This is a post i have wanted to write for a while. Ever since bots started taking a back seat and slowly were eliminated from the trending page.
I found myself seeing what has happened and asked myself:
Well, what now?
When bots were a thing and the drama could be found where ever you looked, you had an obvious enemy to honest voting for everyone to fight. They were omnipresent and easy to spot.
Getting rid of bots was the essential
STEP NO.1.
There were some that assumed that once that happened we could say we reached our goal. No.
Other problems were still present. Monetary circle jerks and topic circle jerks.
We completed the first step, or are close to completing it, but with the elimination of bots and with the dust slowly settling we start to see the current state of things and its not ideal.
What is ideal is us getting to this point, but the state of things isnt ideal.
That brings me to
STEP NO.2.
Once bots have for most part left the trending page, except for the burn/SPS botted posts we should focus our attention to another issue.
Circle Jerks
This problem is a bit more ambiguous one. You cant really put a definition on it. Is a circle jerk someone supporting a group of people? How many people do need to be inside the group for us to determine it is indeed a circle jerk?
That is a tough call.
When you are faced with that problem, what i do is simply downvote for disagreement over rewards.
For a while now i have given the "@slowwalker CircleJerk" as an obvious example of something you can downvote without having to ask yourself if he indeed he is just supporting his community.
If i had to give an opinion on his content i would say it was low effort, repetitive, uninteresting and simply exists to act as a "collection basket" for the people he votes.
That is my opinion and in no way is that proof that what he and his "CircleJerk buddies" are indeed doing.
They could genuinely like his posts. Who can say?
And if it was only for that i would simply downvote him based on MY OPINION and not based on FACTS like we have downvoted the bots in STEP NO.1.
So how do you determine if what they are doing is a circle jerk???
Simple.....
You listen to what they have to say!
.... and indeed, they do not deny it but rather embrace the fact that they know that what theyre doing is shitty but continue to do so because they think theyre too big to fail and they genuinely think they are entitled to the rewards they are getting.
If it wasnt them who admitted it you would have a hard time proving a circle jerk as big as this so here are some quotes from them admitting it.
I am in the red hole so bad on steem its sick!!!! BUT BUT BUT.....I'm still here everyday pushing tokens around, making my own original content and helping the platform grow in my own way. Sure i get a few traded "circle jerking" votes everyday,shouldn't i get a little cushion to earn and protect my downside? I believe i am right to do so.
Not only does he admit to circlejerking he thinks that because of his poor investment decisions his actions shouldnt be criticized and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with what he does.
I think hes pretty much completely wrong.
WELL
If you invest 4-500,000 dollars in buying steem and pay1500dollars a month for the trip to collect the data for your study.
and curate for the accounts who also invested in steemit and suffered serious loss, in my guess you can get more than 60 dollars.
Again in the case of Slowie. He clearly states that his voting behavior isnt based on author merit or content quality but he rather votes those that invested a lot and lost money like him.
All that is great and well but the problem is that such behavior ruins honest voting on this platform and hurts legit creators just because "His" circlejerk thinks that they shouldnt be targeted by flags for leeching STEEM from the reward pool to maximize their returns.
I dont think that is what Steem was envisioned as, guys.
I made a poor investment so ill circlejerk to pay myself back.
THATS NOT WHAT STEEM IS OR WHAT STEEM SHOULD BE!
Anyways...
Lately i have seen @transisto, @ocdb, @smooth target Slowwalkers posts to get him off his "secured daily" trending spot.
I would also like to see @blocktrades, @theycallmedan and a a few other abuse fighters enter into this because these guys literally admit to what theyre doing. You dont need to dig deep and think long and hard to see whats going on. THEY TELL YOU.
This is the next step on the path of taking Steem to the next level and even if Slowwalker and the gang dont believe it, its for their own good.
Right now his curation game is pretty bad. 30% efficiency. If he is in it only for the ROI then there are other options, much better ones that are as profitable, but those options require a bit of effort and he isnt willing to put in effort when he THINKS he can run this game indefinitely.
All that needs to happen is whales hitting @dobartim, @slowwalker, Bronc, etc. posts for a week and theyle stop.
If theyre only in it for the ROI why would they waste their votes like that???
They wont.
If their behavior is steered in the right direction not only is the community better off, theyle be better off as well.
Time to take that next step and stop some more nonsense.
Peace...
50% payout of this post will go to @steem.dao
i have found being free of a circle and just manually curating stuff that i have an interest in works for me.
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Is that profit maximizing though? Lol.
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:) Maximizing enjoyment and peace of mind.
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I know what you are saying here, and it might sound right on the surface, but economically I am not sure it is the best play. Most of these guys have bought steem and continue to buy steem. If the goal is to create and keep a higher steem price (maybe it's not?) you want the people who are actually buying and holding steem to be earning the most. I am not sure what the right solution is here, but screaming proof of brain and giving the investors grief is probably not the best way to help steem go up in my opinion. Ideally we should want to do whatever is going to cause people to want to buy and power up more steem, providing a link between steem purchases and higher earnings, but this line of thinking likely does the opposite. Not to mention it really is a fine line between circle jerking and friends supporting friends which is normal social behavior. Beyond the most extreme examples like you mentioned, it gets harder and harder to distinguish between the two, which becomes a slippery slope rather quickly. Just me 2 centz :)
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It is hard to determine.... Which is what i said. That is true until they openly admit to what they are doing and why. Which is what they did. They admit to trading votes.
Hf21 is set up for the biggest accounts to earn the most.
I have no problem with that. I encourage them to start curating and earn a ROI of upwards of 30% which can be done with a bit of work or delegating to someone that will do the work for them.
They take the path of "vote for vote" and that i have a problem with.
Those that do that use the excuse: "I lost money so its ok."
I dont agree with that and never will.
That hurts everyone on the platform.
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So says the guy still voting his own posts (circle jerking himself) and only had shared the vote between under 50 people this week. Down vote away brother, don't have the time, money or resources i have invested here to even make me worry. By the way here is a vote for the post just to prove once again i not as bad as you think. My posts get over 350 votes......thats a lot of circle jerking.
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I vote 3-4 of my posts a week and unlike with you, the people i vote, i vote them because i like their content or am appreciative of their engagement.
The whole group of people i vote, vote me back for about 4-5% of my total payouts.
... And only maybe 5-6 out of 50 of those i vote even vote me back.
There is not a sliver of circlejerking in my stats.
You on the other hand admit it. You admit that what youre doing is shitty and you acknowledge that you vote so you can get voted back.
Be honest... Do you vote large stake holders to get voted back? Do you trade votes?
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yea i do admit it and see nothing wrong with it. I also manually curate over 20-30 posts a day and never get a vote back. I traded votes with people like exyle without even watching his videos.....i have watched HUNDREDS of his videos and i trust him to provide original quality content that benifits everyone. I have been here dam near from the beginning supporting most every project to help this whole thing get started. I owned steem before people like you even heard of crypto. Like i said, spend all your down votes on my posts if you don't like what i do, its your stake, your vote and your right......I will do the same. My stats on steemworld don't lie and they prove that i have given much, much, much more to Steem Token than what i have taken from it respectively. My goal is to spread the token far and wide but also to collect many to power up and help solidify the market. I'll keep on plugging along here and if you feel you need to downvote....do what you gotta do. I personally think Steem needs a million ways to earn it from bots, to gambling, to games, loans, posting, curating, commenting and everything else you can think of. Everyone here has their own way to skin the cat so to speak, their own way to earn steem. It's all limited by their own votes and they earned that right. I bought and paid for my stake and so did others. People are gonna do what they wanna do no matter how much of a Robbinhood you are. I am in for the long haul, powered up for the long haul so my #1 goal is to help Steem. I feel i am doing LOTS of that as well as trading just a couple of my votes with others who have similar interest. A downvote from a person like you means more to me than a centralized one from OCD because you don't have the luxury of delegated SP to the tune of almost 4m tokens. Someday i will ONLY curate here and be the most benevolent person here but that day is not here yet. Today is the time when we need good consistant CONTENT that give people a reason to read and join. You might not like my content but i have lots of followers and viewers who really enjoy what i do. Have you ever made a video that was viewed by 40k people? I never did until i did. I'll admit that 40k is nothing really but it is a little something that has helped do my little part to help get Steem off the ground. I been involved in Crypto since 8.00 BTC in 2011. I have supported every project here just to help things get off the ground....i did not make "bad investments" as you so easily wan't to jab about. You are a Johnny come lately here who has not even been invested for more than a year here. Dont get me wrong, we need you, and many many many others like you....and when that happens.....well you just outta hope your one my short list of voting benevolence.
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Funny thing is....i voted you right? Why? Because one you mentioned me and i think its a valuable conversation to continue to have here on Steemit. I don't take it personal. Then i took lots of time out of my day to give you two well thought responses with also promotes the conversation that you thought of so much as to write about it here and post it. I am doing EXACTLY what you want which is get this out in the open and talk about it with a Steem Whale but you cant even give my effort a 1% vote in the comments section?????????? Sooooo Funny! Did i not EARN something in your eyes or did you not think my comment was good? I don't like your opinion but i still voted it because i respect it and the time you took. You dont like my opinion but kicked my comment in the gutter like it was nothing. People just like YOU are the reason i use 4-5 votes a day to "circle jerk" and will continue to do so.
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This has nothing to do with you voting me. Thats not the topic of this post.
The topic is the vote trading youre doing and why thats detrimental to Steem.
Do you seriously believe that "vote for vote" is a system that should be encouraged?
What if everyone started doing "vote for vote"?
What would the platform look like?
Do you think thats a good system?
Ill give you the vote when i feel like it, when my VP recovers or when i find time. I vote almost 100% of those that engage with my posts as seen in all my previous posts. Me not voting you right away is a pretty silly thing to object to.
You circle jerk because i didnt vote your comment at the time you thought i should?
How silly is that?
Ill repeat again.
If you admit to circle jerking and you would accept that it would suck for steem if everyone would start doing "vote for vote", why do you do it?
Youre not as bad as Slowwalker but you are a part of his CJ group.
Why do it? Why risk downvotes? Why damage your reputation and become a talking point in the antiabuse community? And i can tell you for a fact that a number of whales are discussing this circle jerk Slowwalker has going on. Why act in a way that is detrimental to the platform?
All that when you have 50% curation right now.
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And let's say we pull the stats on your top voters, like slowie who matches circle members almost penny for penny.
Organic curation right? You really enjoy those Korean rocks and he's a huge Broncos fan right. You two are a match made in heaven.
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yes we are. acutally Korean food and culture are very prevelant in my life. My business partner is even Korean. I actully like his content and feel like it brings something to steem. I dont know how much he likes my content or the broncos for that matter....you have to ask him. I do know that i get AT LEAST 100 comments a year from people that say "i don't really follow football or the broncos but your videos entertain me" ......your comment about is borderline moronic.
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Save your breath and don't waste your time on BS, my friend.
You're doing a great job here. Most people know that except for a couple of bitter freebies.
No one should tell us what to do with our money or steempower.
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It's a shared pool, if you believe that holding steem power entitles you to do anything you want in terms of voting, you are mistaken.
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That's exactly how it designed. I'm entitled to do whatever I want. As well as everybody else.
It's called proof of stake.
Not saying that it's right, tho.
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You are entitled to technically do whatever you want as PoS yes. Whether or not you get rewarded for it is a matter of voting and concensus. Stake enables voting, it does not entitle an ROI. Smart voting with the trend allows for an ROI. The trend has changed.
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Exactly. Everyones free to downvote or vote whatever they want. Spend money how they want.
This post is only an explanation as to why this behavior is detrimental to honest voting and why i think it should be downvoted.
Them admitting to trading votes being the ultimate reason.
"Vote for vote" is not a good system and should not be encouraged
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LMAO, despite having half the SP your votes match up within a few cents. What a happy coincidence. What's 'borderline moronic', as you so eloquently stated, is your belief that anyone with a basic knowledge of STEEM doesn't see you trading votes.
Or how about a slightly different view.
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I am already readying myself for the Circlejerkophant!
My initial thoughts of how this creature will look would not pass as PG13 or below.
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Hahaha. Cant wait to see what you think up.
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digital bukkake groups
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Hehe good one @greencross!
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lol.
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I want to make sweet love to this post, but all I can do is offer up some fresh memes.
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Well said. I've recently seen more people sign on to the circle, which is the alarming part. Meanwhile, small accounts putting in the work are getting left in the cold. Why would they go to an exchange to buy more steem after experiencing this?
This an an exception to my 10% steem post rule, as I'm pretty sure the downvotes are coming.
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This is bad for everyone and my fear is that more will join in to snipe the curation which could lift him up even further.
Its time to shift our focus to behavior like theirs if we want to continue improving the STEEM content placement.
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I agree with your post, whales sould downvote them all.
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Hoping to see that as well.
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Thank god the bid bots are at their all time low, that is a great sign :)
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Hi @lordbutterfly!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 3.915 which ranks you at #4436 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has not changed in the last three days.
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 98 contributions, your post is ranked at #23.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
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