Sure.. i guess you can see it that way. But id rather give those that do that a benefit of the doubt. Rather then saying that they are buying votes i want to believe that its rather an honest intention of them trying to give back to the community. Pharesim as an example maybe...
In a system like steemit where the wealth is completely accumulated in the hands of the few, we are absolutely dependent on whale and witness support (many times they are one and the same like in your case)...
I for one wouldnt even be here if it wasnt for one whale, and that still is not close enough to make what i do profitable.
So maybe it would be better to look at it as motivating factor, spreading your votes, keeping people from quiting, especially those that can deliver quality to the platform. At the end of the day, if you arent able to monetize what you do, you will leave....
Yes, they vote, I vote too. But we do that as users, not witnesses.
No. I'm not a whale. I've never powered down.
Steem doesn't promise a minimal wage.
Platform is still at very early stage, so if there are people who want to leave now, then good bye and good luck.
Of course I get your points I just see clear differences in roles here.
All users are responsible for upvoting high quality, original content. My post was exactly about that.
Well youre there somewhat.
I wouldnt go so far as to say: "they should leave" because that way you might create a even field of low effort content. Higher quality takes monetary support. That has always been the case on any platform.
If you take a vlog for example and compare it to a music video you are adding on layers upon layers of additional effort.
Everything you do online is a balance of cost vs gain. And as much as i agree with you that we are responsible for upvoting quality content, a 100 minnows upvotes cant make your investment of time and money justifiable on their own.
What i do here is a future investment, based on my belief in the success of steem and SMTs.
Nice talking to you. You "bought" my vote, haha, a few months ago so it was just really me checking in to see what my "representatives" are up to. :D
Thank you, I'm glad to hear that :-)
As a user I'm of course trying, among others, to "empower" local communities. Currently #japan is on my table :-)
I think that there's enormous potential out there (well, I mean in here, because I'm in 東京 now)
Maybe I'm naive, or old fashion, or just crazy here, but I think that the Steem platform is a lot more than just money. IMHO, money is just a side effect that is nice to have :-)
Good luck!
Same to you. "Bows" 😊