I was having one of those zen moments earlier and this question hit me like an epiphany. Every day I think about writing or bringing something relevant and original to this platform, and while I relish the challenge, I actually wonder if I would have been doing it if there was no hope of receiving valuable upvotes.
For a content creator on this platform, the primary means of earning Steem is through upvotes/curation. So if hypothetically, Steem does a hard fork or something apocalyptic fucks up the blockchain and then completely removes upvotes from the system or maybe turns upvotes into “worthless likes” as you’d find in traditional social media like Facebook and Twitter, do you think you’ll still be active on Steem?
source
Imagine if all the benefits from curation trails and autovotes stopped coming in and the only likes or upvotes you get were organic, and then, of course, they had no value. Would you still put content on Steem? Or how about the alternative view for whales with big Steem power holding, do you think people will engage your content as much as they do now? Especially considering there are numerous other platforms out there.
I run into people every now and then that left Steem completely and sited lack of upvotes to be the reason for their exit. They claim that upvotes were only going to an elite class, inner circles or something of that nature. I actually felt that way in the past but it was only a fleeting thought that didn't mean much. I love the upvotes and when I make content, I hope it gets upvoted but even without the upvotes, I’d still put in 100% to produce the best type of content I can.
Writing is my passion and that is irrespective of the situation. Way before December of 2017 when I joined Steem, I was writing for my sports blog soccermonger.blogspot.com, on my medium channel, Facebook and scribbles in my notes. I relish the reactions, engagement, activities, and freedom to express myself in a censorship-free and enabling platform. So, yes, if you take out the upvotes, I would 100% still participate actively on Steem.
My personal opinion is that we spend too much time carrying about the up votes and payouts that we forget that we are blogging for a greater purpose, and a much larger audience than the thousand or so active Steem users.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Exactly my friend. I hope there'll be more people like you around here
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I don't think likes are meaningless. Facebook--ugh. But Twitter likes are relished. Appreciation of content is a meaningful reward. But comments, and interaction, for me that's the glue.
Communities I think might be the best thing that happened so far to Steem. In smaller, interest-related clusters, people might engage more. Engagement is the key. That's my opinion, based on my personal preference.
The only thing about upvotes is, some people actually need them to live. Some people depend on this income to help support themselves. So upvotes have to stay. I've actually been in contests where I've voted for someone else who needed the prize. I love the prize, but I don't need it to live.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Yeah, I know likes aren't worthless per se and that's why I put them in quotes. I was only referring to the intrinsic value of upvotes and like you pointed out, people live off the money. That's mighty kind of you.
You're right about communities all I can say is lots of people haven't adjusted to the communities feature or don't even realise know the new Steemit site is running.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I just found out about the communities a few days ago. (I'm not too clever at negotiating the network). I'm excited and hope to promote them. People just need to do a little PR, all of us, to alert others about communities we like. For example, I joined several. Three of them: hive-138326 (poetry community; hive-174904 (collage community);hive-100514 (insect pub community)
I have to try and support members of the communities, I guess. Maybe I'll have to set a quota and upvote at least one member of a community each day. That's the next step :)
I wish you well. This is my first interaction with you, I believe.
Cheers!
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Yeah first of many, hopefully.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
:)
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Twitter link:
https://twitter.com/belemo__/status/1216651299539824641
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Nowadays I do not get valuable upvotes, only a few cents, but I do not (or rarely) get real, human interaction either. I am already considering leaving the Steem blockchain.
Actually, I left the Steem blockchain a few times, but I always returned to it so far.
We will see what will happen, but many people are leaving the Steem blockchain.
Nowadays the number of the daily active users is decreasing.
The problem is the selfishness and greed. Many people are focusing on posting blog posts, but only a few people cares about other people's blog posts. You can see here that the number of the posts in the first week of 2020 is 59 675, but the average number of comments is only 3.38. Very big selfishness and greed.
Unfortunately this whole blockchain is doomed by its own users.
The users need to change their behaviors, otherwise this platform will be wiped out soon.
I call !trdo to support your work.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Congratulations @xplosive, you successfuly trended the post shared by @belemo!
@belemo will receive 0.09537750 TRDO & @xplosive will get 0.06358500 TRDO curation in 3 Days from Post Created Date!
"Call TRDO, Your Comment Worth Something!"
To view or trade TRDO go to steem-engine.com
Join TRDO Discord Channel or Join TRDO Web Site
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Damn I'm sorry about that. I think autovotes have made the whole thing impersonal and people would just rather drop their blogs and not interact with people.
Then again, one way of reaching out to people is through the communities on discord.
Personally, I like to meet people and that means know a thing or two about them. I also share stuff about my life and that makes it easier for people to connect. It is what makes Facebook so appealing.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
While xplosive might be right in some ways, he isn't entirely. This issue of interaction thing is only a steemit issue, some tribes do pay a lot of attention to interraction within them and try to encourage it...I know steemit is the general condenser, but without these tribes making their own economy and fostering engagement, steemit will be very hollow today.
Engagement is very tied to incentives here, i guess its just a human thing, when steem was high i dont think a lot of people complained of engagement, they complained more of too many comments sef, lol, most that didnt make sense
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
There's more to Steem than the upvotes. And like you mentioned, even a post that isn't one of my best works but still something I wish to share, something as simple as a post about splinterlands, is a post where I still put some work in. To make it look a bit more appealing than the average post there. I personally am not satisfied easily and my own worst critique lol :)
but for some people, it's only about the votes, I value the connections I made much higher compared to the earnings.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Honestly Nookie, you've summed it all up quite well and it's something I've thought of before.
"Easy upvotes" doesn't require improvement and that's why a fair chunk have largely brought the same or worse content and still fuck up the system for us all.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Congratulations @belemo, your post successfully recieved 0.0953775 TRDO from below listed TRENDO callers:
To view or trade TRDO go to steem-engine.com
Join TRDO Discord Channel or Join TRDO Web Site
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit