When the reputation system released, we were all excited.
I figured that even though I hadn’t received the blessing of a whale yet, this new tool could help me gain a following. My rating of five seemed pretty good, until I checked a friend’s, who was at 6. This led to realize because she had received two medium payouts, she had a higher reputation because while I’d gotten plenty more (human) uptucks, I’d never broken $3. So you might be thinking,
The problem is that with the way that reputation is structured, it's only an indicator of previously high payouts, rather than acting as a counterweight to whale voting. By this, I mean that whales now have double the impact, as not only do they reward payout for that post alone, they also have a lot of power in raising your reputation, rewarding future post. Unfortunately, the only way to raise your reputation with any significance is the same as the only way to get a big payout – getting lucky by catching a whale. This is because the reputation rewarded is tied to the steem power of the voter, instead of being representative of quantity of upvotes. This leads to another problem, which comes as a result of reputation's current design.
The result is that the rich get richer.
When you see an author with an eight, you think, “Wow, they must produce great content.” That’s not the issue – I’m sure they do have quality content. The problem is the barriers of entry for new creators are raised substantially. If whales start to only read 8’s, then nobody else is going to reach 8 except with a huge amount of dolphin upvotes. This isn't to say they'll filter their views based on rating, but the fact is higher ratings will bring higher views, tilting the scales in the favor of those who grew big on Steemit early. This can discourage new users, for it's very difficult to gain the same attention, even if appealing to the little guys. To illustrate my point, even if you have 1000’s of minnow upvotes, you still won’t have the reputation granted by a whale. This also hurts the curation aspect, as minnows already didn't have much of an effect on payout, but again, now that is doubly so when they can't influence reputation to any real effect.
As you might infer from my discussion above, I propose to make it upvote-based, to counter-balance earnings. This will help new authors out, because while they may not get the attention of whales, they can still develop their reputation on the site, especially if they go through the motions of marketing, networking, and promotion. Whales would still influence article views through payouts, but this would let the little guys help others get views too.
So that's my analysis of the problem and my idea of the solution. If you have another idea, I'd love for you to share. I hope you enjoyed my article, and feel free to check out my other content.
(Author’s Note: To clarify, this article is not raising issue with payouts or the influence of whales on payouts, but trying to refocus the reputation system to help newer creators and allow minnows to have somewhat more of a voice)
Steem power is for sale to anyone that wants to buy some (click the menu button in the top-right corner and select "buy steem"). If having more voting weight is so important to someone, they might consider investing in the future of the platform and putting some skin in the game.
I think you've misunderstood the article. New authors shouldn't be told to buy steem, that's not a reasonable vision for the platform.
Who are you to say what a reasonable vision for the platform? The people who designed it did so according their own preferences and values. It's a capitalist marketplace, not some hippie commune where everyone's entitled to stuff just because they exist.
right and as we all know the world is completely fair and everyone has millions laying around. My god the hypocrisy sometimes.
I upvote U
Most of us started out as plankton... Remember that.
We're all fish here, minnows is usually referred to as smallest on steemit
I started off as Plankton
Follow you is to Follow me @bullionstackers
The minnows do deserve a voice, which is why I have been going around throwing my penny vote at so many of them! My curation rewards suck because Ive no voting power left.
Even with 100% power, it's tough to get curation. Thanks for your input!
@azas - stop trying to get curator rewards
They are very little rewards unless you are a whale .
Best to look out for (5) (6) (7) posts
Rather than (7) (8) (9) - they don't have time to replies n return you back with UPVOTES
@justtryme90
Leave it off for 24 hours, stop doing UPVOTES , power will be regaining over time.
I stopped doing UPVOTES , not all posts are Upvoted .
Follow You is to Follow Me @bullionstackers
Give it a bit of time. I am pretty sure I saw a post by @dantheman that said the reputation system will be evolving. I have faith there will be some type of balance found. It is a step in the right direction.
I have faith in Steemit, that's for sure, just would like to help with ideas where I can
#PowerForMinnows
World is sadly a very unfair place, but hey atleast you get to share your opinions on an almost anonymous basis ? And you even get a couple of cents for it !! That's what I call #winning.
It's not about being fair, it's about encouraging new authors - if we don't offer encouragement to new users, the platform will stagnate and die.
I'm interested in this discussion, but also very new so if I mis-speak please help correct my errors of understanding. If it were tied strictly to upvotes, would it not be vulnerable to bot abuse?
As it is, bots are getting vanquished pretty quickly, or at least flagged to hell. Perhaps only upvotes with a positive reputation?
Agreed :)