And here is how I think it can be improved. Used to run and then own an online forum and I did so quite successfully. At the moment my understanding is that a post is pushed down by all posts after that in all sections. And those with the biggest followings get more views and upvotes. That is great and there is nothing wrong with that. However with so many steemiteers now posts barely have a few minutes before they go into the oblivion and never be seen again. Especially for minnows without a huge following.
What I would love to see is posts pushed back up to the top whenever someone comments on them. Not just an upvote... but a comment. I believe that is a fair and justified way to reward a post when it is good enough for people to make the effort to reply to it.
What do you think?
I would strongly support this!
In the end upvotes, as the system works currently, are the wrong metrics to determine the quality of the post. If the stated goal of steemit.com is to get quality content to float to the top I think it is failing miserably currently... it is a complete lottery so far.
Upvoting encourages gaming the system (and can be automated) and will not grow quality content for the steemit.com platform long term.
Also it will simply encourage piling on established authors with auto voting giving them default earning on their post no matter how mediocre their efforts.
At the moment the system is gamed by low effort /massive amounts of posts, with the hope to win the whale and curation lotteries.
Comments are very undervalued currently. And that biases the system against quality thought provoking posts.
Comments should be determining post earnings alot more than upvotes. Because they can't be automated as much as upvotes, it keeps people from gaming the system.
Because comments and then especially the amount of subcomments by different people will signal value much better than upvotes.
I would even square the weight if there are more sub-commenters on the comments (not made by the original poster) then you know you have an engaging post which has generated some kind of discussion.
(Of course flame wars should not be rewarded in this way, dunno how to account for that but I guess the flagging system would kick in)
For the curation system, I would combine the first upvote with the first comment to determine the curation rewards. If you find supposedly good content but are not even bothering to give it a comment, that sounds fishy to me!
Thank you for your support. And you are right, comments by the original poster should not be counted. That is kind of like steempower rich people upvoting their own posts. I still love the upvoting system, it makes things quite exciting.
Ye your reference to the whale lottery. As a minnow I see no way of doing that. It feels like trying to get rich in Vegas by owning casinos by going up against what is already there. Do you know what I mean?
I consider it growing pains, it will hopefully work out in the end. They are at least experimenting often which is important.
The frustrating bit is that I earned 22 SBD on a quick comment on an interesting thread on HF19, which is more than my 13 long form posts earned put together.
They had lots of comments by people who took time to read it.
It makes the whole system less interesting if your earnings depend more on luck than effort. If I would be a cynical person I'd give up on long form posts and just go whale fishing, following their comments and reply in the hope to provoke a massive upvote.
That would be a very big waste of time for me though and would take a lot of the fun out of it. At the moment I have the most fun ever in social media writing ideas and interacting with commenters.
But if things don't improve in a few months I am going shopping around for other platforms. Steemit.com will not be the only game in town for long... you can count on that.
I agree.... and I feel it check out my profile and follow if you think I deserve it. I made that many posts and made very little steem dollars. I got myself caught up in going for the steem. But in the end I am going to do what I love instead. I love writing and interacting and this place is better than Facebook. But yes I get it, if upvotes are what it is about, it is hard to not act with a vested interest. I wrote this not long ago. I meant it, and it got bugger all viewings.... It is a lost post already lol.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@yoda1917/the-purpose-of-steemit-i-have-finally-worked-it-out
already following, mu policy is to follow people I interact with through good comments, you already qualified! If you want to earn more, check out my comment challenge, I have 5 posts where you can earn 5 SBD as the best commenter. So far it is up for grabs, some posts still have no comments!!! https://steemit.com/minnowsupportproject/@the-traveller/127-followers-already-rewarding-followers-prizes-for-the-best-comments
Alright I will thanks
Good suggestion....
Any chance that can happen? It kept people motivated on my forums. And it is an extra incentive to put out good content and generate discussion.
Yes certainly it can be in near future