Some Thoughts On Steemit.

There seems to be a lot of people posting lately about the current incarnation of the steemit platform and how certain groups of people are making use of it, so I thought I'd have my say, since I am a part of this community and the actions of it's members reflect on me. My opinions on certain aspects of steemit and the behaviour of some of my peers probably won't be an easy read for a lot of you and may cause you to reconsider either your own actions or your continued support of my little blog but since we are all being so honest about our feelings, I thought I would share my own.

Spam is a pain in the arse to be sure but then again, if everything is subjective then one mans rubbish is another mans treasure. I don't like seeing spam and follow for follow (I don't actually get much tbh, certainly not enough to complain about) but when I do see it on some posts, a lot of the time it is very reciprocal and at least it is an honest and upfront arrangement rather than some of the actions of others which can be dishonest and deceitful, whilst appearing considered and 'thoughtful'. I understand that there are others who have to deal with insincere, generic spam comments on a much more frequent basis than myself due to their 'reputation' and follower base and I sympathise with their position but we are free to post whatever we want and others are free to comment however they choose. I don't see it as being as big of a deal as some other issues yet it is getting quite a lot more attention than some of the more pressing matters that in my opinion, should be being discussed.

As far as the follow for follow and upvote for upvote, it is clear to me that this primarily extends to the lower echelons of the community and as such represents a tiny fraction of the reward pool being misappropriated, which should of course be addressed but as I say there are more pressing matters which should perhaps be looked at first before using the lowest common denominator of abuse on the platform as a smoke screen for more serious and substantial abuse by others.

How many different add-ons are there now for boosting and buying votes? Seriously?? Curation trails, voting trails, automated voting, voting bots. Aren't these just as bad as follow for follow? Anyone who knows me knows I am not very technically minded and I will admit that a lot of these things might be good ideas and very helpful but certain ones are definitely clear abuse and profiteering. It is not my place to tell anyone what to do or how to behave but I personally have issues with buying votes from someone who should be using their voting power to vote on 'quality content' rather than selling their privilege and earning a profit from increasing the exposure of 'random quality of content' and I certainly wouldn't buy a vote for my own post. I have used the minnowsupport project bot to upvote other people's work at times but never my own and have stopped doing so completely now as I am not sure whether I am completely comfortable with the set-up, stemming from the lack of understanding I have about the workings of the system. In theory it sounds like a good thing but until I am sure in my own mind how it works I will abstain from using it. A lot of the posts I was upvoting with the project were also related to my own so I was personally uncomfortable with how I was using it myself which was another reason for stopping.

I am not a self voter with one exception recently. I have started upvoting one series of my own posts for a very specific reason which I am comfortable with myself. Whether you are comfortable with it is a matter of choice. Other than this though, I never upvote my own posts or comments. I used to upvote my posts but that was because it was set to do so. When I realised I could change it, I did. I just don't feel the need to. If you upvote your own posts then that is your decision and I respect your choice. I understand some of the arguments for upvoting your own post such as getting the ball rolling and a little reward from yourself because you know how much effort you put into writing it or preparing it, etc. Maybe it is just because I have an upvote worth about 7 cents and as a man living in the West, 7 cents is not a lot at all, that determines my decision not to and maybe if my upvote was worth $100 my feelings would change but I don't think so. I'd rather keep that vote for someone else. I like the excitement of putting something out there and being rewarded for my efforts, or not as the case may be, by those who have enjoyed what I have produced, whatever that happens to be. I know it can be discouraging when you put a lot of effort into something and it doesn't get the attention you feel it deserves but that is part of the excitement to me. Like I said, I just don't feel the need to. I actually don't see why there is such a function for self voting in the first place.

As for voting on comments, I understand the self-voting of comments for visibility on certain posts and other technicalities but the blatant abuse that is obvious at times and substantial in terms of rewards misappropriated is very disconcerting, yet draws little attention when compared to the aforementioned and barely comparable, upvote for upvote system employed by the minnows. It would appear that if you have enough funds and lack of morality or capacity to think morally, then steemit is the perfect opportunity to invest, pay yourself a dividend anytime you like and recoup your investment in record time while still retaining your initial investment and ability to pay yourself for little or no effort at all, thanks to the users that are hoping you will take the time to view their work and reward them from your rightful share of the reward pool which should be dedicated completely to rewarding the work of others. I don't vote on my own comments. In truth I use my own votes far too much for comments and whilst I do think that rewarding comments is definitely a good thing, I could definitely do with saving some of the votes I use for posts instead.

It is not for me to decide what steemit should be and how others should conduct themselves but I am free to suggest that consideration is given to actions taken by everyone who represents the community which I am supposedly a part of. There definitely is a steemit 'community' but it doesn't accurately represent the complete picture of what steemit is. It is only one small part of a multi-faceted platform which in theory, will become whatever the users ultimately decide through their use of it and while everyone has a right to make a case for their perfect representation of the platform, no-one has a right to say that the way they are using it is correct and the way others are using it isn't and certainly no-one should be bullied into having their experience determined by someone else nor their actions judged by others, lest those who judge be judged themselves. We all have our own interpretation of steemit and what it represents to us.

I continue to post on steemit because I enjoy doing so and it is rewarding to me in a lot of different ways. I enjoy reading and viewing other peoples work and thoughts and I really enjoy being able to reward people in some small way. It is not for me to judge the actions of anyone and my thoughts on some of these things may change in time but I just wanted to share the way I think about using steemit at the moment and encourage others to think about what steemit represents to them. I am always willing to change my opinion given new information and perspective so I encourage anyone who disagrees with anything I have said to let me know and put forward their case for why I am wrong in the comments section.

In conclusion, I think that like most things in life, steemit has become too complicated and as someone who will probably reflect the average end product user, I think there are too many complicated add-ons, both technically and morally. I'm sure I could spend the time and research this area of steemit and that area of steemit to come to an informed decision about where I stand on each individual aspect of it but to be perfectly honest, that is not what I'm here for and I shouldn't be expected to have to read a user manual just to use the site. That's not very appealing to me. I don't see what's wrong with simply producing and curating content.

I see myself as an idealistic hypocrite since I feel there is definitely value in trying to be ideal, even when it is ultimately un-achievable because the pursuit of idealism means that you are always heading in the right direction but I am also a hypocrite in the sense that I have to live in the world that has been built around me and in order to do so at times we are forced to do things we don't always agree with because not adhering would mean time lost and like everyone else, I don't always practice what I preach but I am always trying to better myself and when it comes to the morality of behaviour on a social media platform, we definitely have complete control over our actions and should consider the morality of them.

There is definitely a lot more to be said since there are so many different aspects of steemit to talk about but I have said enough for now. I don't want to take up too much of your time and I don't want to be any more incoherent than I already have been. Just some quick thoughts! :)

I am interested to see what others have to say in response and as I said, I am open to changing my mind if I find reason to do so, so if you think I am wrong on any of the points I have made, please let me know.

Thanks for your time! :)