Greedy Minnows Chasing Whales – First impressions after my first week on Steemit
I joined Steemit a week ago. Before doing so I listened to all sorts of videos and podcasts about how to be successful on here. They pretty much all said “kiss whale ass”. Some even went out and said “follow the hottest, trending whales, leave lots of comments so you get their attention and they like your stuff, and that’s the best strategy for making money.”
I didn’t want to believe this or follow this route, so I just created original, creative posts that felt like had at least the same value as the “hot and trending posts” making 100s of dollars, even though those were sometimes as simple as a recipe, a tree blooming or a new haircut.
When I started posting I got many upvotes..and usually a post would get a few cents. Then a day later someone else would like it and all of a sudden it was $10 more. A friend excitedly explained to me that it must have been a whale. A what?
After a few days of watching this and keeping my eyes open regarding what the hot and trending posts are and who is posting them, I realized that this is how Steemit seems to work:
It’s like high school running after the popular people hoping their popularity and coolness might rub off on you, or like world politics – people opportunistically ass kissing wealthier, more powerful people in order to get some of their benefits.
This system is flawed. This creates reward for opportunistic, greedy, strategic users while it also creates pressure for the “whales” to go around liking posts in order to help out others. At least this is how I would feel as a whale…obligated to help others with my wealth and power and I would probably stop creating my own creative content altogether. This couldn’t have been the original philosophy of Steemit?
Also it creates mistrust when someone leaves you a nice comment. Are they being genuine or do they want my money and influence? At least as a poor minnow I still think the comments are real, but I imagine as a whale it must feel really sleazy after a while.
I have some friends on here, real life friends who are real life incredible artists. I’m also watching their posts compared to what is hot and trending at the moment. Here you have people who have spent their lives acquiring the skills and mastery to create incredible art. Their posts are also not really given the attention they deserve and here’s another flaw in the system. Why does a post only make money for 7 days? I also can’t resteem a friend's post that is more than 7 days old. These artists often took months to create a masterpiece….and here it can only make money and be resteemed for 7 days. What about reposting the same information a few weeks later? What if it took 6 months to create a painting but because of “plagiarism” I cannot share my own painting again in a new post?
(Incredible artist friends on Steemit that really create valuable content and deserve attention: @thermoplastic, @gric, @reinhard-schmid etc.)
I have been told to look at people’s wallets. That I should resteem posts of people with lots of money in their wallets and that it would give me a kickback. Really? This is how this world works? I hesitantly looked at my friend’s wallets. It actually made me feel uncomfortable and kind of dirty, like I was invading someone’s privacy, like secretly reading their diary. I don’t like this. This shouldn’t be the reason for making friends. I will make friends based on compatibility, authenticity, integrity…like I do in the real world as well. If that makes me stupid or a loser in this Steemit world so be it, but I’ll be able to continue living my life without feeling sleazy.
I think it’s different though for people who are famous online anyway and enter this arena with a lot of fans already here. I think those people can do very well…maybe because they are immediate whales?
Another thing I don’t like about Steemit is that you cannot delete any of your older posts. What if I change in 10 years? What if I develop in a completely different direction and have new opinions, but everything I’ve posted is now a permanent online record for the rest of my life? I don’t like this control. Again, I think that perpetuates posting superficial posts that can’t get you in trouble years later (like maybe this one).
Another thing that is missing is an option to filter the contents on the page into A) resteemed articles and B) original posts of that particular user. Often I go to a page because I’m interested in that person, but have to sift through dozens of resteemed items until I can find a post that this user actually created. A filter button would be helpful.
So, I’ve decided to give this experiment one month of my time and efforts. I will continue posting, what I think are high quality, original, creative posts and see how this continues. If my above observations are correct then I’m outta here. I don’t like how Facebook censors my Fanpages, but my private Facebook posts make a lot of old friends happy and that is more important to me than making a few cents (although my best friend would say “a few cents are better than a poke in the eye” lol and I am grateful for those cents but I don’t like the way Steemit seems to be a system that mostly rewards opportunism and greed. I also think it should protect the whales better in this sense…maybe it should actually be called: whales and minnows and/or minnows in sharks clothing…).
And since posts with pictures get more attention, here is a gratuitous picture of my cat Nelly.
P.S.I’m tagging this post as #introducemyself because that seems to actually get some attention…and I’m still new. I hope the tagging police (which I later found out, after they freaked me out on my second day, aren’t actual Steemit officials anyway) will give me a break this time.
Using irrelevant tags, especially popular tags, makes it hard to find good and relevant content.
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#introduceyourself
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#steemit
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This is ridiculous. I'm pretty sure your issue with this article is not about the "blatant misuse of tags" but about its critical content. You (or your steemit police bot) pretty much confirm what's going wrong here.
Very good post again and one can easily see, how many things you say are true. At least for a big part.
Before I forget, you can access steemit also through busy.org. With the URL https://busy.org/@username you can see a persons blog, filtered by own and resteemed content 🤓
I think, your start here will very much determine your "user experience", at least in the beginning. I'm only here.. hold on, let me check... 53 days. Obviously I watched completely different tutorials, as to me it seemed pretty clear early on, that bugging whales can easily backfire.... Plus, (I guess I'm a weirdo) I do like in real life... I'm only interested in things that really interest me and that's where I put my energy.
When I started, I felt so super mini little, that I had zero expectations about making any money. I felt lucky, when people made interesting comments and there were some truly inspiring conversations. Of course I was always thankful, that my friends didn't "forget" me. Out of respect I try to always be kind, but I don't think I'm known for kissing ass... actually, when I lived in the States people often told me, I had a go to hell attitude... 😜
So, yes, all the mechanisms you describe, exist here for sure, but let me add some comments.
About things staying in the blockchain: see, when I paint a picture, I expect it to be around.. when you record a song, its the same. Even if in 10 years from now, you have a different opinion about it, the recording likely still exists. Should that fact limit you in any way? As artists we are all passionate about our work, but for me its also important, that my work will evolve and therefore change. And if something I write or do is carved in stone here (like just about everything you ever put on the web), so be it... it is what I thought or did at that time!
The issue of what is rewarded and if it is fair or not, is being heavily discussed. I must admit, that of course I'd gotten disappointed too, when I got 1.47 $ for a post that took me hours to put together and I put a lot of effort in it and I was super excited posting it full of expectation of how people will be totally amazed at my outrageous creation... well, as you so rightfully state, it simply doesn't work that way. Someone takes a photo of a ca... I mean a... bird, and whoops.. that thing is on trending and gets even more attention...
Not much different from the art market 🤡
I was thinking of that 7 day limit too yesterday. The question is, would it really make it all fair, if the time frame was longer? I might just as well only multiply the negative effects 😒
What I find... how should I say.. funny(?) is upvotes of 0,09% of some people here recently. From people with two digit amounts of steem. Hahaha... is it a slap in the face? I don't get the message.
Anyways.. there are a lot of flaws and no matter how good a system is, there are always the ones abusing it. I expect steemit to face some major challenges in the future, but so far I like being here and I certainly learned a lot.
Plus I met you here Corinna! Can't be so bad after all 😉
About the issue of wanting to delete stuff - you said it better than I could @reinhard-schmid, though I also commented on it in my own rather lengthy diatribe. Once you create something, it is out there, for better or for worse. I could think of quite a few cringe worthy paintings of mine that wound up in private collections I would rather want to get a hold of them and burn them!
Lol... I think we all have a few of those 🎃
Wow! Thank you so much for that link. Now I can see Steemit at work! It still won't let me log in and use my account but at least I can read the comments. Right now I type articles, email them to myself, run into the hallway, post them with the app on my phone (a real pain in the ass to type on this thing). Will write more later. Thanks!
Busy has some nice features... wonder why you can't log in. Shouldn't distract you from your job though 🙂
You are right @reinhard-schmid - I checked out Busy and logged in. But what I said in my comment to this post was confirmed by checking the tag 'art' on Busy: you can scroll until your fingers bleed until you find something that actually warrants the tag, and further until you find something that without hesitation you can actually vote for and/or resteem. I just done so with one artist, @muhammadfajarm who, like so many of the Asian artists I had met on the internet, has exceptional technical skills.
What I do like about Busy is that I can do what Coco was asking for: filter the posts.
Its that filtering feature I like the best!
@corinnaherden - you should be able to log in: I just did!
Coco,
Your observations were correct, this system absolutely is flawed! It's basically a model of a corporate oligarchy, quite like the system of today's western society. There are e few in power whose "steem-wealth" is very visible in the trending section of Steemit, where you often can't believe for what they just earned hundreds of $! And then there is the rest of 95%, mostly "Minnows" whose rewards and visibility is minimal, and the middle-class "dolphins".
Who are these "whales"? It's people who were involved in the creation of Steemit, investors who bought themselves in, and it's all those users who were here from the beginning actively contributing because they saw the potential in it. Now these people collected (or bought) their "Steem Power" which is basically a share of Steemit, quite like in the stock market. The more shares you have the more power you have. Some use their power to vote for themselves and their (whale) friends to generate profit (see the trending section), some use it for supporting content they really like. Others use it for "corrective" purposes like downvoting plagiarism or content they consider abusive, some sell their power to minnows for fake upvotes, some don't do anything because they have so much shares that they just can sit and watch their profit growing (just go on a wallet of a 1mill. whale, keep reloading the page every couple of seconds and watch the numbers). All in all it is about attention, money and power - the fundamental ingredients of our current society. But show me a better system! If I see Steemit as a "corporate oligarchy" then facebook is a "corporate autocracy". On Steemit everybody can earn money, it's not easy but it is possible. On fb only fb earns all the money. On fb you earn "likes", and if you are lucky like myself to have a few hundreds of thousands followers you can use it as a self-promotion platform. Well, actually not anymore since they are blocking you if you don't pay for earning THEIR billions!
Now since it is real value involved here, not just "likes" and shit, and also because of the transparency of the blockchain, you can get another perspective on some people's characters. Yes, you see such a pitiful behavior like some "minnow" artists creating portraits of "whales", or eagerly commenting everything they post, licking their asses in order to snatch a bit of their attention. It's disgusting, but this is likewise happening everywhere in the real world. Only it's not so blatantly visible as it is here. As beautifully the Steemit network was constructed by its inventors, it's still populated by people with all their flaws. It's a simplified sandbox model of our society.
But still, I see a lot of potential and a lot of interesting content here because the standard is much higher than anywhere else - despite some of the overvalued crap in the trending section. If you keep posting interesting content more and more people will find and value you, even "whales". It just will take more than a week!
Cheers,
P
Thank you. You are 100% right and you explained it beautifully. It's just a mirror of the real world but here we still have a chance as opposed to facebook just using our content for their own profit making. I'll give it a chance! Thanks for taking the time to write.
Well said, as always Peter! I particularly like how you point out the problems, but also state, that its still the better alternative to other platforms. And yes, kind of like the "real world". But even if our western system is far from perfect or just, I don't think I'd like to live somewhere else...
Hi Coco,
we talked about this elsewhere, and yes, I agree with what you are saying. I am not in it for the money, and I have no use for those that are using strategy to make more money but lack content and, for the most part, are boring, if in fact they post anything at all of their own. I am talking about the strategy of curating (resteeming) at just the right time to piggyback on someones effort whithout putting anything of value of their own into it. It goes as far as resteeming stuff that is boring and irrelevant, but it is a 'whale', so resteeming it makes you money too! Then there is steem, steem, steem .... a good percentage of the posts here that make money are about steem, cryptocurrency and more steem. Its like being stuck in a mirror cabinet where it is hard to find the exit!
Talking about value: is my post of a video I cobbled together in 20 minutes and posted with just a sentence worth roughly half of my previous post that describes one of my key artworks in detail, with many illustrations, it's influences and history; a post I labored hard for one afternoon to put together and carefully editing and formatting - to earn what: 26 cents! So I made something like 4 cents an hour, lol
But as I had said often enough, it is not for the money, but for sharing stuff with others that can appreciate what you do. The thing is, the focus is on money, so who wants to "waste" their time checking posts where they cannot make any money from (resteeming) or get anything in return for upvoting (because I sometimes have no voting power - on occasion it is 1 cent, but mostly nada, so my votes account for nothing). So if you are in it for the money, you are not going to waste your time on my posts.
But as I observed, this is not much different in other social networks - but Steemit has the additional money factor that influences people - in other networks I had, similar to my post of a silly video here, often gotten more 'likes' for simply posting a utterly stupid meme, than for anything I had put much time and effort into it.
Your comparison to a Highschool popularity contest is right in many ways.
But I disagree with the subject you raised about deleting posts: "What if I change in 10 years?" - I said it before: even if deleted, nothing that has been posted on the internet completely disappears (it could have been copied and stored somewhere by someone else - I do this with videos for example that have a tendency to disappear from You Tube for a variety of reasons).
As long as you can edit your post, you can always replace the content with a photo of your cat 🐱- but after that, tough luck 💩
That said, I applaud those that create content that is valuable, innovative, interesting and shows effort. If such posts make hundreds, I am not jealous: I am happy for them, they deserve it and more! 💰
Also, a big 👍 for your filter suggestion about filtering original content. And as you observed, there are those that rarely (if ever) post anything of their own, but live off resteeming. And when you find something the posted after scrolling forever, it is out of date.
Talking about ART: if you go to the category, how much scrolling do you have to do to find something that has remotely something to do with art (but people use the tag because it is "popular") and if you find art under art, you still have to sift through it to find something you can actually relate to and is a good post. Maybe people would call me elitist for making such a comment. But seriously: we are not in kindergarten here where everyone gets a pat on the head and a gold star.
In summary, lets give it a chance. I am disgusted with Facebook (as anyone knows that reads my posts) and I was hoping to have a better experience here.
🤗 hugs
I must have pissed off a whale somewhere because some of my posts lost $8 overnight. Hmmm I'm not so sure I like this world...being at the mercy of unknown whales who can make or break you. The real world is full enough of strange hierarchies. It really feels like high school here. I agree with how our recordings and art on here forever, that's ok, but I don't think I'll post about more personal and sensitive stuff on here....especially if the audience can be so hateful. I'd rather do that on facebook where I control my audience. I'm not so sure about this. Got a real bitter taste in my mouth this morning. I never followed the high school crowd. It was the same feeling of disgust
And it was on my absolute best: a video of me as a mermaid swimming with a whale shark. You've got to be fucking kidding me to take away votes on that one. That video is totally amazing. What an asshole...whoever did that.
Hey Corinna. I just wrote a post recently, that treated some of the same issues you touch on here, - especially the following discussion. I agree with many of the absurdities you describe, maybe especially the time it takes to create art - compared to the minute time frame you have to share it here. I was just recently talking to my wife (who's a singer, who finally released an album after about 1,5 years hard work). About five of her 1000+ friends on Facebook listened to it - and one person actually bought it. My point being, that people rarely appreciate the efforts we put into things. Contemporary society seems used to instant gratification - and spending time appreciating something by getting to know it, seems a rare commodity. Not just on Steemit, but in general. Steemit's structure may simply be a reflection of that: a sign of the times, if you will. Anyway - thanks for an exciting read, and feel free to take part in the debate on the other post here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@initforthemoney/steemit-s-three-major-problems
wow - you brought this to the point! I checked your post 👍🏼, upvoted and resteemed (for whatever my vote is worth) and am following you!
I agree. I'm an opera singer. If you watch my intro video it's all about that. It's the same, I post an amazing recording and 12 people will watch it. I post some goofy meme and it will get 100 votes.
I joined Steemit in June. (This is my second account. I discuss this here.)
For two long months, I tried different posts to see what kind of content drew the upvotes. I decided, though, that I was in it for the long haul and that I was going to figure it out. I finally carved out a niche writing detailed tutorials about things I know; however, I was missing being able to write more spontaneous content. So, here I am.
Steemit is not without flaws. You must consider that it is still really new...barely over a year old, I think. We are freaking pioneers.
I am an advocate of Steemit is what you make it. People who tell you to follow whales, comment on their posts, and basically kiss ass are idiots. You should follow people that interest you. You should comment when you feel you have something to lend to the conversation. Anything else is fake.
We are all here because the monetary incentives are compelling. Our secondary reason should drive our content. The community here is unique. People are kind and helpful rather than nasty like you might see on Reddit or in the comments on YouTube. Being nasty doesn't pay.
I am here to write. Period. Paragraph.
I'm going to write regardless. If I never make another cent and no one ever reads another word, I'm still going to write. I can do it on my own website and never see a comment or any engagement at all, or I can do it on Steemit and make a few cents in the process...maybe even a few dollars.
It's easy to pick out the flaws, but what you want to do is pick your schtick. What's your "thing"? If you have multiple things, which one gets the best response on Steemit? Do that...a lot. More than likely, 20% of what you post is going to make up 80% of your revenue. It's just the lay of the land in this millennial world.
I hope you won't abandon the effort.
Agreed what you said about posting on your website. I also have a couple of blogs - nary any comment on them though, and of course no earnings, lol. So Steemit it is. I am just now thinking of embedding Steemit on my websites (those where this is possible - like websites built on the Wix platform).
Yeah, my sites are on WordPress, and I noticed that SteemTools.com had a plugin to display my Steemit posts over there. I may have to give it a try. Why not?
didn't know about that, thanks for the link, another one for my bookmarks - cheers 🍺
Cool! I'm happy to help!
I don't know...some whale just took away their votes on my posts. They dropped 8$ overnight...and the one where I'm swimming as a mermaid with a whale shark is pretty crazy. Right now I think I want to leave. I don't like the high school popularity contest dynamics.
With respect you just have to get over yourself and get involved if you wanna be involved. If you want to have a bigger stake, either earn it by interacting with the community, or turn yourself into a bigger player by investing actual money in the platform to increase the weight of your own voting and vote for yourself and your friends. The system is open to 'abuse', okay, but it is open for anyone to 'abuse it', so is it really abuse or just the way the system works? I am sorry to say it, but this sounds like whining from where I'm sitting, forgive me if I am mistaken. I hope you stick with it and spend time working out what the platform is about, what it can do, and most importantly, what you can do with it and for it. We are all stakeholders, ultimately.
I find it interesting that posts like these begin with "with respect"...and then "get over yourself". I don't actually have to read further because just that has unmasked your character. I did of course read it and I disagree. You obviously haven't bothered reading about my experiences here. It was unethical and rude.
Steem dropped overnight. The amounts on your posts and in your wallet will fluctuate with the market. It's just the way cryptocurrency works. I don't fully understand it...I just know it fluctuates.
omg lol those videos and advice ruined it for a bit I hope
I agree with most you wrote but the #introduceyourself tag can only be used once wish there are a "re-introduceyourself" or "iforgotthisaboutmyself" lol...
Steemit is not about this
We are fighting spammers, scammers and blood sucking beggers lol
I will end up writing half a book but I don't have time instead I will direct you to some good steemians doing amazing works helping out bew artists and creators here
@sammosk and his #creativecomp tag (competition)
@cem and @ocd and the #wtf tag (Who To Follow)
you would set your foot right and will meet and make friends with common interests
Hopefully you will change your mind...
and remember Steemit is still in beta so it will change for the better hopefully especially that 7 days theory lol
thats all for me now
welcome again!!
There is an unspoken rule that the introduceyourself tag should only be used for your introductory post, but you can use it as many times as you like. That's the thing, there are people on Steemit who want to tell you how to use it and impose rules that do not exist.
I think of Steemit as an innovation platform. You should try a couple of those tags, they might catch on!
I have no compassion for spammers and scammers, but beggars are another story. I've seen some legit cases on Steemit where people need help, and if I can upvote their post, what has it cost me? Nothing.
Grant it, my upvote isn't worth hardly anything, but if I feel someone is in need, I will use the tools available. I sent one fellow a small donation to help keep him out of a nursing home. In this case, this guy had made great contributions to Steem mainly in the form of two full-length novels serialized on a daily basis.
It's a matter of personal discernment.
I agree with your suggestions regarding the great work of @sammosk, @cem, etc.
Steemit is what you make it. Shape it to your liking.
yes ofcourse @quietdeluxe people in need of help are not beggars and should be helped by any means possible...I was talking about the "followmefollowyou" "please upvote me" the " please" type of people which I also feel compassionate about don't get me wrong but if we start giving to the "please" people everytime (sometimes you give out of compassion and karma/kudos) we would be all broke everytime lol...instead show me that you have an idea, a project or that you are having a humanitarian situation...I always tend to make long comments ..dangit! on the steemit rules part I think there is a guide somewhere here to how to behave which I think people tend to skip a lot and end up disappointed later but also you are right...it is not clear because often times you make posts talking about yourself so here is my syggestions:
...it\s all good tho I like steemit we got to watch that it won't get worse that's the most important thing...I am with small, slow but steady progress...it's ok with me! :) thank you for commenting, wish you a lovely day!! :)
It sometimes feels like virtual busking.
Stay steemy.
As a fairly new user on tha wacky Steemit, I have shared your frustration sweet @corinnaherden ! In fact, many others have....I realized quickly though that you cannot expect to make hand-over-fist $green$ here and have resigned myself to just enjoy the interactions for what pleasurable experience they are - and that has been worthwhile for me. It's a waste of time to me to k!$$ any whale @$$ (!) - I tell it like is and have had some enlightening discussions. I see a lot of talented and intelligent people post here who I learn from and, for me, that makes Steemit an enjoyable platform to engage in.
Recently I peeked at my wallet and see it decreased from $200+ in "value" to just $160, despite adding 40 "followers" (what the!!!) - I consider myself to be among the biggest 'crypto-dummies' here and frankly just don't get this blockchain business! I still come back for the good people who are here however, and hope you do the same.
Rock On / STEEM On Always,
The values in your wallet will fluctuate according to the value of STEEM and SBD which you can follow here:
These fluctuations are the nature of the beast.
I completely agree with you... I'm also one week now on Steem and I gave up of making money dreams, I'm here to post my original contents and read what is interesting to me.
Ditch the idea of making money in favour of helping the community to grow. And anyway give it time, you've only been on a week!
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