Many a study can be made, analysing Steemit posts about what defines content. Great content. Awesame content. About how a common understanding of the rules to obey is forming its way in the community - far from being unity, just mirrowing the worlds we live in... About self-voting and pouring powerful votes over the minnows with a watering can.
@trafalgar posted this very long and detailed question on the matter: https://steemit.com/steemit/@trafalgar/is-there-any-room-for-short-content-on-steemit and got flagged for it - by now 4 times I believe.
So, if self-upvoting - especially after investing into steem is a no-go, why is the upvote post check box still there? If great content is not considered great when there are less than x words going along, why not inform all members and newbees right from the start?!
Is it that simple
No, it is not! It is open for discourse!
Cheers from the Seven Mountains in Germany and may all of you have a great time!
Herzliche Grüße aus dem Siebengebirge und mögt ihr alle einen wundervollen Abend haben!
all pictures are mine
I read @trafalgar's post and it seems a bit of a red herring. Is he getting flagged for advocating short posts or for upvoting himself when he has the power to significantly impact the rewards pool? I think people resent the fact that someone can upvote themselves $30 on a pirated giff simply because they have invested in lots of Steem.
Quality content is a personal judgement and perhaps a consensus amongst the readership. While I don't feel that a self-upvote is inappropriate in theory, I always do it, I feel that if someone has tremendous voting power that upvoting their own post, especially if it is brief, is self-centered. Authors are not the best judge of how good their content is.
For instance, I know that everything I write is Pulitzer Prize material and if I had one million Steem, I could retire upvoting whatever I posted and naturally, I'd post a dozen times a day. Unfortunately, my 100% vote is only 3 cents and more often than not my vote is the most powerful one I receive. Obviously, my opinion of my work is not shared by the community at large, at least those who take the time to read what I write. If I truly thought that my meager gains on Steemit.com were the poor quality of my writing rather than 1, not writing about what most Steemians are interested in and 2, writing very long missives that don't hold the reader's attention long enough for them to reach the end and form an opinion, I'd quit tomorrow.
For me, this platform is about finding out if my writing resonates with people. I know it does with some, but my readership isn't large enough to see if I'm actually "popular" or not. I write about controversial topics that I strongly believe in to stimulate people to wake up and begin thinking for themselves. I wouldn't expect this to be popular, and being unpopular might, in fact, indicate an even greater success. But I don't know yet. I'm mostly ignored. Not enough people are reading my blog. I'm still testing the water and will continue to do so for a year. That's my limit.
As far as length goes, If people like what they read, they can upvote it. If they don't they can move on. Modern people have a very short attention span and many are more tuned into videos than to the written word. No fault here. That's just the way it is. From my personal experience here on Steemit, The posts that are the shortest and least controversial and contain lots of pictures seem to be the posts that garner me the most Steem, but I'm not much interested in being trivial. I'm trying to generate interest so that when I do post something I feel is important, many people will be exposed to it.
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There is another aspect to the upvoting yourself thing, too. Where voting power drops each time you vote, many people who may read, like and think your post is Pulitzer worthy they will not "waste" their vote on a non-whale. I had one post get over 50 upvotes, but it still earned about a quarter. I am not sure if it is just newbies voting, or if it is people turning their vote power down, or exactly how that works. I know there is one whale that posts "inspirational messages" every day that are VERY short, and people FLOCK to the post to upvote it. Never seen him flagged.
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They say that power corrupts, but I feel that profit motive corrupts even more. Planned obsolescence is a good example. Things use to be built to last. Now they're built to wear out so you have to buy another one.
I believe that the idea behind Steemit--quality content that is compensated for--is a good lure, but the truth is that there is very little quality here or it's here but hard to find, and lots and lots of beggars. It's set up the same way the outside world is set up: The rich get richer. I don't much concern myself with that, it's how people are, self-interested, but that undercurrent in the Steemian Sea is a strong one that makes it hard to move ahead when you don't have much but talent to invest.
There are those who put a lot of time into this platform and they seem to be getting noticed and respected, so it is working for some. It's a popularity contest and my hat's off to those who are winning it. Time will tell if this works out for me and you. I've only been here a couple of months and I have lots of arrows left in my quiver. We'll just have to see how it goes.
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I see your point and agree... Same time I do wonder what the initial point of being attracted to Steemit was - e.g. @trafalgar (but I guess there are many more like him here on Steemit for the same reason) might have invested money he borrowed somewhere and saw the chance of RoI in the way steemit is set up. As long as there is the possibility offered to upvote yourself on whatever you post, or to have multiple accounts and upvote yourself on them, then this opens a marketplace. Since the main interest of the founders of Steemit must be many people investing into Steem - meaning money, not time ;-) I enjoy reading your posts - and resonate on the same wavelength, but have given up on trying to wake people up... Dropping an Easter-Egg here and there and happy if someone takes notice and starts to question a little. You know the limit I have set for myself... one important thing I will make sure to avoid is Steemit taking away to much of the time I need to form a stable and reliable Ecclesia right here in the region I live in.... Cheers from the Seven Mountains in Germany
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The fact that Bitcoin is through the roof is why most people are blogging here. Look at the trending articles and it is apparent. Conceivably, my $300 worth of Steem could climb into the millions at some point. I don't think it will and that's not why I'm here, but the lure of making a living blogging or curating is a powerful one. I'm here because I'm unknown. I figure if I get a block of my writing registered somewhere, that if I can generate a following, perhaps I might then be able to approach a publisher and say, "Look, here are many samples of my writing style and a few of my short stories. Are you interested?"
That's the small picture. The big picture is that I don't want my grandchildren growing up in a world awash in depleted uranium where the forests are all gone and the planet is wall to wall concrete filled with brain-dead zombies totally out of touch with the Natural world, trapped in a world where Idiocracy is the best-case scenario. That is where we're headed unless people decide it isn't where they want to go and then take action to prevent it.
And it's not about global warming, either. That's another red herring to grease the skids and create yet another financial instrument based on increased taxation. I'm not a denier. I just think Greenland might not be a bad place to live if it weren't covered in ice. Logged forests, plowed prairies, grazing cattle on wilderness lands are a far greater threat to the environment and few are addressing those problems let alone talking about curtailing them.
I'm glad you are able to work locally. Not one person I know is as radical as I am, nor are they even interested in taking action. Mark Twain said that everybody complains about the weather but nobody ever does anything about it. That is the mentality I encounter on a daily basis with regards to current trends. I can sit at my computer and imagine people are waking up, but all I have to do is take a trip to town and everywhere I look are obese people with purple and pink hair, covered in skin graffiti and shoppers dumping sodas, Doritos and Twinkies into their shopping carts and loading it all into the gas-guzzling SUVs they bought on credit, following paths I veered off of 50 years ago.
I do thank you for your camaraderie the support and I will sorely miss you if you abandon Steemit. But I also understand. This takes a lot of time and you are at the busiest time in your life and if there is little reward for your efforts they are better expended elsewhere.
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I do not even take my eye to the nonsence happening out there, if I don't have to... sometimes I do have to due to the kids and their peer... and how I wish there was no peer... For my goodbye on this platform I might consider writing about the company I founded in 2004 - and how it still feeds the family without ever advertising nor marketing itself... the www.foxglovestrategies.com still say the same as it did in October 2004 "Welcome - soon we will be there for you also online" the adress is has not been updated in the past 6 years... we moved into the new house in 2011 - 23rd November - so really 6 years ago... the phone is the same :-)
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Obiously, your business isn't online, but there has to be more to foxglovestrtegies.com than this single web page, no?
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haha, there is - it is the "Foxglove- Strategies" being carried through the years and it is feeding the family well :-) Just another proof to me, that ads and big webpages are not about success... ;-)
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Good morning. I prefer short contents with photos just because I prefer the lighter side of life. If I need to find a specific topic to read/learn, I’d google.
A great Aloha to ya!
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And I do believe there are many, many more just feeling the same way you do - and I very often feel that way as well (real life has many tasks that want to be tended after)... So I am trying to find out what the majority here on steemit considers great contest - and how the majority feels about the self-upvote.... Thank you so much for your comment @islandliving and Cheers to your Island :-)
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With the self-upvote...I have no problem doing it but at some point the inner-working wheel says to keep it balance. Based on this inner voice, I upvote me sometimes but making sure I do enough upvoting for others.
After all, I am a Libra; the scale of balance.
All ha!
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