I have Unfollowed Everyone, Stopped My Bot Voting As Well

in steemit •  7 years ago 

Following some people always bothered me for some reason. For one, it can be translated into genuine interest about the content of the person producing it. Take another look though in the power distribution and one will find out that people follow the whales so they can get upvotes.

Whales of course have become desensitized with this, especially after watching every single "average mortal" trying to make some profit. It is obvious that some content is really good and deserving of upvotes but most of the content being heavily upvoted is a result of whale circlejerking and old time insiders milking the system.

I really like Steemit as a technology. Heck, I even like some people in here. Nonetheless the economics started making me feel nauseated. I don't hide that I gave links to people for upvotes but I believe this is not only becoming annoying but kinda of a "zero sum shilling". A whale can upvote only that much. It has to be selective. You also need to keep appearances and is just not me. Generally, I dislike most people.

I could pick close communities and write articles like Steemstem and get fat upvotes but even there one has to keep appearances, be political, throw some smiles and cash out. I am not specific to Steemstem. I believe every single organised group works more or less like that.

I prefer from now on to visit the pages of people I like manually. I will vote regularly and honestly to content I really enjoy. I understand this is not the way this game is played and I will probably get burned on the reward thingy but there is special kind of satisfaction knowing you are owning yourself. I also want to contact an experiment which I cannot reveal right now.

Thank you all (whales or not) for your support so far. Unfollowing doesn't mean I don't like you or anything. You will see my genuine "like" if I comment on your posts.













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Steemit isn't only, or even primarily/fundamentally, a platform set up to reward "good" content.

It is a blockchain in which new currency (STEEM and SBD) is brought into existence by posting and voting as opposed to "mining" - the way it is done in Bitcoin for example.

This means that there is the opportunity for many, many more people to come into and participate in the crypto economy/movement. Previously it was pretty well limited to geeks.

If you don't think that the fairness in steem is at least a little better than it is in bitcoin, and that the opportunity is open to many more people to participate, then you are blind inho.

Ask one of the newbies on Steem who is complaining about the fairness of it all just how much $ worth of bitcoin they could mine into their possession without a LARGE investment in equipment and knowledge acquisition.

Absolutely agree. This is I why i think no one should complain about the gaming of the system.

One can play it by being an insider and "supposedly" a Steemit promoter/mascot. In now way these people are worth millions for their effort. Is just the way it came to be. The circle jerking rewarded them

One can do what bernie does, that is, selling votes which is not less or more "ethical" — whatever that is. is just another angle one can take in order to make money.

Last and not least comes the sucking up to higher ups or worse, pretending that one makes "Valuable comments". That's completely bullshit in my opinion as well but hey, if it works, I guess there is value there as well.

There is no such thing as equality or fairness anywhere in life. That includes Steemit. There is no way "good" content will ever be presented here and be sustained because the wealth distribution is massively concentrated and the ration only gets bigger due to the economics.

Much like you said though, despite all these, Steemit is the best platform one can earn cryptocurrencies and is backed up by an awesome piece of technology.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Agree to all, but need to make a statement to your last statement "Steemit is the best platform one can earn cryptocurrencies and is backed up by an awesome piece of technology"? Is it the best? Don;t forget platform like Viuwly and LBRY. Ok, they are more for video, but they just started. And what about what Synero does with WildSpark? And I assure you, we will see competition to Steemit, eg blogging platform with monetary reward systems that may disrupt Steemit and Steem, but may also not, since the law of first movers also plays a big role in economics. Although it seems Steemit is the best thing around, it may not be the best thing anymore (LBRY coins is doing fantastic BTW), it is maybe unique in its kind still, but I predict not for long.

For now Steemit is a better option. (at least financially wise)

As a blogger, you are right. As an musician, posting to Musicoin may be better, Steemit can be an additional source of income, to circle their musicoin posted materials also here on Steemit.

Steemit isn't only, or even primarily/fundamentally, a platform set up to reward "good" content

Actually this is exactly what steemit is or should be. It can however be anything you want it to be. It does have many other current and potential uses.

Although Steemit lowers (somewhat) the barriers for the none-geeks to come and play and have (theoretical) more influence, that doesn't mean that we should be just ok with what Steem Power and Steemit became! In the end many Steemians spend a whole lot of time in this community, while those that spend little time, take most of the monetary rewards. Of course, everybody is entitled to decide to stay or leave, to accept or not, to stay quiet, or speak up. @kyriacos decided to speak up and act, and to be honest, maybe it is a good way to go.

It's not about time. It's about whale circlejerking. You can't stop it. It is what it is. As far as new blood comes in the system is sustain. They just have to pretend amongst themselves that they "work" for the community and pay themselves 100 times more than a facebook community employee that handles x100000 more traffic.

I used the "Time" as symbolic, since the high SP holders may spend their workweek on Steemit, but with what they do they take a MUCH higher income. With the vote bots emerging, they even take a MUCH higher 'curation' income. But it is not only the circle jerk of the whales that causes the issue on this platform, generally (with exceptions of course) users are trying to get the attention of the SP holders that are bigger than they are themselves, ie in the SP pyramid the focus of attention of users is to levels above themselves. Although I didn't do any analyses I predict most auto votes go to SP holders at the same level of the one who auto votes, or above and rarely to lower levels. Manual voting by the higher SP holder almost came to a halt. And sure, some of them are still voting for posts they like, which can be seen for lower SP holder when they get a vote as they getting a bone thrown from time to time. In the end, the bottom part of the S pyramid keeps the platform relevant, support the growth of the platform, while those at the midlevel to top of the SP pyramid are take the majority of the revenues coming out of everything, including the growth of the platform and with that also the growth of the value of Steem and SBD.

The last days what comes on my mind over and over again is your article posted during 2016 about why you don't want to be a leader. You are walking your own way, making your own path. I say it will be for the better, I removed all my autovoting as well some weeks ago and I do manual curating for some time now. I lost a lot of votes and my rewards drop considerably. But I expect this to be a better indicator for my blog about what I do wrong and what I have to focus on to become better. I do not have any solutions yet but I am probably heading the same way as you soon. Best of luck.

Glad I see other like you take a similar path. I believe this is much better way to do it because anws if the previous system continues, Steemit won't last. Already competitors are coming up with much better solutions.

I noticed sola.ai recently. pm me the rest if you have the time. I want to see what innovation they bring at the table.

I just wrote an article yesterday and choose to reply to your words because I pretty much follow the same path like you here on steemit and this since June 2016 but I find it highly "impolite" to unfollow people, I once chose to follow. It simply makes people feel "bad" @kyriacos and I also think its selfish, even rude. I have to admit that I wanted to do the same a while ago, started to push the unfollow button every day at least 20 times but stopped again. I got used to my messy feed.

Thats not my intention and whats the big deal anyways to keep following?

Sometimes authors deliver good content and sometimes not.
I still have the opportunity to curate manually but there are authors I would not want to miss out, due to time issues on my end.

Unfair or not ....It's a great platform producing STEEM and some of the people here are more awesome than in real life!!

I understand where you are coming from. It felt and still feels right to me.

I have nothing against the people I followed and then unfollowed. Those who do matter they will see me commenting in their posts.

I don't care about fairness. Life is unfair. It's just it's not worth my "social" time. I can't be that fake for the same of money. I have enough.

Fair enough :)
Knowing your honesty through your articles, I read for many months now ( on and off), I also understand your point.
The beauty of this place...We do as We wish.
Somehow you made me re-think....I should unfollow everybody who never gives a "shhhh...." about my articles.
I wonder if there is a button to unfollow everybody at once?

Anyways....
Good luck with your new path!

Do people even know when you unfollow them?

Yes! I use #steemify by @blockbrothers for notifications

I guess I might end up baving to buy a stupid iphone lol I'll try not to though. I've been doing ok so far.

Fantastic... I've been thinking the same thing @kyriacos.

Please have a look at these blogs on Steemit; none of them are mine, mind you.
Proper, quality content from some newer folks I've found and sincerely enjoy reading; you may find that you enjoy them as well:
@themadgoat
@benjamingroff
@lordvader
@thewisesloth
@neilstrauss
@the-alien
@snowmachine
These recommendations apply to everyone reading this comment as well.
These blogs are wonderful and worth your time looking into, unfortunately some of them aren't getting the visibility they deserve.
Hopefully this post will serve to help correct that!

Have a beautiful day everyone!
@scan0017 😘

Everything always so much someone can handle before blowing up , but I like your motivation for still being on this paltform . We can say one conclusion, greed gets to people

I think that bots have created a major issue on Steemit. As I’ve said before, Steemit is constantly touted as a platform where you get paid and the best content receives the most. This simply cannot be true when bots auto upvote some posters to hundreds of dollars within seconds of the post going live and without any human having read it. That is not how curation should work. However, bots are used and to an extent, do work, so people will continue to use them.

(I have used upvote bots previously but do not currently do so).

I remember a while back Ned (I think) wrote a whole thing about how bots would be a good thing because they'd evolve to evaluate the content themselves and upvote good content.

That's why it's there/allowed. (And, well, it would probably be nearly impossible to actually prevent...)

But the reality is that no, bots are not going to be reading/evaluating content pretty much ever. That's the kind of thing Google is probably working on, and decades away from accomplishing. Self-driving cars are easier, you just have to avoid objects. (He said oversimplifyingly.)

I agree. Bots are hard to prevent but don’t add anything and are not going to be able to curate to the degree a human can.

If a bit can evaluate good content it can also create content, so it will just be a platform of bots writing and curating articles!!

Advertising.

Bots are not there to evaluate good content. They are there for circlejerking

They are used for advertising which I am okay with but I don't like the lack of transparency that gets the newbies led astray.

Now there's an idea. It would remove at least all semblance of sycophantry, manipulation, circle-jerking, and whale-following and other insincerity.

I have noticed there is a small group of people whose content I check manually by typing in their names anyway, and they are a much smaller group than those I follow. Consider this I must.

Yeap, Even in facebook, this is what I used to do. This is I guess what we call "genuine care".

I actually did this, too. Just to try it out. Your stuff, for instance, I check manually anyway. Let's see how this goes.

It is already how I check most content, but there are a few sets of people I follow whose photos I like for showing me other parts of the world, and I just can't readily remember all their names, so I'll still need a list. Must be age, or their foreign and easily mistyped user names 8-).

take a decision that will be comfortable with you. however, sometimes comfort does not have to stay away from the crowd. but, sometimes the comfort will come in the way we can enjoy it.

It's what you deem fit, your opinion doesn't make you less of a good person, nevertheless, I will still keep following your blog, whether you upvote me or not

Have you seen my Bunghole? My people; we are without Bungholes...

Interesting move! I recently proposed a draft model for an idea I initially called a 'generosity algorithm' that might address some of the points here.. I'm interested to know what as many people think as possible.

I will vote regularly and honestly to content I really enjoy
that's the way it should be.
Generally, I dislike most people
MonkeySphere...it's the way we are wired.

Generally, I dislike most people.

I know, man. I know. It makes life so much harder than it'd otherwise be, but whatcha gan' do.

It has been really interesting , there have been some minnow support bots down and with this a plethora of whining vote babies . My background as a touring musician has positioned me well for this. Touring and playing is only done because you love it and you enjoy the creative catharsis. I must be thousands in debt due to flights,rehearsals and purchasing gear but each time I ask myself "how much do you want it " or "are you having fun". I digress slightly but I too manually upvote and comment as much as possible.

Definitely a unique way of going about it. But I like it!

Chapeau on that decision! Shows you got balls and integrity unlike most of us :-).

"Generally, I dislike most people."

LOL, at least your honest, but ya I fully get where you are coming from. People that are trying to game the system by following where they feel the value is + people automating things like voting or vote trades so super annoying on this platform and has got quite out of control for the most part. I personally manually do all my upvoting, and try to only follow people I find intersting or are talking about topics I tend to enjoy, instead of trying to chase the "quick buck" by trying to target whales or people with some influence. I do however have a bunch of follows that I did when I first started that I am constantly trying to drop as a lot of those starting follows are fairly shitty content creators for the most part, but instead of unfollowing everyone and starting from scratch I tend to just try to unfollow a few here and there to weed them off my list over time, so eventually I will have mostly quality content creators on my follow list (minnows, guppies and whales alike).

PS you don't have to upvote this comment as I am honestly not trying to "milk the system" with your vote, plus you dislike most people so ignoring me should be quite easy anyways right? :D

I generally do not like people much too. Steemit has become my safe place. I have limited time on steemit so for me the upvote bot works because then my family doesn't nag me to vote them all the time. For the rest I have a limited amount of people that I follow but I know that they write good content so I like to read new posts from them. I have found quite a few good writers in the new section... so go for it. Perhaps you can find a precious gem in between all the spammers galore!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

You are the change! I follow people so I can track them and enjoy more of their interesting musings. But I vote only if i really like the content. And I don't use bots. I am also confused with all this money making attitude here.
https://steemit.com/self-voting/@johano/that-s-why-we-need-a-self-voting-option

I have not decided on my topic yet and I read more than I write. I started reading your publications not long ago. I like your style. I was very proud when you marked my publication. All that I had time to read is very interesting, even the earliest your publications. It is a pity that you do not always support the dialogue. But I understand that the reason is the absence of time. I noticed that your posts collect less money when you criticize the system. Is this something to do with what you wrote about in this publication?

Yes. I am extremely busy with so many things and I can't really bothered with the politics here. I ve been a member since the beginning. Enough time for the community to make up its mind.

Perhaps your decision will give you more time to spend it on the discussion. Your publications are very controversial and arguing with you is very interesting.

Η ειλικρίνεια συνήθως επιβραβεύεται(θα έπρεπε τουλάχιστον). Καλή συνέχεια !

One of the most fascinating reads I've come upon in a while. Very raw, analytical and honest. I do understand and respect the candid delivery.

I follow you for just this reason. I like feeling engaged and like you, I see this as a vote of confidence before the first actual vote is made.

Beautifully written @kyriacos

Hey good for you for doing what you feel is right. The politics of these kinds of things can get very nauseating some times. I try to stay out of all of that, just keep my head down and keep posting.

I like your style! Which is why I started following you in the first place lol

It may not be the way the game is played, but what you are doing sounds like the original intention.

I will upvote based on whether I feel it deserves it from my point of view.

If I read someone's post about - e.g. fixing a car - I can't really give it anything, as I have absolutely no idea about car mechanics. What if it was complete utter rubbish? Like, fake news? I'd be promoting a post that was untrue.

So I keep my votes for posts I agree with or that I know something about and feel this post/writer deserves it.

I'm only a minnow however - so I realise my vote has less value in the big scheme of things.

Love your work, bro.
😊🙏🏽☯️

I think this is the first post of yours I've seen in a long time I could upvote with a clear conscience.

Human curation is what Steemit needs. It is the key to social interaction.

Folks automate stuff that's a drag to do. Every bot upvote is actually a downvote, otherwise a person would have cast it.

I hope your experiment works out to your satisfaction.

Thanks!

You can do it like me. Follow only small amount of well-picked authors and unfollow them if they start spamming or you no longer like their stuff. Easy

@kyriacos, I appreciate your honesty and the bold move.

The following statement is how I try to live out my Streemit journey:

You will see my genuine "like" if I comment on your posts.

Thank you for taking a stand, breaking the norm, and supporting great content.

You going to be doing a lot of typing now, perhaps a new keyboard :)

I keep my Facebook/Twitter/Steem all light on follows as I don't like the noise. I prefer to follow people that have similar interests as me that each article is potentially something I'd read.

Even if I like someone, I may not follow them if they don't write about stuff that I would normally read as it just adds to my daily workload.

I don't mind. Actually for me is much better since I will interact minimally with whomever I deem fit.

But why not just keep following the people you do like? I can understand shutting off the voting bot but if you just follow people you like it's a convenience so you can see their content with fewer clicks.

I take it as a challenge for myself. If I really care about them I will manually search for their content once in a while.

You're definitely a lot less lazy than I am! ;)

Wow, everything you said really resonated with me. I am finding it harder and harder to find good content the more people I have been following and it has really been bugging me. I think that following should maybe just be for your top few favorite people. But to find good content I have been working on an idea that would create a feed that shows you content that has been voted by people who vote similarly to you. It has helped me find so many good posts that I otherwise never would've found. Unfortunately I do not have the technical knowledge to make this available for others yet, so if you know anyone that is looking for a project, send them my way! :) I explain it more in this post here. https://steemit.com/curation/@littlejoeward/a-new-feed-using-upvotes-from-the-people-you-follow-improving-content-discovery
It's past the payout date so I'm not just looking for an upvote. Just wanting to make steemit a better experience. Thanks for your valuable insights!

This whole time I thought you liked me...I cried a little...

You'll get more followers now that you don't follow anyone.

Some people wear masks, and then change them depending on the circumstances. Be yourself to such individuals is a true luxury, although they have placed themselves in such conditions.

Well at least you are staying true to yourself and practising what you preach, nothing worse than an empty smile backed by contempt, or a handout based on pity, steem on and stay AWESOME!

One way is to unfollow all, or to keep on Following those that you really like and spend only some of the time in your own FEED, and spend the rest of the 'curation' time in more general channels, like the tags. The later I do a lot nowadays, curating music. I didn't tidy up my own FEED yet, somehow it doesn't feel 100% ok to do so, although I know it's is a state of mind that may not be in touch with the reality.

I like your sentiment. I’m only tiny on here but it’s the way I’m trying to carry out my time on the platform. I have some things I like to read, to write and people to follow and interact with. I don’t want to chase the game/

Due to the crazy system here - I follow everyone and look at none of them. I use steemnow and steemfollower to find posts to read if i need to.

As far as auto-voting. I just found it with @steemdunk and could not be happier. This way I no longer have to spend time finding my friends posts and voting for them. One less task!

As far as wandering around browsing posts - not doing that. My steemit day is already full.

After all, following people is for you, not for the others. Followers are just a vanity metric anyway. If you don't want a feed, that's totally up to you.

I personally try to visit the people I enjoy reading from the most manually as you plan to do, but what I've noticed is that I keep forgetting to visit one or another from time to time and could forget about favorite steemians for weeks on end. The feed helps with that as it adds some serendipity to remembrance ;)

Good luck @kyriacos. Sorry to lose you from the trail.

You only need to follow me. lol Amazing graphic you did. Thank you for ending your bot support. :)

Nice to meet you, well done for a really real post,
It's not easy not to be like everyone else - do not go with the flow.
I really appreciate it, you know how to kick and strong

Finally someone is telling "loud" things as they are! Yes, I'm new here, but I had a bit of time to understand how things are going on here. I'm perfectionist as you, I believe and appreciate firstly good content, not good networking, what for sure is important part of this community. As you I'm trying to be honest, trying to make good content (not to do, just for to do) in which I believe, hoping that one day someone will appreciate...

Generally, I dislike most people.

Lol...Tell us what you really think!...

be political, throw some smiles and cash out.

...like tossing coins in the hat of the musician serenading on a busy corner?

I will probably get burned on the reward thingy

It's never possible to get burned if you genuinely give from the heart. Those who pimp the dollar are the only ones who ultimately 'lose'....dignity...respect...regard...and ultimately, the pennies they 'worked' for....ahem...no judging here.

genuine "like"

Sometimes, I don't like the view of a post, but, I respect the quality of the work presented; thus, the up-vote.

Unfollowing doesn't mean I don't like you or anything

Lol...I'm sure some will take this personally...but, how else would you ever know if it was you or your money. Besides, sometimes, to gain the highest order, one has to completely clear the closet to reassess the keeps and the go's...the wheat from the chaff...the sheep from the goats...;+)

Best regards on the experiment @acidyo!

Peace.