Out of wanting to switch back to FireFox, given that the cookies on Yandex are acting up, I've checked on steemit again.
The "trending" articles that stuck out to me were, not surprisingly, ones involving Jeff:
"The Great Steemit Debate: Tone Vays vs. Jeff Berwick "Ponzi Scheme or Paradigm Shift?"
"Steemit Exclusive: Larken Rose On Steem And How It Is Helping Power The Mirror Project"
The Mirror article looks particularly exciting, since I've finally, via John Blaid, had a chance before I got to the eco-village spot, to look at the video trailer for it; thrilled about the idea!
I've checked out the article, and now am listening to the video, but I have some initial things to say, and you might be surprised by how positive they are.
I checked loading steemit -- "Submit a Story" - and I got the same non-response as always.
I don't think it'll be too hard to use Yandex strictly for steemit, and FireFox for everything else.
Might be a tad frustrating at times, but fine overall.
(And hopefully it'll get fixed.)
But why the hell would you think that steemit is a scam?
As one of the commenters on the video aptly said:
"If you require $0 to make money, well, then its not a scam by anyone's definition who hasn't got a burr in their butt."
The only issue that there is with steemit is the stability of the social features.
From what I've been seeing, I'm one of the only people experiencing them.
And, that people are anxious about whether steemit is or is not a scam shows the inherent value of the interface of writing as a means of making money - if you have ever tried to publish a book on Amazon, then you know, inherently, how this opens the floodgates of advertising.
Layer into that a social media medium that has both deep-linking and monetary value for posts and conversation -- where, literally, deep thought is openly encouraged and allowed, and you have the professional version of one of the eventual dreams of Minds.com.
The potential of steemit, if done correctly, is beyond breath-taking.
Minus the lack of ability to edit your posts after a day.
But hey.
It's not like you can't just make another...
So, I'll get back to the video now and post this article as a comment on Jeff's post.
I think he'd - or perhaps one of those who are debating this issue, would enjoy this.
SCAM is anything people have a stake in (mostly financial) that is a failure right? With that said, every existing business with a no refund principle has a potential of becoming a SCAM if they crash in the future. It doesn't matter how old it has been in existence.
For instance, facebook has been a stable social network for many years and we all loved it well before steemit. We still do but if I buy adverts today on facebook and all of a sudden tomorrow they shut down, THEY ARE SCAM. This same rule goes for steemit and any other business out there operating in the same manner.
So it is preferable to say that steemit is NOT A SCAM FOR THE MOMENT but hey! Who knows what tomorrow brings forth.
No, a scam is anything that people have a stake in WHERE THE INTENT OF THOSE BEING INVESTED IN IS TO MAKE IT RICH AND CUT LOOSE. People can be WRONG about whether or not their model will fail, and people can make POOR INVESTMENTS and things can GO SOUR. tsu.co is an example of this.
You want a guarantee that your investments won't go sour?
Bank with the coercive monopoly (FIC insured; the best type of which is the government bond) that uses fear and the monopoly on force that will, without regard or concern for how someone's life is going, take money regardless of anything, which is what they do systematically anyway, corrupting and scamming people by default through deceit and twisted language.
Your investments will be safe for the moment, to the detriment of the future of humanity.
Such safety is the scam of calling an unpredictable future and things gone bad without ill intent, scams.
It's the same bullshit as, realizing that one was wrong, saying that you "lied" rather than were mistaken. Yes, WHO KNOWS what tomorrow might bring.
I guess life is the greatest scam ever, since today you might prepare,
and tomorrow you might be dead!
How unfair of life! What a scam!
Thanks for letting me know tsu.co is down. I was part of the community too. The question is HOW DO YOU KNOW THE INTENT OF THOSE BEING INVESTED IN? That is why I said in my comment that every existing business with a NO-REFUND POLICY is a potential scam. What if I buy steem power today and steemit.com strikes the same fate as tsu.co tomorrow when I have not made any profit from my steem power. What would you call that? People can play on people and you can never be sure of peoples intention. Not even actions can define people's intention.
So in that understanding, I can only agree that a business will never be a scam if people will have nothing to loose even if they shut down the next minute. Capiche? :-)