Attention: Content Makers - Nitty-gritties of Steemit

I will NOT be diluting the power of this post by providing links to other posts. As with my earlier posts, this is another attempt to make a dumbed-down version of Steemit concepts, stripped of all the technical and mathematical niceties!

Although I am aiming this post to those new to steemit, I will request veterans of this platform to read my gripes at the end of this post. I assume that the reader of this post has done their homework and knows basics like what is steemit & the basic currency types, power up/ down, how to write a blog & vote up etc. Here are the things to know before you start writing on steemit.

1. EVERYTHING you do is visible in the block-chain which has been very neatly presented in sites like steemd or steemdb. Even your wallet balance cannot be hidden within steemit.com. So be sensible when you post something.

2. Post your content with 3 Rewards options (drop-down appearing in bottom-right of Submit a Story):
   o 50% Steem – 50% SBD
   o 100% SP
   o No reward
   
   I wish I had realized this earlier – there is ->no way<- to change content reward type once you post it 😞

3. You can also un-tick the Upvote post (you see it below the Rewards options) checkbox before voting. You can come back and vote later for yourself. However, by un-ticking this you end up losing curating rewards (even if you decide to vote later). But some say, it does not matter what you do with this. Do as you please!

4. You can self-promote your work or another person’s anytime. You pay with SBD & the more you pay, the much higher it will be seen in promoted tab of steem. This basically donates your money to an account called null. With the amount it takes for content to make it to top 10 of this section, you might as well drop your wallet down the drain!

5. To see which posts are really giving you actual earnings, check sites like SteemNow.

6. Follow the good practices of blogging. Do NOT plagiarize & give credit to images and quotes if they are not original. This one is ambiguous, but for what is worth: do NOT troll! Nothing good has ever come out of trolling…. EVER!

7. If you come from a traditional blogging platform or social network, you need to know that folks can post what they want on steemit; you cannot go cry on someone’s shoulders to delete stuff. A post needs to be flagged to be taken down. I am unsure at this point, whether one flag is enough to take down a post. Hopefully it takes a LOT more than that!
   
   This, in all honesty, does NOT appear to be a clever idea – you ask people to post freely, you give them real money for such posts. Guess what type of posts start flooding this platform pretty soon? Obviously, there will be some checks, but it is not too obvious!

8. Unfortunately, class hierarchy exists in steemit. Ancients are termed whales/ orcas. Those who joined just before the boom are possibly the dolphins & new folks are minnows/ planktons. Whale votes comes backed with a lot of SP; more SP behind a vote => more SBD to you.

9. Spend your time more wisely on steem; best way to do that is to build a selective list of authors to follow. The more junk you follow (there are truck-loads of that), the more boring your steemit experience will become.

10. Most important note for curators: Do not blindly get into article for images. Did you see any images so far? You are already on point 10!

11. Most vital note for authors: Images are a great way to attract your posts. I never used to blog with images; until I got into steem and realized the importance of it!
    
    Image courtesy: Steemwhales

12. Services like catchawhale and steemwhales etc exists to track the movement of the big people & also tell us what they like to read. But this might be over-rated; most of the people posting are minnows. This means you most probably are at the bottom end of the SP pile & guess what? There will be more minnows in the system than whales – as with any other

13. For a minnow I would recommend that you post your heart out on the first few weeks of joining steemit. More quality posts => more followers => more SBD eventually. Don't let counter-arguments like "do NOT post it for rewards" get in your way; the platform monetizes content for a reason; find a way that will make the blockchain do the work for you!

14. Power-up whenever you can; esp. if you are a minnow. While powering down your SP is credited back in 104 equal instalments. So do a simple math. If you have 100 SP, you will get roughly .96 SP (100/ 104) a week. Multiply this by the value of steem in USD (current steem price in market) to see the value you get back weekly & see if this is worth it. I think the later someone joins steem, the worse it will be for them to power down (unless steem’s market value, pegged to USD, collapses drastically).
    
    
    Image courtesy: imgur

15. Compared to other platforms, it pays to stay active in steemit. Keep commenting on threads you have something to say & upvote stuff you like. I remember reading that the optimum upvotes per day for one steemer will be around 20 (refer to steem post).

16. People tend to stop voting beyond certain time on your posts, because the payout they receive will NOT be credited in a week (as is normal), but after a month. I think this is 12 hours; I could be wrong here…

17. Remember the energy bar in most of your mobile games. There’s something similar in steemit. Your voting power goes down with each vote. Decay is 5% per vote. It refills after a day.
    
    
    Image courtesy: MemeGenerator
    

18. You have a reputation in steem. This is like levels in games. You keep levelling up very quickly in the beginning & will need to spend more time and energy to scale beyond the 40s. It is unlikely I will comprehend the maths behind that number, but in general it is based on your follower count, their weight (whale, dolphin etc.) and most importantly quality of your posts and comments.
    
    It seems you can get your score up to the 35-40 range with accurate voting, but if you want to get it much higher than that, you need to produce quality content. In order to get into the high 50s or 60s, you'll probably need several posts to reach the trending page.

19. There is something called vested steem (behind your SP). I never got around the technical explanation for this hidden unit, but this is basically what determines your class whale/ minnow etc.
    
    Simplest explanation I read is that “if Steem Power is steem held in a fund, then vests are shares in that fund”. This is basically mapped to your steem and you can find how much your vested steem are worth.
    
    Refer to https://steemd.com/@nrajesh (top-right); don't forget to replace the username in this URL! You can also check your stats at SteemDollar

    Plankton => up to 1M VESTS
    Minnow =>1 to 10M VESTS
    Dolphin =>10 to 100M VESTS
    Orca => 100 to 1,000M VESTS
    Whale =>1,000M VESTS

20. You curate by voting and commenting on posts. More sensible curation builds up your reputation faster. Following factors affect your final payout:
    o Your reputation
    o Your SP
    o Timing of your vote in relation to posted time of the article
    o Popularity of the post itself

21. Your voting time matters on a post because there is a penalty for early votes. Generally speaking, if you up-vote in 0 minutes of a post being submitted you get 0% & author gets 100% of the reward. This is for 1st 30 minutes of posting. During this penalty time the amount you lost goes to the author. This exists to encourage authors & should not be looked down upon.

22. If you think the post is going to make big, then probably you should vote early. I learned that even if a whale votes for a post hours later than a minnow, the person voting earlier on a very popular post tends to gain a lot more!

23. A lion’s share (75%) of the payout goes to author & the rest is distributed to the curators on the basis of several factors. So if you are a minnow, which most of the readers of this post are likely to be, post more and curate optimally. The more you curate, more chance of folks to follow you & this should add up to your reputation score in some unknown good way. FAQ has more info on the split up.
    
    
    Image courtesy: Tumblr
    

24. Posts cannot be deleted; but comments posted on pretty old posts can somehow be deleted. I need to figure out the post age, beyond which comments can be self-moderated! Also I still need to understand, if comments on articles posted with “No rewards” option can be moderated immediately rather than waiting for post to grow old.

25. You can recommend post to everyone following you by re-steeming them. Though there’s no way to add your own thoughts about the post when you re-steem.
    
    Note to minnows: Post more original content. Resteem only selective posts. It is unclear whether you get any revenue for resteeming! If you are sure the post will be a hit and you have curated it, then it makes more sense to resteem it!

26. You can join bots like steemvoter or streemian and give your consensus to vote on your behalf. Steemvoter lets you decide which poster you want to vote for automatically (so go for whales I guess), streemian lets you choose curation trails like steem-trail etc. I DID see some votes appearing via steemvoter, but nothing via streemian yet. Streemian also has other services like guilds etc.

27. Additionally you can be active on steem.chat or in the discord forum that is very active. As I learnt it quite recently, it makes sense to NOT post your own content in various communities inside these chat groups. Instead post someone else’s work.

28. If you see another number (in brackets) in your profile below your SP number, it means that number of SP was delegated to you. I guess this is most likely to come from bots or whales who feel you will vote sensibly on their behalf.
    
    
    Image courtesy: Canva
    

29. There’s a tax on steemit. You read it right! If you post more than 4 top level posts per day you get taxed from the 5th post onwards.

30. I still need to figure out many things. Like how:
    o I can earn the curation award; it has been zero so far even though I have been actively voting. Learning: Give it a week or 10 days to build up
    o Down-votes. So far, I don’t see any option at all!

Like all things human, I am not content with the state of current affairs. I still have my gripes with this whole steemit platform:

1. The hierarchy. I might change this stance as I grow 😉

2. Lack of in-built search. Clearly we are in beta!

3. The lack of clarity on basics like above, leading to several minnows publishing a post like this. How long is it going to make a clear FAQ section for above points? Even a simple video will do!
   
   
   Image courtesy: Giphy
   

4. Lack of making content moderation more clear.

5. Some services I stated above, should have been part of steemit itself. For example, why do I need a service just to know which of my posts/ curations contributed to my SP/ SBD? It should be integrated in steemit itself! One more example is Steemit Board which will help you get useful badges.

6. No good mobile apps. If steemit wishes to grow, this is an absolute must. I tried eSteemer and in iOS I cannot even get it to login.

7. The web editor is not perfect. Often times, I noticed that when posting new content the “Editor” link disappears when I paste large stuff in the content editor!

8. In the least we need a better WYSIWYG editor! I have four bookmarks created for finding the right emojis. Most of the times copy-pasting images/ emojis don’t even work. Honestly, do we even need to ask?

9. My last gripe is about a trivial but significant feature that is missing here. To put it curtly, I DARE YOU to bookmark this post using steem's blockchain. Come on... I double dare 😄

NB: This post will be actively updated long after it is created, as and when I learn more about steemit. It was first written with my learnings from a week of steemit usage. I am penned this before things disappear in the back of my mind – as they do most often.

PS: Steemit is based on crypto-currency, but is still unlike others because 90% of steem tends to go those who participate in content creation & 10% is for witnesses. Anyone who decides to run a dedicated steemd server and broadcast their intent can be a witness. Vote for your witness at https://steemit.com/~witnesses. You have 30 votes – make it count!