and more female the middle class will blossom.
Fingolfin??
Spare your misogynist BS,please. If you have bitter,resentful thoughts, maybe examine yourself to find the real cause, within yourself.
Misogynist? It was a joke... Not to mention that on Steemit and any other platform really being an attractive person, male or female, definitely works in your favor.
Guys please ... English is my second language ! I need to google words like misogynist :) I think we all saw the tong in the cheek humor there :)
@jacor you knowledge of the English language is far superior to many people I know and many people would also be lost if the word misogynist was tossed in your direction. Keep up the good work!
tong in cheek was right. Or perhaps fork.
You can't say success and attractiveness correlate, it hurts feelings.
Even if it's true? However, I know there was a case in the US recently. A female dental assistant had been fired because she was too attractive (apparently, the dentist lost focus, plus his missus demanded it). Of course, the employee sued for wrongful dismissal, and the case got into the courts. The result? Well, the court ruled that being too hot was a legal reason for getting fired. (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/iowa-woman-fired-attractive-back-moves/story?id=19851803)
@johnronnevik: especially if it is true!
Interesting viewpoint. This can help mitigate the need to value the natural result of trickle-down economics within Steemit. I never really put into mind that there could be a middle class. If you think about economic solutions that actually worked in real life, the middle class does a powerful job stimulating the economy with their liquid buying power after WWII. How would the turn out be if this was utilized in Steemit? It might be an idea now, but could end up be a revolutionary solution sometime soon. I hope @dan and @ned have a chance to check this out for a new experiment.
Thanks for your comment @marquismiller . I agree... this is exactly why we have the middleclass in the real world. It stimulates economies. I do however believe this will happen in any case over time. The question is will it happen fast enough.
I'm not sure about how all will be there.
But I'm sure what everyone must try hard every time.
Because easy to see what bad post or spam posts don't take attention and don't make any profit to author.
In the same way we all must understand what all we are sit on one boat and need cooperate and make good relationship between each user.
There is no competition where all other is your own "enemy".
If you not investor you must mostly consider on your post and content not on the only earnings on your post.
To be an average is not good for anyone there, you must try to be the best.
YEs ... love the sentiment. But in any community the average people are the ones that gives momentum to the ones that come up with the great ideas. You always also have those that just hang around and cruise ... nothing wrong with that, but in a value adding society, self gratification is seen as below average... not in ability, but in output.
I think That the steemit platform is growing
and having growing pains
I heard the stories of other companies
that have experienced this
I assume now that block chain
is not immune from this.
Changes are cool though
Whales need to be required to use a %
of votes to up vote minnows
I now have writers block,
Ok,
Everyone Should have to login every week
and more than 1 time,
Maybe 3-5 days a week?
upvote, comment, post, etc......
I hope this helps
Good points, and as far as I can see all areas in the crypto world mimics or follow what we have in the real world, so most logic one can apply on governance, community management and regulation, finance and yes, product life cycle seem to be followed.
Nice post. There are few activities that reward the middle class. I have been very active and I really can't justify the time I have spent here the last two months. I have time to do quick post and read a lot of post and vote on tons of post, make a few comments but none of this is rewarded much. We need middle class jobs to run this town. There aren't enough newspaper writing jobs someone must deliver the papers, set the type, support the good writers.
I think @dan and @ned are working on balancing out rewards, they have commented in some other posts about this. Great Post!
true, but also remember that a lot of bad content is out there.. cos someone can not be rewarded for bad content. yes agreed that when the whales backs someone , its a great uplift from the hole, and when everyone sees that, they all follow suit. , that shuold be refined a little bit ; so as to creat fairness in the platform.and at least fair distribution
The upper classes use voting bots, not curation. The middle would likely do the same. No curation. Minnows curate for they believe they will be rewarded for it and possibly an early sense of duty, which fades. Curation has failed and who blames them. The new wall is filled with junk. A whale said to me, the new wall is 19/20 trash. Who wants to dig through that.
Thanks for your comment @jennsky , I agree that some will use bots, but , I also think most of the Whales are technical, and have the ability to manage the bots and optimise them. Vs. If we have a large middle class, most of them will be ordinary writers like you and me. They will have to currate carefully, and also there will be a lot more middle class than whales, hence more people have a larger influence on what should be trending. Not only one or two people.
Eish ... Maybe my Follow Me Image are to big :) Will have to work on that one!
Interesting article and much to think about!
Thanks to the author for the article! I fully support his idea, a lot of good writers remain unnoticed
One way to create a middle class was through mining Steem. If they were to rework the witness/mining mix so that there are more miners rewarded each round that could move more Steem to the middle class instead of rewarding the whales. Right now 19 witnesses, 1 standby witness and 1 miner are rewarded each round. If they were to change that to 15 witnesses, 2 standby witnesses and 4 miners each round, the number of middle class miners would rapidly grow.
I'd also think that new users (each and every one of us has been through that) get kindof a distorted idea of reality when they see the trending page with hundreds to thousands of dollars in rewards for some posts. this creates high expectation in them, which quickly fades away as they see that their posts do not fare well - they are not seen since they are new. minimizing or eliminating such expectations may increase user retention.I mean let's be serious, does a piece of average content really worth say $900. I'd say no...
removing our focus from the trending page (which is where most new users spend time) may be a short-term workaround...
Fully agree, however who decides what is average. Can not be a hand full of people. It has to be more equitable, and if you want the community to decide, then they should also decide where the money goes.
@cristi , Yes, agree with you that te average posts should not get that much... I am a firm believer that the system will sort itself out through time.
Loved this article. I think at this point that I'd have to argue that helping minnows and gaining followers is just as important as whale votes. If you are not on a whale bot list, you may only receive a high payout once. That is not necessarily sustainable.
Helping people and continuing to make interesting content will lead to people interested in what you have to say. Most everyone who has not invested a dime in the platform started as a minnow. If you help a minnow who surpasses you quickly and are friends with them (someone like @sirwinchester or @ms.steemit) to me they are valuable not just because they are extremely good at managing time and making great content, but also because they are my friends and friends usually tend to help one another out.
Yes the money is nice on this platform, but as long as you enjoy what you are writing about then money should be a lower priority. If you passionately write about something you enjoy, it may not make a lot of money, but it may gain a few followers who in turn may be able to help you out down the line.
Also why are tunas larger than dolphins? I feel like someone should break down the different fish levels. I also think it would be cool to have your fish next to your name Adding Whales Minnows & Dolphins Next To Usernames with the possibility of having different color fish as you slowly "level up." I think that would entice some gamers to try hard to achieve a certain status based on a number of different metrics.
Very true. And in this case something fishy seems to be a good thing. This is a maturing platform and bound to go through some pain, as it improves and grows. It is part of change. But change can not happen if we do not make it happen. All of us can play a role here ... even if you are a sardine. And that is definately smaller than a Tuna.
Yet another great comment! Thanks @bendjmiller222 . Fully agree it is not all about the money! Loved your comment and I also really enjoy helping anybody on the platform as well as writing content.
Well, I am not sure if we do have a solution to this very important situation that we are currently facing.
Based on the above statement, it clearly shows that not even 10% of registered users were online in the past 24 hours.But would like to share a suggestion that popped into my mind while reading the post
I feel people should be rewarded for participating and being active in the community and not for creating accounts and keeping it dormant. So instead of paying interests for the STEEM/STEEM POWER of the inactive accounts, this should be distributed to people who actually spend quality time on the platform.
Interests paid should keep on decreasing for the time they have spent away from the community and accounts which haven't been active for past 7 days shouldn't be paid interest at all. By doing this we would be encouraging the community to participate and be active.
Again taking reference to the above figures, so when the STEEM interests are accumulated for 79280 registered accounts but are distributed among only 13807 users who were active for past 7 days would mean we are creating a middle class who is actually happy spending some time over here and are worthily being rewarded for it.
This is just my suggestion and may have its own downside as well, but just thought of sharing it with fellow steemers. Let me know how you feel about it.
Hi @sizil , Thank you for a great comment and suggestion. All suggestions help!
The re-distribution is probably happening as rapidly as possible. I don't know what the inflation rate is these days, but it's probably between 300% to 400%, which is far above the 100% target. The only way it can happen faster is probably if whales started transferring VESTS directly to authors when they voted, in addition to the generated VESTS/SBDS, but that is obviously a far-fetched suggestion. Another way would be to change the proportion of SBDs to VESTS rewarded, making it much more skewed towards VESTS, but that may upset some people and also destabilize the value of SBDs.
In short, I guess the developers are doing as well as they can to re-distribute vesting and create a new middle class.
The next update is coming first week September. I know, this is longer than usual, but this one will have much more data than just SP distribution. :)
Thanks for the comment. I also have a few far-fetched suggestions, but think we should just wait and see what happens in the future. It is the weirdest thing, I haven't been on the platform for that long. Maybe one-and-a-half-months, but it feels like I have been here for a very long time, hence wanting to speed things up :) I know it won't work though ... I just want it to :)
Eagerly awaiting your next publication on the stats.
Chat soon
Hi @jacor
Unfortunately I don't have an answer to your question on how to grow the middle class, but I do agree 100% with your point. Currently I am a very small fish trying to grow into this elusive middle class. I do however suffer to find the time to read many posts and do research to post articles of good content, I have not posted a researched article yet, only a few small posts . (I am only on steemit for just over a week).
In the meantime I just enjoy keeping busy on steemit.
Very interesting. Had some time to think today, and having read some of the posts flying around thought I will put my ideas about Steem on paper and ask @jacor to publish (so that some more eyes can get to see it). I am relatively new, and have not done the post a day. But it takes a lot of time, and as a newbie, only have one or two people react to my posts is disheartening. At the very least I am sure I will get some conversation going in my writings. I tend to on other platforms such as LinkedIN, Twitter and Facebook. I take it that my stuff my be uninteresting for most, but I do not believe that, and to my mind, mine is a needle in a haystack, with a minimal chance that someone that matters will see it and at the very least engage with it. Anyway, even if I am not the best writer or most interesting writer, I am an experienced and successful businessman, so once @jacoR post my article (I hope he does), I hope that a little will resonate with someone.
Happy posting you all, and thanks for the guidance and thoughts @jacor. You are the reason I am persevering. And definitely the reason why I convinced my father whom is a lifelong political and eco writer that has been published in newspapers all over the world and is a regular blogger for National Geographic to join and write on Steem. The Steem community is lucky to have guys like you.
Thank you very much for the comment @robertm , I will definitely post your artifice in the morning. I hope to get some interesting discussion out of the article :)
Great perspective we definitely do need more middle class users, the divide of power gap is too wide. I get 50 votes sometimes that only equal .40 cents all from just minnows. Better then nothing I guess, but don't get me wrong wish it was much more then pennies.
What an intriguing problem. The main issue, as I see it, is that information is generated at a faster pace than it can be "consumed" (in lack of a better word). Why? Well, everyone wants to become one of the big fish. Or maybe they aim for the middle class. At any rate, they want their posts to be seen, and probably get some cash in the process. Of course, not everyone is a prolific writer, but that's never stopped anyone on social media. Of course, there is a control for this. The other users who read, comment and up vote (or don't). However, as a QA process, it's dysfunctional for the same reason as it is needed. There's just so much information being generated all the time. Is there a way to work around this? Maybe. But getting more controls in play might be interfering with everyone's right to express themselves. Maybe I'm not good at writing. Maybe I can't be bothered to pimp my posts with photos and graphics. Maybe I don't want to post selfies of me in a thong to get noticed (as I surely would - 1) I'm a dude, 2) My ass is hairy. Still, I should get to voice my opinions. To sum it up. I've got no suggestions, but I think getting a middle class in place is essential. Hopefully someone brighter than me knows how to get it done.