The Problem with Curation on Steemit
Steemit as a platform suffers from a very serious problem at the moment, there are very few so called Whales with a lot of voting power that can really make a difference with just a single vote, but they apparently don't have the time, knowledge, the will to go through all posts on steemit. They don't have to do it either, it is not like this is their job, even with their big involvement and investment in the project.
There are also quite a few people on steemit that actually spend time not only trying to write interesting and good posts to help steemit grow, but also spend a lot of time going through all the content that gets published on steemit or at least big part of it. These people find a lot of good content, however their votes don't count for much and they hardly make any difference. As a result there is a void forming and a lot of good posts just go unnoticed and unread by anyone, even though they might be interesting or useful to many.
Many of the steemit users, especially new ones, that have just recently started using the platform with high hopes for making a lot of money fast ate starting to vote only on content that is very likely to get popular, such as posts published by famous or popular people on steemit and that is making things even worse. These users usually don't earn much by doing that, but they contribute to the uneven distribution of the awards - more go to only a small number of people, while many other good writers get even less or even nothing for their substantial work on steemit.
Idea for a Possible Solution to the Problem
Find some of the users that are doing good job curating articles, I'm sure that can even be automated is some way to narrow down the list of potential candidates. People that do not yet have a lot of voting power, people that do not vote only for highly likely to get trending posts, people that spend a lot of time and effort going through all the new content on steemit and finding the good posts and vote for them.
Then help those people by giving them a good boost of their voting power by powering them up with let us say 200, 500 or 1000 Steem Power - this is something that should be no problem for the big guys. This is just like investing in your own and the future of steemit, and in the people that can make things better for everyone - investors, authors, readers. Think about this as an investment in the right people for the right job.
Since Steem Power is a long term investment in the Steemit platform and in Steem itself, this will achieve two very important things. First encourage the person you entrusted with more voting power to continue doing what he is already doing well, and also help him make more difference with his votes going for the good content. No need to pay anyone external to do that as there are many people here already doing good job curating, they just need a boost of their voting power and a bit of encouragement in order to get even better and more involved than they already are.
These selected few people will not be so powerful to start abusing their newly acquired voting power, because it will not be that much actually, nor they would be willing to do it as it might as well fire back at them if they start to. Having the power to cast a vote and it being able to move the reward of a good post on steemit from 0.00 to just 0.01 is actually a huge thing at the moment on steemit and even that insignificant at first look change can really make a difference for a lot of people.
What do you think about that idea, do you find it reasonable or not?
If you have a question or want to add something, then please leave a comment below.
Did you like what you have just read? Check my other posts on steemit @cryptos
If you like curating and have your vote count, the quick and easy way is to buy some Steem Power, your vote will suddenly count more, and you'll get more curation rewards too. As the platform still has a lot of growth potential it could be a good investment too.
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Even if you bought $2000 dollars worth of Steem Power, your vote would be worth only 1 cent.
You would have to spend hundreds of thousands to equal a whale.
Note the whales didn't spend this type of money - they just got in very early mining Steem when it was in it's alpha stage and the public didn't know about it. It cost them a few hundred dollars if that.
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Nobody is saying you should become a whale by investing thousands of dollars, even that 1 cent per vote can make a lot of difference... I know it from experience being at both sides already, the one getting it and the one giving it.
It doesn't matter what the whales did and when they did it, there are also investors that got in later and have invested serious amount of money into the project as well. This is a long term investment on their side, so they should be also thinking about investing in the people that help steemit develop and evolve. That is why my idea here is trying to promote - investing not only in the platform, but also in the people that will help it develop and continue to grow and that goes not only for good content creators that get votes, but for curators as well.
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small changes in the long run, consistently...
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I got a 1 cent vote ( http://www.steemdollar.com/dollar_per_vote.php?name=ottodv ) by investing half a Bitcoin. Although strangely I don't see my vote increase the balance every time (I guess the formula is more complex).
It is kind of nice to have your vote be worth something. Nothing like a whale maybe, but my little vote can at least help get the ball rolling a little bit more now than before.
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If buying steem power did not involve opening an account I don't want to buy a currency I don't want to then convert to SP, maybe.
If I could use an account I currently have (you know, old fashioned bank account) to transfer directly to my steemit account to power up, I would do so.
It is one thing to get a bunch of people like myself (non crypto types) interested. It's another thing entirely to get us interested enough to jump through those hoops.
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That's exactly what they want. Buy steem. Now it's still "free". In the future, if you want to make money you need to first buy into the system hoping you will get more out in return.
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I think it's kind of like that already.
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Don't forget that there are many regular people here that are not even familiar with crypto currencies.
Not everyone has the money to actually invest them in Steem Power, there are however a lot of people that invest a lot of their time and a lot of efforts though...
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Making a 20 USD purchase of Steem is not impossible for most people, people spend that kind of money on drinks in one evening out. The drinks are gone forever after consumption, but Steem power remains.
However you are right that acquiring Steem is not that easy for those who aren't into cryptocurrencies already.
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If you could just say here are my 20 bucks give me steem power and you got powered up it would have been really easy for a lot of people. The problem is that you need to first buy some crypto currency with these 20 dollars such as BTC, then trade that for STEEM, then move it to Steemit... this is not an easy thing to do for people that are not into crypto currencies and that may have not even heard about Bitcoin. For a lot of people this could be just as hard as rocket science... this is a hint that maybe Steem needs to offer an easier way to acquire the tokens.
The other problem is that just spending 20 bucks is not going to change much. It is something like 14 Steem tokens at the moment, so while it will increase your voting power multiple times it will not be enough to seriously make a difference when you are curating and voting for good posts... you will simply need more than that.
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Maybe if everyone spent 20 bucks on a bit of steempower, together it could make a bit of difference.
I did it https://steemit.com/steemit/@ottodv/upvote-value-increase-for-20-euros-worth-of-steem-power to see how it goes.
Then I just wanted more, so now I've invested about half a Bitcoin in Steem power.
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Excuse my cross reference. But can someone answer this here? https://steemit.com/money/@conspiracynut/where-does-all-the-money-come-from-a-serious-question-that-needs-to-be-addressed
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Yes not only a reasonable idea, but one that should naturally occur. People tend to folk to big names and I understand they got that way for giving worth to people. When I get on I look for content that will help me, not only in blockchain, but science or nutrition or even make me feel better venues like art or photography.
Good post there should be more, look to help the mom and pop as opposed to the walmarts.
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I think it says in the white paper that people can invest either money or time. Some don't have a lot of money, but will spend time on curating. As you say, they will not earn much from this and their votes have little effect. I would hope the system can reward those who help to create a fair system. If all the top content is from whales and celebrities then it will fail.
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You gave me a positive comment on creating a good Infographic on Steemit ,
I got paid around 2$ for that Post , but after seeing your comment it didn't matter if I got a big payout or not. Thank you ! for a positive Comment , User like you support Steemit Eco-system. I think a positive Comment will make someone day in Steemit and I totally agree with your post . Heads up and I Followed you !
Keep being Positive and Contributing , somewhere and someone out there will defininately appreciate it
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I have already expressed my view that votes are even more important for people that create content here on steemit and that are not here for the money, it is appreciation of the time and effort you have spent writing or otherwise making something else. However even when you make a lot of good content and it never gets much appreciated, like getting really popular, at least once in a while, in time you may just give up, regardless of the positive votes you get. It is not about the money that you may get from a very popular post, it is the more people that will get to see it that counts for most content creators.
Sure, nobody would refuse a reward, but there is nothing more discouraging than spending hours every day making something really good and then nobody reading it or voting for it and ending up with 0.00 at the end of the day. When that continue for a while you just get discouraged, even if you already got some nice comments and a few votes… you still just get the feeling that what you do is not being appreciated on steemit.
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Good idea. I also think some kind of tweak to the curation rewards algorithm to reward good curators, regardless of their "stake" (above some minimum) would be helpful.
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