I have changed my mind, I have always said that quality content is one of the ingredients towards a succesful journey on STEEM, but the truth is, that quality content doesn't even exist on STEEM. At least according to some Steemians we have here. I could've called them authors, just like I have done in the past, but that will probably have to change...
You might be a writer of some sort, but I can't allow myself to call you an author, in case you don't show me evidence of a published book you've written. That's a real author, according to me. Someone who writes and publish books. Format doesn't matter, as long as it is a book. A writer is someone, according to me, that writes articles or some type of document, but it has nothing to do with being the author of a published book.
I am obviously wrong here, because if you type in: "what is an author" on google, you'll see this: "a writer of a book, article, or document."
However, I have figured that it doesn't matter what it says on google, because somewhere, I've also seen that "quality is in the eye of the beholder", and that doesn't seem to be a good sentence to use whenever you're trying to describe "quality content" on STEEM.
So with this new knowledge, I can either ignore to curate content on STEEM, or curate whatever content I want. No matter the "quality". That doesn't necessarily mean that I'll start to upvote each shitpost I see, well, excuse me, post of shit I see. But there is in fact a high probability for that to happen. Not that I am into "shit", but fucked up things are often amusing in some way... So I might even start to post piles of shit too...
I mean, I spend hours on my posts. I do anything from making original cover images, using dividers I've made myself, edit, change, tweak, think of headlines, spend time on google translate, edit some more, change this or that, and spend some more time on a half-bad title.
I know, I'm stupid. I probably spend about 2 hours on average on my articles. That has been going on since I joined in July 2016... And I'm still here, equally stupid as when I arrived.
I get it, 95% of the people here doesn't give a damn about my articles. I bet that about 10, if that many, out of my 3.5K followers reads the stuff I write. I get auto votes and a handful of comments. I love the support I get and comments are truly something I value greatly... But still.
Why the fuck do I spend 2 hours on each article I share, when I earn a dollar here or there, get only a handful comments and haven't had a decent whale vote in more than 2 years?
- I haven't seen OCD, Curie or any of those "curation groups" either.
Oh, now I get it...
I am the proud "author" of low quality content? - Thanks!
- Fuck you.
That's the only thing I have to say about that.
I am not native in English, I am not an orca or a whale... I have carried my own ass up these "Steem-stairs" since july 2016... And I still don't get recognition or support from any of those guys. So, based on some of the things I've read recently, my content is of piss-poor quality.
- Fuck that.
It's not about quality. It's not even about content. It's about "likeability". It's about sucking cock and bending over for the rich. It's about pleasing the upper & wealthy classes as much as possible. If you're good, you'll get paid. So, in reality, you're nothing but a prostitute...
- And I'm not even good at that.
No, I wasn't serious above, even though part of that is accurate... Quality content to me, is content I like. I don't care about others in this scenario. I curate stuff I want to curate, for whatever reason I might have... But, I would never reward piss-poor quality, spam or copy pasted articles. I don't endorse that type of behaviour either.
So, let's talk about "piss-poor quality". You know what it means... No matter what type of content you like. We can all see when and where someone have put in effort into articles they publish. That is quality according to me.
Not necessarily time spent on articles, as a meme can be funny as hell, and we all know that doesn't take much time. But, if you're spending time on your articles, you're doing research or trying to educate people... Whatever. I would call that high quality, even if I didn't like the subject. I would probably reward you for it, even if I didn't agree with what you've said in your article too, because I can see the effort.
I don't like Actifit posts for instance (talking about Actifit because others have too), and I rarely upvote any of them, as long as the "writer" isn't on my autolist. But that has nothing to do with quality or effort. You obviously put in effort to reach "10k+ activity count", but it's rarely anything more than that. It's like Facebook and someone shared a photo of their breakfast. I couldn't care less and I never pressed that "like" button on those photos... I didn't like those photos even if I liked what they ate.
- It does not give me anything of value. Nothing at all.
So even if you are my BFF on STEEM, and even if I turned into a whale somehow, I wouldn't reward that content. I wouldn't reward that sort of content if you were my brother, my sister, mother, partner, lover or my kid either.
However, in case you were good at sucking c***, I'd probably give you a 100% vote, because that "activity count" would likely have been the results of the time we spent together.
- And there you have it. Quality.
Wowwwwww did this realeave ..... I hope it did I know you write good stuff and I dont care if you published a book a novel or nothing ,
I read your bad times, I read your money issues ,
I was in that Stairway of steemit in the dark days.
I Thank you for this animated piece that took 2 hours from your precious time out of the study time.
And about that last part .... I nearly choked you figure out of that was about My breakfast !
No need to upvote this one
Go and tell me if you want a flag on My last blog I am making a steemitworldmap with little flags for writing steemians😉😉
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I am still unsure what sparked the conversation as I have been disconnected part of the week but I agree that we upvote posts that we like and it is as simple as that. It is our right just as we can flag them as well. However, where I differ is calling posts from dlike and actifit shitpost as they have there reasons and communities around them and we should let them develop. I have found myself in the middle here as I love @actifit and use it everyday as a motivation to be fit and earn here; win/win. If it takes 30 words and is considered garbage; fine, don’t upvote it as it is our right to do so. If we limit ourselves to these views, we will never be able to grow to a global community of Dapps.
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Well said. I don't define them as low quality in that sense either, but I wouldn't support them. I know that Actifit for instance, are doing great things, and I like that. But I don't enjoy the reports so to speak, so I usually just ignore them.
Those type of posts doesn't give me much in terms of "value". I'd rather read a story about your vacation or your fucked up boss. I like reading more "personal" things. It's the same with photos. I love the #walkwithme tag.
There are tons of awesome stories and photos shared in that tag. That stuff gives me more "value" than an Actifit report, so it's only logical to reward those type of posts and ignore others. It's not Actifit specifically we're talking about, we're talking about low/high quality or about quality in general.
I'll just copy/paste what I said in a previous comment a few minutes ago:
Also note that this article was #forthelulz more than anything, but it lead to a bunch of great comments.:)
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Well then! Now i know why i don't get your autovote. It's because my posts are mainly actift right now. Which is encouraging of keeping active. This is a huge blessing for a girl like me. I feel like almost all of my posts are shit posts! Someday i hope to contribute valuable content but for now it is what it is. Good luck with those whale votes Andre. Its good you arrived in time to get some of those. I was too late to the party for that. Whatever the story .... just be sure to have fun and keep Steeming!! 🌻🗻😊
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Here's the thing, it's nothing wrong with actifit posts, and it's nothing wrong with memes, long, well-thought articles either. I'm glad that Actifit exists, and I know that it brings value, but not to me personally. I don't get anything from that type of content.
That being said, I don't auto through asapers but I added the users from the asapers to my autolist, so I should upvote your posts. In case I haven't, I'm sorry for that. It has nothing to do with you or the content you produce, even if it's Actifit posts, lol. I would never delete you from that list. :)
I'll make sure to look into it and have it fixed in case something is wrong with it.
Also, remember that this article is more #forthelulz than anything.
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#Lulzftw! Thx man 🧡💛💙 I was just thinking about @asapers and @insideoutlet yesterday. One thing with life, it's constantly changing! I do hope you can get some whale votes to help you pay for your teeth repairs ASAP. Hugs 🤗
Ps i think i was totally mistaken! I see your votes on my post! My brain is playing tricks on me lately sorry about that. I probably rely a little too much on those autovotes. I appreciate them so much. I feel compelled to get a post out each day for them
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Hmm... Seems like I've missed 6 out of your 7 most recent articles. Not sure why though. Might've been caused due to low VP or something, as I was very low on VP for a few days. Nothing to worry about though, I'd never leave you dry on purpose. lol
And yeah, that would've been awesome. Some nice, fat, juicy whale/orca seed to cover my holes. Let's go whales, I'll let you be on top. xD
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Haha!! Here's to hoping 🐳 ... now it makes more sense 😉
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It would be interesting to do an analysis of certain types of 'quality posts' (above a certain research, length, grammar threshold) and see how much more they get paid compared to lower quality posts (measured by the same metrics)
You'd have to compare the same author - because likeability, the wealth of your friends, the value of your account (money follows money) all have a larger impact.
My feeling is that there'd be a marginally higher payout on the quality posts.
Or maybe not, I had a quick scroll through exlye's posts - his 'here's what I did this evening' posts seem to get paid just as much as his 'here's some analysis of steem posts' - the later being much higher 'quality', I mean unless you want to argue the toss that a picture of him with a steak is worth more than a 10 minute reflective vlog on SBD prices.
Actually pay varies quite a lot. Of course it's always above $20 because of his early adopter steem friends.
OK he's not representative, but based on his post payouts quality has very little to do with rewards.
@trufflepig suggests the same.
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Well, most of the "Steem"-related posts brought attention in the past. I'm not sure how it is nowadays, but things aren't as they used to be. It's different nowadays. Nothing in terms of curation or support is what it once were.
When I started, whales and orcas would hand out 100% upvotes manually on a daily basis. They wrote comments and they felt active. Nowadays, most of them are gone. They're either passive or have left the platform. I love the manual curation part of STEEM. I think it's important to manually curate content, as that leads to more interaction. However, many of the "more famous" users from "back in the day", still have the support they acquired from back in the days, so it doesn't matter what type of content they produce, they still get highly rewarded for it, no matter the subject.
I don't have much to say about that, it is what it is, but I can't say that I like it. I'd prefer to see more "rewards based on content/quality" instead of just support because you always had it.
I agree with you though, it would be interesting to see some real, in-depth details about this. I guess it would be extremely difficult to find accurate stats though.
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I just summarise it/ explain it as 'early adopter privilege'. I actually rank exyle's upvote circle as quite low down the pecking order - there's far worse cases of content being over rewarded. Swtjss being the no 1 person I wish would just foff.
Sad that it's automated.
Hard to analyse indeed! You'd need to quantify quality somehow then correlate it to reward
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Very true. I mean, there are still people form the "early days" that have been inactive for a long period of time, and they still have free delegations from whales and orcas. That SP could've been used for much better things. If these people would've done things manually, they would've realized this.
And yes, I agree with you. There are many users out there with far more support than he has. 100% auto. It's kind of annoying to see, but it's impossible to change so we need to live with it.
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I hear you, and I feel your "pain."
For some 20-odd years, I have been part of a vast array of social content sites — some that compensated contributors, some that didn't — and the bottom line is that I am inevitably disappointed.
Social content and social media isn't — are rarely was — about quality. That said, it's also not necessarily a popularity contest.
In order to keep my frustration at bay, I instead ask the question of whether or not something adds a measure of value, in-context. Most Actific posts, and now DrugWars battle posts don't add shit, so I don't tend to curate/upvote them. A cute original picture of someone's cat? Maybe it does add some value, within the context of what we're doing here.
Sure, I have friends here... but I still don't go around and mindlessly upvote every piece of content they put out there.
I originally came here because I enjoy a genre I call "social blogging." I'm still here for that, and it's still what I write... and it's still what I tend to follow and curate.
And yes, I often spend two hours on a post. In 2+ years, I think I managed to post four posts in one day twice. Mostly it's once daily, sometimes twice.
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Comments like these are better quality than most posts in my opinion. I often turn something conversational like this into a post and I'm sure to some that's shitposting. With more of a following or auto votes coming in I think many begin to over-think their content. Just the same chronic shit posters on occasion create a well polished turd nugget.
As a mobile user I'm not focused on the perfect english or aesthetics of a post. I appreciate the time put in, but if there's nothing behind the bells and whistles what's the point ? And if there is something that constitutes "quality" in the content or concept it's not a must to look flashy.
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This. I guess you'd rather earn rewards on the articles you spent 2+ hours on, instead of a simple meme if you were to share that? - I know I would.
It's not that I hate memes or anything... It's just that a meme takes 10 seconds to share. Sure, it could take longer in case you came up with something original, but a written article would most likely take more time than any meme you could ever think of. I would like to see more rewards for that, than "less quality", but according to users here, memes are quality.
So, even though I probably shouldn't say this but, quality is in the eye of the beholder. Always have, always will. Some will reward my shitposts more than articles I spent + hours on and others will ignore my articles no matter the quality and no matter the subject.
Steem is strange and it's messed up, but it's also why I love it.
About cats... I don't know... I'm allergic. lol :D
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I think one of the keys for me — when it comes to other people's posts/comments — is whether the post actually taught me something, or interested me in some way... or, at the very least, did the post tell me something about the author and what makes them tick.
And sure, Steem is messed up and weird... and I totally understand that not everyone will see it through the same lens of perception as I do, and that's cool, too...
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I agree with you on that. That's why I ignore certain types of posts. You don't even have to call it low or high quality. It's just content. I like certain content more than I like others. That's basically all there is to it. As people often put labels on certain content, I sort of need to explain that the content I vote for is what I consider to be "high quality", but that's not entirely true. It's just content I like.
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I agree with your points. I post every day, and similar to you, each day I spend from 3 to 4 hours researching and writing the posts. Having my posts not read by most steemians doesn't really bother me though, because the writing I'm doing is just building my own collection for publishing at some point. I'm thinking of publishing a book with my best poems from my daily "Spigot" posts on Amazon sometime soon.
I get such joy from writing that I don't really care that the majority completely ignores them, and satisfied that I'm accomplishing something good for myself.
But I definitely get where you're coming from.
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That's a superb mindset and approach. But, I guess you'd rather see people interact and reward the stuff you share, rather than to ignore them? ;)
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Oh sure, that is the real point of why I write, deep down. My expectations are low for receiving real appreciation on steemit though, because outside of the curation groups and boosters, it's pretty obvious there isn't much of that here, even though there's a fair amount of good content produced.
I think there are a few who read my posts semi-regularly. Not sure of that though. I do manage to get some humor in the posts from time to time, that should make them more pleasant to read, and maybe spark an interest in reading the next day's, and the next, etc. That would be cool, but the chance of that happening's very slim, IMO.
I've written 1,516 poems for the Spigot posts here since I joined last year, and I've enjoyed every minute spent writing them. I think it's my real and constant inspiration or something, but whatever it is, I'm grateful I have it. :)
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It's been a while since i voted a post with more than a dollar on it.
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Funny how my "shitpost" became one of my best in 2019 though. It feels really cool actually, and I obivously appreciate your support. :)
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What did you think of the n2 once the whale experiment stopped abuse of it?
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Honestly speaking, I think STEEM has been "unfair" since Day 1. In some way, it has always had this "the rich gets richer" type of feeling. None of the changes or HardForks has successfully "closed the gap" between rich and poor in my opinion, and that's a gap we need to cover.
When I first joined, in July 2016, I got 100% votes from Dan for instance. I didn't get them frequently, but I did get a handful of votes from powerful whales out there. Truth to be told, if that never had happened, I would probably not have stayed.
Many of my former co-workers and friends gave up on STEEM very quickly due to the lack of support. Steem was basically called a lottery. You had to be lucky to reach any decent payouts.
Nowadays, you don't need support from anyone else. You can be a "lone survivor", without any form of interaction or engagement and still rake in tons of profit, as long as you produce some sort of content, because you can buy your way to the top.
I personally, would probably prefer how it was in the early days. Not because I got lucky and scored some really big and juicy votes, but due to the fact that people were active. People engaged, no matter the size of their wallet. Nowadays, it's rare to see a whale or an orca engage. Updates and how STEEM has developed with time has contributed to people being inactive, which ultimately takes away the entire purpose with a "social platform".
I hope that gives you an answer for your question, even though I didn't directly answered your question. lol
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Proof of wallet or proof of brain?
At least before pow we had some chance of getting rewarded based on content.
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That is pretty much the only content I vote on. I do try to reserve a couple of votes for things that are of value to others and meet some sort of quality, or are from people helping people, but 85% of all my votes are on content I like, I also agree with the author issue, steemit and the web are good places to develop into an Author, but until you have a published book that can be ordered or purchased in a store, you are not an author. Sorry all those reporters and document writers and travel writers, and writers of this or that but no book, no Author Status in my view point/opinion.
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I actually suck at curating. I upvote whatever, whenever and however, when I get into that "mood". I don't care about keeping my VP at 100% and stuff like that. Which is a pretty stupid thing... But I just can't help myself. Whenever I get in the "mood" so to speak, I just upvote a bunch of stuff, because I want to reward others.
I should probably think about it more, and try to avoid going extremely low on VP. When I recently powered up as much as I did, I went on a "upvote-spree". Still haven't recovered from that yet, lol.
That said, I'll continue to upvote content I like and I will continue to support users I want to support. That's one of the best parts about STEEM.
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Voting is a very personal thing. We each get to decide what deserves a vote and that can be based on quality, friendship or a desire to play the system. As it stands the Steem community is far too small to really be considered representative. A few big players and the vote bots control most of the voting share. I stopped doing automatic votes as I want full control of what I vote on. There are people creating art, music, writing who I think deserve to earn more. For many of them it's their job whilst most of us are really just playing around in our spare time. It's possible for a busker with a smartphone to make more than a band who spent a year in the studio, but maybe that's what the community wants. Rewards do not have to be based on effort.
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This is so true. It doesn't have to be based on effort and it rarely is. It's not often based on high or low quality either. Rewards are rewards. It would be impossible to analys how, why and when everyone upvote stuff, or what their motives are. Some articles will yield greater rewards than others, and that's how things are for most users. Autovotes is one of the things that makes some users earn more than others, no matter what they share.
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Heyy @hitmeasap I posted about the lacking support for quality content some days ago. I can fully understand the frustration. And I am glad you expressed your feelings this way. I had a smile at some pieces 😂
I think that any contribution requiring some time, effort, energy, thinking etc. should be supported in this platform. But also social sharing is part of this platform. People like to share what they are doing, what they think about at that specific moment etc. This can also be considered quality in a way.
I also try to contribute to this platform since short time. Whether it’s seen as quality or not, I don’t really care :)
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I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
You nailed it. And I have talked about this many, many times in the past. All the official news, updates and changes are announced with "tech-talk".
They talk about this and that and 99% of the users doesn't understand it. They need to explain things in layman terms, so even a 73 year old grandma can understand what it means.
That's the whole point. People talk about "mass-adoption". They want STEEM to have millions of users, but that will never happen as long as things are like this.
People leave when they realize that a single photo of their breakfast doesn't result in high rewards. They leave because they feel deceived, mainly due to all the false advertising out there. They leave due to empty promises of luxury.
High quality, low quality, it doesn't matter in the end. Content is what matters, and we need to reward users no matter the quality if we're going for mass-adoption.
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I love these rant articles of yours. Straight from the heart!
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Haha thanks, it's actually pretty fun to write these #forthelulz type of things. A mix between being serious and unserious, and just typing whatever that pops up in my head. I like it, but haven't done it often.
Perhaps I should do it more often? :)
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LOL yeah I read them and enjoy them! I think I understand where you are coming from so they are relatable.
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Oh, that's cool. I'll see if I can squeeze out any more of these in the future. :)
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My name is skramatters and I am also a steemian... I haven't shitposted in a week. I'm taking things one moment at a time and I can't say I will never shitpost again, but today im shitpost free and here to listen.
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I'd say that "shit posts" are important. Personally, I often like "shit posts", because I find them hilarious or fun. It's also a way to connect and get to know people, which I'm all for.
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You could just end with that first paragraph and slap some rewards on it and you would:
Because it's not and that is why it's shit.
You have even older account than me so you know about it.
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Haha yeah.. I'm well-aware. Just thought I'd give you my "input" on this. ;)
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I wouldnt say I give a dam but if an article finds my way I read it... However long and rambly it is. What's a matter?
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Content is content, no matter the quality. I like low quality sometimes, but I'd obviously prefer to read stuff the authors put effort into. Those are often more interesting.
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Oh yea, quality doesn't so much bother me. Like I said of it catches and holds my attention than it's good by my brain
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Oh! @hitmeasap. ¿Does that means that you are now becoming into a "shit content" agnostic, or furious skeptic or just plain atheist here?
Haha, just click here and read and consume the whole darn thing. And after the whole blue pill test, let's see if your current religious beliefs still survive. };)
Cheers!!
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Nah, it doesn't mean much at all actually. But judging by the comments in this article, it must've been one of my better ones. lol. xD
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Then, no agnosticism, or furious skepticism nor you've become on a plain atheist here yet?
¡Shit! ¿Are you implying that you are still a devout believer of Quality Content? Hahahaha
Btw, ¿did you consume my blue pill? };)
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Haha, this feels like a trick question.
Let's say this, I do believe that content (of whatever quality) is our "salvation". I don't mean that Actifit posts or memes for instance are bad or low quality in that sense. If we truly want all those Facebook and Instagram users to join and use STEEM, I also think that we need to reward them for the content they chose to share, no matter our personal opinions of what high/low quality is. I personally don't upvote Actifit posts etc, but I still don't consider them to be bad and I don't define them as piss-poor quality. I know Actifit is great and does many good things for tons of people.
However, the main reason for people to leave Steem is due to the lack of rewards. It's not about support in the sense of comments, education or encouragement. It's about money. People join STEEM to earn money. Often due to false advertising. When people realize that money comes only after tons of effort, hard work and countless hours of engagement, most of them leave within minutes.
We need to change the mindset, not only the mindset of the newcomers, but also on the existing users. You can't self-vote 100%, buy your way to the top of the trending, grow your account rapidly and expect STEEM to flourish. You need to focus on others before you can expect any form of real growth. The only growth you'll see before you focus on others, is the growth of your own account. In terms of STEEM.
But how fun is it to have 200K Steem when the price is going down? I'd rather have 10K Steem and see the price of STEEM go to $50 than to have 200K and see the price at $0,10.
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