Well I am sorry about the title, I just thought it was funny because so many users are asking me to join the “Secret Voting Ring”, the truth is that there is no such ring. Let me explain what is actually going on.
Steemit is a platform where you can make money online and as far as civilization goes where there is money there is problems, seems like fighting over money is inherent to human society.
Lately I have been accused of being part of a secret “Voting Ring”, I never heard that term before but I think it means being part of a voting circle to game the system and receive profit. To make that assumption, user @sigmundnash created a python script to determine certain voting patterns.
The real reasons why some Steemians are successful
I believe many new users could be seduced by this emerging conspiracy theory, so I wanted to quickly summarize why his logic is faulty and the “Voting Ring” concept is inaccurate:
- Many users of the “ring” have been on Steem since the beginning, so it is logical that we follow each other and as they appear on my personal feed I tend to vote for most of them, a very good example of this would be @kingscrown, @craig-grant or @stellabelle. I vote for them because I have read them for over a year now and I like their content.
- Because some authors consistently make good content, they tend to get high pay-outs, because they get good payouts a lot of curators will vote them to get more curation rewards. This is a circle of course, but it is the way Steem is designed, you are encouraged to vote for posts that will get you good rewards.
- Some of the members of the “Ring”, like myself, have written over 1,000 posts, have over 500 followers and hold a reputation above 60. With this combination, isn’t logical that they will get high payouts?
- People vote on users who have similar interest. In my case I write and vote a lot of crypto related posts and I assume people who vote me are into crypto as well.
Hiding payout amounts
I believe it would be a good idea to hide the amount of money posts are making. To begin with, I don’t think its beneficial to be attracting users only based on the amount of money they can get on Steemit; secondly, some highly paid authors are becoming targets because of their payouts.
On my last post I got a comment that stated “This post is not worth 300 USD because…”. I have also seen lots of conspiracy theories surrounding well-paid authors, which makes me think:
I've hidden the payouts multiple times myself. Anyone can do it.
Many people want the world to be "fair" but we haven't really defined what that means in a way everyone agrees. All we can do is listen, learn, and do our thing. If there are problems, we fix them. If there are disagreements, we talk them out.
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Oh I didnt know you could actually "hide" your payouts, would be good if it was a built in feature of Steemit tho.
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Very interesting! Didn't know you could do this. Thanks for sharing.
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Could not agree more!
I hope developers will start to think about stealth features for STEEM. Privacy enhancements not even on roadmap yet.
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I think on any internet platform it is easy for people to be negative, just as many in real life blame their transgressions on the backs of the successful! I love steemit for that very reason. You see time and time again if people sharing there success stories. Post quality, post often and conversate often, and this will create success for you! Also, I really like the idea of having masked payout rewards. There would still be some payout stalking but it would take much more work. How do we bring this up to witnesses for a vote?
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I've been here for 10 months and there are voting rings, in fact there have been many posts asking people to get together and vote for each other's posts, now I don't know if they work all right but they do exist, it isn't a conspiracy theory, now I'm not judging it, the platform is free, you think you can make money with a voting ring so be it. But to me the way to make money here is to tag along with a few whales and hope they will send a vote your way every so often. Unfortunately I have not made any whale friends, damn. Writing great articles is also a great way of making money here, but that one is more difficult, I am now writing at least one article a day and I'm still getting pennies per article, but at least I'm getting them on a daily basis. I make more curating.
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Voted and followed my friend, it takes time and effort to get an audience.
I have not seen any evidence of the existence of voting rings and if there are I am sure as hell not part of them lol.
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https://steemit.com/steem/@dream.pro/how-to-join-my-secret-voting-ring
It seems strange.... The same post like you have. It seems like he just copy-pasted
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wow, such plagiarism! thanks for the heads up I will downvote it
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Welcome! I was just shocked, I thought I already have hallucinations or something
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LOL
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I see you stomped it to oblivion (which it deserved). consider downvoting the phony programmer troll. I won't link on your post but check out my troll alert post... for my reasoning
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You are so good people copy you damm... jejeje
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damn all that guys posts are plagiarism!
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I didn't check out all his posts, I was just surfing steemit while having supper and realised that I saw the same twice. If all of them are it's strange that noone noteced yet...
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steem cleaners should have picked it up
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I think so too, but for some reason it didn't.. OK, I think we'll see later:)
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yeah they wont last long doing that nonsense
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My precioussssss:) I love the rrrring, my preciousssss!:)
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People are greedy and jealous. It's probably the same on youtube the guys who came first knew each other and could support each other and grow together. Now steem will grow bigger and bigger there will be lots of interesting people and they will all be able to grow big because their blogs are interesting and good. Good article @chitty. Cleared it up and I think everyone reading this will understand how it works. The platform is great.
Cheers,
ErnstJan
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Because people are jealous and think the system is rigged.
When in reality it just the game of social media , you just need to know how to play.
Your voting "ring" reminded me of the Whaleshares hype and the fallout that it had.
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People say many things. You don't have to care each and every thing really. Some even don't know the real reason behind fat earnings on some posts. You are a big whale. You obviously make so much money with each post as you have good steempower.
Treat such words as passing clouds. Don't have to take them to heart really. Good luck.
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I actually found the "voting ring" theory kind of funny, but I still decided to wriet about it because some people may actually believe it!
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Yes indeed. You have done a great job. People will know the facts now.
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Some people just don't believe in working for anything, they think steemit is a get rich quick platform not realising or wanting to put in time and effort to build their following and blog.
Nothing in this world is free and everyone that's successfull in their lives be it on steemit or in life is because they've worked for it.
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New users= new conspiracy theories. This is the first time I have been accused of such a thing, but, a peek into some of the wallets tell the tale. If I am in a voting ring, I am doing a very bad job of it.
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Roll back 12 months, and the same theories were being proffered around. I don't think we'll ever get away from this...
Cg
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Yes, I remember, back then it was about fake users and auto-voting whales.
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I like the idea of masking the payouts. Seems like it would increase objectivity.
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Well you dont see how much money youtubers are making, could be the same here.
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Bilderberg Illuminati confirmed.
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Algunas personas prefieren despotricar sobre otros que ponerse a trabajar por conseguir lo que quieren...
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Jealousy is a powerful thing. Don't be sad that others our doing better then you. be happy that Steem is doing well!
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I agree 100%
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I have been seeing and hearing a bit of this myself! I was asked if I could get someone in I mentioned that perhaps the fact I had 20x their followers and posted entirely different content might be more something to do with it.
but... can I join the ring? I won't tell :OD
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yes the way up is slow and building up a community is about time and people have to be patient
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In my opinion the issue is that it`s extremely hard for a newcomer to achieve any kind of traffic into his/hers posts. That leads to a closed circle and a lot of people feel discouraged.
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This I can agree with. Then again its hard to become a youtuber and raise a lot of money in a short period of time. It takes time and dedication to attract followers and votes.
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I am of agreement, de acuerdo. Good read
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It seems silly that people would make up conspiracy theories with regards to the payouts. The strongpoint of the concept of Steemit, is that you are stimulated to be your best creative self and you are paid accordingly for your efforts. If you stand out from the crowd, by being original, people will be drawn to you. It seems that some people just come to this community for the wrong reasons and start making up myths like a 'voting circle' out of sheer jealousy. If you put in the time and effort, you will be rewarded by the community. That takes time and patience. But as with many things, people want big rewards for doing as less as possible. I myself, was drawn to this community out of curiosity, and am hoping to get into contact with unique people with great minds. There are lots of forums on the internet that are dominated by negativity, so it would be great if Steemit can be the positive exception :-)
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Steemit goes where society goes.. People have the intelligence to decide which is entertaining content.
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The first rule of Secret Voting Ring: you don't talk about Secret Voting Ring.
The second rule of Secret Voting Ring: you don't talk about Secret Voting Ring.
Third rule of Secret Voting Ring: if it's your first night. You must vote!
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I am not sure that's the real problem. Last year I joined the platform. Quickly I lost interest. It's a closed society. And still it is. There are some improvements, but still not enough. Few people (founders) dictate interest of society with the curation vote. And everything out of them view is not appreciated as well, because of the system. Off course you're free to post.
But in the real economic every single shareholder has the same right to vote with the same voting power as the other. So that's the way steem can grows up and could be more colorful and fun.
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So how can I join the Secret Voting Ring?
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They should be focusing on the platform. And the platform is nothing without the quality content. And who produces the quality content? The quality authors. No reason to get jealous or hate. If they want to be among the top players, then hustle.
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Also labeled in the ring by that troll but he did not create a script just pulled data and upvoters with an API he got from a fishing post two days prior. If he had a script he would share it so we could scrutinize it. love the meme
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I suppose I am still too new for this... Next post then.
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Hummm... Good reflection!!!
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I love the idea to hide the payout. I meant the build in functionality or while posting if we have an option to choose from.
As the platform grows, new users join the platform, we will have such issues. as you mentioned about the comments of your last blog. New users, as per me, often provides good content but because of their reputation and new to the platform, they don't get what they often feel. On this circumstances, I would like this features.
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if you would read the original post you would realize that it was an algorithm spotting patterns in voting which were indicative of voting ring behavior. I now think a new issue is emerging with steemit - people are being discouraged from telling the truth because it will lead to downvotes and less $$. Fascinating.
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I dont know what "truth" you are talking about?... I read your post and did not downvote it, you made an algo that must have taken some effort. I just think the results are faulty as people could just be voting for each other for a range of different reasons... you made it sound like a "conspiracy" which is inaccurate to say the least.
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The curation reward system causes, "shit posts" from previously good content creators to be rewarded; personally I think that this is the worst thing about Steemit and it is the reason why so many people leave.
Also, the fact that you aren't part of a vote club doesn't mean that they don't exist ;)
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Many people do not realize, that many successful Steemians, deserve to be where they are, because of their actions, dedication and persistence. Nothing happens overnight.
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These guys put in the work together, of course they are helping each other out
;)
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I see this post helps explain a lot of what is going on. Hold your ground and stay transparent. Look at your success as being encouragement for others to succeed. I don't see how you would be able to hide being successful. Others are going to notice anyway. I do understand why you want to hide it from some people. :)
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Thank you for this wonderful article, but I do not agree with you to hide the payment, because it is an incentive for all members, and I am one of them, to write articles with value content, and competition the first in this platform, provided that they are honest.
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If you write good content over and over again you will eventually get noticed and will get voted on here. It's that simple.
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I just read a post from @shehryar https://steemit.com/steemit/@shehryar/top-6-richest-guys-in-steemit and it is unbelievable the number one in the list of the top richest in steemit ...freedom it has no post! no following anybody! and has 308 followers! What are they following? NO POST! and definitly not in a ring! and with an account value of over 15 million dollars!!!!... are there any dark use of steemit? How is that posible?
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I am totally okay for good posts getting good money. If one deserves by writing a good article or a good photo that is good.
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