I feel really frustrated with this platform as most users do from time to time. Yesterday I saw @berniesanders go trending with a post that basically just said “I like soup”. I would like to give a big “fuck you” to him except he is our first defense against the likes of @haejin who self votes himself for over $1000 every day, and he could flag me out of existence if he wanted. I’ve heard that Bernie has helped many minnows, that’s nice, but the fact remains that the powerful are far too powerful. That is the reality of steemit. I’m no longer afraid of being flagged because I trust that there are enough people who know that I care about everyone and will come to my defense if such a thing happens.

On top of the unfair power dynamics of steemit, the memes that make more than the posts we put our hard work and passion into are growing by the day. Even many friends who I know to be awesome people are shitposting as often as they are sharing anything worthwhile. While I don’t fault anyone for wanting to take advantage of an opportunity for easy money, it’s kind of disheartening, at least for me.

It seems the bots that allow users to go trending simply for paying enough sbd are more capable and prevalent than ever.

I just kind of want to give my middle finger to steemit today.

Fuck this system, it’s as bad as the old one sometimes. I’m trying to be happy for all I’ve gained here which is really too much to put into words, but the hypocrisy gets to me sometimes as it always has. All I can do is try to build what I can build and hope people join me. Many of you have and I don’t want to discourage you from using this platform. This is the best social media platform around right now, if something better comes along, let’s go there together.

Just let me vent today, please.

I just want to get back to feeling like I am working towards my freedom from all the bullshit, like I can “earn a living” just being me because I have so much to offer, rather than running in circles in a new pile of the same old shit.

The Deadpost Initiative

I’ve held the Deadpost initiative for 20 weeks, not because I really love doing it, but because I feel it’s something the platform needs and also because I wasn’t getting enough attention just posting essays and stories that I felt passionate about writing. As much as I am turned off by competition, steemit is still a competitive platform, and so this was my way of “staying relevant” until enough people realized how much I have to offer with my writing. I also wanted to make sure it was done right, where the majority of the money brought in was given to smaller users who need the attention, hence the $10 minimum, which I planned on raising had I managed to consistently bring in more than $20 sbd a week.

I’ve connected with tons of amazing people through this project and through my writing, but still, the few dolphins and whales I’ve made an impression on don’t support me consistently enough to ensure that I won’t come in at a loss when I offer $10 sbd/Steem every week. Many weeks I am supported by other minnows. You guys are awesome. Still I don’t believe it should be minnows funding this project.

We are forced into a system of trickle down economics here and so the money must trickle down, at least until we make some changes to the system or find a better system.

I don’t hold it against dolphins and whales for not voting on the Deadpost initiative or my own posts, they have their own prerogatives and many of them do support smaller users in various ways, sometimes I am “lucky” enough to be one of those supported. They are just people. I’m just not very much into this kind of competitive, trickle down economics, and it get some me down from time to time that we don’t have something better already.

I thought about putting the Deadpost initiative on hiatus for an extended period of time, but I don’t think I’ll need to do that, it will probably only be 2-5 days. I am thinking of getting rid of the minimum reward pool and just offering half of the payout, whatever it is, even if that only comes to $1. I feel entitled to half of the payout because I’ve put a lot of time and effort into the project, at the expense of time for my writing and at the cost of more than a few sbd over the course of 20 weeks.

It will feel really crappy to cut the rewards and the amount of winners when there are sometimes so many great posts, but I think I’ll be in a much better place to continue this initiative and continue working hard on my writing, which is my real passion.

Thank you for everyone who has supported the Deadpost initiative and who has supported me. I’ll try to keep giving, even when it feels the whole system is so irreversibly fucked. Please stick around and let’s continue to do whatever good that we can, and build what we can, despite whatever bullshit we face.

(If you don’t know what to the Deadpost initiative is, scrolldown in my feed)