And how are you planning to do this? Or to rephrase, what will change?
Different Projects that have the primary goal of bringing value to Steem.
If it means just more features to smartsteem and more "Steem is fine, we just have to believe together" posts
No. This post was created to keep the energy and positivity up on Steem. The 70% lay off is huge and should be taken seriously, but Steem is much more than Steemit. Don't you think it's important to act as a positive leader for the community?
Smartsteem will, of course, be maintained and kept on an innovative level. This project gives me the ability to work on projects which don't have a revenue stream and have the single goal of bringing value to Steem
For all of my current projects, check this out: https://therealwolf.me/projects
For future projects, follow me and watch out for posts :)
Also, some could argue that bid bots have made this place the ghost town it is, I've noticed the change in my behavior since I started to sell votes. Probably about 80% drop in manual voting is the result, I wonder if the effect is common.
If it weren't for promotion services, I would have left Steem very early. Who wants to be on a platform where manual curation is flawed and the chance of being seen is based on the luck of having a stakeholder rewarding your post.
Sorry for being a bad cheerleader, I only have little stake here. For the first time ever, I'm afraid Steem will be a total failure though. Seeing Ned's incompetence as a leader and now 70% layoffs despite huge ninja mine. If Steemit inc ceases to exist, which could happen, since Ned's talking about wanting to survive already, I wonder will Steem cease to exist with it? How decentralized are we really? I know there's very little blockchain development happening outside Steemit Inc, but reading how it literally takes millions to run their systems, should we all be powering down before it's too late?
I understand and I can sympathize. Fact is, words are worth nothing. So instead of me trying to explain everything, let me work on bringing value to Steem, before it's too late.
I mean this respectfully. That line bothers me. ACTING and DOING are two different things. I'm not singling you out, I know there are more, like you.
If I wanted your support, I'd have to purchase it. I get it. Maybe you look at us and see money instead of people. I don't know what you see.
You can ACT like a leader here, and say the right things, all you want. When will you be able to see the damage your services have done to this community? Specifically, I'm talking about the vote selling and bidbot. You're not the only one, and I know this, but I'm talking to you right now. How have you been able to maintain the ignorance it takes to NOT be able to see the problems voteselling and bidbots have caused? As someone who offers a service that is actively harming the community, for profit, how do you see yourself as a leader? Who are you leading?
This thought also came to my mind. It just seems so paradoxical.
There's no community involved at all when it comes to deciding what posts gets to trend on Steem.
Thank you for voicing this
I mean this respectfully
If you'd open your eyes and stop living in your bubble of Steemit 2016, you'd realize that I'm actually DOING a lot.
I don't want and need to be the leader for everyone. Those who find that my message resonates with them can follow me and those who don't, can do something else.
And you know - you're making a lot of assumptions against me. Just because voteselling & bid-bots don't fit in your world, doesn't give you the right to act as if I'm the profit-driven, unhuman and unemphatic IDGAF devil on Steem.
How about you actually read my posts? Do I write valuable and honest content, or not?!
Read the comments of this post, you're seeing a lot of people who find my post inspiring, who said that it gave them energy and removed their fear & uncertainty. Would they have seen it, without me promoting it? Probably not.
I see the problem of abuse of promotion-services and I'm in favour of implementing a downvote-pool. This would solve the problem of promotion abuse.
Every time I'm seeing one of your comments, it's full of sarcastic, negative energy. And I'm done arguing with someone like that.
If you want to ignore all the other flaws in the system, which gave their fair share on turning away users from Steem, (circle voting, unfair stake distribution, horrible content discovery, low quality of content, spammers) then do that. But don't expect for me to give you any more of my time.
And I mean this respectfully
I was truly hoping you wouldn't take my response and questions personally. I'm sorry that it comes across as sounding negative, that was not my intention and coming to you with respectful intentions was not sarcasm, I truly meant it but knew full well my questions might take you out of your comfort zone. I'm sorry for putting you on the spot.
I've been here since 2016 but I do not live in a bubble for I have been here since 2016 meaning 2017 and now nearly all of 2018 exist as well. I'm fully capable of being able to see problems, regardless of what year it is. If it offends you that I've been here since then, I'm sorry.
One of the biggest problems I've faced since I've been here is the fact that when I come to these places to express myself, I'm consistently struck down and shunned by those who I'm attempting to speak to. It has become frustrating and some of that frustration has been visible in comments I've left around here and there. I am not ashamed of being frustrated, nor am I proud of how these discussions turn out.
I do. I recently started following you. I even took the time to leave a lighthearted comment in the form of a meme for a recent post you did asking for a meme.
I think I now know why you blew me off. The meme was a joke. I typically write humorous comments and have a lot of fun here. We don't get to see that so much on the trending page here, when I speak to anyone. I'm actually a humorist, most days, and an artist as well. Most visit my blog to have fun and smile. It's unfortunate that I can't seem to be that guy here, in this space.
I realize now, speaking to you was a bad idea, and I will stop.
Have a good day.
I respect and appreciate your comment. I guess we started on the wrong foot. I only want the best for Steem, if I could fix all of Steem's problem right now, making it as good as possible for User to be active here, then I would.
But there are multiple depths levels to it, including blockchain relevant coding changes requiring hardforks, which is difficult.
And I actually saw your meme, maybe that's why I took it personal as I thought we were over this topic. The last thing I want on a positive post, is someone questioning my ethics. Especially since I'm all in on Steem.
So, with that said: I apoligize for understanding your comment the wrong way and hope we can start over fresh.
So would I.
So am I.
Good idea.
If everyone, whatever role they play, from all walks of life, here, could meet on the same level, instead of working against each other, or thinking their way is somehow the only way or the better way, we'd be on to something. That's where I've always stood, even though it might not look like it on the surface.
There are things I'd like to say, but until the whole positive/negative everything is black or white; good or bad; up or down; here or there mentality is thrown out the window and replaced with something more realistic, those things cannot be said.
I'll see you around.
Silencing dissent is your answer to criticism?
Again, I appreciate you taking time to answer my lengthy post. Earns my respect for sure even if we might think differently on certain topics involving Steem.
You kind of answered your own question with "Fact is, words are worth nothing." - When I go to trending I'd rather just see some interesting content that community has upvoted through organic curation rather than "positive posts to read when the price is down". Well, I'd settle for just interesting content since bid bots dominate trending :) Imagine if Reddit was a publicly traded company and when the price of its stock plummets for a while, their trending would be filled with "feel good" posts suddenly. I know it would drive many users away and fast. I'd like this place to also serve people who don't actually have stake in here already. That's why I don't like bid bots, the normal end user gets the short end of the stick with them.
Yes, the manual curation was flawed since many stakeholders chose self voting or voting circles instead of actual real curation. These people also happened to be ones with biggest stakes so it set a bad example for everyone. We need to offer a solution where passive investors can have their rewards without messing up the content discovery process, where real people vote on content that a) They actually like b) They think others will enjoy
I think the idea of dividing Steem Power to two camps, passive and active is one of the best ideas I've heard so far that could solve this huge problem.
Has bid bots improved curation? Who wants to be on platform where trending shows posts that just have paid the most? Isn't that just plain advertising? We could call it promotion yes, but there's no difference other than the term used or is there?
That's not the only negative effect bid bots have. I'm sure you've heard them all but most probably haven't seen all the cons. Top promoted posts set certain expectations for people, and when their own posts don't meet them, it makes many feel very negative vibes, the opposite you're trying to bolster with your post here and they'll just leave when they see the system inherently as unfair and broken. At this state buying votes is almost required to have any change of hitting top 20 trending, so we're requiring new users to pay to comment and post and then pay hundreds to have their post seen on trending. How attractive is that on its own? Yes, rewards are paid back but it's still an obstacle.
I'm not even going to bother listing more cons since this reply would turn into a book rather than a comment.
I hope your new projects as big success as Smartsteem, keep up the good work. I hope you consider this input when it comes to deciding on what to improve next :)
It's true - I used to do quality content for this platform until I realized it was completely rigged - So I resorted to shit posting because it really doesn't matter for a little guy either way. The system literally makes you have to find other reasons to stay other than a chance at trending,or reward. Otherwise you feel like shit for putting in the work and not seeing anything come from it.
Painful truth that no one wants to say out loud, because it doesn't get upvotes. But here, have one from me. We need more real talk here