If you have noticed I am spending less and less time on Steemit, and I see the same phenomena happening with my subscribers too. I used to post 3-4 articles a day, and now I am only posting 1 a day or 1 in 2 days, and yes I am more busy these weeks, but I am also not very incentivized to post here.
Don't get me wrong, I like Steemit and I will continue post to my loyal followers when I have spare time or as a hobby, but I just don't feel I am motivated to post, and I have plenty of topic to write about.
The truth is that I barely get rewarded for my articles, I sometimes spend 4-5 hours on compiling and researching an article to only get a lousy 0.50$ on it? Really? I am not a spammer, and I do post very original content, well researched, but for what, a lousy 0.50$ that I cant even buy bread with?
And I don't want to sound like a Marxist, I get that valuation is subjective, I know how it works, I cannot compel people to reward me for something they might not like, but then why should I spend 4 hours of my time to get nothing in return?
It's a free market, the value of my content is subjective, yes, and if I only get 0.50$ for it? Then I won't waste 4 hours doing it, whereas I could have done more productive work with that time. Even the sweat shop slaves in 3rld world countries earn more than that, so I feel like I am wasting my talent here.
There is something really wrong with Steemit, and I bet many of you feel the same thing, this is some people that used to post regularly here, quit after a while. I see 30-40% of my followers are pretty inactive at this moment, while the only content producers around are those that get paid 100-1000$ / post.
It's really sad that it's this way, and again I'm not an SJW here to whine about it, but I just feel this is a fair criticism that the reward system is broken. There is a lot of good content around here, that don't even get 10 upvotes, and this will seriously disincentivize people, and they will abandon Steemit eventually.
I feel that if this continues Steemit will become like Reddit, full of spam pet animal posts and trendy nonsense, instead of useful educational information articles from all domains.
Hey it's just my opinion, and people are free to vote for whatever they want, I won't tell people what to do.
But if people don't reward quality content, they they should not expect quality content from Steemit.
Steemit Photo Credit: @d3m0t3x
I have the same feeling from the curation side. I spend a lot of time searching, reading and upvoting. I'd put a lot of money in steem power, but my upvote is worth only 5 cents. Not complaining, just feel bad because I want to help newcomers and good authors but I have no power.
It's 2 sides of the same coin, if the curator earns less, the author earns less too.
The problem is with the STEEM POWER distribution and reward mechanism, since it is too skewed towards big whales, whom only look at tops 2-3 articles a day, and the rest of them never get a chance for any reward.
It is obviously not a good idea to have a social media with future millions of authors to be curated by just 10-20 whales, and the rest of them earning 1-2 cents, so that has to be changed.
Many people suggested a system skewed towards a reputation. I will just write an article about this, there are ideas to be explored here.
They are smart . They gonna find solution for this. It's in their interest to keep steemit going forward.
Steemit certainly is not a get rich scheme.. if you look at some of the posters on here who write creatively (books, poems, etc) - 50 cents is a lot more than they make elsewhere. Take a look at mechanical turk or other make money opportunities online - the market always seems to come in and correct the price. There are people out there doing closed captioning for $2 an hour because it makes sense to them. Sounds like you have the right idea viewing this as a hobby. Thanks for the post.
Well I have a dayjob and passive and active investments to take care of, so dont worry about me, I am making good money, but I thought I earn some income from here as well, so that maybe I could quit my dayjob, but at current pay rates that will take a lot of time.
Well I still enjoy posting here when I have free time, it's just that I feel a bit dissapointed, and certainly if the reward mechanisms were to be changed, I would be more happy.
Exactly how I feel, There are far to many writers to readers,very sad
I know, i bet 90% of the users on Steemit feel the same, because clearly the reward goes to the top 2-3% of users, so what is the point of having the other 97% of users if they barely get any money out of it, so the threat of them leaving Steemit is very possible, and if the developers dont change the reward algorithm, I'm afraid Steemit will fail in the long term.
I agree, I wrote a post earlier about the good and bad of steemit, It def needs looking at or a lot of members will get fed up
They already are quitting, about 50% of users are already inactive, Steemit needs more features fast, and definitely that reward system needs improving. Signing up for that 4.5$ might get people signed up, but it wont keep them active if they are not making money.
When I look at my posts and see what they have made I'm really embarrassed with the results But if the money rises a little I get excited god help me of one of my posts really take off lol. Steemit have got to stop looking after the members with the money and start helping the members who are actually doing all the work
voting power needs to be more equalized . I'm the highest vote on your post at this time and all I could give you is 2 cents .
Absolutely, thanks for voting, but it's just hilarious that for 20-30 votes all I get is 10 cents, at least on Facebook if you put some advertisement or product of your own, you might get 1 buyer out of that many views, which would still be a 10$, but here the reward system is pathetic.
yes i hear you - but in other social media you post for the love of it not for money - i notice that when money is involved something eventually dies, as in lack of rewards, in FB its a lack of likes or shares - in steemit its a monetary value - the thing is - at least for me its about sharing and not being censored as in other social media such as FB - FB works because everyone i know is on it and it can connect us - steemit - well it is in one sense offering a financial reward system for sharing and in that will come the rankings where many loose out and some win - this system is bound to bring up issues over time and effort vs reward - but take away the reward and do it for the sheer pleasure and see what happens - maybe nothing in monetary terms but isn't life more than just what we can get out of it - and more about what we make of it ?
Well not really I used to do affiliate marketing on FB and Twitter many years ago ,and sometimes I got a sale from 20-30 views, which at least translated to 10$.
So that here would barely mount to 1 cent, even if 1000 people view your article and they have 0 steem power, you still dont get a buck. And if I were to start pushing referral links here I would be downvoted to oblivion.
So in that sense, from marketing standpoint, FB and Twitter will still earn you more than Steemit, unless they equalize the STEEM POWER distribution.
I feel you man. Few days ago i was havin some pretty harsh conversation in one post. 5 pictures of girl smokin weed on bong gets over 100 upvotes and over 100 dollars income . What is the point of that post? And i stressed out that issue in comments . She was mad . I told her that some people here spending 5-6 hours on actual research and writing and dont get that much attention. So if community here wants to see stupid posts ...whell here you go. Just minutes ago i was scrooling down a mile to find something good to read,nothing. Even from people that i follow. I dont understand. We need to build some good articles here not some bs crapp of texts.
Thx for posting this article , it was on my mind to.
If that is why people want to read/see, then that is what Steemit will become. I just wonder what is the point of the 60,000 or so Steemit users if only the top 200-300 get paid only for silly posts.
I get that people want to see silly things, but given how bad society is, I think we have more important issues to talk about, but I guess whatever people want to hear is what they will get.
It's just karma.
I think that the lack of good aggregation and market making tools is a major hurtle for Steemit. For a system that is tied to social networking of sorts it is not very user friendly when it comes to helping you find those who are interested in your work. Even when you do there is so much power for so few people. What is the incentive to vote for content when you are an average user other than you just like the content? Your vote carries almost no weight. I have made a little on here and I no longer really make that my goal. I have met some nice people on here and it is a venue for display. I have decided that is the reward for my efforts that I seek and have a rather long term view of the whole thing.
Except that there isnt even a chatbox feature available where you can talk with people you met here, maybe that would be a good feature to add. What kind of social media is this where you cant even talk with people only in comments.
I have raised things like that before and get the answer that there is an open api.
Really? Hope that someone improves it because ??? It is definitely not a feature rich system yet.
Somebody has to do it, what kind of social media is that where you cant communicate frictionlessly. And not just that, but many more features, look at FB how many features it has, from apps, to all kinds of things. If there would be some SD powered game that would be fantastic, like those silly farming games, but with Steem Dollar instead of FB credits.
I agree. It is not exactly a feature rich platform.