Recently, there have been a few posts discussing what is on the trending page, how much certain accounts are earning and whether or not as a community we should address these issues. We also discussed how the should they be addressed. It was mostly opinion, but there were also facts, information and evidence that SteemIt really is community driven and Censorship Resistant.
*this picture from pixabay.com depicts a young girl crying. She is not discussing anything, she is crying.
The most recent conversation regarding the earnings of SteemSports and whether or not this is a gain or a drain on the community was not crying, it was a discussion, and it moved into other important discussions. Whether or not the trending page is interesting to new users. It morphed into a discussion on flags and the use of flags. There were even points of view represented on gambling and sports. We moved into how the curation reward work, etc. It was just a community discussion. People got to see many points of view and if they were willing to challenge themselves perhaps they changed their mind, learned something and made a decision regarding whether or not they wanted to participate.
The conversation started when @beanz wrote a post which was flagged, but still received a huge number of comments.
https://steemit.com/steemsports/@beanz/game-of-flags-a-fun-redistribution-game-win-steem-by-flagging
*picture reposted from beanz's post.
She was making a point about the use of flags, and the value we are giving to Steemsports.
The @tuck-fheman account posted this funny and accurate account of various stages we have gone through.
https://steemit.com/steem-life/@tuck-fheman/steem-life-vol-13-steemit-growing-pains
*top picture from tuck-fheman's post
Tuck's post was an accurate portrayal of some of the "Trending Page" conflicts I have seen since I have been on SteemIt, it was labeling the issue accurately as growing pains.
As a community with a pretty small active user-base, we can discuss these trends and as a community bring up these issues. This may influence how users big and small are impacting this community and how we have the ability to mold and change SteemIt. Isn't that exactly what de-centralized is supposed to mean?
Shortly after Tuck's post others chimed in
https://steemit.com/steemit/@stellabelle/what-will-be-the-next-big-reward-trend-on-steemit
*picture from Stellabelle's post.
@stellabelle made a post going into more detail of some of the debates the community has gone through, and how it has impacted change on the platform. She pondered what would come next.
In my opinion the discussions we have had regarding various posts, the trending page, flagging, sock puppets, etc. Just show the SteemIt Platform is functioning, the community is engaged and that we are all trying to make this a better place. We are invested and we care about the future of SteemIt.
All systems go, now we need to add to our user-base, focus on user-retention, and grow this platform.
People love to talk about the attention economy. We are living in it. If you want to get people's attention show them we have a growing, engaged, active community. When the users come, they hold value, they are the audience for potential advertisement revenue, or just a hot happening place. Nobody likes to be left out of the new great thing. Facebook was not monetized until it had enough users to give it value. Of course Steamians love to talk about SteemIt. We are all from different places, different ages, different backgrounds.
There is only one thing we all have in common. Every single one of us is a member of the SteemIt community, and a user of the platform.
I don't know what the next trend on SteemIt will be, however I would like to urge our community to help new users.
I have had two friends try to sign up and have difficulty doing so. There is no place for them to go for help.
- Make the sign up easy.
- Manage expectations, don't tell people they are going to earn $15k on a post
- We need to find ways to give users visibility. (Don't vote for them if they aren't good, but if we can't find them... They aren't going to have a good experience.)
- Support new users with votes, comments, and resteeming it is a great way to give them an introduction.
- Engage! Networking and engagement is a huge part of the community.
- Talk, complain, cry, discuss, predict and update us on your successes and your failures.
Let the conversations rage on, this is an attention based economy, give it your attention.
This post has been ranked within the top 25 most undervalued posts in the first half of Dec 29. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $9.32 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Dec 29 - Part I. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
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Very well said. You gotta love tgus place. People with so many different perspectives coming together online. So cool
Yes, the one thing we all have in common is the platform. Of course, it is important to us, and is going to be a topic. :) Usually, the discussion flairs up and then dies back down.
Meta posts about Steemit / STEEM are taking all of the rewards. Pretty much all the time, not complaining about it though.
For me, it's not the amount of rewards the posts on the trending page get that bothers me, but rather that I rarely find them to be worthwhile reads. Same thing with YouTube's Trending feed, but the good thing about Steemit is that the posts on the trending page are selected by the community and not the advertisers. This doesn't necessarily make the posts any more interesting for me, sadly.
And oh, it's not much but have an upvote from me :)
Agreed, a trending page isn't usually where you will find the best content on anything. Yet, I meet someone else new. So, I will give you a vote back, and we may not be whales yet, but think what our posts might be worth if the price was .50 or even 1.0 :)
Nice post. As a relative noob, I am invested in the platform and therefore try to stimulate discussion/debate usually on quite contentious topics. I believe nothing retains users like debate, conflict and engaging conversation. I intend to continue doing what I do in order to help grow Steemit and will continue to start fires wherever I believe they need starting.
I can't say my recent foray into the "pizzagate" thread garnered much actual information, but it certainly got some responses. You'll usually find me where the fireworks are, just so you know......lol.
Welcome to the community, thank you for you comment. I have followed you. I like fireworks sometimes too.
Awww......thanks. Followed you too and great to know you like fireworks.....I can assure you there will be quite some displays in the future........I think I've found my home. Cheers
The open discussions on Steemit are one of the special things about the whole system. I don't know how it will happen as Steemit gets bigger and bigger. But it is refreshing to see such openness - and responsiveness - to the discussions about how to handle issues that arise. It's a good reminder that this platform is an experiment on top of the blockchain - and one of our tasks as a community, is to surface the unexpected and figure out how to handle it.
Agreed, I like them too. I especially like that they can't be shut down.
I like that people stay pretty civil, too.
Yes, I have only really seen a few people get down and dirty, it is mostly just discussion.
What's up @whatsup? Groan, that was cheesy, haha! I generally introduce myself with Hi there @name and...yeah.
So I've been here a little over four weeks and spent the first couple just getting to know people-i.e. jumping in on contests and engaging the music community for my brother (who I'm hoping will be on here soon), basically I dove in head first and became a little obsessed and a lot immersed and finally overwhelmed. Which has never happened to me on social media by the way, Facebook is something I have just to talk to out of state friends and relatives because many of them are obsessed and it's the only way to easily reach them, I don't have a twitter, or even a reddit account, I generally prefer the super ancient method of communication e-mail... Anyway I finally came up for air, (had no choice due to holidays and people who depend on me for Christmasy spirit and fun filled festivities) and now that I've had a little space I've begun noticing that there is some, not sure if this is the right word but Politics going on? I am definitely interested in learning everything I can about this platform. I've been doing a lot of reading, many of them old posts, to get a handle on how it all works, figuring out who the witnesses are and what they do and what vests are, that sort of thing. But one thing I don't quite comprehend-does all of the votes going toward steemsports and apparently some of the news outlets- severely take away from everyone else? Basically I'm asking if you think @beanz is off base or on point. I'm not a sports or news fan, to the extent that I don't think I've even read a post in either category...well maybe a couple of news posts but definitely not sports, but that's just a personal preference, I have nothing against people who love that stuff. Sorry this is so long, I babble when I'm tired, I promise this isn't representative of my normal comments and you don't have to fear that if you respond I'll write another book, LOL. Just want different points of view on the subject and since you're talking about it I'm asking you :)
It is funny that you ask me, because I am in the middle on this issue. I could argue both sides. About 2 days prior to Beanz's post I had decided on a personal level I was no longer going to participate in these games. It isn't that I am morally worried about it. - It is that they kept doing more and more a day. Yes, people get some free steem, but also steem is being held in steemsports wallet, the payouts are 50% of the reward. Meaning that account keeps 50% as well. 1 a day, to give some players some steem and make minnows feel good as they come on board. Wouldn't have been a big deal. So, the arguement is that there is a rewards pool each day which gets spread around based on votes and the SP the voters have. So, yes, when the same posts trend everyday, it takes away from everybody else's chance to receive those votes and the rewards that go along with them. When they start posting multiple times a day.... Obviously it takes more out. In addition, the steemsports account receives whale support, so if they weren't supporting that would they be supporting other things? There is no way to know.
When I really decided to get out of the habit of voting on those posts, is when there was a bunch of other accounts trying to do the same thing. I just decided that isn't what I want to support Steemit to become. A place where it is more popular to play simple voting games instead of writing and connecting. As I said, I can see bothsides of the argument.
On the other hand. Their are many who were having difficulty gaining any steem by posting who many stay around and be active due to getting some of this "free steem". The real question is the pain worth the gain and vice-versa.
Hm. I've also heard it argued that it's a popularity contest which would be great if the popular content was worthy content. But I've read some phenomenal pieces that ranged from a sad thirty cents to about 12 bucks, meanwhile I've clicked on posts worth over a hundred dollars that were practically copied and pasted from a couple different google searches on the subject matter with just a few sentences re-worded. They cited but still. I'd much rather read original content myself. So I suppose it doesn't really matter what the consensus is, I know what I'm looking for. I think what @beanz did took a lot of guts, and I happen to really like her, but I'm not certain I'd want to attract the negative attention or the ire of bigger fish. Love your diplomatic answer though, going to add you to my list now ;)
I thought her post was brave as well, you will find her to be a smart person, who thinks through things before talking about them. I respect her.
Although my answer sounded diplomatic, it is truly how I feel about steemsports. Mixed over the idea, and then they got greedy and took it too far.
I agree with the title of this post. It is only when people resort to name calling instead of presenting something substantial that discussions turn into crying. This is one of the reasons I hardly ever visit a previous social media site since finding Steemit. The reward system here has an inherent incentive for people to behave like grown-ups, and produce real content.