So recently I was called "Anti-Steem" by a few individuals.. one who really needs to just grow up, and others who are just offended I won't wank them, like everyone else does.

Alas, here we are.

But because it seems that some were curious of my thoughts.. I figured I would share them in my traditional, ranty.. justine you are such a dick...way, so here goes nothing. ;)

I am a lot of things.. I am an asshole, I speak too much, I come across harsh sometimes, I am too opinionated and just all in all - An extremely flawed human being.

This is something I know, acknowledge, and try to work on. As I think growing as a person (becoming better than you were yesterday) is pretty important.. and it's a top priority of mine.

But I am Not Anti-Steem
And my actions prove that over and over again. I just am not playing the game you want me too.. and that pisses you off.

Here is a tip, I don't care. I am not here to please you.. so GFY.. ;)

I could end it there, but after a conversation last night with amazing people here who I have known since I joined Steem, I felt the need to make a post to say what I actually thought..as apparently some have misinterpreted my "absence" for something else.

What I think of Steem

Steem to me has always been a way for individuals to take back our biggest form of communication, the thing that holds many of us together - The Internet.

Yes, to me Steem is the basis of Web 3.0.. where individuals and communities have ownership, and the tools they need to build their own economies, social platforms, marketplaces, games, or anything else they can imagine.

Steem to me is removing the middle man

You can see that expressed in my Steem Vision shared last April.

• It is the peer to peer revolution of the internet.
• It is connecting creators to their audience.
• It is connecting businesses to their customers
• It is setting a stage for citizen journalists to share what is actually happening, rather than us depending on the narrative the news is shoving down our throats this week.
  
  

Steem is taking back the power of the digital world and giving it to the people, that is what it has always been to me.

Steem makes this possible due to the underlying technology that is quite unique to what is currently available. This to me was always the original goal, and you can see so by just reading the white paper or listening to those responsible for building the chain in the first place.

The tech is solving the problems that are standing in the way of Web 3.0 to exist.

It does not happen overnight.. and some things have to be rolled out to even make other things possible, it's a long damn battle.

That is what Steem is for me, and what it will become.. if we don't ruin it first.

Steem is Flawed

Steem is not a ready for the market product in it's current state. It is flawed. AND THAT ISN'T A BAD THING.. the tech takes time to develop and those building are constantly working through challenges that arise due to building something that doesn't exist yet.

There is no users guide.. it is all figure this shit out as we go.

Pinpointing these flaws and improving them is part of getting to the end result.. that is just how this works.

And anyone who is telling you to not point out flaws, saying nothing is wrong, or telling you it is perfect as is .. is blowing smoke up your ass. They probably are quite happy with their rewards, and don't want anyone rocking the boat.

If we can't admit we are flawed,and accept that.. we will never improve and therefore - reach our end goal.

But I also think we could be promoting it as is

No, it is not ready for market.. no it is not complete.. but I find it damn frustrating to see projects that are sooooooo far behind where we are being more "popular" due to them actually understanding marketing and putting it as a priority.

I don't think we need empty shills, or expensive bullshit.. I think we need to be showing people what the hell Steem is and what it can do. What they can build on it, how they can grow their business.. what it damn means longterm.

And I don't think "come here for rewards" should be any part of it.

But my god.. wouldn't it be great to have an intelligent person, who actually understands how it works, out there telling other people? Not just staying in our echo chamber to pat each other on the backs...

This is also a frustration that led me to "opt out" and wait for the future.

Steem is not about rewards

It is about building something bigger in my opinion.. and the focus on rewards is one of the biggest flaws there is in my book.

Way too much focus on doing what one needs to get rewards, wanking the right people to be in the "in" club, only doing things or interacting with people if there is an upvote involved, not questioning specific people due to their public standing.. what kind of a fucked up world are we trying to build here?

Being able to tokenize the web is pretty cool, but that actually means empowering communities to grow and build within themselves (and the tools to do so), giving businesses a way to reward their customers, replacing "points" with "tokens" etc.. but quite frankly I don't think that means a shared rewards pool drained from inflation that is pretty much killing the STEEM price.

We aren't ready to tokenize the web yet

Yeah, we aren't there. BUT WE ARE SO CLOSE! SMTs and Communities are key to this.. not one platform where we all watch the inflation that affects all of us be automatically rewards to shitposts by bots.. that is not, and should not be the end goal, in my humble opinion.

Steem is bigger than blogging to me, it is literally individual freedom of the internet.

Currently we are just playing in the sandbox while the cool shit gets built.. this isn't the end game.

But then why did you leave??

I didn't leave.. calm the fuck down Karen.

I stopped posting, that's it. I still run a damn curation guild, and have been talking with big projects about integrating to Steem. blinks

I stopped posting due to realizing that most of my frustration here was being caused by the damn rewards pool. So I decided to opt out.

I fell out of love with the shared rewards pool
Since the day I got here I have been fighting for valuable content creators to be seen and be rewarded for the value they add.. for us to "showcase the best" in our storefront of a trending page to attract eyes in. This means I was fully aware of what content we had, and what we were rewarding.. and it was annoying.

Then the rewards got even more automated with the fork and it just seemed to get even more meh around here (for me). To me, while I know that "auto votes" are just necessary for many.. they sort of take the whole point of it out for me. No one is reading what they vote.. it's all just bots voting each other in my head. It's just something personally that resulted in a "meh" feeling.

I also realized that the rewards were making this place not very social.. people didn't feel free to post what they wanted, engagement is rough sometimes, it's not "fun" to just "hang out" for one reason or another.. I believe that is just due to everyone being in a big bucket, with no way to find what we like, the people we click with or what we want to see.

This is why I have always been a huge fan of communities .. as they solve this issue.

I simply decided to opt out of some aspects of this place and wait for the solutions that are on the horizon.. as they would fix it. I didn't like who I had become, or being so wrapped up in something I had absolutely no control over. I decided to simply stop fighting it, and wait for the needed improvements.

But then why are you shilling Bitcoin on twitter and not Steem?!?!?

ok.. just wow.. couple things - twitter is a random place to share random thoughts.. and nothing I say there should really count for much... it is just me saying shit and having fun, and I am a terrible shiller if that is the case.. but since we are here, I will try to explain my position-

I am one who believes that Bitcoin and STEEM are two very different things with two very different use cases.

Bitcoin - is a longterm store of value and a widely adopted digital currency

STEEM - is the utility coin that will power web 3.0 built on top of the Steem Blockchain

This is how I see them.. you don't have to agree with me, that is totally ok.. it won't hurt my feelings.

What is with the change in narrative?
I have always spoken on twitter about crypto.. hell I barely even used the thing until recently. Bitcoin has always been part of that, and then sharing about Steem, and whatever else random thoughts crossed my mind.

I stopped sharing about Steem because-

1. I was being trolled pretty hard here with some pretty vulgar things.. and quite frankly didn't want to send anyone here to see it.
   
   
2. I do not agree with how somethings are being done currently (see above), so because I am a person who is flawed.. and can only speak of what I believe in and not just what people want me to say - I just decided to stop talking about it.. and wait for the solutions to roll out.
   
   

I am in watch and wait mode.. I am doing my thing behind the scenes and waiting for the upgrades to roll out that I believe will be pretty important to making Steem what I have always thought it would be.. Web 3.0

Until then I share my random thoughts on twitter occasionally, and am in discord working.. my DM's are always open.

I hope that clears things up for anyone who cares, if you think the above is "anti-Steem" fair enough.. I am not one to try to push what I believe on others.. but maybe there is a possibility that you're just an asshole

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Much Love and Happy New Year!
_{You filthy animals}