@steem-ua, Let's UNITE: My Open Letter to All Accounts
In this article, I will explain brutally honest, what my actual goal is with @steem-ua, why I created @steem-ua, why I want it to be a "Steem Movement", how its growth mechanisms function, and most of all how everybody active on the Steem Blockchain can benefit from it. This is my Open Letter, my shout-out to everybody, to UNITE, in an effort to make the Steem Blockchain what it could be, to live up to its full potential, both in terms of market capitalization and in terms of a healthy ecosystem.
Sure: UA & @steem-ua - two completely different things that are closely aligned, though - both have their criticasters. And critique is of course fine, welcome even, provided it adds value. But to those that try to hold back @steem-ua and/or label it as "another smart bid bot" (which it is not, and never was intended as such, as I will explain in this Post, again, more in-depth than ever), to those I say: give @steem-ua an honest chance to grow! Just look around on the Steem Blockchain right now and just FEEL the positivity. As @meno has dubbed it: the Hopium that's present all around now. Personally, I'm proud for co-creating that general feeling of positivity that's all around us now. Even if @steem-ua would fail to grow to HUGE proportions, and I really hope it will succeed of course, then at least we have experienced & felt a touch that Steem(it) is not some "failed social experiment". Dear criticasters: I will address your concerns in this post as well, as good as I can. I will really try to do so... Because I want to UNITE & ALIGN INTERESTS IN STEEM, with @steem-ua!
Aligning interests
While co-developing UA & @steem-ua with @holger80, I've been in direct contact with many "Steem Prominents". In those early conversations, I explained what UA (the influence metric) is about, how it functions, if & how it could be gamed, how to harden the algorithm against various kinds of attack vectors, discussing many scientific papers on Social Network Influence Models & Algorithms, regarding Mathematical challenges, Computer Science challenges, about the Blockchain, its decentralized nature, and on marketing UA and monetizing UA. And as we progressed, I learned more and more about valid concerns that needed to be addressed. Interestingly, while taking in and comparing everything that was discussed, it struck me that similar types of - let's call them: "aspects" - came up, and that those were brought up by people of similar backgrounds having similar (self-) interests. And so I began thinking about how - if possible at all - I could "position" UA in a way that would ultimately let everybody on the Steem Blockchain benefit from it. By aligning everybody's interests.
Identifying the current Steem Problems
If you look at Steem evolving in its two years after inception, I've identified the following problems (at least, how I perceive them):
"in the beginning", a few very early adopters and Steemit Inc itself, acquired a gigantic amount of Steem. The distribution of Steem is skewed, being held by relatively few Whale Accounts. And while that by itself is in fact a similar distribution of how capital is distributed "in the real world", there is (at least) one difference: STEEM is not the only tradable Crypto out there.
by making it very hard for new users to earn a decent earning, most of them fail at learning how things work before ever getting noticed and supported by the dolphins, orcas and whales that would be able to teach and support them and keep them active on Steem.
the same problem occurs the other way around: those dolphins, orcas and whales willing to help & support the new & promising users simply are unable to find them within the "sea of plastic soup". I see in front of me chaos: thousands of people, most of whom have different interests and strategies, unable to find one another. Some succeed in that, those willing to persist, but the majority of new people is long gone before getting "picked up", never to come back (at least not very soon).
the beauty of cryptography and decentralization is at the same time the biggest enemy of Steem: as soon as one type of "abusive behavior" is detected and addressed, another one occurs. A continuous Cat & Mouse Game. While in "the real world" it's quite easy & common to confront and stop an individual or group of people doing "bad things", on Steem that is not so simple: a user doing "bad things" cannot easily be stopped doing it. Many disagree for example with the way @haejin operates, perceive his actions as "bad", and some such as @berniesanders, @transisto and @fulltimegeek try to stop him doing what he does. Hence "Flag Wars" occur, as "flagging" (= "downvoting" instead of "upvoting") is seen as a mechanism to express one's disagreements with another person's rewards.
but while being busy with "reward quarreling" amongst "The Big Guns", the "Little Guys", the N00bs, the people new to steemit, get lost! They walk away, for not understanding, for not getting "picked up", for not getting "taught", and for NOT EARNING.
in an effort to earn, people self-vote. While an occasional self-vote is mostly seen as OK, especially on Self-Published Quality Posts, doing so at large, continuously, gets the platform as a whole nowhere but back to zero!
the decentralized capitalistic fundamentals of Steem, where each account is also a wallet, makes Steem complete completely different to all other big Social Media Platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, you name 'em!). And exactly because of those capitalistic fundamentals, suddenly people behave completely different! Please show me one other big, successful, social site, where "I like Fish" as the only Post Content, is rewarded with hundreds of dollars! I don't know of any!
in an effort to "get noticed", n00bs comment "Good Post Friend!", "I like your Post Friend!", expecting big rewards, because they see them everywhere. Why not test it out yourself? Let's see if it is that easy to earn big, right? Some of them get flagged, others don't but earn zero anyway, and then they leave... Simply for being lost, not picked up...
others try to use & abuse, then get caught, and simply begin over: I've experienced it first-hand, while being @Utopian-io Advisor in its early days. I saw thousands of "contributions" then, explaining how to install app X on Android, app Y on Android, app Z on Android, all of them on iOS as well, and "suggesting" the color "Blue" was better than "Green"... just to get the upvote. The Big & Mighty Utopian-io upvote. Google Translate was used massively, on "manually" translating Open Source repos only used by a few, just to get the Utopian upvote. I can go on for ages about all different types of abuse I saw. Moderator Teams were organized to combat the abuse. Some moderators went rogue even, for the upvote of course. Abusive users were banned, only to return minutes later with a new Anon-Created Account, to continue as before, now challenging the moderators even more because now the Bad Actor how to abuse smarter, under a different name, un-identified. The Cat & Mouse Game continues...
One Common Denominator: We All Want to Earn
I can go on, and on, and on, and on. But one common denominator remains: We All Want To Earn With Steem!
And what is the best way, the most profitable way, to earn big with Steem? Only 2 variables both need to be maximized:
-a- to individually acquire as much STEEM as you can, and
-b- to collectively make the price per STEEM, ergo the Steem Market Cap, go Sky-High
All of the formentioned "Steem Problems" are directly caused by (almost) every individual pursuing their own maximization of -a-. But that is futile when -b- is not addressed collectively. And I don't mean "Pump & Dump"! No! I mean really solving the "Steem Problems" caused by -a-! I don't mean "artificially boosting demand"! I mean really creating demand for STEEM! Sustainable demand! If Steem(it) was fun, and positive, and entertaining, and profitable, and energetic to everybody, then why on earth would anybody want to leave??? User retention would be 100%, not close to 0!
The solution: -1- a new Influence Metric & -2- a Scalable Algorithmic Curation Mechanism
UA, the Influence Metric
The "Reputation Metric", which - in short - reflects how much rewards an account has earned over time, doesn't say that much now, than it once did. Because of the "bid bots", one can re-invest their liquid earnings and boost up to trending, where visibility leads to clicks, and clicks to views, and views to ... upvotes. Rince & Repeat.
The core problem with that approach, mathematically speaking, is that the sum of all distributed rewards keeps growing, as does the combined Reputation Score of all accounts together.
Enter UA (and I'm not going into the tech nitty-gritty of it, here, again, I already did that, and will do so again, but not in this post, lengthy as it is already). The core difference of "UA" as compared to "Rep", is that UA is a Probability Distribution summed up to 1, or 100%.
To put it as simple as I can: UA is scarce by design, it has zero inflation, the total is and always remains the total: 100%. Where one accounts wins, another loses, the sum always remains 100%. That is what makes UA fundamentally cool, regardless if you agree or disagree that the "Follower Graph" is or is not a good signal to use at the core of UA. That's just an implementation detail, really...
We added the sub-algo "WitnessRank" to initiate the Trust Vector with: the People vote for the Witnesses, assign Trust to them, and in turn the Witnesses - via who they follow - pass on that Trust to all other accounts. We created a Two-Way Loop. Of course UA is now biased towards the Witnesses! I intended it that way in an attempt to DeCentralize UA, after trying to get it HardForked multiple times via my earlier UA Posts!
WitnessRank is not causing UA to be "Dirty Data", it is not "Over-Fitted", it is Democracy in Optima Forma!
(PS, side-note: if there is one thing missing regarding Witness Voting, as far as I'm concerned, it is the same Stake-Based Disagreement Mechanism applied to Witnesses as it exists to disagreement on Votes. But let's not discuss that idea here and now...)
@steem-ua, Human-Powered and Scalable Algorithmic Curation Mechanism
OK, now that we have a zero-inflation Influence Metric, and a hardware stack streaming all blocks produced continuously, updating the UA Matrix every 3 seconds (computing the resulting UA_Account scores is now done ~ twice per day), why not set it to work to Algorithmically Curate the Entire Blockchain?
Enter @steem-ua
OK, all good and well, with @steem-ua we can now curate all content on the entire blockchain - coooool! - but powerless. What is missing? SP is missing, a solid and powerful Voting Strength is missing. Powerful enough to curate Rewarding & Fair, to all. How to get those SPs?
Enter SP Delegation
Another extremely cool feature the Steem Blockchain has is SP Delegation. What is SP anyway? It's Vested Steem (not that a n00b understands that from the get-go, but anyway). And what can SP (Steem Power) be used for? "To earn "rewards" with via curation" is the most encountered short answer. Many beginner Steemians ask "And where do the rewards come form then?". The obvious answer is, of course: carefully controlled Steem inflation, and that means that owning SP gives you a proportional stake-based say ("vote") of who will receive what. The content authors get their share of "author rewards", the content voters / curators get their share of "curator rewards".
Delegating SP is therefore nothing more than a very interesting and smart way to hand-over "voting rights" to another account, which is therewith also given the rights of receiving the curator rewards of those delegated SPs! By delegating (parts of) your self-owned SP to another account, you empower that other account with a stronger "vote", and the only "opportunity costs" you have from the delegation is losing the curation rewards while delegating. The second you change your mind about handing over your voting rights, you can revoke them and they won't be available to use by the Delegatee immediately. (It does take currently 7 days, since HF20 5 days, to getting those revoked / un-delegated voting rights back.) Apart from that cool-down period, the Mechanism of Delegating SP is really elegant.
Enter DECENTRALIZED SP Delegation: "The Power of Many"
What if.... All would UNITE, stand strong, together as one. Seems "Utopian"? (No Pun intended @elear, #I-am-Utopian too, and you know it... thankfully). What if we would & could collectively UNITE forces? If each of us would add a bit to empower something HUGE? While at the same time, where we all have a say, via the Witness Voting and who we choose to Follow, control that something HUGE. @steem-ua might look like a machine, but it certainly is not Artificial Intelligence. It is a carefully constructed Democratic Mechanism, a huge chunk of data in a matrix (now) sized at ~ 1.2 trillion EigenValues, and it summarizes what WE all "vote" for, individually. UA = All Steemians.
And the missing piece of the puzzle: that giant pile of data to which we all add our say, is empowered by every account choosing to empower it, via delegating (parts of) their self-owned SP = their voting rights.
Do you know precisely how your car works? No? Does it keep you from driving it?
Do you know exactly how your body works? No? Does it keep you from wanting to be alive?
Do you know precisely how UA and @steem-ua work? No. But if you look around everywhere, look at all replies, see @steem-ua SPREAD THE HOPIUM, like what you see happening.... then support it! Just try it out! EMPOWER IT BY DELEGATING TO IT! "The Proof of the Pudding is in The Eating".
The Growth Mechanisms of @steem-ua
Please have a look at https://steem-ua.com/delegators. In there you see a (slightly cached) status of all accounts currently delegating to @steem-ua, ranked by their delegated stake. This looks like a Steem Project active for at least one yer, don't you agree? Wrong: we're live for 10 days now. And while that page is pretty big already, my goal is for that page to grow 100x the size it is now.
Also, have a look at https://steem-ua.com/stats (our WiP, Work in Progress Stats page). Those are not images, but interactive Plotly Charts. You can hover the charts, zoom in, check some details. Currently, these are only delegation charts, but we plan to add more as we progress.
Check the bottom chart, the one now labeled "Percentage of SP delegated by < 5000 SP and >= 5000 SP delegators" (OK, we could shorten that, maybe ;-) ). What you see happening in there, is that over time the smaller SP delegations are cumulatively growing in size. The downward spikes on Sep 4, 2018 on the blue line (and the now mirroring orange line as well of course, we want to add more categories, hence the two currently present) represent big delegations coming in from @cryptoctopus and @stellabelle and @daveks. If we keep progressing like we do here, my prediction is that the blue line will overtake the orange line.
But does that happen all by itself? No. What is happening here, is that the high-SP delegations "pull in" the smaller SP delegations. It's the orcas and the whales with their Power Delegations inviting the smaller SP delegators to join in. @steem-ua currently needs orca & whale support, in order to grow at a sustainable pace.
Precisely because of our "business model", requiring SP delegations to participate in the Algorithmic Curation Program, the more SP delegators @steem-ua has, the more contrubutions (Posts) it curates & votes on. That causes the average vote to decrease in value, because as @cryptoctopus has put it yesterday: "350k SP is peanuts". And he is correct. We need way more SP to algorithmically curate the entire blockchain with... We need whale support. Now.
Why @steem-ua works for everybody
Let's review different types of accounts that @steem-ua serves well:
- New Plankton accounts: yesterday, after talking to @hanshotfirst, @helpie a few @curie curators, we improved the organization of the @steem-ua Movement at the steem-ua Discord Server. With the new role of "UA Scout", human curators can spot & identify plankton accounts, upvote their content, and therewith "tick" the @steem-ua Algorithmic Bot to curate & upvote those Plankton account's content. New Planktons delegating to @steem-ua is not needed at that point. Also, right after upvoting them, @steem-ua also adds a SmartComment right after voting, the Planktons are invited into the steem-ua Discord Server where the "UA Guides" will interact with them, introduce them to how Steem works, connect them with other Steemians, and help them find their way. The UA Guides more or less "coach" the plankton to make sure they learn & grow and stay. The upvote of @steem-ua means a lot to them, if you are in doubt if my claim is correct then read this: https://steemit.com/@steem-ua/recent-replies : Hopium!
Result: increased user retention, positivity all-around
- Established Plankton & Minnows: after "getting a taste of the Hopium", everybody wants more. What is happening already, is that the small-SP delegators are powering up! Previously, they would power down as fast as they could, and convert to fiat. Now they are investing in themselves, to increase from 1 @steem-ua upvote per week, to 2, to 4, to 7.
@steem-ua is NOT a bid bot, not at all! The height of the upvote is completely independent to the amount delegated.
The planktons & minnows get their ROI via the Algorithmic Curation Program, using UA data and upvoting - again - independently to the amount that was delegated, via the formula:
UA_Vote = x * UA_Account + y * UA_Post + z * UA_Comment
... which, in essence, means:
- the higher am account's UA score, and
- the better the votes on a post, computed by all post voters' UA scores, and
- the more interaction & user engagement on that post via the comments
... the more powerful the @steem-ua upvote.
^^^ This means that new, not yet much-followed, relatively unknown accounts publishing magnificent content still get a good upvote by @steem-ua ! And in each curation / voting round, all UA_Vote scores are weighed proportionally to eachother, to determine the voting percentage with.
Only the frequency of upvotes increases via this schedule:
| SP Delegation | Upvote Frequency |
|---|---|
| 25 SP | max. 1 @steem-ua upvote per week |
| 50 SP | max. 2 @steem-ua upvotes per week |
| 100 SP | max. 4 @steem-ua upvotes per week |
| 250 SP | max. 7 @steem-ua upvotes per week |
What is happening here, is that @steem-ua incentives investing in the Steem Ecosystem == investing in yourself.
Remember what I wrote way up in this post?
And what is the best way, the most profitable way, to earn big with Steem? Only 2 variables both need to be maximized:
-a- to individually acquire as much STEEM as you can, and
-b- to collectively make the price per STEEM, ergo the Steem Market Cap, go Sky-High
@steem-ua is aligning -a- and -b-. We are aligning individual interests (owning as much Steem as possible) with collective interests (increase demand for SP, decrease supply of liquid STEEM).
Shout-out to the orcas & whales: please delegate enough to @steem-ua to make sure that its voting strength ensures that 10 * 7 * 250 SP self-voting at 100% remains to be worth far less than 7 small @steem-ua upvotes per week! If we do that, I predict 60,000 accounts to power-up to at least 250 SP and delegate!
Result: increased demand for SP, decreased supply of liquid STEEM
- Dolphins & Orcas & Whales: we have also available the "high-SP Stake-Based Sponsor Rewards".
Currently, in order to enter high-SP Stake-Based Sponsor Rewards Program, a delegation of at least 5,000 SP is needed. (I am considering lowering that threshold to 2,500 SP, we ran a poll and all were in favor of doing so).
Where the plankton & minnows get their ROI via, mostly, blogging and getting their posts upvoted, Dolphins & Orcas & Whales can enter the high-SP Sponsor Rewards Program. we created - as announced - a new account @steem-ua.pay, posting weekly reports as well as auto-generated comments on behalf of the high-SP Sponsors (the ones at least not having declined any rewards). Due to high amount of @steem-ua SP Delegators, the (current) limitations of the Steem Blockchain where it is quite impossible to set hundreds of beneficiaries and provide liquid rewards, the lack of liquidity in the @steem-ua account being unable to pay liquid Sponsor Incentives (after all we require SP Delegations instead of liquid payments as the bidbots do), we needed to create this system to reward our sponsors with.
@utopian.stats has been doing so for months (currently paused / stopped), to reward their Community Managers and Moderators with. It's merely a payment mechanism, as explained.
Now, the interesting part is that since we see the percentage of the Cumuative smaller-SP Deletions grow over time, using their proportion of @steem-ua's Voting Strength as well, we are able to provide very decent high-SP Sponsor ROI, as you can see for yourself at the first Sponsor Pay-Out, here: https://steemit.com/steem-ua-pay/@steem-ua.pay/steem-ua-high-sp-weekly-sponsor-rewards-program----2018-09-05
Result: Dolphins & Orcas & Whales now have the opportunity to both invest in the Steem platform and themselves, earn a pretty decent weekly ROI on delegations while at the same time collectively both support STEEM price & market cap, plus incentivize plankton & minnows doing their best to grow, earn, connect with & befriend others, create a fun environment for all and THEY WILL STAY.
CONCLUDING: DOLPHINS, ORCAS, WHALES & STEEMIT INC
--- PLEASE PARTICIPATE IN @STEEM-UA -----
Let's just try this, and at the very moment you think @steem-ua is not any good, screwing things up, just undelegate and revoke your "say"!
LET'S UNITE! STEEM ON!
@scipio
@steem-ua: Use Your Influence!
Visit the steem-ua.com website - View your UA score
@steem-ua Algorithmic Curation & Upvote Program:
| SP Delegation | Sponsor Benefits & Upvote Frequency |
|---|---|
| 25 SP | max. 1 @steem-ua upvote per week |
| 50 SP | max. 2 @steem-ua upvotes per week |
| 100 SP | max. 4 @steem-ua upvotes per week |
| 250 SP | max. 7 @steem-ua upvotes per week |
| >= 5,000 SP | Stake-Based Sponsor Rewards + max. 7 @steem-ua upvotes per week |
PS1: delegation requirements could be subject to change, which will then be posted about that prior to changes being applied.
PS2: @steem-ua reserves the right to reject upvoting accounts demonstrating abusive behavior.
Quick Delegation Links:
25 SP | 50 SP | 100 SP | 250 SP |
500 SP | 1,000 SP | 2,500 SP |
5,000 SP |
10,000 SP | 25,000 SP |
50,000 SP |
100,000 SP | 250,000 SP |
500,000 SP |
1,000,000 SP
Join the @steem-ua Discord:
The most impressive thing about this entire project is how willing @scipio is to accept input. Too many people see suggestions as criticism of their "baby". They want to believe they have created something perfect and see any question or suggestion as an attack. After chatting with @scipio, it became very clear. He is not driven by personal pride. He is driven to try and help steem to reach its potential. In order to do that, he is willing to answer questions, accept input and make tweaks to improve the idea. I was originally worried this project would just be another way to make the rich richer on the backs of newbies. That was the exact opposite of what @scipio had envisioned. He wants this project to encourage new community members to stick around and engage with others. I mentioned that many new members would be ignored by this system. To me the biggest problem here is that people with SP do not spend time reading and supporting quality content. It would require actual humans looking for quality content created by new users in order to ensure new community members would be encouraged to stick around. The guy is so freaking smart that he nearly immediately thought of a way to incorporate this essential human component into the system. And he seems willing to incorporate just about anything positive into the system.The combination of this technological component with humans acting in the long term interest of steem could be huge for all of us.
Very well said. I always pay my highest salute to anyone who are talented enough to make huge sum of money in the ecosystem but chose to contribute for good instead. Tried to delegate with minor amount and let's see how things is moving on.
Posted using Partiko Android
Absolutely - he's gotta be extremely busy right now, but @scipio has made time to answer any questions I put to him.
Indeed, one of the reasons I delegated to steem-ua with 97% of what I have is exactly what you talk about. I don't think I would trust anyone else like i do @scipio
Sooo true!!
Your comment got me more interested in this project that the post itself!
That is certainly one of the main problems of steemit but I think more manual curation efforts and more SP behind those efforts would compensate for it. If all the SP that went into bidbots and went into curation projects, quality content wouldn't need to even bother thinking about using bidbots. Apps are great for the ecosystem but I feel they've also been prioritized over curation of great posts by minnows and dolphins.
There are like three normals on this platform, hundreds of neckbeards, and thousands of Spaceologists. As one of the three, I will say it again: STEEM, STEEM POWER, STEEM DOLLARS, not to mention Posting, Active, Owner, and Memo “keys”...along with a password, or how about power up, power down, transfer, sell on market, witness, and shoot me in the head with a steem gun!!
I get it, I really do, but Steemit will never, ever, ever be widely adopted and unabandoned until/if it becomes viable for the morons using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media platforms that are actually social media platforms, but hey, I have been wrong before...but I am not...but I could be...not.
There is certainly a need for a front-end that manages keys and everything else that's "odd" about the platform. The problem is that a lot of us neckbeards would be (rightly) skeptical if a front-end came along to manage keys for grandma.
I think eSteem Surfer is the closest thing at the moment.
https://github.com/esteemapp/esteem-surfer/releases
Well, as I thought about all the things I did not wright, that concern crossed my mind. Frankly I do not have an implantable idea that could make it happen. As such, I think it is more likely that Steemit and maybe Steem as a result will be a historical stepping stone. That is not to say it is not important. One cannot get to the other shore without a place to step, but without a) finding and keeping a much larger user base of neckbeards, or b) finding a new paradigm to work within while keeping the ethos of Steemit intact, I see no long term future, but people said the same thing about computers for your living room so...
The internet circa 1992, nuff said.
Exactly, and you can find more info at AOL Keyword ‘steem’.
You just made me laugh so hard my modem hung up.
Nope, it’s Partiko
Posted using Partiko iOS
Which currently requires an invite code.
That is unfortunate as it must be one hell of a solution and implemented with perfection. The app has over 100 reviews and every one is five stars!! I was particularly convinced by what 83397806pnQrBaB had to say. Waiting for my invite!
Typical 83397806pnQrBaB.
LMAO That is exactly the reply I was waiting for! Well done my friend, well done!
i was dissapointed that i cant upvote this
No invite code is required. It also doesn’t take a cut of the users rewards.
Posted using Partiko iOS
If grandma wanted to use Partiko, which is the use case we were talking about, she would need an invite code.
I get that you can use it if you already have a Steem account.
No it does not require an invite code.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Try using the Partiko app, then you’ll realize that monkeys can get hooked on it. Let’s talk after you try it out.
Posted using Partiko iOS
With the right amount of incentive these "dummies" could get it figured out I'm sure.
Posted using Partiko Android
Also this show is amazing lol
Posted using Partiko Android
Facebook was once too advanced for the regular people. And we're talking F8 here, not the version we see today which is way more "complicated" than it's older version. Im not saying the Steem Blockchain doesnt need improvement in the UI. But I'm sure regular people would catch up soon enough. what with the promise of making a few cents doing things they are already doing on other Social Media.
At least that's what i believe.
Also, to cheer you up, take a look at #teammalaysia, we're based in Malaysia and i can assure that neckbeards and Spaceologist are few and far between here. 98% of our members are distinctly normies with a day job and watch Korean Drama at home. We're literally teaching aunties to use steemit so they can post about their lunch. Things will look good if it isnt already!
This is one great initiative. One of the best I've seen in long long time.
Upvoted. And of course - RESTEEMED
Thank you @scipio,
this was a really hard ride for me in the last two month. I learned a lot in this time (learning by doing is always better than reading a book). Of course, I'm also proud of all the things we accomplished together!
best regards
holger80
you should be well well proud, together you have created something awesome and have gained a lot of respect. life is full of learning @holger80 and I hope that you can take some time to think about what you have achieved and enjoy the moment.
@scipio there will always be critique, here on the block its so hard, actually impossible, to please everyone. Do not let it get you down, and when it does get you down, just look at all your delegations and do a quick count, how many delegations v's critiques. hehe we dont need a complex algo for that :-)
Nice work guys, well done and keep up the fantastic work
this post is worth thousands to me and I will now enlist EVERY FUCKING BIDBOT IN EXISTENCE TO MAKE EVERY LAST STEEMIAN LARGE
OR SMALL READ THIS! It really is a final last straw for unity and is both logically and strategically sound. LET THE UNITY BEGIN!
Posted using Partiko iOS
We really need to switch the word
bid-botfor promotion service - in essence, they are promotional tools and bidding is one way to pay for it.Now, @steem-ua is an interesting experiment, but there is a fundamental difference between promotion services and @steem-ua.
@steem-ua re-distributes wealth among multiple people, based on an algorithm which works in some cases but not in all.
For example if a user is very new and has no real visibility / following yet. Even if the algorithm takes in account the upvotes, comment, resteems and whatever factors there might be, the average new user will have either a very low UA score or none at all. (I've implemented UA for Smartsteem already and tested the different cases)
So in that case, when a user is very new, he/she can use promotion services to push the visibility and gain valuable followers, which might give him/her an increased UA ranking.
So while I do find this experiment interesting and want it to see unfold and improve, the real deal personally for me is the UA algorithm.
And if I'd compare @steem-ua and promotion-services towards economic models, then @steem-ua would be a somewhat smart socialism, as wealth is distributed regardless of the input, while promotion services were capitalism - the more somebody invests either through montery value (promotion) or time (writing posts), the more he will reap in terms of rewards and visibility.
Regardless, I'm glad to see you back active on Steem, @stellabelle.
Calling BCH BCash triggers Roger Ver.
Now, calling bid bots bid bots trigger our very own @therealwolf xD
Lol
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The only way I’d consider replacing the term ‘bidbot ‘ for ‘promo bot’ is if all the bid botted posts appear on the Promoted Tab and we have a page that shows an ACTUAL FUCKING ORGANIC TRENDING PAGE THAT I WANT TO READ. Until that day ‘bid bots’ remain.
Let’s all face reality: THE PROMOTED PAGE IS WHERE THE BID BOT Posts ACTUALLY BELONG. We are all fooling ourselves until a UI shows us that reality.
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Or a clear label that shows a given post is promoted , just like it does on FB/google search.
I will write a more sensible reply to you tomorrow
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I think we can agree that there is room for both promo bots and UA and even more diversity
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Oh wow, I love your enthusiasm. This project could very well be a game changer.
The first time I saw this post I was like TLDR, but then @tarazkp mentioned it and I always listen to his stuff, so glad I did. To be honest, the math in computing rewards and UA rep is too much for my tiny monkey brain, but I love that @steem-ua is working on and providing a new way of measuring value contributed to the steem blockchain, that is so needed.
Spam is a problem and this seems like it could be part of the solution, which ultimately will improve the steemit community and steem coin market cap. SIGN ME UP!
It is very true to say that everybody here wants to earn Steem. If earning Steem collectively is much better than earning Steem alone, I am going to give it a try.
Expect some delegations from me within a weeks time ... I had to retire some of my bots :)
\0/
Very cool
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To be honest I was first hesitant about the UA project but I really do think that it actually could work.
Yes the common interest we all have is to grow our account! Trying to connect to people, trying to get noticed, hoping on an upvote from a bigger account.
The problem I do also see that it is getting harder and harder to get an upvote on a comment. For sure if you are commenting on smaller accounts, and I can't blame them. With the current value of Steem it would kill their voting power if they want to give an upvote above the threshold!
This of course decreases the willingness of some people to interact!
With the UA project these accounts could grow faster to a SP where they could give upvotes!
But still we (all) need to do it! We need to interact, we need to write decent quality posts, we need to ...!
Thanks for steem-ua @scipio!
Cheers,
Peter
Very good post my friend
...haha jokes aside, you're a genius. Being such a visionary definitely helps projects like this to succeed.
You're surpassing my expectations about what I imagined about your proposal back in November, every single day since the project's inception.
You're hell of an incentive for us.
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Es fácil, solo hay que verlo como "ayudar a ayudarnos"
Gracias por la información, me ha sido de mucha utilidad para aprender mas cada día.
Saludos desde Venezuela
It's easy, you only have to see it as "help us help"
Thanks for the information, it has been very useful for me to learn more every day.
Greetings from Venezuela @scipio
That's a pretty darn classy way to make a comment bi-lingual. Nice!
De nada.
This is amazing, I just wrote an article talking about how Steemit is having a bright future again despite the low pricing, and the there were two things that made me think that and made me write about it. One is @fundition, with the amazing initiative to create a platform to crowd found helpful real life projects, and the other one was Steem-ua, the most clear, fair, and encouraging community, congrats on this amazing project man, this is gonna change how people see steemit for sure, a more equal and more attractive way to get into the blockchain for the real users here, already delegated to Steem-ua :) keep it up!
To be honest I'm frustrated with a couple of things.
Witnesses get higher UA just for being witnesses, even though they already get rewarded for being witnesses.
People that don't post social centered subject content, like myself, end up with a crappy UA score despite constant organic growing of their account. Fiction stories don't get a lot of interaction, poor UA because of that? That seems unfair.
Having said that, I'll probably delegate soon just because it seems to be the way the wind is blowing even though I disagree with many aspects.
You don't think trust should be a component of the UA score?
But that's the thing - @steem-ua is an experiment to re-distribute wealth and UA is the algorithm showing Authority of Steemians.
Heh. If that's really what it is then I'm de-delegating right now. :D
Eh, that wasn't my intention, but interesting you had that conclusion. :D Keep in mind that's only my TL;DR about it, but there are def. more facets I didn't cover.
With that said, I delegated in the first place to support the development of the algorithm - as @scipio and @holger80 invested a ton of time into it, which should be rewarded, in addition with supporting the experimental votes that are curating based on the algorithm.
I think it's very interesting to test the mechanics and one would think the more Steempower the better, but testing isn't done with a high amount of SP, the same way testing isn't done in production (unless they're very small changes or A/B tests)
A-fucking-men, Inertia.
I'm just airing these questions because I'm curious. I intend to delegate, and in fact I intend to vote on some witnesses soon. The past can leave a bad taste in your mouth but you have to get over it eventually.
I don't think I mentioned trust. I disagree with some aspects, but not all aspects.
Perhaps you mean that Witnesses should inherit trust for being witnesses?
The only witness that I ever voted for was the VIVA witness. That project took over $10,000 from me. Trust.
Did they steal from you?
The VIVA project failed due to a variety of reasons, most of which were below the level. They have stated that they will return funds, so I'm hesitant to say anything negative about them..... however it has been more than 9 months without seeing anything.
Holy shit dude... good luck recovering, not sure if funds are safu 9 months out, babies take less time than that. I've known, for example, even simple things like older game streaming websites being unable to payout and once they're a few months behind payments, rip.
"Hopium".
You might have seen that term getting thrown around here and there lately. I need that for my VIVA money.
I highly recommend every one to read this post of @steem-ua if you want to be a successful steemian.
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I am thrilled by the possibilities of UA for applications as I just learn with the 1UP project. Having UA as a constant extra upvote via @steem-ua is a super nice addition to that and does not feel like another upvote bot at all! This is the future of Steem and @Steemitblog did not mention UA for nothing in their latest blog post.
Interesting! Delegated 250 SP
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Hi guys,
I'm just curious about the witness votes you're counting in your algorithm, does it count all the votes as they currently stand or just the votes that have been cast in the last 10 days since you went live? I'm interested to whether users that cast votes and then left over the last 2 years would still be counted towards the trust measure for witnesses? It seems like a lot of witnesses still hold fairly high rankings through non-active votes...
Anyway, love this entire project! I've had the pleasure of interacting with a few accounts that consistently put out fun content, get lots of comments but never really get a whale vote - so hopefully they can bolster their earnings with your system. Thanks!
Couldn't agree with the minnow assessment more.
I only joined 4 days ago but have felt lost in navigating the seas.
Even after reading FAQ after FAQ or "helpful" post after post after post
I've used voting bots to try to boost my earnings, more so to get visibility since I quickly came to the conclusion that the bots aren't worth it unless you get lucky and are the only bidder so you can claim the entire pie.
I've responded and upvoted to the people who have commented on my posts. I follow those who look interesting or umm polite for lack of another word.
I cashed out the last of my BCH and went all in on steem to get me a jumpstart only to find out my 100% votes are worth a pitiful $0.03 per upvote.
I've raised my rep to just over 47 in the 4 days I've been on the platform.
It would seem like I've done a lot of the "right" things but the payoff is so tiny I can see why anyone who doesn't have $1K to invest is frustrated.
I thought jumpstarting my steem power would allow me to help other new people but not at 3cents a vote it won't
At this point I'm desperately trying to find out how to get the attention of those larger than me, to be taken under fin, to be mentored, educated in Steemian life and possibly make more than $0.10 a day.
Speaking for myself I refuse to be on of those people posting 20-30 pieces of crap a day just hoping for a few pennies a day. I will only post quality pieces I would also be satisfied to post on my blog. My 4 day assessment is that there is far too much crap such as pics of memes, with 4-5 words, or just a basic link to an article elsewhere without even an opinion or digest written and the reason for the flood of those is that it seems to be a quantity, not quality game. The more you post the more chance you have to be seen, to get that one big score, whatever the reason.
Hopefully a project like this, that rewards the intent and content, will be able to change some of the culture and give the devoted minnows a chance to swim in the clean, clear waters of the deep oceans rather than the foul, polluted rivers we start in.
Thanks again for the project and reading this rambling.
Ok I think after this one there will be no more unanswered questions.
The amount of effort you've put into this is amazing. As for the shoutout...the least we can all do is a resteem so that there won't be a pair of eyes on the platform that slipped their attention!
Great job guys @scipio @holger80
Hi, you're a genius.
Steem-ua is a wonderful project, which aims to solve many "complaints" about the ecosystem. I really see a lot of positive things here. Thank you very much for all the effort you are putting into making this a lasting dessert for all.
I'm sure more influential delegations will arrive. This project is brilliant.
i love steem-ua.
This comment was made from https://ulogs.org
Hello @scipio
I delegated 100 STEEM to @steem-ua 2018-09-09, 02:32 but haven't received any upvote yet. So maybe something went wrong. Could you please check it...
Thank you
@retinox
oh... 😔 I've got one already...
You mentioned that, users (abusers) just keep creating new accounts, and in the next section you said user retention is close to 0. Whoever comes here usually stays here, and tries hard to abuse it with many accounts(that might be the reason for retention statistics looks weird) at least that's what I've seen so far.
"every individual pursuing their own maximization" - including steem-ua, being closed source makes it questionable. (I wouldn't understand how it works by looking at its code but, it's a measure of trust.), but I guess you are trading this trust with monetization.
"Of course UA is now biased towards the Witnesses!" - indeed, and
""Follower Graph" is or is not a good signal to use at the core of UA. That's just an implementation detail, really..." - so how can I trust in you about what will be implemented next, after reaching some point?
Let's say when you reach 1M SP or 10M SP, you may offer alternative upvotes for higher delegators. What will minnows going to do when this happened, will you turn back and listen to them even it means far less earnings for steem-ua?
I do know nobody going to change how my car works out of nowhere, or if it's going to leave me in the lurch at some point just because he likes to ride on highway.
I do know my body will do whatever it did from the beginning of life.
We have years of experience and observations on these subjects but not on steem-ua.
They found a way to split the atom and used it for a nuclear bomb. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
One last question, did you ever consider comparing UA ranks with the Global Blacklist API
And would you mind sharing if there is anyone above 17406 (my poor ua rank.)
I might fill half of the utopian's blacklist. I'm just wondering how many of those accounts are worthy then me based on UA calculations.
And don't get me wrong, I keep commenting about steem-ua since it's pretty popular this week. I'm not against it or else, I appreciate your work. But of course there should be questions to be asked.
Right on, many contradictions in UA
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We need people to start engaging with quality content since trending page started to be reserved for those who can afford buying big votes. Although there are some really good content creators it is pretty hard to notice them. Steem Is one of the best blockchains in the world, the only thing that needs to be solved is the way we behave on it. I appreciate all of you who are actually trying to make a difference unlike some people who just jerks around waiting for "superman" to make a job without them needing to make an effort. I will delegate some sp as soon as I buy some, hopefully in a few months from now we will be looking a whole lot different environment and more fair economy. Keep it up, there is no coming back!! Cheers
Was already onboard when you guys first launched, but after reading this and getting an ever better understanding of the mission, I'm onboard 200%!
This sentence stood out to me the most, a very solid mission statement / practical reasoning for this whole thing:
Congrats on the strong start and here's to the future!
great paragraphs
@scipio What I think is Steemit is powered and monopolized by some of the whales and team itself. I have been studied that most of it's users are not getting attention on platform and have been ignored. Only those whose are entered from the beginning are getting benefits from the platform. I think everybody should be given chance to enhance their ability and writing skill. Best of luck. @printskill
Thanks for all you're doing on Steemit for the betterment of this platform. We need more heroes like you, especially if we're going to appear more new-user-friendly. Combined with the upcoming hardfork, hopefully movements like this will encourage and promote new users towards this platform.
From all of us, thank you.
Hi @scipio. I really hope the whales jump on board and see what this is all about. We all want the same thing and need to all work together. The whales and the small accounts want Steem to grow in value and this makes perfect sense. It's a win win situation for everyone involved.
Good one @scipio.
My contribution here also is that if you can use powering up have a way to increase a member's UA score also.
As in, the more you power up the more your UA score goes higher for a high upvotes.
nicely explained. I have delegated 250 SP to this project.
I'm not going to claim I did it out of pure community esprit either, but rather out of enlightened self-interest.
I'll digress for a moment to a good point you make:
By automating the process of rewarding already vetted "good" authors, dolphins and "fat minnows" can spend less time chasing curation rewards, and MORE time interacting with the community.
And this is a point that should be recognized
Good engagement is one of the best ways to retain users!
Two years ago, I did a poll here, and most of the respondents stated that a good comment that showed their work had been read and understood pleased them just as much a a decent upvote did!
Granted, this was in the <.50 STEEM days, but $ isn't the only reward we look for in a social media platform.
So thanks to the steem-ua teem, and I'm looking forward to the success of this venture!
thanks #steem-ua @steem-ua
☞ https://steemit.com/busy/@bluengel/2018-09-06-steem-ua-start
I just made my first ever delegation! Let's see how well it plays out. Hoping for the best.
Genius.
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Sneaky Ninja Attack! You have just been defended with a 66.67% upvote!
I was summoned by @stellabelle. I have done their bidding and now I will vanish...
woosh
A portion of the proceeds from your bid was used in support of @youarehope and @tarc.
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You got a 38.71% upvote from @emperorofnaps courtesy of @stellabelle!
Want to promote your posts too? Send 0.05+ SBD or STEEM to @emperorofnaps to receive a share of a full upvote every 2.4 hours...Then go relax and take a nap!
Awesome, I delegated 50 sp when I first read about this system, after it accomplished what it promised, I undelegated that 50, so I can re-delegate more. Thanks for keeping to your words.
However, in the mission to accomplish this, I was thinking, what if there were added benefits to delegating more, I mean, the benefit seem to end at 250sp before the next benefit which comes with the big leap of delegating 5000sp, in short, can I get more upvotes if I delegate 500sp?
This might also increase the rate at which minnows want to acquire more steem, and more steem, say the next hit after 250sp is 500sp and then 750sp...then 1000sp...all because they know the benefits are well worth it, and this also means more delegation for @steem-ua.
Just thinking...Thanks for the awesome work again.
You're putting all your heart into it, I can feel it, @scipio and @holger80.
And the UA implementation for Smartsteem is nearly ready (lasts tests are being done).
Now, I will always be honest about my thoughts and ideas, so with said: I'd rather see more development being done on the algorithm itself, than trying to maximize revenue for curation of the blockchain.
The algorithm isn't perfect yet, that's normal. And I really want to see the best algorithm which can help identify honest and real users in comparison to spammers and bad actors.
Regardless, keep on rocking! You're doing a great job!
You got a 13.74% upvote from @upmewhale courtesy of @stellabelle!
Earn 100% earning payout by delegating SP to @upmewhale. Visit http://www.upmewhale.com for details!
Yes it’s important to unite and work towards steemit platform
It is definitely be interesting to see how this works out. Very optimistic
You got a 12.44% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @stellabelle!
Want to promote your posts too? Check out the Steem Bot Tracker website for more info. If you would like to support the development of @postpromoter and the bot tracker please vote for @yabapmatt for witness!
Good attempt to augment the dreadful situation here on Steemit, but I'll say it will achieve very little in changing anything at the end.
This post has received a 87.07 % upvote from @boomerang.
I have two questions because I delegated 25 SP to you and to be honest after that my rank fall from 1,4xxx to 1,400 :D
I'm trying to improve but Evin if I wanna interaction with people somehow they don't wanna :D So how I can upgrade my rep. Mostly I'm streamer at DLive and sometimes i made videos.
Muy buen post me gusto
Many people are leaving the platform, you are saving it. This can change everything.
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Exactly
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What I have read so far about your project has been outstanding. I believe that Steem will grow much faster as your project gains momentum. The timing with a current low price could not be better either.
This is such an awesome concept, and I can totally hear your enthusiasm as well! I just delegated 50SP, and will do more when I can! Really curious to see how this goes!!
Hey, @Lynncoyle1! I just delegated, too!
Awesome @willymac! Great job :)
Don't know how my late post got bumped next to yours, but it was like running into a friend in a bustling crowd of strangers. Silly, I guess, but little things like that are memory gems for me.
Sorry @willymac, but I missed this comment of yours!
It's not silly at all, and I love that analogy! "memory gems" ... that's awesome. Life is full of them if you live with your eyes wide open :)
Very small, highly prized, valuable items! All originally found in rough condition but are honed into brilliance by tumbling around in our memory.
My definition. Others may disagree, but who the heck cares!
Peace to you and Brian.
That's the best definition I've ever heard; a bit like a rock polisher of memories :)
Peace to you as well.
Is there exact calculation formula for Steem-UA score? How can I verify it by myself?