So HF19 happened and at first it seemed great! More voting power for us little minnows and guppies---yaay! But then the catch. Now apparently we can only vote about 10 times per day before depleting our steem power to levels so low it's just not worth voting at all until it replenishes. So our votes carry a little more weight, but we can share less of them. This is very frustrating as there are many posts I would like to upvote but now feel restricted.
Even after HF19 minnows are still in a bit of a bind because we need to swim out into the great Steemit sea and upvote and comment widely in order to increase our follower base, as well as find those we want to follow yet we also need to support our current follower base, however small. It's pretty tough to do that with a mere 10 votes per day. Most of my follower/following community is composed of minnows---very talented minnows with a lot to offer, and I want to support them as much as possible. Yet the poor can't help the poor.
The whole minnows/whales concept is counterproductive in the sense that it does not incentivize people to vote for quality content, but rather to pursue whales and upvote just to get a piece of that pie whether the posts really deserve it or not. Certainly there are a lot of great whales out there putting out quality content and of course they deserve upvotes for that. But under the current oligarchical system, they may be getting upvotes just because they are whales
It seems to me that everyone's vote should carry the same weight. Steemit should be a true meritocracy, not an oligarchy. Just because someone has been on Steemit a long time or because they've perhaps purchased a lot of Steem doesn't mean they are more qualified to judge quality content nor are they more deserving of higher payouts solely because of that. Besides, it must drive them a bit crazy to be chased after by schools of minnows just trying to suck up. Who wants to be 'loved' just for their steempower?
Aside from that, and just thinking off the top of my head here, I'd really like a feature that would let me choose a 'top 20 or top 50 list of people I'm following so that I would be sure to always see their posts in my feed. This would help build community and encourage active support. Maybe also a top 3 or top 5 list of favorite categories would also help streamline things so each steemer can zero in on the content that most interests him.
I'm just a minnow here so maybe I'm missing some things. By the way, I have nothing against whales who have worked hard and put forth great content so I just want to be clear about that--this is not a rant against whales. I just think there are improvements that could be made in the system which would benefit everyone and help keep Steemit growing. I welcome your comments fellow Steemers.
Well, I think you got a point here as I'm also frustrated some time, as a minnow. But I wouldn't say the system is not fair. It's undeniable that Steemit is shaped by how the whales want it to be, in one way or another, because they have influence. Their influence is accumulated by continuous input of effort and time before the minnows now. So it's like how the society is, the new joiners are always disadvantaged. So we have to work even harder
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when you reach 500 steempower, there is a slider for you to adjust 1% to 100% how much you want to vote, there you go, i vote 100% for you, before hardfork 19 my 100% vote only worth $0.07 and after the fork it worth $2 when my power is full, the hardfork make me feel very fun and powerful
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I think it's a great thing! We have to see this platform as a way to have fun and network. We were not making any money on regular social media so anything here is a godsend!⭐️
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I could not disagree more. One of the main reasons that Steem has any value is that it represents INFLUENCE. More Steem equals more influence. People want influence so they want more Steem and are willing to pay for it (via work or via money). Hence, Steem has value. If you give everyone the exact same amount of influence on the network regardless of how much or how hard they've worked or how much money they have paid, then...why would anyone want to own Steem? It would lose value and the whole system would stop working.
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I do agree. When I recognized that my upvotes weren't counting for much I decided it was more valuable for me to just read posts and make comments. The comments don't deplete anything. They only foster community and that is valuable ;) (plus they can be upvoted by those that still have power in their votes!)
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The higher your rep, the higher likely people will read it. Then again from what I see here, readers will read an article if it seems catchy or you are known for well-written articles of certain topics. Here, your article questions about HF19. Steem is known for it's crypto to gain influence as a blogger and help contribute to their audience and to the platform. That's is what our community aiming here for. Also, this will help for people to take cryptopreneurs seriously as bloggers as well!
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I totally get what you're saying. When I read something and I like it, I want to upvote it. I don't fully understand why I'm supposed to wait 30 minutes? That makes it feel like a game and kind of insincere. I normally read more than 10 posts that I really like per day. And, if I don't vote on them after I read them, I might forget to go back and vote.
I'm just going to keep on voting and commenting on the posts I like when I'm here and reading.
Great thoughts and I am definitely upvoting and resteeming!
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Thank you! I too dislike the 'game playing' aspect and I really don't get why we have to wait for that magic 30 minute mark to upvote. I appreciate the resteem very much.
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Thank you. I believe you wrote what many of us are thinking.
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I think this is a good rule. The problem with getting rewarded first is that people were voting on content they believed would get a lot of votes. They would vote for a post from a whale without even reading g or watching, and bots were getting g their first. By making people wait, it means you need to actually review the content and bots can't simply vote first. Very good decision.
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I understand there's abuse. But, aren't bots still out there? Aren't the people who would vote immediately just waiting for 30 minutes now and still not reviewing the content?
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Yes, but it's not black and white on the 30 minutes. There is an algorithm so if sometimes it's better to vote after 15 min and sometimes after 29 minutes. What the algorithm is I do think know. I don't ha e time to even watch, I just try and have fun, educate myself and I make more from the accurate and timely crypto posts than I do posting and voting on Steemit. This site is an incredible resource for crypto, unlike any financial site I've used for stocks.
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It's definitely one of the best resources for crypto.
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I was unaware of this new change... that kind of sucks and i agree with your statements around being it now being difficult to support your existing following while trying to grow more.
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I like it a lot. look my power! See? We are all very powerful beings!
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I am not a minnow but I agree with you that the negative changes of HF 19 counteract the positive ones. Maybe in case you are interested in a more detailed explanation of my point of view, just read my article:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@jaki01/hf-19-and-the-question-of-self-voting-hf19-und-die-frage-bezueglich-selbstvotes
(I don't put that link to get upvoted by a few cents more - put I like people to think about if HF 19 was really such a good idea?)
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Thanks , I appreciate the link! I'll check out your article to learn more.
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You got my vote on this one. Great post and makes a lot of sense. I think i'll even resteem. Returning the favor! Thanks. Following now too!!
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Thanks so much. Resteem is very appreciated.
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No problem. I went ahead and followed you also. Looks like you have good blog content. Didn't see my post there but that's ok.
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Thanks! Resteem is there now---just got distracted for a bit.
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Awesome thanks!
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Can you define for me what a "whale" is to you, because you appear to be using it incorrectly.
On Steemit, those who have the most SP have the most power to allocate rewards to others. It's not an equal vote thing, not that type of equality despite the HF19 being called "equality".
As long as there are curation rewards for voting, people will use streemian trails and autovoting to just get curation rewards, and not judge content for content.
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I'm still very new so I havn't even fully wrapped my head around what this change means but from my basic understanding here's my take on how it could be positive maybe.
Having only 10 full power upvotes means you have to be really choosy in what you upvote. You can't just recipricate and upvote every comment of someone who upvoted you. Not saying that's good or bad but that's a change.
It also means that the stuff you upvote will be the absolute best content you see which means only the best content will be rewarded
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There is a way to adjust your voting percentage. I have not done it, but it's my understanding that you could set your vote to 50%,and then get twice as many votes. Just a thought.
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Thank you, that would be helpful, although I think I remember reading in someone's post that you need to have over a certain amount of steem power before you can adjust your votes. I'll look it up though and see what I can find. Thanks!
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That is possible. I ha e not read the rules. If that is the case then it's starting to mirror real life where the rich help the rich and the minnows fight for scraps. The one change where it's better to up vote after a little time then be the first is a good step, but I still see the issue of the whales voting for each other so they stay at the top and earn the most. Going g to be harder for people to break through over time
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Yes, you bring up a good point that under the current system whales have no particular incentive to vote for minnows. I think there are whales who do understand that it's important to support minnows, both because they just happen to be generous people and because if minnows are not supported, eventually Steemit will stop growing.
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Maybe, but it's easy for a whale to say vote for me and I'll vote for you. They make more money that way and stay on top. I have no idea if that happens, but human nature always rules in the end. It would be nice if whales had to spread their vote out, but then your talking socialism :)
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We definitely don't want that!
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It is 500 SP I believe before you get the slider to change the percentage of your vote. Also, you can vote more that 10 times per day. It is just that you can only regenerate to 100 percent at 10 full power votes per day. And until you get 500 SP every one of your votes is 100 percent. Make sense?
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I had to read that a couple of times--lol! But yes, it makes sense. Thanks very much!
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You can adjust your voting power through the esteem app. That's what I hear.
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Well written, and valid points. Still being a relative newbie it is still hard to wrap my head around the rewards benefits, how it affects me. I am focused on producing high quality content for all to see and read, the rewards are a bonus. I am lucky to have received votes from the odd whale or two, but my overall influence is still very small. A lot of users don't read the content as you said, so it is difficult to "feel" the true community spirit. I am not complaining as it is a great thing to receive a gift from someone who appreciates the work, a far cry from other platforms. Thanks for your words :)
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Thanks for your input. I too am focused on quality content and building true community and hope that Steemit will evolve into a system that truly supports that more than it currently does.
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