A little drama mama

If you have read the post by @themarkymark on @dmania @magicdice pulling an exitscam to the tune of some 500,000 Steem or some or other, this post is not about that. However, have a look at the engagement it has got - everyone loves some drama.

For the record, I did warn people not to trust an application run by @zombee. Not that it matters because this is steem and if there is the chance for a little coin to be made, people don't care much. Well, @magicdice made a little coin.

Anyway. As said, this post isn't about that event but it does go to show that when there is a some drama on the platform, activity goes up. I am not saying that this is always a good thing but it does bring the platform alive and it will spin off a fair amount of posts, a heap more comments and a lot of conversations and thoughts surrounding it. I wil hopefully make people more aware of trust issues.

The irony is that this is an immutable blockchain that records our history yet, most people don't pay attention to itwhen it suits them. For a little coin, people will forget or choose not to dig. Human nature.

But, this is also something that is quite exciting considering the potentially upcoming EIP (Economic Improvement Proposal) as it completely changes the way the mechanics of the platform work. And while that might be scary for some, many or all of us, it introduces a great deal more volatility through risk and randomization that makes the "games people play" a lot more dynamic.

This has the potential to create a huge amount of interaction and while some of it may not be welcomed to some people, it does likely create an environment that has more drama and more interaction between accounts at all levels of the ecosystem. Part of the argument that some people have here is there is not much to do and some even find it boring. How, I don't really know.

Yet, change the mechanics of the game and game theory predicts that behaviors will change accordingly but, with more risk in the system, there is less chance of prediction and more chance of loss incurred. Remember though, the Steem in your wallet is always safe - unlike your Steem in @magicdice's wallet.

This change in behavior is going to give new opportunity to people who may not have been suitable for the current mechanics and, take away opportunity from those who are suited but are unable to adjust. In many ways it can be imagined as a Steem maze with walls that occasionally shift position and what was known, needs to be relearned.

While this is painful for those who are comfortable with current conditions, it can be uplifting for those who are not and can give rise to a great amount of innovation and growth as people rediscover Steem. Change is rarely comfortable and change into an unknown with complex dynamics tends to evoke fear, which turns to protection of what one has. I am scared too, I have worked very hard over the last two years to hold the Steem I do and to lose it would be painful and even soul-crushing in many respects. Should that stop me looking for improvement?

With every change there is a spectrum of good and bad that comes along with it that affects and influences in sometimes some highly surprising manners that few could predict. It is unlikely that anyone would ever predict that mold would become one of the greatest discoveries to fight disease in medicine, or that information could be transmitted through particles of light. Or is it a wave of light?

Randomization is how nature acts to always be capable of something no matter the conditions, it keeps things moving and Steem has become altogether too safe for some behaviors. Take the return on bidbots for example, without downvotes they are safe earners, regardless of the content. Introduce free downvotes and that changes, they become risky and a loss weighs twice as heavy as a gain. How many would use a bidbot if they knew that every time, they would incur a negative return. How many blurry photos are going to be repeatedly in trending with a loss attached?

Will people retaliate? Probably. At least some will but in time perhaps the adjustments will be made and the DVs drop away and the drama shifts toward the content of the content instead. While people might not like it, everyone loves to consume scandal and it is what the media has been shilling for years as they know how to draw ATTENTION.

Attention economy remember where demand increases price and while it might be a great thought to ask "why don't they show good news?" the answer is obvious, no one cares about good news. They want drama. Over and over it has been proven, drama sells and most likely these days, it sells at a higher rate than sex.

So, while people want economic stability, they are also interested in excitement, outrage and the drama the internet has to offer and since it is attention that brings in the big bucks, perhaps it is time we made the place a little more exciting by taking focus off the content and putting it on the community. People are people after all and this is the internet where the currency is attention and what people spend it on is cheap and easy to create - Drama, drama, drama.

Prices are inevitably going to increase because of a coming bull market and with it, there is going to be a flood of people coming in looking to earn. Some will, some won't but, they can all have a good time taking part in the conversations if they feel that there is entertainment value for them, popcorn moments. And just like the rest of the internet where attention spans are short, people will move on from outrage to outrage and along the way many will earn a few coins through what they create, and what they consume.

Short memories will mean that there will be no shortage of "new" to be outraged by, to talk about, interact with, downvote, upvote and spend their time on. Time on site remember, that is a metric used to attract advertisers, and we can keep people here a great deal more if they are entertained. While people think it will come through the games played, the long-term and most compelling retainer is through the emotions made, both in the positive and the negative.

There will be differing opinions, sides taken, polarization rants, whinging, slammed doors, impassioned speeches, poorly formed retorts and all the other things that build communities and make them want to succeed in an ecosystem, to compete against others. And Steem will become a hive of activity filled with all ranges of emotion, anger to happiness, love to hate. If attention is the goal, upset the apple cart, rock the boat - introduce revolution, randomization and risk. Everyone has an opinion.

Your voice matters - It adds to the drama.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]