There is something wrong with steemit: Potential popularity over quality.

in steemit •  8 years ago  (edited)

The way the curation system works now

The voting system is in place to reward quality content. By voting you essentially bump up a post in the rankings, and credit the author a reward. As a curator you earn more rewards by voting early on content that will become popular.


The effect of this curation system

Because the most rewards are gained from voting on posts you think others will vote for too, content with potential popularity is favored over quality. So posts people think are going to be popular are rewarded the most. This will result in relatively low quality posts dominating the front pages, overshadowing great blogposts. The goal for steemit should be to provide quality content, and not to be a popularity contest like conventional social media.

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As minnows receive upvotes from @berniesanders and turn into tilapia, another curator with some strength power is created. Eventually there will be enough tilapia to get more quality and quantity of content noticed.

I don't think Steem power spread is relevant to this issue.

I think that's a good point. Over time there will be more tilapias. They will have more confidence to go and vote for things that aren't necessarily "going to be popular" because they will have the confidence that their vote can actually help make something they care about popular.

  ·  8 years ago (edited)Reveal Comment

Valid point.

It is also common for people to think that a post is good and upvotes because other have cast an upvote. That is, people see what is popular and want to be with the in crowd. Steemit doesn't have to go full Klye but maybe implement a way to encourage quality and independent thinking on the site.

While what you say may be true It's also true that people don't usually go so deep into "new" and such "categories?".

That's true, I think the ranking algorhitms could use some work too.

The first thing the new algo needs is to identify posts with cat pictures and immediately send them to the top of the first page.

or copyrighted KLYE art