Your dystopic vision is coming true. Big whales downvoting little minnows into oblivion so that the Steem elite can maintain power and control of the blockchain. The power is so drastically unbalanced in favor of the "rich" elite that's all we see in Trending. I would have powered down completely and left by now except that the HF stopped all power downs (how fucking convenient) and now I must wait ANOTHER 13 weeks before I can take my $50 and go. My original investment? Over $5,000. You people really suck.
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I'm not here to defend steemit inc and I have some issues as well like the new 20 steem rule and I guess time will tell what happens however you worded your message like whales are going after small fish when from what I've seen they are going after people who they think are abusing the platform, including big fish like haejin for example who has been milking this platform for a LONG time and he's one of the biggest fish on here and was recently basically shut down and prevented from continuing that kind of behavior.
I don't necessarily disagree with bidbots myself, but from my understanding some of the whales are going after bidbot users(And others they see as abusing the system), not small users. Bidbot users(And abusers). Big difference there.
I've actually seen a lot of positive stuff happening since the recent Hardfork and I had made a post when that happened suggesting it might have been the "Worst Hardfork ever". I'm somewhat behind the scenes and friends with some of the bigger names on this platform including some of the bigger critics and I haven't seen this much positivity in a long time.
I never invested anything and have earned around 5k steem without paying a single penny. My father however has invested a similar amount that you did and that is concerning to me. At this point I don't know what's going to happen, you might be right but I kind of have a feeling the value is going to start going back up now that so many people aren't abusing the system as much anymore and leeching value from it.
I'm not here to give any advice and I suggest you follow your heart, however it would be a shame if you spent 5k and then cashed out for 50 dollars and then things went back up. I'm personally going to wait at least until SMTs come out and see what happens before I try to do anything and I think this is going to be a long game, not a short one. It may be years before we see a major change, but I DO tend to think steemit is going to be around for years to come and that it's not going to die soon.
Who knows what will happen, I guess time will tell. Sorry to hear you're so jaded about things and I don't blame you. Though I do still think things might turn around even if it takes a while. And I mean if you lost $4,950 or more in value, what's another $50? I think you'll prolly be kicking yourself if steem does end up going back up.
Anyways... Peace and good luck to you.
Well, in all fairness, if you spent $5000 and a few years later the platform still has only a little over 11,000 users that are minnow and above you might be pretty unhappy about that.
As @artopium points out, the whales are keeping each other rewarded or rewarding in very small circles most of the time. If they were really spreading their votes around it would likely not be just 11,000+ in minnow and above. But the disparity due to small vote circles is keeping Steem small, while in the short-term being profitable to whales. That is a legitimate issue for someone to complain about.
I never said there wasn't anything to complain or be unhappy about.
The things you mentioned are concerns.
Though I have seen some data that suggests the amount of centralization of whales is diminishing and that smaller users are becoming bigger users.
Also since the recent HF I've personally noticed on my page and others a lot more whale votes going around to smaller users as well.
Time will tell what happens, though I'm seeing a lot of positive signs.