Embracing Linear Equality on Steem: Unlearning the Sucker &amp; Maximising the Arsehole in Me

trafalgar (86) · 7 years ago (edited)

This is something you and I have been discussing for months in private, so without a doubt I agree with what you've said.

We're currently at a point where most SP are claiming back their vote rewards one way or another (bid bots, self votes, delegation market, vote swapping etc). It's not longer a problem of bad actors, if it ever was in the first place. It's a problem of misaligned economic incentives causing individual profit maximization strategy to be harmful to the entire system overall.

I'm guessing many whales are in the very same position as myself: we don't want this to continue. Unfortunately, we also can't trust other large stakeholders to refrain from the allure of profit maximization, so we all protect our own stake by partaking in the very activity that's deteriorating our investment. It's tragedy of the commons in full swing.

The issue isn't that bots or individual actors are malicious or greedy; very few people invest in crypto for altruistic reasons. When designing an economic system, you must assume everyone will attempt to maximize profits. When individual efforts to maximizing profits contribute to the value of the whole, then it's a successful system. But when the optimal profit maximization strategy under your system undermines the value of the whole, then you have a flawed rewards structure, that is to say misaligned economic incentives.

The entire economic system cannot be designed to depend on the selfless sacrifice of moral saints paying a high price in order to just keep in check the perfectly rational actions of individual profit maximizers, which is where we are now and why the battle is failing.

In short, readjust the economic incentives to alter profit maximizing behavior. Under other systems such as superlinear and higher curation for example, profit maximization does not involve direct or indirect self votes and bid botting market have difficulty in price discovery. Of course other alternative economic incentives/curves/curation rates etc can be explored.

It's unfortunate that you were the only person I was able to convince that this was the correct approach, and you weren't able to convince anyone else when you reached out individually either. The scope of the problem is at the level of economic incentives (I believe Linear, despite all its advantages, is the predominant cause of this), not at the level of individual bad actors. And trying to fight it on the level of individual bad actors would likely fail.

$40.75

ats-david (74) · 7 years ago (edited)

Umm...I’ve been critical of HF19 (and 18 and parts of 17) since before they were implemented. All of this was predicted.

I’ve been labeled a troll, TOXIC!, and any number of other names for daring to call out the utter bullshit that was sold to the ignorant community last year. I’ve lost a lot of support for being outspoken about it as well.

Where TF were you guys last year...last fall...this past winter...while myself and others have been pointing all of this crap out and calling for reevaluation and rollbacks/changes? How about supporting witnesses like us (me, @pfunk, @felixxx) who actually know WTF we’re talking about and saw all of this coming?

Lately, I keep seeing people mentioning all of the problems we have and criticizing the “leadership” around here...and then being praised and rewarded for it. (Like your now $40 comment.) Meanwhile, I’ve essentially been blacklisted for saying this same shit for the past year - before it was “cool.”

I hope you guys are finally, actually learning this time. STINC is not doing us any favors. The top witnesses aren’t doing us any favors by rubber-stamping STINC’s HF proposals. People need to wake TF up around here...unless we’ve already accepted that this is a platform created by scammers and for scammers - because that’s precisely where we’re headed.

$13.10

freebornangel (73) · 7 years ago

Ditto, but with even less rewards.

$3.45

brianphobos (70) · 7 years ago

Another well written post @kevinwong . I have resteemed it. It is a very thought provoking situation and the feeling that our support is eroding away in favor of bid bot delegation and heavy self voting is very real.

There is no easy solution to this issue. Before you got here @trafalgar we had just as many problems if not worse problems. We had a hand full of god kings ruling us that got here 3 weeks before myself and a lot of other content creators did. There were a lot of catfish / sock puppet accounts soaking up a good chunk of the reward pool.

Personally as frustrating as certain things have been I would take this version of STEEM over the 2016 version all day every day.

If we went back to the old reward curve and my vote went to $0.02 this place would absolutely come unglued. All the content creators who weren't already STEEM rich would be back to being a court jester trying to impress a handful of kings.

The price would totally collapse again because people would see that they could power up even $10,000 and their vote would still be worth basically nothing so they would realize that it is pointless and leave.

I don't have an absolute solution but I think the delegation initiatives to the 3rd party apps like DLive, DTube, Busy are great and maybe some substantial power should be granted to more community building leaders who have been selflessly upvoting others for months / years to keep creators engaged.

Also another remedy to certain situations is having top 40 witnesses agree to address issues like @haejin in accordance to what the community wants. Possibly creating a web app that we can steem connect to and everyone who has a reputation over a certain number can vote on solutions. Each account with over 1000 SP and a Rep of 55 could vote on what to do and the Witnesses would carry out the communities wishes or something of that nature.

Otherwise we end up like the Matrix with no Neo to take care of some of these issues once and for all.

$2.26

5 votes

kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

The current state is okay as well, but it'll certainly tend to cynical voting which slows down the growth of the network. n² brings the god kings, so we'll go for semi god kings lol.. with the likes of n^1.2 or n^1.3.. somewhere on the lower side near linear.

$0.38

4 votes

mammasitta (70) · 7 years ago

I would choose “Semi-God “King Kongs” Do they actually exist!? 😜
@brianphobos got a valid point!
Please don’t bring me back to “those” days....
I prefer to stay in the close to near linear “underground” and struggle with dragons.
BTW: Yo Mamma is a wise woman @kevinwong at least admit when you become an Arse!

$0.88

immarojas (68) · 7 years ago

Those days were shit and am glad the new ones never had those days..or perhaps they should have experienced it to appreciate what they have now.

Semi-god King Kongs are very apt...
Am hopeful that it is out in the open and can be solved..no matter how naive that sounds.

$0.52

mammasitta (70) · 7 years ago

Exactly!!!

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immarojas (68) · 7 years ago

Was out of engagement in here for a while. How have you been? Your mom? Going to SF3?

$0.04

nomadicsoul (68) · 7 years ago

where and when is SF3? I know nothing about it but want to go @immarojas

kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

oh well not easy to be one here lol

$0.16

brianphobos (70) · 7 years ago

My worry is that even as it stands right now oftentimes when a person does the math of how much they would have to power up to get a certain value on their upvote the numbers don't seem amazing. It is more about getting in an accumulating and then when the price spikes that is when the bigger money is made. My worry with even n^1.2 or n^1.3 is that the numbers would be even less enticing at the lower levels for how much a persons vote would be worth which would scare off investors who want to power up anything less than about $100,000 worth.

$0.41

freebornangel (73) · 7 years ago

Delegating for distribution is a terrible idea, only ass kissers would get rewards.
Bring back the whale experiment and the n(something) and see what that does.
As long as accounts with more than 500mv are allowed to dominate the pool we can forget mass adoption.

$0.00

samueldouglas (54) · 7 years ago

It is true that the system as it stands currently does incentivise bad behaviour. By bad behaviour, I mean actions that both transgress broader moral norms, and are detrimental to the longevity the system itself.

But, it is also true that unethical behaviour in that context can legitimately still be seen as unethical, and therefore attract moral condemnation. The fact that the system incentivises such behaviour does not remove anyone's moral responsibility.

For example, a society that incentivises violence against children is not what I would call a good system. It's also completely coherent to say that individuals committing the violent acts are doing the wrong thing. The only people interested in excuses are cultural relativists and the aggressors themselves. People with a more firm idea of the ethics of that situation, whether they are part of that society or not, will not run such a line of reasoning.

As you correctly observe, a more relevant example is the commons dilemma. Overuse of a common un-owned or collectively owned resource might be incentivised by the context it occurs in. Yes, it is true that a good system would not do this. But it's also true that fairly rational good people (by which I mean minimally good, not 'moral saints', with a bit of common sense) would recognise this and act to change the system and restrain themselves to maintain equilibrium while redesigning the relevant parameters.

I guess you and I differ in that I don't think maximising profit at the ultimate expense of the system that creates it is rational. I agree that the system is flawed and that desirable behaviour that is good for the platform should align with profit maximisation. But none of the people involved in fucking it up, regardless of the size of their stake, get to absolve themselves of moral responsibility.

$1.77

9 votes

bifilarcoil (58) · 7 years ago

all that hard work and I cant seem to vote more then $0.01, and if i come back tomorrow to give you one more cent then i can't give it to another genius... Wha t a dilemma. Yet whales are able to shitvote on shitposts and dishes that make people shit

samueldouglas (54) · 7 years ago

And anyone who implies that whales don't fully deserve the right to do so is a communist.

$0.00

bifilarcoil (58) · 7 years ago (edited)

I'm a communist!
I'm in a community.

Does that now allow me to name them something back?

Something in the realm of anti-social hypocrites. If you see the irony in that...

$0.00

https://steemit.com/funny/@kevinwong/embracing-linear-equality-on-steem-unlearning-the-sucker-and-maximising-the-arsehole-in-me#@trafalgar/re-kevinwong-embracing-linear-equality-on-steem-unlearning-the-sucker-and-maximising-the-arsehole-in-me-20180419t032538535z

trafalgar (86) · 7 years ago (edited)

No, I definitely agree with your last statement that profit maximization behavior right now is coming at the expense of the collective. Unfortunately, as I stated it's not that a lot of us whales can't see it, we just can't stop or trust other large stakeholders from doing it. It's similar to the prisoner's dilemma, except with so many trustless parties it's too costly to collaborate and we end up where we are. Because while everyone taking part is the worse possible outcome for the collective, not taking part while everyone else is is the worst possible outcome for the individual. I'm well aware that if we all clawed back our own votes it's worse than if we all didn't because the value loss in steem price (either falls or unrealized potential gains) in a rational market will exceed what we get. But it's sort of the game theoretical sub optimal place we're in and seemingly stuck.

I don't agree that prevailing ethical or social norms can be relied on to take precedence in an economic system. Maybe ideally this would be the case, but it's too far fetched. I do suggest what I consider a very realistic and far superior solution in my other reply to this very same post. Thanks for reading my take and voicing your views. I'm interested in seeing what you think of my suggested solution below.

samueldouglas (54) · 7 years ago

In philosophy (which is my academic background and profession), 'moral saint' is used to denote a hypothetical agent whose every action is as morally good as possible. I don't think people need to be that good to make linear rewards work, but clearly more people would need to be 'better' than they are now (otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation).

Given my interest in non-ideal action-guiding theories, I should know better . Economic systems, systems of governance and government, conceptions of justice; none of these things should be designed for the way you wished people were - you have to design them to cope with the way people actually are.

This isn't an endorsement of some sort of moral determinism (so you are still not off the hook). Humans, and the societies they exist in exhibit and incentivise a range of levels of selfnessness, so I'm not peddling some idea the kind of assholery that steemit rewards is somehow reducible to a pre-theoretic notion of 'human nature'.

Incentives. I ponder John Rawls' theory of justice - he was quite happy to use economic inequality to incentivize desirable behaviour. For example, even though equality is good, inequality in the form of paying surgeons more than average is better. That's because it encourages people to become surgeons - but this ethical advantage only true if there's reasonable equality of opportunity to become a surgeon, and if the benefits of having surgeons are reasonably equitably available to all members of that society (via the notions of income redistribution and universal healthcare that so many people around here find so triggering).

This isn't about progressive taxation or other things that give voluntaryists nightmares. But the principle is the same. We want big investors and whales to exist, but we also want their existence to produce a beneficial effect for smaller users. Actually it's more than 'want' - we need them to produce benefit for smaller stakeholders, otherwise we'll end up right where we are now: heading toward a distinctly uncertain economic future.

So yes, curation does need to be incentivised. I am not sure what exact curve the rewards need to be set at, but I can see the argument for changing it. On top of that, we also need to try and educate and encourage people to not game the system, and for whales live up to the responsibilities of being major stakeholders.

Trouble with all this is that you need to get the witnesses, who are controlled by these large stakeholders, to agree to a change that means these stakeholders either make less money, or have to put more effort in to make the same amount of money. It might not technically be regulatory capture, but IMHO, it's pretty analogous.

One thing that did occur to me would be to change how witness voting worked, then watch the problem solve itself in an organic, 'bottom up', way. We can't have one account = one witness vote, for obvious reasons. And with the ability to use bidbots to quickly raise one's reputation, weighting voting by rep won't help much either. What you could do have the stake-weighted witness voting work in a non-linear way, so that while the ability to choose witnesses grows with stake, it grows less with each additional vest. You could do this with either a log function - tweaked to not allow hordes of tiny account to choose the top witnesses - or maybe a cube root function - something like that, my calculus is pretty rusty. Whatever the case, if witnesses were suddenly more beholden to people in the minnow to dolphin range, then maybe they'd suddenly they would have both the motivation and ability to do more than act in the short term interest of their biggest voters.

Or not - it's just an idea.

So there you go - I agree this needs to be addressed systematically. But I want to be clear on one thing: If a system incentivizes bad actions, this does not magically mean that bad actors have no moral responsibility. For that to be true, it would mean that moral goodness or badness can be purely reduced to what is incentivized or not. I'm not saying that isn't the case, but you sure as hell haven't established that position to my satisfaction. Self-voting, delegating for profit rather than curating, low-effort spam, multi-thousand account voting rings - all of these things are currently incentivized, and all of these things (to a greater or lesser extent) also deserve condemnation.

Unless someone's steemit-assholery is needed to pay the rent or feed their kids, I'm not interested in excuses. I'm glad you are focused on solutions (doubly so, considering how much more influence you have than the average person here). But, incentives or not, you are still responsible for your choices. Don't expect people to let your behaviour pass just because the system rewards it, or 'everyone else is doing it'.

$0.26

5 votes

peteyates (33) · 7 years ago

great stuff @samueldouglas - as a philosopher feeling grumpily that i have to get to grips with the dismal science, steemit is a microcosm where all the problems i'm seeing jump out out at you at high speed. here are my not very coherent thoughts thus far: people can game any system and they will. at the same time, altruism is a force in any economic / cultural system, though as a 'percentage' of the determining force, it can get very low or very high, [taking a historical / anthropological sweep]. misalignment of incentives, so that people maximising their gains by exploiting the incentives provided by a system are also acting in ways inimical to the system's achieving its declared aims or even continuing to exist at all seems the norm with most systems. [e.g. capitalism treats waste as an externality that can be dumped without expense into the envrionment, thereby degrading the conditions that capitalism needs to continue, i.e. life on earth.] the aim here at steemit, i presume, is to provide the conditions for 'good content', of use to people, to be produced and distributed, in a way that rewards content creators so that they can create, and which removes the economic exploitation and ideological dominance of middle men - the publishing industry, tin-pan alley, hollywood, FB etc. Also, it seems that steemit hoped to broaden the base of content providers so that anyone can express themselves in the space. Though this latter isn't directly about getting good content, it can be thought of as a maximising condition for good content to emerge and for new creators to hone their craft etc. It mitigates the elitism that might grow out of the concern for 'good content'. Of course, there has to be the means in place to maintain the infra-structure on which the system sits, and economically, this costs. Questions arising now: what is 'good content' and who is to say? Can a system be optimised just by tweeking parameters? Thoughts: game theory has a very thin idea of culture. Rich, complex culture, including ethics, however, is bound to be an influential vector in any ecosphere/economy and that is where we have room to manouvre past the mechanistic and probably hopeless game of tweeking parameters. [e.g. print more money!] Culture building is a must here IMO. Communism? Hell yes. Not Stalinism, Trotskyism or even Marxism - but the 'naturally occuring communism' without which ordinary human life in communities would not be possible.

minismallholding (69) · 7 years ago

You raise some very good points with the witnesses. In a way they represent our politicians here and like our real world politicians seem just as susceptible to being bribed to do the highest payers bidding. I thought @freebornangel made a good point on another post in suggesting the ability to down vote witnesses we feel have been led astray and no longer have the platform's best interests at heart.

samueldouglas (54) · 7 years ago

In traditional politics, large stakeholders normally have to work quite hard to achieve control of politicians and public servants - look at the amount of money lobbyists spend in most democracies! The weighted stake voting system instantly circumvents this inconvenience, making the largest holders of SP instant kingmakers.

My reading of the whitepaper is that this was completely deliberate, as the largest stakeholders are supposed to (a) attract the most scrutiny on their actions and (b) have the best interests of the network at heart. Such beliefs strike me as a little quaint now.

freebornangel (73) · 7 years ago

The n2 and 40 votes a day made selfvoting unattractive.
Stinc changed it to favor scammers over mass adoption, knowingly.
The reason the n2 and 40 votes were there was because in alpha that is how they fixed selfvoting.
If we reverse those forks this is a nonissue, but good luck getting stinc to own its mistake.
Its a dao, dont you know?

$0.00

abh12345 (76) · 7 years ago

Brilliant work here. Thank you for your ideas and input.

samueldouglas (54) · 7 years ago

Thanks for the feedback. I love trying to solve complex problems, and it doesn't get much more complex than this! More importantly, if we can make steemit/steem really work, this should inform approaches to other economic systems.

abh12345 (76) · 7 years ago

We are part of an experiment after all :)

I've just read and resteemed your comedyopenmic post, quality!

$0.00

samueldouglas (54) · 7 years ago

An experiment indeed. It's on those grounds that I'd love to attract a broader diversity of ideological viewpoints to steemit.

Thanks for the resteem & feedback on my comedyopenmic post. It's a strangely effective way to make a point.

bifilarcoil (58) · 7 years ago

O BOY, and then you manage to top your previous post.

And i can only vote $0.00 cent LOL

$0.00

freebornangel (73) · 7 years ago

So bring the whale experiment with the n2 and tell the large investors to wait until the ecosystem is large enough to accomodate them.
That 100mv cap can ge raised when 100k dolphins exist to mitigate against the whales sucking it all up.
Exciting the minnows enough to buy in will allow those that want out to exit.
Without a 100mv cap to make small buy ins worthwhile we are subsisting on bigger fools that will run out at some point.

bifilarcoil (58) · 7 years ago

O BOY, and then you manage to top your previous post.

And i can only vote $0.00 cent LOL

$0.10

samueldouglas (54) · 7 years ago

Story of my life :) Luckily, I'm past caring about the money. I mean, more $ would be nice. And getting paid to write would be fantastic. But as things are, it would be delusional to think I could make a decent amount of money here, even if I did have the 'moral flexibility' to go 'full arsehole'.

bifilarcoil (58) · 7 years ago

Even if you would try to go full blackhole, then it still may not work.

The already existing full pro blackholes already know all the tricks and just out-hole the new holes.

So then you put in even more energy doing shit that you know that sucks, and don't even enjoy doing it.

Any idea how this works in the steemporn corner? I bet it there works the same under the classic name of the same model. PIMPING..

$0.00

wholeself-in (57) · 7 years ago

@samueldouglas, you are a breath of fresh air. You have my full 100% upvote, at a current value of about $0.01.

$0.00

samueldouglas (54) · 7 years ago

I'll try not to spend it all at once ;) Seriously, thanks - the kind words are worth a lot in their own right.

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snowflake (65) · 7 years ago

Agreed with everything but this

(I believe Linear, despite all its advantages, is the predominant cause of this)

My take on the curve https://steemit.com/steem/@snowflake/reward-curve-doesn-t-discourage-self-voting

I think what messed up incentives was to reduce votes per day from 40 to 10. This was a very good measure to prevent self voting as self voters needed to put out 4 times more content than now. This is why haejin is posting 10 times a day, put votes back to 40 and he will have to post 4 times more content to maximize self vote.
https://steemit.com/steem/@snowflake/history-is-a-great-teacher

$1.52

smooth (70) · 7 years ago

put votes back to 40 and he will have to post 4 times more content to maximize self vote.

That's 4x more crap bloating the blockchain for the same result.

$0.04

trafalgar (86) · 7 years ago

Well firstly I'm very glad that you agree to some extent to what I said
Namely that this isn't a problem of bad actors - people maxmizing profits under the rules aren't good or bad, they're what you should expect. And it's up to the people who are making the rules to come up with incentives that align with and best promote the behavior they wish to see the most.

Please have a look at my other reply here where I provide a solution:

To address your concern I actually think that's exactly what would have with 40 votes. He'll just vote 40 times, not bother with long posts, maybe 5 long posts and 35 comments on all of them. He's not wrong or evil or whatever to do this. Just rational. We can align rational profit maximization interests with beneficial behavior too, please have a look at my reply linked above

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idikuci (61) · 7 years ago

Oh how I want to like you. You're super funny and intelligent. But See your last paragraph:

It's unfortunate that you were the only person I was able to convince that this was the correct approach, and you weren't able to convince anyone else when you reached out individually either. The scope of the problem is at the level of economic incentives (I believe Linear, despite all its advantages, is the predominant cause of this), not at the level of individual bad actors. And trying to fight it on the level of individual bad actors would likely fail.

This is what should convince you you're wrong. Yet you're blind to it. And now you have caused one of the most generous people on steem to act like you.

You Personally Have now made The World a worse place than it would be without your interference.

But you have a great talent, and can make that ^ comment no longer true.

I hope that was your goal, because that's the outcome.

$0.61

8 votes

ilt-yodith (55) · 7 years ago

Everyone should be required to read @idikuci’s statement in bold, very half hour or so. It should be rephrased as a question and put down by the. Voting and Posting Buttons:

“Is what you are about to do going to make the World a worse place than it would be without your interference?”

The problem around here is NOT economics. Profit Maximization is a middle-brow utilitarian ethical system for middle-brow minds.

Except as intellectually vapid as the system is (and it is...people who have moved beyond first-year college ideas know this in an obvious way) the real problem is not about it’s logical failings, but, rather, it’s failings on a higher level of cognition associated with learned empathy, synergizing rationality and reason with controlled puroposeful emotions, and better understanding the complexity of individuals and the civilizations we conceptualize as making them up.

This is a longer (and less well-said) version of Idi’s idea...Avoid doing something that makes the world a worse place than had you done nothing at all.

(If you have any inclination to upvote this comment for some unknown reason, please let me encourage you to upvote @Idikuci’s instead of you haven’t already done so. Or upvote for an artist on here that made something that touched you).

$0.14

dj123 (60) · 7 years ago

what are you doing, don't miss out ..... you upvote trafjin 100%, he upvotes you 100% or 1% whichever comes first

go jerk it...come-on baby!

$0.04

therealwolf (75) · 7 years ago

In short, readjust the economic incentives to alter profit maximizing behavior.

exactly, @trafalgar. I'm completely in favour of increasing the rewards for curators and thus the incentive to manually curate.

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elparsie (51) · 7 years ago

I agree with you @trafalgar your comment ia very knowledge, i learn many knowledge from your comment .

Nice to see you here, ini steemit

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smooth (70) · 7 years ago

that's deteriorating our investment

I mostly don't buy this part. There was a theory that voter-allocated rewards would help grow the investment, and despite its imperfection we can't prove that it hasn't. After, there are many users here, the market cap of Steem is within a factor of 2 of all-time-high (which is pretty close in crypto volatility terms).

However, even if that theory turns out to be false, it doesn't follow that not distributing rewards (instead reclaiming them) will actually deteriorate the investment. There are other paths to growth and even just having a very functional blockchain (no direct transaction fees, 3 second confirmation, etc.) is already worth a lot. How is this not a very competitive offering in the blockchain market, even if all the reward stuff were completely removed?

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trafalgar (86) · 7 years ago (edited)

Yes, this is just a hard disagreement

No way to know how well or poorly Steem would have done with less imperfections to make a point of comparison

And while I suppose it's not unreasonable to think a fast, inflation based blockchain may do well as a pure currency, I think Steem's competitive edge and ultimate value lies in its ability to attract user numbers through its social media interface. A lot of stuff you can say either way on this matter, but in the end, our gut instincts just don't converge here.

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smooth (70) · 7 years ago (edited)

inflation based blockchain

STEEM is only minimally inflationary long term. The planned inflation rate at 20+ years is 0.9%. While the inflation is nominally supposed to be used to reward users at this point, it could also be viewed as an initial distribution phase (with inflation declining by 1% per year) not unlike Bitcoin's halving schedule.

I think Steem's competitive edge and ultimate value lies in its ability to attract user numbers through its social media interface

But can it do that? So far this has not been shown to actually work...

our gut instincts just don't converge here.

I'm not really a strong partisan on the matter at this point, more being open to different approaches. Let's say the voting-based social rewards just doesn't work out, then what? Curl up and die, or pursue other paths to growth and success?

Anyway, I'm certainly interested in your ideas and others' ideas how to improve the effectiveness of voted rewards. It is just the part about it being a definite choice of that or a deteriorated/failing investment that I don't necessarily accept.

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trafalgar (86) · 7 years ago (edited)

@lemouth I'm glad others are starting to see this perspective. This is mainly a reply to you but I want a little more visibility so chose to write it as a reply to the post. Thank you for being one of the few who are starting to see things this way.

If the Steem economic system has decided it wants to reward the most banal, effortless, proof of brain dead and by all other metrics valueless behavior the most, then don't be surprised that's exactly what people do.

Don't be surprised if most of the large stakeholders sell all their votes to bots that exploit the rewards pool at 100% efficiency, or self vote 10 of their own comments every day, or lease it to the market for high returns that can only realistically be paid if the borrower used all those delegated votes on himself.

This is no longer a problem of good or bad actors. They may want to raise the most money to cure cancer, or kill puppies, we don't know. The point is we're choosing to go with economic incentives that rewards the dumbest and most pointless behavior for the platform the biggest returns.

The Good News: It is trivial to prove that this is fixable

All you have to do is instate a new economic scheme under which the way to maximize returns is not just mindlessly sell your votes to the highest bidder or vote yourself up 10 times a day. I'll give you a terribly impractical example but one that will highlight this point.

Simply bump curation rewards to 80% (not advocating this, just an example). Notice how now it becomes trivially easy to beat some guy who's only getting the value of their own votes, either through selling or self voting? All I have to do is to find content early enough that I believe will have at least some interests after I vote. So I get 80% of the value of my own vote as curation, and only need 80% of the subsequent votes to make up for the 20% difference. (I know it's not how precisely curation works, but you see my point).

I'm not advocating for 80% curation under linear. I foresee problems at economic equilibrium that's about as bad as what we have now. But one cannot deny that different incentives promote different behavior. Because behavior that maximizes returns under one economic scheme may not at all be competitive under another. We're not stuck with bid bots and self votes at all.

We just have to come up with an economic system that rewards desirable behavior that promote the value of the entire system the most. It is very possible for a different economic system to reward exceptional curation and authorship far more than mindless self cannibalistic voting behavior. Getting the details right is non trivial, and there will be trade offs, but I think we can get something that's almost utopia compared to what we have right now.

A lot of heated debate right now is occurring under the misguided assumption that the system has to operate at the combined self sacrifice of returns of individual actors. This is just flatly untrue. It is also a losing fight which explains the futility you're feeling. Right now there's an attempt to force individual self voting whales to vote at least 20% on others. What's the best case scenario here? You spend $100 to take $100 from him and place it back into the rewards pool, only to have at least $70 of it go back to others just like him. Let's say he surrenders and just recedes into a bot, so now he's taking even more from the pool because it's 100% efficient. Or worse, he finds some other bots that use hundreds of accounts to self vote their own comments to hide his tracks, taking just as much from the pool, and bloats up the blockchain. There is no deterrence factor at all. Are these really the trenches in which good actors think is worthy to hunker down and fight to the death for?

We don't fight people who are maximizing their returns because it's fighting people for not being sufficiently generous. That's not a sensible fight to have. The economy cannot rely on the acts of moral saints alone to be sustainable. We should fight to introduce a new economic system where individual profit maximizing behavior will contribute to the value of the whole platform, rather than erode it. We let everyone's profit maximizing efforts work for us, not against us.

For the record, I think something like slightly superlinear (not as much as before) with 50% curation, burning curation instead of donating to author in the first 30 mins (something hf20 is already introducing I think), maybe a separate downvote pool. It's difficult to predict what it would be like at economic equilibrium so coming up with alternative schemes is always a challenge. But honestly, any reasonable guess would be far superior to what we have now.

$6.30

5 votes

lemouth (72) · 7 years ago

Thanks for the (pretty long) answer wit the very detailed examples.You summarized the situation very well.

People however could be generous, if the difference with not being generous is not dramatically large. Today, if one is generous, one loses a lot. So, it is clear that most large stakeholders won't be generous on a logical ground, and this is what is happening. So no surprize.

If the Steem economic system has decided it wants to reward the most banal, effortless, proof of brain dead and by all other metrics valueless behavior the most, then don't be surprised that's exactly what people do.

As said above, this is the only logical consequence. People (including whales) want to make money somehow, and this is the best way for getting the largest amount of gains without any effort.

The difference with what I would call a more reasonable option (like maximising the curation rewards to play with the social network card) is too large. If this difference would be smaller, as said above, it will be easier to be generous as even with a loss, the gains will still be large. For the records, I can say that I am already happy that some (rare) whales still dedicate a fraction of their VP (or more) to help curation, accepting to give up on some easy money. But this is, as you said, generosity, and there is no way that this would represent any other thing than a nice exception of the global behavior.

I guess that changing the economical system is probably the only way. I don't see any at the moment, as trying to change human behaviors never work. Having an economical model where (hopefully reasonable) curation would be rewarded without killing the authors is probably the best option. However, maybe something not as extreme as it was before. Otherwise, we end up with a system where only large stakeholders get something in curating (if I am not too wrong about the ancient system).

To finish, I am happy to read about what you mention for hf20. TBH, I was not following, mainly because I have started to lose interests in what was going on (and I am in a far too low position for having any of my comment seriously considered, so...). I just hope things will improve at some point.

In any case, I will continue doing what I do here (at least for now). I am just a guy trying to do things that I think are right. This is easier to say when one is not a large stakeholder, as one has nothing to lose in doing so ^^

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trafalgar (86) · 7 years ago (edited)

I think we pretty much totally agree. Generosity certainly helps, but an economic system that rewards the most effortless and valueless behavior the highest while solely relying on the generosity of others is doomed to fail.

It's true that there will always be trade offs. A good basic test is this: what economic system would be required for people who take the time to curate and thus do something good for the entire platform be rewarded more than if they were just to mindlessly sell their votes or upvote themselves 100%. My guess is a slighly superlinear curve and curation no less than 40% at least, possibly 50%. While on paper it looks like authors are getting less, in practice when no one is sufficiently incentivized (outside of generosity) to curate, good authors right now are getting far less. Finding good content early must provide the finder a higher return on average than if they were to just use all their votes on themselves for this place to function properly.

$3.53

https://steemit.com/funny/@freebornangel/re-trafalgar-re-kevinwong-embracing-linear-equality-on-steem-unlearning-the-sucker-and-maximising-the-arsehole-in-me-20180420t150938837z#@dj123/re-freebornangel-re-trafalgar-re-kevinwong-embracing-linear-equality-on-steem-unlearning-the-sucker-and-maximising-the-arsehole-in-me-20180421t141441587z

dj123 (60) · 7 years ago (edited)

hi traf, i just wanted to say that i'm really glad to see that you've re-invested back almost 10% of your upvotes to support comments and other post like this one, and also that you have vote for 2 worthy witnesses @curie and @pfunk

i understand clearly that the system is non sustainable due to the number of large stakeholders increasingly delegating to bots and self-upvoting, but delaying the inevitable will give Steemit Inc. time to implement a solution without scaring away new Steemain in the droves and causing new massive FUD to drop Steem unnecessarily back to extremes like $1.3 until change is implemented

EOS is coming out earliest July. Probably between release to December this year, they will announce the name of their new social-network component running native. Then we'll begin to see a mass adoption (aka direct competition) and migration from mainstream social-media to crypto starting in 2019 to both EOS and Steem.

I hope you understand that even a 10%-20% contribution from you will contribute critical time for Steemit Inc.'s leadership, Steem blockchain coders, and witnesses to rectify and bring incentives back to quality content and retaining talents.

A quarter (3 months) is almost like 1 year crypto time, alot can change in next 3 months. Once again, thank you for making a difference, I'm sincerely proud that you went down from 98% to 90% in just 1 week time.

Upvoted 100% for your actions as well as your ideas and suggestions above, it sounds practical, and will likely give Steem new life towards a sustainable reward system that will promote growth, and help us maintain our head-start in accumulating a stronger user base.

See my comment below to add to your ideas to help us improve:

My guess is a slighly superlinear curve and curation no less than 40% at least, possibly 50%. While on paper it looks like authors are getting less, in practice when no one is sufficiently incentivized (outside of generosity) to curate, good authors right now are getting far less. Finding good content early must provide the finder a higher return on average than if they were to just use all their votes on themselves for this place to function properly.

@NED, @SNEAK, @ANDRARCHY ...... Please Come Read What @Trafalgar Suggested Above!

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freebornangel (73) · 7 years ago (edited)

Why cant downvoting have the same curation rewards as upvoting?
It is exactly the same, you say the post is valuable and i say no.
Why is my no devalued by the math?

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dj123 (60) · 7 years ago (edited)

current math says that the linear value of the positive vote must negate the value of an existing positive vote

if a new math comes into place to reserve say any where between equal relative curation (around 25% - it can be set between the total flagged and negated flagged amount which is fundamentally 0% to 50%) value as curation, then so be it. Computation for a non linear or super-linear will be more intensive but it can still be simplified and done.

fundamentally, the answer is yes, it can be architect-ed and implemented.

Then serious coders have to code in the curation amount for flags.

I actually propose that Witnesses and Coders support a variable say between 5% to 50%, and let all the witness agree to set that amount much like the SBD to Steem ratio (Note the minimal 5% is token amount to give value to flagging which we do not today, and depends on the good whale to do so). This will spur the blockchain community leaders and witnesses to increase incentive to auto-correct when there are a multitude of bad-actors.

However, once again, witnesses supported by Steemit Inc (due to large bias of whale & Steemit ownership of Steem) has to agree to such a radical idea to fork.

@NED, @SNEAK, @ANDRARCHY ...... Please Consider Dynamic Curation For Flagging Of Bad Actors

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freebornangel (73) · 7 years ago

Yep, and stinc prefers scammers to real users,...

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reddust (71) · 7 years ago

You would have a lot of greedy flaggers flagging everyone they dislike or don't agree with or envy...it would be a monkey shit storm making flagging profitable!

freebornangel (73) · 7 years ago

Its not really profitable, you would still lose ~75% of your vote.

And even if that was the case, we need to learn to work together to stop abuse and protect our right to speak freely.

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wholeself-in (57) · 7 years ago

Please expand this comment into a full blog post.

I get what you are saying about the futility of fighting trench warfare against those putting personal profit over all other forms of value, but at least there we find a clear and present focus for our efforts.

Obviously my "we" is not whales, but "we" are watching and participating too. How do we fight to change incentives, if not at the level of our own participation and engagement? Who even has the power to change this, and what actions are they taking (or not taking) to this end?

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smooth (70) · 7 years ago

You're right about curation rewards and I made many of these points not when HF19 was being deployed for linear rewards last year but way back in 2016 when curation rewards were first cut from 50% to 25%. It was clear to me this would give rise to massively increased amounts of vote buying and such, which it has.

None of these things really get at the core of the problem with voting for rewards (it probably cant really work well ever regardless of the curves, etc.) but it can be made worse by the system not recognizing that votes have a very real economic/monetary value and in ignoring that, encouraging people to circumvent the rules to realize that value. (The lack of incentive for downvotes suffers similar issues).

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trafalgar (86) · 7 years ago

I think certain economic schemes can provide desirable behavior such as curation with enough of an edge to be competitive with behavior like vote selling or self voting without completely defeating the incentive to create content.

It's a difficult balance to strike, but it's probably possible to align selfish profit maximization behavior with effects that benefit the platform overall by tinkering around with the curve, curation and downvote incentives.

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smooth (70) · 7 years ago (edited)

It's a good point. As you say 80%+ curation along with some skill in voting could easily exceed the value of vote selling. Unfortunately there is very little consensus for high curation like that (though a small core of stakeholders in favor of it) and not even all that much consensus to raise curation, say, back to the original 50%.

At least in the HF20 development branch a change was made to actually peg curation rewards at 25% overall instead of having them decline (to probably 10% or so) due to early votes. So that's a small bit of movement in a possibly-favorable direction.

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abh12345 (76) · 7 years ago

Hi @smooth, thanks for clarifying the peg to 25% curation - that isn't overly obvious in the @steemitblog Velocity post.

Also, is there a place where the collective can view consensus to proposals like 80/20% curation?

Cheers.

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smooth (70) · 7 years ago

@steemitblog posts and comments on those posts are probably the best place to see discussion of these proposals. Sometimes witnesses and major stakeholders post their opinions on their own blogs as well.

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abh12345 (76) · 7 years ago

ok cheers.

Yeah I found looking through the older @steemitblog's comments section pretty interesting, particularly around the rewards curve proposals!

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crokkon (68) · 7 years ago

Hi @smooth, could you point me to that commit that pegs the curation rewards to 25%? I only found that one returning the reverse auction part to the pool instead of to the author, but that alone shouldn't make it 25% if I understand it correctly?

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smooth (70) · 7 years ago

Ugh, I think you are right. In the original discussion it was intended to avoid shifting funds from curators to authors but I can see now that it obviously wouldn't do that. Instead of shifting funds from curators to authors as the current rule does, it shifts funds from curators to both future authors and curators (so at least 75% of this will still go to authors). It is an improvement to curation payout but only a small one.

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crokkon (68) · 7 years ago

Thanks for the confirmation!

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happymoneyman (70) · 7 years ago

Kev Wong. One of my fav Steem Ballers.
I was just spoke at the Steem Creators Conf in Las Vegas.
A lot of us were mulling this same issue.

I think your take is a proper response for the time being.
I'm also going to be pushing my content onto the trending page.
I put a lot of work into my stuff and I want a nice example of decent content to be represented on the trending page.

I think if good content shows trending it will up the moral of the community.

Good stuff.

PS. See you at STeemfest this year. Should be epic

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lordjames (62) · 7 years ago

Well, it started as a joke but if I have tears I would shed some this morning.

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holybranches (60) · 7 years ago

the only joke here is this post being tagged "funny."

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sadpotato (58) · 7 years ago

The thing about votebots is that when steem was below 2$ it gave very good profits for newcomers. Who had no follower base (Like me).
So no matter how good your post is they could not get anything in return. But after using votebotes there was almost 10-30% profit in rewards comparing to money spent (Depending on steemit price fluctuations). And if you just joined steem - it's a lot!

After steem comes back to 3.5$ there would be almost zero profit and bots will lose all value. Whats the point in buying if you lose money. Only some reputation and being on trending (and also being flagged). So that is awful.

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reddust (71) · 7 years ago

I find bid-bots addicting, I get a little high using them....hahah🤑

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sadpotato (58) · 7 years ago

Wahahaha :D
It's people's choice to use or not, we are all free! And I'm not the exception.

But I still agree that it would be better without them and I'm also against spammers and one-photo-one-word post that is on trending.

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reddust (71) · 7 years ago

Hehe, I am as well...but I don’t have an answer to help solve the problem🙁

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santigs (51) · 7 years ago

Well, you ended up having a nice reward in this post, so I guess the content you published is quite interesting for more than 200 steemians.
I am with you in a way as part of us are here for the money but for me, it is the same story as in any other economy. Do things differently in a brilliant way and money will just come.
Things change, markets change and nothing lasts forever the same way. Steem is just about 2 years old and as the platform grows and more and more users jump in searching for the money, it is more and more difficult to just get money the easy way doing the same things than others do. Bots may work for a while but my personal sense is that eventually they will not be worth anymore.

I'd go for being unique, trying to engage with a big enough audience and publish interesting content. I know this is the long run, but no one ever said things are easy. Easy money doesn't last, it is the same in every market and this is what's happening here too.

Thanks for the post, I enjoyed reading it and seeing how most people experience the same feelings. We will hove see how everything evolves but for me, intervention should be minimum. Let the community rule itself.

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kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

Yup, it's better to just pave one's own way. However with the current reward curve, I feel it's pitting users in some competitive tunnel vision. I don't think that's ever a good thing..

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yaan (59) · 7 years ago

Even if you maximise arsehole to the limit with steroids, you will still come back to being your normal self - a great man, after a while.
You can't change your nature :d

$2.15

http://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/recreation/yellowstone-journal-outlines-difficulties-of-managing-bears-humans/article_a5c49609-96db-5f93-842a-736df034f17a.html

reddust (71) · 7 years ago (edited)

People will always go for the easiest food, like the yellow stone bears. They lived off the parks garbage heaps for several generations allowed visitors to feed the wild bears when they shut done the easy food most died from starvation. Making it easy for the bears to find food wasn’t helpful. We need to make sure Steemit stays wild and all of us have to use our wits and talents or we will all end up dependent and weak. This is true for all sustainable systems.

Remove the steemits garbage heaps! Also this article relates to flagging users who go for the easy profits...

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yaan (59) · 7 years ago

So I've learned that people should learn from bears. And bears should learn from people!!)

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cortexx (57) · 7 years ago

if you asked me what is the common nature of human being? "Greed". everybody wants to survive in steemit game economy, they do whatever it takes, because they don't have a talent, and they became an investor rather than a blogger, just as myself, no time for writing a quality content, because steemit is just my part time job, maybe someday i'll quit my job and focus on writing a quality content, i know the risk even writing a quality usually won't get notice, so people buy some upvote just to get attention from their hardwork they spend.

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https://steemit.com/udcffppeeal/@felixxx/udcffppeeal-more-info-winner-of-the-logo-contest

felixxx (68) · 7 years ago (edited)

This is the right time to shamelessly promote my server:

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m-ssed-t (57) · 7 years ago

A sad day for the platform that another whale is so disillusioned that they "turn to the dark side".

My advice (if anybody listens to lowly Minnows) would be to stay true to who you are. Social media is good at exposing people for who they are. Some don't care whether they're exposed, some put on a facade to try and hide their true intentions, and others are inherently good. Either way, you can't PR your way out of a bad reputation like you could pre-Internet, pre-social media.

What few people seem to consider is that what you say, and do on Steemit, like every other social platform is very public, always "on the record" and recorded forever.

If you care at all about your personal brand, business brand or legacy (what your kids, or grandkids will think of you), you should think about Karma. I believe that ultimately, those who treat others kindly and care about "the whole", not just themselves are the ones who win.

Short-term riches will never win-out over long-term wealth.

Unfortunately, there's not an economic model which has ever been, or is ever likely to be invented which eliminates greed - at least until AI runs our finances.

But, on a lighter note:

If we ever run out of content ideas, we can always interview each other every other day.

Haha! Love this quote. It probably applies to other platforms more than Steemit (at the moment), but isn't it funny how "collaboration" has turned into "you interview me, I'll interview you"? Is that really as inventive as collaboration is nowadays?

Good luck man, whichever direction you ultimately choose :)

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aggroed (78) · 7 years ago

You know... a long time ago I put out a post calling this current economic system a clusterfuck and put up some circle jerking images. There are lots of problems.

There doesn't seem to be any will to change anything though largely because much larger factors are taking precedence. Velocity, appbase, community, hivemind, and SMTs seem to have much higher priority though they haven't manifested yet.

Personally I think linear rewards is just a backdoor hack for the distribution on the platform. The ninja mine that was done to avoid starting this place as a security, which is starting to impact all the other ICOs and may have been a very wise decision created a warped distribution. With 100 account shave 90+% of the steem curation is incumbent on them. 100 people can't curate for 1M accounts very well so things have gone wonky. Delegation and bot voting is a free market solution to that problem, but doesn't fix the underlying challenge.

The linear rewards package (including swithcing from 40 votes to 10) sparked some bad self voting and we've seen curation rewards practically double since after the hardfork. Pending comment payout is filled with megawhales simply upvoting themselves for hundreds. Minnows don't want to flag for realtiation and economicly miniscule results. Whales don't want to give away curation rewards to flag abuse.

On the postive side we've also seen Utopian and the Minnowsupport account rise up and help people, but that wouldn't be possible without linear rewards. There are other projects too, but programs that try to reward peopel with votes would be severly hampered without linear rewards.

There was vote selling prior to linear rewards as well. It was just a lot more hidden in back channels than it was out in the open.

So, ultimately I walk away with a few conclusions-

There is no political will from Steemit and many witnesses to go back to exponential rewards.

Linear rewards needs better curation, which I think means a separate down vote pool so that whales don't have to give up curation rewards to flag bad content.

Steemit should put some of their "non-voting" stake towards abuse. They've done that some already, but more is better.

The biggest change I can think of would be to increase the inflation rate on the platform to 10% and hold it there for a while and simultaneously remove teh stake weighted inflation that whales get. If we make for better curation with down votes and have a higher inflation we'll get a better distribution of well deserved rewards.

$1.34

abh12345 (76) · 7 years ago

Fair comments Aggy.

I think things need to start at the top, or they just won't start.

Collecting a group of whales together can't be so hard can it? If this can happen, 'we' can manage each other (there are plenty of us analysing the Blockchain and shaking our heads) top down - as you state, it's pointless minnows flagging large accounts.

There was vote selling prior to linear rewards as well. It was just a lot more hidden in back channels than it was out in the open.

True, but the bot efficiency was not matched, and obvious cases were highlighted - hi glitterfart and mindhunter.

Steemit should put some of their "non-voting" stake towards abuse. They've done that some already, but more is better.

See @paulag's recent work. @mackbot and @spaminator are kicking ass, but they won't touch the accounts doing the worst damage.

It is up to us.

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freebornangel (73) · 7 years ago

For every person your gang helps it hurts many others.
The larger you grow the more your advantage in the math harms others.
Ganging up to influence rewards disadvantages everybody that doesnt play along.
All that 'help' you are giving your favorites comes out of the rewards of everybody else.

If you get ten people in your gang, and they all vote one person, that one person is helped.
9 people get nothing (only what curation they have coming) and everybody with less sp than the gang's cumulative total gets their rewards diminished.

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eliyanafox (45) · 7 years ago (edited)

@kevinwong
Currently a very large percentage of voting is done automatically, without the curator taking any effort to evaluate the quality of posts..

The main game of 'curation' in it's current form is to try and upvote the popular authors before others do. With the change to 50/50 rewards, wouldn't this behavior still continue?

There may be some small incentive to actively find good content, but I worry that we will just be paying more money to the users who are not actually spending the time and effort necessary to actually curate, and are just upvoting the same authors because they know that all the other auto-upvotes will follow.

I'm not really against voting bots or auto-upvote trails, and I don't necessarily disagree with your proposal, but I also struggle to see how it is going to solve the root problem of curation. I don't know if throwing more money at it is necessarily going to incentivize better behavior.

I'm hoping you (or someone else) can make the case that it would actually incentivize a behavior change.

$1.29

baah (61) · 7 years ago

The way I see it is that curation being more profitable will make people actually curate for good content so as to get the "finders" fee for being the first to give it exposure. It will stop people from mindlessly voting because people will be "searching" and actually curating the content since it's more profitable to find good content. People will still sell their votes sure but people might not be as willing to do it now that they can get better rewards from curation if they are the first one to vote on a certain thing, which works only in favour of those that vote first or among the first for good content.

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reddust (71) · 7 years ago (edited)

People, most people will go for the profit and we will be right back to were we started, a few getting rich.. but this is how we are conditioned, this is how our world operates. To make this platform fair we would all have to be enlightened....I don’t see that happening, this is the desire realm...hehehe

If curators make the most profits why should I create articles and art?

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baah (61) · 7 years ago

Well first off, people create articles and art despite not making money, you should do what you want to do because you like to do it if you like to make art and make money off if you can do it and if you can but I see a conflict of purpose as if your making art for art's sake it doesn't come with the prerequisite that it's not art if you don't make money, and if you like making money more than making art then maybe look into making money and not art, but lastly if you have a problem with people making more money by giving others exposure than I suppose you need to realize that it doesn't stop you from making art/articles AND curating good art and articles.

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holybranches (60) · 7 years ago

Thank you. Receive the phat one.

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olumideolowoyeye (65) · 7 years ago

Lmao... well with the topic, I put my mind to it as a funny post . The first paragraph still concealed the information and expressing the funny nature it has from the beginning especially the quote from Mama. Well as I proceed and venturing more into the post, it becomes so serious and I get confused if it’s still a joke or something more serious than a joke. But the conclusion at the end saying if this sounds like a bad joke then it is got me to conclude and I get the information load and clear . I totally understand what you’re talking about

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holybranches (60) · 7 years ago (edited)

pfffff

dont like seeing something like this man

tags are there for a reason.

tell us what you think about the article.

should He go full arsehole-mode or keep sucking?

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lemouth (72) · 7 years ago

It indeed sounds like a sad joke. I hope it is one. However, I must admit I understand the feeling. They way things work at the moment is really depressing. Something is wrong and needs to be fixed somehow...

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kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

Check out @trafalgar's comment at the top and see if you agree with what they're saying..

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lemouth (72) · 7 years ago

I agree pretty much with @trafalgar: 'individual profit maximization' is exactly the right keyword. Anything related to the social network part, community building, etc... comes after, if it comes at all. It is indeed damned hard to find anyone among the big stake holders who want to support curation projects and community-building efforts in one way or the other. I don't see those do not exist, but they are rare enough to be considered as exceptional. This is weird on a so-called social media platform...

There are only very few fools (e.g. like me) left to drive the development of an interest-based community, without caring too much about the monetary part, spending dozens of hours on the platform curating, commenting, building connections, etc... Maybe because we are by far not any big stakeholders.

Why I do that? Well, I am less and less sure to be honest. I still have some fun in doing this, but some days, I feel really depressed in seeing where support and recognition go (and how it is used)... How our efforts are destroyed by (bid and not bid) bots, etc... I agree that changing the economical model may help. Forcing somehow to focus on the longer term and thus come back to the initial social network part. But how, well this I don't know. I am feeling more comfortable with physics ;)

This being said, I have the impression of mumbling....

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japhofin8or (57) · 7 years ago

I am relatively small on Steemit but apparently I share the same frustrations as more seasoned community members. It truly bothers me when I put a lot of effort into a post and it makes nearly nil then I see a post full of nothingness making bank. The struggle is real! Thanks for sharing this article with the community.

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ats-david (74) · 7 years ago (edited)

I may be interested in the support-for-support deal. I don’t post very often, so it won’t be much to keep up with. And my content is only trivially trivial, so not much worry there.

You know where to reach me if you have any questions about our contract.

Thanks for your support!

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kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago (edited)

Haha it's just a joke @ats-david, but I already have you on SteemAuto and witness vote so all's good! I really need to find meaty stuff I can post up frequently though to keep up..

Anyway, thanks for knocking some sense into the network at times.

$0.02

yahialababidi (68) · 7 years ago

Some pretty vivid visuals there, boss, that are now seared into the collective imagination, foremost:

my arsehole is getting smaller while the other arseholes are getting bigger over time.

Unless you're a baboon, I'd say, smaller is better. Less clean-up work :P

But, past the jokey neologisms -- arseholenomics, suckernomics -- I hear ya, loud & clear!

Dunno if I mentioned this to you, but first time I learned of selling SP was when Jerry Banfield proposed it to me and I passed, as it seemed unsavory.

As an artist, I realized (very early on) there is not much money in poetry. But then again, there's not much poetry in money, either... As the ever-witty Dorothy Parker once quipped:

Salary is no object; I want only enough to keep body and soul apart.

I understand your exasperation with the unbecoming, greedy behavior, here, but don't think this look would suit you:

$1.02

toocurious (67) · 7 years ago

Though times on steemit morally. Do you buy/sell votes or not? I personally like smartsteem, where you can autovote on content with 3 stars, which sort of makes sure you vote on quality posts, although they might not be what you would normally like. But than again, steemit has become a really big web, so it is very hard to find good content I can relate to and I don't always have the time to search for hours through all the crap.

Also, I would like to create a living on wheels community, but it is so hard to get noticed if you are only minnow. At one point I got quite a lot of votes of hendrikdegroote and a lot of accounts followed, but that didn't seem like a real interaction and it stopped (probably because I am using smartsteem now), but what it the difference between automatically autovoting certain accounts and selling your votes to a service? So, now I am investing a bit of money that I have available in steemit, through making my posts noticeable thanks to smartsteem. In a way I am also giving back 25% of what I am investing. Some of my posts get noticed and get a bit of interaction, but it is damn hard to get anything going. I hope communities will change that, till than I am just swimming around trying to grow my account so one day it will get noticed and it will have an impact. Cheers!

$1.01

doktormuslem (61) · 7 years ago (edited)

Choice B, is a very wise choice :)
Selective is the choice that shows a person working with a professional. Maybe, my brother @kevinwong, can make some indicators, for example: the post must be in English (me from Indonesia) so that we can work better to achieve the indicators you have made. Thank you very much my brother. I hope to enter in one of the people you will be selecting.
Sorry, if there is any mistake I am in understanding the content of your post my brother @kevinwong, because my english not perfect

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kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

Hey @doktormuslem, I was mostly joking only but yeah if i were to go this way, I'll be selective to only support what I believe in instead of just trading vote for the sake of it. Thanks for dropping by!

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doktormuslem (61) · 7 years ago (edited)

Thanks so much my brother. Senang membaca postingan anda, bahkan saya menghabiskan waktu beberapa menit untuk menerjemahkannya, apalagi postingan anda "WOW!!! I found a much better decentralised social media network guys!!! It's better than Steem. :)
I only have confidence, The result will not betray the effort. Awesome! I can communicate with you brother @kevinwong. I remember, you often visit the post, but after I stagnant make posting about 4 months. and now, about 2 months I just wrote back, because I have a lot of learning tasks. once again. thanks so much

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acidyo (80) · 7 years ago

Well, can't say I blame you. I feel like an idiot lately trying not to self-vote too much and seeing everyone else take the max profit route even though they barely even power up any of it.

Guess we gotta become more selfish even if we don't want to, at least until some changes in the system.

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kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

Too bad my writings usually take well over a few hours. Or not I'll come up with 10 posts a day hahah.

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captainobviou3 (63) · 7 years ago

Don't trip my friend. You have made a place for a lot of people on steemit. You have been selfless in that you are wanting something great for a lot of people. I am one that has stuck around because you have made it worth it for me. Yes, we all benefit when we all benefit and that is what makes this a very positive community.

The fact is right always comes out right in the end, and you will reap what you sow.

If you sow blessing, you will reap blessing.
Thanks for always being a strait shooter.
Now steemit to the moon!

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tressareid (52) · 7 years ago

I've only been here a month and a half, I'm still trying to understand the best moves to make... I've just been doing it in the most authentic way I know.... upvote content that I think is good and has value, as well as, following people that post in the niches I'm interested in.

But I can see the point you have here, "If you can beat them, join them", but still in an authentic way but with a touch of strategy?

I will be following you to see what I can learn. Much of it's way over my head but I won't give up. I really like this platform and hope to succeed and see others that deserve to succeed as well.

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charlie777pt (64) · 7 years ago (edited)

Content value does not equal rewards it's the big question.
*Is Steemit Being or not Being?
Is the Steemit Vision quality content creation closer to reality?
We will have a steemit that will receive comments/adds and this will look like facebook.
People must stop this campaigns profiling Steemit like a casino nickel machine that they possess the keys and sell it to people.
One of this day's people will be selling the personal profiled data of Steemians.
Is in the hands of the all community to drive the ship away from this current shipwreck.
We must create posts to discuss measures to drive this phantom away from Steemit future.

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skapaneas (70) · 7 years ago (edited)

I am so glad I am not a whale man. I know first hand how hard this decission must have been for you. But I (sadly) think this is the only approach at this point.

Get your ass at trending cause frankly I can't stand the trash there, it is the definition of cancer.

If I see another success story of a very specific Brazilian guitarist un-flagged I will commit harakiri.

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kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

Hahah i'd need to wear a japanese headband then..

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gussiefinknottle (40) · 7 years ago

I'm an almost total newbie toying with the idea of throwing myself wholeheartedly into Steemit, and to that end trying to get to the bottom of the whole upvoting thing. This is clearly well-informed and thoughtful, and I'm going to devote some time to getting my head fully around exactly what it is you're saying. So far I get that you're one of the good guys, but one who sees no reason why he should suffer on that account - and why should you, while the rapacious ones who treat the platform as a cash cow go right ahead and prosper? As someone who wants nothing more than to post good quality content and get modestly rewarded for doing so, I find it a little depressing to have to concern myself with this other stuff I have no appetite for, but if that's what it takes to get my stuff exposure so be it. Thanks for the insight.

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erikaflynn (61) · 7 years ago

Go ahead! One more, one less - who cares? Anyway, minnows are the only users who vote for other minnows and red fishes for free, just because they like the content.
Since the 19th fork, all Steemit innovations only complicate the life of authors, and make cheating more attractive than healthy posting and curation. IMO, we are going to hell

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fr3eze (68) · 7 years ago (edited)

Well, another constructive and innovative idea by you, as always.

For quite a long time(and still is), I see you as the fresh stream in the muddy river in Steem for being a supportive whale impacting the platform in some down-to-earth manner like giving votes away for quality authors, encouraging positive interaction in the comment section and etc, while other whales were busy capitalizing their investment.

I did add you in my vote list using SteemAuto way before this post so the intention was not about making to your super exclusive elite circle(I would love to anyhow, hahaha) but to make sure I don't miss your stuff.

All the best to your arsehole career ahead. Lol.

looftee (61) · 7 years ago (edited)

I always believed that jokes, humour and satire, all are a modem to show reality to the people.

That too in a subtle way, so that people laugh instead of getting offended, and still seeing the reality in a better way to think about it, and act on it.

I hope people just don't laugh this post off and forget it later, but think about how all this is affecting everyone, particularly whales who aren't selling their votes.

No matter how much blood you shed now, if you are true to your values, you will win this fight in the end.

thecrytotrader (69) · 7 years ago

Hahahah what an incredible way to show your frustrations 😂😂 i feel exactly by these upvote buying services and people are just keep missusing them for give themselves over exposure and got flagged because of that sometimes 😅

Nice resolution for 2019 😅 all the best.buddy

kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

Hey it's for 2018! Hahah but seriously, I don't have that kind of energy of keeping up. This is not a good user experience. It takes time to create value, and linear reward is encouraging spammy behaviour imo..

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calatorulmiop (57) · 7 years ago (edited)

Even though I feel where you are coming from I hope that it is more the case that you wanted to vent than actually implement those changes :) Anyhow, it is because people like you that I persevered with steemit, so all your selfless efforts are not going to waste in my opinion

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kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

there's no effort at all tbh, just spreading out votes :) thanks @calatorulmiop, i hope there'll be good communities someday where the like-minded can connect on their interests

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calatorulmiop (57) · 7 years ago

In fact we are trying to creat a community called @steemromania and promote our country Romania and also romanian content, the memeber don't have a lot of SP so we are kind of scraping all the SP that we can :P

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prydefoltz (65) · 7 years ago

Haha .. very drole. How to proceed from here? Post work you love and support the work and the people you love:) It ain't all bad; actually it is pretty good compared to any other site I have ever contributed to. But I am a newbie and don't have an earlier time to compare to:)

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kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

Haha it's really not that bad. But I go crazy sometimes reading complaints and all. The incentive mechanism could be way improve though.

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prydefoltz (65) · 7 years ago

Best not to read those complaints too much but yes I think they need to find a way to keep new steemian enthused about the platform.

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revisesociology (73) · 7 years ago

Saying it like it is, i.e. stating the logic of the system is always the best form of critique.

It reminds of being on protests and waving around placards which have nothing but 'the facts' on them.

I've long thought, like many people below, that what we need is systemic change on here.

Good job.

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joythewanderer (78) · 7 years ago

Agree with you. Giving out free votes is easily taken for granted. Say, a user can be in constant "power down", while receiving selfish support from whales for their "wonderful content". I don't see that very fair either.

Linear rewarding gives a illusion that all the payout is deserved, but ignoring the generosity of whales.

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lucygarrod (51) · 7 years ago

So you are opting for a hybrid arsehole approach? Hybrid arseholism is a survival tactic so I would not judge your decision! I will give you my $0.00 minnow vote so you can pursue your path ;)

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zemiatin (57) · 7 years ago

"90% selfish voting (either by support-for-support votes, selling SP delegations, self-voting, etc, they're all effectively the same).
10% non-selfish voting."

It is sad to understand that doing this is the only way to keep up with others but what can we do?

No matter how much we deny, we are all here to make money, aren't we?

Anyway, I hope that some day in the future, things will change.

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kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

There are better ways.. check out the rationale at the top comment :)

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tuck-fheman (74) · 7 years ago (edited)

:soon:

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kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

the suckening lol.

raselkhan566 (49) · 7 years ago

yes,very funny. lol.

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anna-mi (60) · 7 years ago

Who, if not you? I saw your voice several times in my posts. That was when the curies chose me. I try to make my content interesting and qualitative, I work on improvement. But I understand that curies can't support me forever. But even small payouts of a few cents beat my vanity, sometimes I feel just mediocre because of it. We are all people, we all dream of success, of stability, which will bring us our occupation. I deliberately refused to use bots to big payments. It's not for me. But I like your suggestion. Communication based on interest in each other's content is exactly what should be the basis of the platform, in my opinion. Look at my blog, do you like my work? Maybe I'm the one you want to support.

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dhouse (57) · 7 years ago

This will probably be the downfall of steem.

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holybranches (60) · 7 years ago

Hey Kevin, could you be my Rancho? I am very good with drawing lines. i swear i will be a good boy

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kevinwong (76) · 7 years ago

lol sounds like some erotica

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holybranches (60) · 7 years ago

Anyhow you want it daddy yo. Imma multi-talented

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rulesforrebels (61) · 7 years ago

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https://steemit.com/curie/@curie/a-call-for-delegation#@dj123/re-curie-a-call-for-delegation-20180417t073327674z

dj123 (60) · 7 years ago (edited)

haha.... you got him Kev! You sneaky bastard..... i Love it!

I will upvote him 100% as well as you 100%........ bwahahah!

_{shusss.....be very very quiet......we're hunting greedy whales :P}

When Time Permits, please evaluate this radical idea for a Curie Transformation To Compete With Trending:

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holybranches (60) · 7 years ago

now you've converted it into a puzzle. where this goes at?!

watching

dj123 (60) · 7 years ago

no idea....everything here baffles me :P

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eurogee (65) · 7 years ago (edited)

Hello @kevinwong

I shed an inward tears reading this piece. It is heartbreaking indeed, and not because you have ever voted me but i am fully aware of hundreds of minnows you vote daily. The tone of your article points to the facts you are gonna cut your support across board and Channel them to maximizing profits.

You are not to be blamed for this decision of yours because it's even late when compared against other personalities of your equal standing. You have really tried for the community and we Are grateful to you.

I cannot plead with you to reconsider your decision because I know you must have carefully thought it out, but do use the 10% allocated to supporting exceptionally good contents evenly and effectively.

In as much as I would like to be part of your arrangement option B, I am in not in anyway measured to your status in in terms of SP and rep. So that makes me an unlikely candidate to be picked but if you do find me worthy of any support, don't hesitate to help a struggling brother.

I am currently cooking something and when I am done, I will be interested in your option A.

Thanks for informing the community of your decision.

@eurogee of @euronation community

eurogee (65) · 7 years ago

Choi! I took this serious I never knew it was a joke until after commenting and looking at the tags. Dumb head like @eurogee. Hahaha

timuann (59) · 7 years ago (edited)

Really very funny post.. but yes i get the point that people are making steem more like money making machine... I hope that some day in the future, things will change. .i like your funny post.you always giving good post for every steemians.its very valuable for every people..this post giving alots of entertainment and enjoy moment for all steemians..thanks to sharing for your important post.. Very well done.. Dear. Friend.... @kevinwong

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serkagan (65) · 7 years ago

You are right, my friend, the time of change comes and needs something to change with voting. Your lineage has a lot of meaning and is quite adequate! Let's do that. Thank you @kevinwong

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sanach (70) · 7 years ago

You have a wonderful sense of humor @kevinwong , I liked your thoughts, that you're talking about votes 100% right need to change in this matter. But If high sp steemains don't vote them others quality posts, so we need to buy votes from bots :/

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holybranches (60) · 7 years ago

and how long do you think the bots will sustain you? are they even sustaining you? how many crumbs are the users getting from them?

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sanach (70) · 7 years ago

until high power steemain didn't upvote me :P

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kenanqhd (68) · 7 years ago

Man, that last line confused me now. It doesn't sound that much like a sad joke. I actually had the idea the other day that in order for people to get steady payouts, there needs to be some kind of contract between accounts that almost guarantees and upvote. It sucks to get pennies for your work, but it is mentally tough to cope with one of your posts getting $100 and then the next getting $0.35 because that whale chose to not vote for you.

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holybranches (60) · 7 years ago

there needs to be some kind of contract between accounts that almost guarantees and upvote

not sustainable.

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imamulkhan (47) · 7 years ago

very looking photography post..
wonderful funny post..
i appreciate your busy...
thanks for sharing...

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olumideolowoyeye (65) · 7 years ago

Well my dear friend you see, honest comment earns you upvote. The author if it were me would rather teach you what to do than upvote you and I putting myself in the place of the author now and telling you that . Go through a post , read it , try to understand the content and give your own view not a pointless view like the one you just did . And the previous commenters I believe should tell this user what to do after pointing out and laughing about the mistake not just laugh and that’s all. Join Steemschools for knowledge and life success lessons: https://discord.gg/xrTyA4f

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thecrytotrader (69) · 7 years ago

How wonderful that you got an eye of eagle, Please share that wonderful Photography work with me too because i cannot see anything like that here.😂

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travellingwomen (51) · 7 years ago

Absolutly you are right i also can not see wonderful Photography work
i think she did not read this post and comment just for upvote

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thecrytotrader (69) · 7 years ago

Well you are right dear but i think it's a "He" not "She" 😅

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travellingwomen (51) · 7 years ago

Yes you are right not "she" sorry for miss understanding and writing

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thecrytotrader (69) · 7 years ago

Haha it's alright keep steeming dear 🤓

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holybranches (60) · 7 years ago (edited)

because you are blind :P. you should be greatful we have them Imamulkhan here on steem cunt!

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josediccus (75) · 7 years ago

Well you're @Kevinwong a total cool badass, the thing is no one makes a decision for you on how you use your voting power, you stated your stand on how you want to utilize it I think all you've said one way will still be a benefit to the community at large,
I'm a poet on the platform and I take time to write my contents because poetry involves hardwork to become an awesome art, I won't want you as well to support contents that ate really not good enough.
In fact I go with you on this apart from friendship sake people should vote good contents and not because they know the person.
Once again I'm glad for this post, and For arsehole sake I'm @Josediccus

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travellingwomen (51) · 7 years ago

Lol You also come in last post like this to confused others but that also part of our life

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sryashbd666 (35) · 7 years ago

nice..

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raselkhan566 (49) · 7 years ago

dear @ kevinwong,
It's very good to read your post.

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asim1234 (45) · 7 years ago

90% selfish voting (either by support-for-support votes, selling SP delegations, self-voting, etc, they're all effectively the same).
10% non-selfish voting.
yes i agree with you for this because soon we will see it and is doing now

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martin897 (43) · 7 years ago

Thanks for sharing about fuuny........i appreciate this............ @kevinwong

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wal.wal (53) · 7 years ago

good post borther... 😎😎😎👍

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kofibeatz (52) · 7 years ago

Its funny that the assholes are the one who always win anyways in life. Might as well join them and get married..

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riazsheikh (44) · 7 years ago

Great post. thanks for sharing

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mpugondrong (52) · 7 years ago

Terimakasih telah membagikan postingannya @kevinwong

Banyak point bermanfaat yang bisa saya dapatkan. Semiga ke depan, apa yang diniatkan menjadi sebuahbkenyataan yang berguna bagi semua orang.

Salam kenal: @mpugondrong

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khjk (47) · 7 years ago

Hello and thank you @kevinwong!

A few hours back, we were discussing how people should behave and whether it is right to get upvotes without their return, or to return them with less (or zero) weight.

This is an interesting sociological issue that brings a lot of questions. I think it's very difficult to find a universal answer. Is there a sincere community, or is everyone going to meet their selfish goals? Is this bad? Probably… A lot of questions there… A lot of …

Once you've helped me get higher in our community, probably thanks to @pipiczech – I really appreciate it and wish you best of luck, sir.

Thanks for the post! I'll resteem!

khjk

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melinda010100 (73) · 7 years ago

Love your delightful sarcasm! You do know how to get the point across.

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lifeinblue (50) · 7 years ago

That is frankly speaking ! I saw your interview with Terry Brock on Youtube and I was impressed. I put many effort in my introduceyourself post. I had a lot of comments and interaction, so my reputation went up to 42 in one day. But still don't get enough upvotes.
What would you advice to me ? Thanks @kevinwong

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rahuljoy (5) · 7 years ago

this is very beautiful location great post , thanks for sharing .

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robertandrew (67) · 7 years ago

Thank you @kevinwong. Not really sure I understand what the hell you are talking about.
But sure sounds good .

I need to reread this a few timesas Iam still kind of slow with this stuff

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funtraveller (71) · 7 years ago

It was really unfortunate for me that I join Steemit not seeing the beauty of it, before the rampant bid bots, self votes and the like. Initially, I thought that all of those arsehole moves are perfectly fine, I'm not an idiot not to assess the situation at the time I joined, but I do feel like one now.
The big question, how do we fix it? What can a newbie like me do to help fix the system? Or if it is a thing for whales and high Sp users only then I guess we will just have to wait and do nothing?

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vanessahampton (56) · 7 years ago

As a minnow, my only worry is much talking and no doing. I've come to love this platform, but I've also come to understand that it is unrealistic. I've personally decided to limit my involvement and stay on the sidelines till the issues are resolved.

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mdarfiakash00 (46) · 7 years ago

I hope in the future, things will change. Like your funny post. Always provide good posts for every steemians. Very valuable for every person. This admonition is widely posted and enjoys the moment for all steemians. Thank you very much for sharing your important post .. Friends .... @Kevinwong images (7).jpeg

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blazing (70) · 7 years ago

Option a is what everyone is doing to get the max out but the best option has to be choosen lets see what other come up with

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verasj (65) · 7 years ago

Do whatever is good for you dear.

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markeverlasting (48) · 7 years ago

crying myself to sleep tonight
Reminds me of the day I learned that newbies have to use bot's to even survive in this platform. Maybe someday, I will learn to use a bot, I mean what choice do I have, But when I do I will contact you to find out which one you recommend because you seem to really be torn about it, so the bot you would recommend would be legit and would upvote only if the post was worth it. Which is the only way I would want to use a bot. I definitely wouldn't want to use it for a meme. (even an awesome one).
slowly swims away into the murky ocean floor

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pizzapai (61) · 7 years ago

Sighhh.... I wrote in others language that you not interested at.....
Anyway... thank you....

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jacobtothe (70) · 7 years ago

The Steem Pope will continue to manually curate, and not buy votes.

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scandinavianlife (67) · 7 years ago

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obaidb2 (57) · 7 years ago

Lol,you always do post like this trying to leg pulling of others....you male it good...but yes i get the point that people are making steem more like money making machine...

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bidik (42) · 7 years ago

Your name is @kevinwong, often called in every meeting. I am interested to learn about you, hopefully can add my spirit bersteemit. It is brilliant if you wish.

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afrid (12) · 7 years ago

Genius is a great post, so you countless
Thank you so much for fun, funny writing. I'm a general steemit user. I want to follow the wonderful people like you. Please give me upvote and follow me.

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briancourteau (59) · 7 years ago

Hi Kevin. you upvoted my post and i wanted to thank you but may i ask you a question since your posts areabout Steemit. As you know I am dieing of cancer and my wife who is also on Steemit will get my funds when I transfer but right now I would love to withdraw a bit from my savings as I need medicine. I was hoping you could help me do that as I am lost and honestly have trouble concentrating due to the cancer, Again thank you for the upvote

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enjar (69) · 7 years ago

Sadly the growing steemain population is getting addicted to steemit crack. The more they buy it the more they need to keep spending just to maintain. But that really is more for rich elite class. What many are coming to this platform for is the 4f4 heroin. They get such a massive rush out of it every time they tap the follow button they keep taping and taping to reach for the heavens.

The poor steemit streets are just littered with drunks and addicts. Why people don’t even have the common descent anymore to take a lady of the night into their slum of an apartment blog. They just openly conduct their circle jerking on the public streets. Steemains from all around the world cheer and clap in the glee of their dirty deeds of: spam blogs, comments, and whatever else they can do. Like it’s the end of the world.

I’m almost a week clean now of no longer upvoting my own blogs. I don’t produce many these days and heck there just too many starving artists in the streets to want to keep a breadcrumb of a vote to myself. I just hope someone keeps the addicts from blowing up the spaceship and dry humping its dead husk. Some of them would enjoy it way too much to be legal even for this place.

I try and do my best to keep my comment addiction to the cleaner side of the streets. These days that getting harder and harder to do. Friends, neighbors, coworkers all hooked on the hard stuff. Heck they prefer while in their drug enraged stupor that the bots to come instead and say: “good job,” and “thanks for buying.” Far too much effort for them to deal with me anymore.

Thankfully I’ve wonder into a couple of safe havens from time to time to keep my sanity while the buildings burn. I was blessed to show up just before linear rewards rolled out and can almost recall those times. This time traveling cat needs to get back in his dam time machine. Before so many where lost to maximizing profits and greedy so heavy it killed them on the inside.

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murtaza78 (49) · 7 years ago

post of the day...

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wilhb81 (76) · 7 years ago

"90% selfish voting (either by support-for-support votes, selling SP delegations, self-voting, etc, they're all effectively the same).
10% non-selfish voting."

Loves your Steem resolution, hope you can achieve it bro :D

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indigoocean (67) · 7 years ago

This was a really helpful post and stimulated discussion that has given me a great deal of food for thought and helped me see the slipperly slope I was moving down, unawares.

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putraabdal (51) · 7 years ago

yes i just want the best and i try my best on this blockchain.

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romyjaykar (31) · 7 years ago

nice landscape..

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bifilarcoil (58) · 7 years ago

Much is wrong with this platform.

But what is wrong with meme's? I see lot's of meme's with more subject then the average articles that get bot voted.

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jayed007 (49) · 7 years ago

You can force whales to upvote more because they mostly upvote themselfs, selfupvote of a minnow doesn't mean any thing, let rich people share their earning with new people in steemit to support them, more than 6 months I was earning just cents and I am posting everyday on steemit and there are peoplethat are here much longer time and keep earning cents.

We need balance in sharing rewards and we need also limits in earning , it's not good when someone earn hundreds and others cents. If it will be limit in earning it will motivate people to write more and do their best to wriite good quality posts.

We need also bonuses for people that write a lot of posts and comments a lot, this steemit board just showing us how much we did but there is no reward for that !

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arabimohonaj (46) · 7 years ago

thats a funny post..actually your post i follow and i like it..
thanks for sharing this post.

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biplob0136 (47) · 7 years ago

Nice Post @kevinwong Thanks for sharing about fuuny Post I Like It I See That Your Post..Thanks you

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karensuestudios (71) · 7 years ago

I hope the system gets fixed. I totally agree with everything you stated above. Thanks for being vocal!

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lakey123 (25) · 7 years ago

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Reveal Comment

siosfl (40) · 7 years ago

Flagged for comment spam!

steemflagrewards (69) · 7 years ago

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mikefromtheuk (56) · 7 years ago

If you can't beat them, join them.

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