Why I Think Steemit Will Die

in voting •  8 years ago  (edited)

I wanted to talk a little about how I am perceiving what is going on in steemit recently. I do not see it going in a positive direction, I see it as dying already. That is a very sad statement to me.

I know a lot of people like the voting setup but I see it as the downfall. Is the point of a block chain to grow it or not?

I see a lot of people talking about quality, like it has anything to do with building the block chain. The currency of steemit is based off the block chain, not the quality of peoples posts. If the up vote system was not broken I could see a reason to make quality work, but it is broken.

If you do not think it is a flawed system go scroll through the trending posts. I can almost guarantee half of the ones making good money are crap. Only up voted because how the system works.

We have a voting system where quality of product does not matter. The only real thing that matters is how much did the persons last post make and how many followers they have.

I have done it a couple times myself, see a post by someone with 300+ followers 5 seconds after made. Up vote instantly. Then by the time I'm done reading the horse shit that was typed out it has a value of 1k. Not because anyone thinks its good work but because people know it will pay out. Quality no longer matters on steemit.

I see the up voting system as flawed, it was created to give people motivation to make quality work. not to pay out the person with the biggest followers no matter of quality of post. I have seen some peoples accounts with 15+ posts that are all amazing but not one cent earned and also witnessed a single picture posted with no text in the top trending zone day after day.

It does not give motivation for people to try to spend hours on a post if the trending stuff is of the lowest quality possible. If it is truly about quality then why are some of the best quality stuff on here holding 5-10 votes?

All of that said, it is not why I think steemit will die.

It is the down vote system that I believe will kill it. There is only one time I see it as good for the server to down vote. When a post, that is of no quality, is on the top of the charts, I feel it should be down voted to cancel out the promotion of crap.

Unless that post is making 5k because of the abuse of the up vote, I see no reason to down vote it.

The down vote system is getting abused. flagging anyone for anything besides my earlier statement hurts the server as a whole.

I will elaborate.

This is a block chain. Every block in the chain equals work done. Without this "work" the chain has no value. every post, comment, or response adds blocks to the chain. the quality of the post, comment or response does not matter to the block chain.

When people flag someone because of lacking perceived quality it is not motivation to post more. what we should be doing is inspiring people to post more regardless of what someone thinks about the post. I'm not saying you have to up vote crap but down voting people makes them leave steemit and that is one less person adding blocks.

As word gets around the internet about how this site bullies people for posting something that people don't like the new users will slow down. The less people posting, the slower the chain grows and the value of the steemit currency will drop.

As people flag posts because they are trying to bring quality to this server they don't realize they are hurting the block chain. The idea that if we get shit posters in here will drop the quality is insane too. The drop in quality will come from up voting crap not because someone posted crap.

I have been hearing a lot from people about how they are only here to be social and care not of the money. To anyone that says that, please prove your point by transferring all of your steem dollars to me. If you are not willing to do that then you can no longer say you don't care about the money.

For the people that invested into steemit, I would love to hear from you about what u think.
should we focus on building the chain so your investment pays out in the positive or should we worry about getting rid of people that shit post to try to make the percent of quality higher?

Personally I think to raise the quality of posts, only up vote quality.
want the block chain to grow? stop flaging low quality posts and worry about flagging high paying crap posts.

If all the crap posters leave, the chain will suffer and all the up votes you get will be worthless.

Just my opinion on what I have been watching the last week. I personally want everyone to show up and post anything and everything to grow the chain.

If I was wrong about anything please inform me. I am new to block chains so I might be wrong about how growing the chain is better then having 5 people on the system posting "quality" according to a couple people.

someone that quit today said it best imo.

ask yourself if you would rather have a blockchain based site where all the perceived value drops to nothing but the content is good or would you rather have a blockchain based site where the value of the currency used is rising fast with all the same good content of the other option but also adding the crap posts or people just posting links or anything and everything elese?-{steemltnews}-

Sorry about the rant, I hope we can figure out what to do before steemit dies.

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I have to agree here...If you say you were'nt here for the money...then why leave Facebook?...Or just stick it out on Youtube?...This platform is loaded with downvoting Flaggers that think they are helping the chain...what is happening here is a lot of people think THEIR posts are the BEST...and want to cash in on the 'gold mine'...but what you get is the 'shaft'...you NEED followers who actually upvote to really make steem...OH! Your posts can't be too controversial!...You want to garner VOTES!...This turns the blockchain into a 'beauty pagent' where the popular votes win even if they are 'crap on a cracker'...What do I like about Facebook? When somebody is going against you because they don't LIKE you all you have to do is hit 'block' and they disappear from your feed! Voila! That's why trolls hate it! They can have a 'field day' here, & it stays there permanently! Flagging is a useless practice of 'futility' here because all it does is hurt you! I already do a lot on Facebook anyway...I was trying out Steemit for the hell of it because the lure of monetary value was incentive...now I wonder about that! Good Post! I will upvote it!

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

Thank you for the upvote.
I personally don't mind the trolls and will never mute anyone. I don't think they realize the damage they are doing, most I would say even think they are helping.
lol, the crap cracker beauty pagent metaphor is perfect!
the down vote wouldn't matter much if it didn't affect your rating. then people could be as offencive as they want and people that don't like it could only show they don't like it without hurting the poster of the comment. I personly would be proud if I made a post that got 500 down votes but 20 ups and it didn't affect my payout.

I have been saying since the beginning of my journey... lol, three days. The way the voting system is weighted it is more like fishing than mining.

I have never seen a currency based on a few people's arbitrary opinion reward the fishers, I meant miners. I think they have some time to fix this.

the value of the currency has nothing to do with the quality of the posts, only thing that matters is making more blocks.

I don't know the ins and outs or sideways of Steemit, but I love the honesty of your post and appreciate having someone like you around. H. Vale

Reshare: One Thing That Facebook Does Right... Copy It!
As well, each re-share would add to the block-chain, making this not only the most effective way of deterring all of the problems that go with voting, but also the most efficient way to add blocks to the block-chain!

Everyone wins!

A share option would rule! would get more up votes for good posts that people might have missed and would get rid of a lot of the copy and paste going on.

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

This is an interesting perspective. I've been working toward flagging spam and plagiarism, because I think it's important. However, I'd like to hear the technicalities of how bad content helps to grow the blockchain. I'm inclined to think like this: In the longrun, the abundance of lower quality content is going to be a deterrent from people staying.

If there's 20% spam/plagiarism posts in a year from now, I'm going to be less likely to visit & post here. All of your points are pretty valid, but aside from the monetary possibilities of steemit, quality content (or at least legitimate content) is important. If the blockchain grows at a slightly slower pace due to downvoting spam & plagiarism, so be it. I'd prefer to see that than see it grow extremely rapidly and then die off in 2 years because it's an ocean of spam and bullshit.

Either way, interesting and thought provoking conversation here.

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

did you even read the post?.
"The drop in quality will come from up voting crap not because someone posted crap."

Lol @skeptic. Did you even read @xvickx's response? Looks like you just cut and paste the same response for everyone.

it does? weird only thing I see me copying and pasting is that one single quote.

yes I did read it and he just keeps repeating the same false points about how its for spam/plagiarism ect. If he actually looked at the article he would understand the point is to grow the block chain, nothing to do with quality. in fact the more spam that is posted the faster the chain grows. If people stopped up voting the plagiarized content then it wouldn't be a problem.

Down voting does no good at all for anyone. Not the person gitting flagged, not the flagger, and not the steemit server/block chain.

I'm sure you would understand that if u did more then scan thru the post only reading keywords. When everyone has left the server and the currency value drops to zero because of the flagging you will no longer be able to live in your false reality.

I hope u realize you flagging is the cancer that is killing steemit. Maybe write something productive instead of spending your time hunting down people to flagg, or writing posts about who you have flagged, or are going to.

You've clearly never read even one of my posts.

Yes I read your post but it it doesn't entirely make sense so it is not surprising that people are misunderstanding what you are saying.

Just my opinion on what I have been watching the last week. I personally want everyone to show up and post anything and everything to grow the chain.

That just proves you don't have a clue what you are talking about. Growing the chain with spam is a waste of resources.

Anyway I've wasted enough of my time responding to you. Learn some social skills if you want to win people over.

It normally helps.

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

I don't understand it? O.o
how is growing the block chain with spam a waste of resources?
do you not understand how the block chain works?

yes you have done nothing but waste time repeting the same flase propaganda over and over but not backing up anything .

oh im doing it because of (insert reason here).

The reason your doing it has nothing to do with the effect it is having on the server.
I hope for the whole server you realize how you are destroying steemit with your flagging.

Of course I read it - I understand that upvoting crap is going to be a downfall, but that's always going to be a trend here because of the ability to monetize and because most people don't understand the concept of quality.

When I speak of bad content, I'm talking spam and plagiarized content. The "junk content" that gets 200 upvotes is a result of nothing more than having a large following. In turn, it encourages people to create mediocre content in an effort to monetize, so yes, you're correct. However, we can't control who likes what or who upvotes what, but we can have some control over illegitimate content by downvoting it.

I will say that I only upvote things that I feel offer truly beneficial information, such as your post.. There's a learning curve here and there's always going to be since there's an incentive to make money. With time, I hope this will level off. I also hope that some of the whales will do their duty to upvote quality content and downvote anything plagiaristic or spammy.

What you consider junk is still blocks in the chain. Without people adding to the chain the value of the currency drops to zero. If the "junk" posts aren't making large amounts of money why do you even care let alone feel the need to go out of your way to flag them? New users are fleeing this place like crazy because of people abusing the down voting.

Down voting people will kill steemit. you are going to end up with a server with 10 people on it and the currency will have lost its value.

This is a new server and it is already slowing down on new members and daily I watch people quit because of the flagging. you will all be left with an empty server, a block chain that stops growing. and a currency that is worhless.

But hey, you get what you sow.

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

I only downvote posts where people use stolen images and claim them to be their own photography, or, where people post spam, or, when people plagiarize content.

Whether I think someone's post is "junk" or not isn't my problem. It's not fair to downvote a post just because we disagree with what they have to say. It's equally unfair to upvote content that holds little to no value.

wow, just wow
have fun down voting people and destroying steemit for everyone else I guess.

I think better catgorization would be a plus... also for authors and writers who want to get their stories out there steemits current model is pretty good for fantasy and scifi.

I just wish people would worry about upvoting quality instead of down voting people.
thanks for the comment.

also there needs to be a change to the trending page so that if i post say a sonnet your say political opinon piece dosent push me down were trying to share an audience here and the jostling of new posts IMO is not helping current situation.

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

The trending page would be an awesome if we didn't have the problem with the voting system. to much crap gets the up votes because of the gambling aspect. From this point forward I am going to try to only up vote stuff I think deserves it. like your posts and comments! xD

I agree with the point that it is hard to find things that don't get upvoted...i've just been looking at 'new' posts as they haven't been influenced by others and have a better chance of being interesting to me. That is a problem with a lot of websites, they lack a 'browse' option rather than just slapping on a google search tool

I spend most my time in the new area too. 8D

The drop in quality will come from up voting crap not because someone posted crap.

Wow had never looked at it that way! You make sense and I am up-voting you because I want to see this viewpoint discussed and not ignored as a rant. Well written!

thank you very much for the up vote.

I honestly don't see flagging as a way to raise quality. I see the power of the upvote as motivation to create quality. I have to believe that is what it was intended for.

I have read multiple comments or reply that where downvoted or flagged just because the person didn't agree. Even though the comments were civilized and well argued. There a kind of dangerous revenge circle going on. You flag me ? I'll flag you or downvote you.... I am having a bad feeling too...Hope things will change more rapidly. Retention of new members is not as expected.

the sad part is the return down vote is the only weapon people getting flagged have. not like they can go report false flagging to someone.

better tags/catagories would help - just have area for steem related post only , one for anything cryto, so that this doesnt 'trend' all the time shoving other good quality posts out the way...

absolutely that way someone who is trying to attract people intrested into high fantasy isnt takeing people from someones politcal blog post or bitcoin post.

agree 100%

agreed!

Whales & Devs must take down your points!
Unless of course if they are so super confident & happy on the current state/no. of users & posts, then it is safe to ignore this post.
Great post!

Thank you for the comment!
Im sure most the whales and devs are to busy up voting crap to actually read posts. lol
I wish they would at least think about how it s affecting the server in a whole.

The downvotes are now called flags and should not be used to express whether you like a post or not. They are designed to deal with abuse such as plagiarism, fraud, outright trolling etc. This has been discussed ad nauseum already.

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

Did you even read the post before making a comment on it?
By down voting anyone for anything besides the single mentioned reason in the post, you are destroying steemit.

"The drop in quality will come from up voting crap not because someone posted crap."

Yes I did but since you seem to be talking about downvotes it is clear you don't know what you are talking about and it seems you did not read my reply or you didn't understand it. Good luck.

I did read it, your bitching about how down votes are now called flags, like it fucking matters.

I never once said anything about using it because of opinion or anything like that. you say you are doing it because "plagiarism, fraud, outright trolling etc" but saying that's why you are doing it, for "reasons", does not have anything to do with why its wrong and why it is destroying steemit.

You say it has been discussed to nauseum but obviously you haven't listened to anyone else and just wait you turn to repete that your doing it for (enter reason here).

the reason your doing something has nothing to do with the effect it has on the server.

like I asked earlier, did u even read the post before you told me that down votes are now called flags or how you repeated the reasons you flag people?

also how the fuck?
"since you seem to be talking about downvotes it is clear you don't know what you are talking about"
so if someone trys to talk about down votes they instantly have no clue what the are talking about?

Do you even logic bro?

have fun running around flagging people and destroying the server for everyone elese.

I think most of the top posts are good quality or topics of interest. I don't expect anyone to flesh out a modern "Brothers Karamazov" in 500 words or less.

im at a loss for words, I don't agree with you on that. I don't think "most of the top posts are good quality or topics of interest"
sorry but 80% of the trending posts are crap (imo) but all in the eye of the beholder I guess.

Frankly, in the beginning I had temptation to upvote posts with 99% garanteed success. I beleive I did it a few times. I am not saying that they have been posts of bad quality. But I inclined more to profit than may be to honestly choose posts of better quality from newcomers.
Now, its not the case. The Dollar Vigilante for instance, dosen't get a vote from me unless his post is truly valuable for the community IMO.
So we all need to be honest with ourselves, If we want to get a valuable platform we must very carefully upvote articles, regardless its future revenue/success.

P.S. I consider sceptic's post a valuable opinion on the issue. However, so far its revenue is 0.05$. Something is wrong in the system)

I have also up voted things only because it will pay out, I'm sure we all have. I'm trying to stop doing it but its not easy.

I came here because of dollarvigilante and a couple others. His videos are great. The motivation for him to post quality stuff on steemit is gone because no matter what he posts it makes cash.

I agreewith you statement "So we all need to be honest with ourselves, If we want to get a valuable platform we must very carefully upvote articles, regardless its future revenue/success" very true!

Thank you for the comment and upvote. I really appreciate it.
This post was more me venting then trying to make money. I don't mind that its only at 5cents.