During the past few days, I've had the growing realization that this platform is dangerous for my mental health. Ever since I joined Steemit I've dealt with some pretty strong emotions. There has been lots on enthusiasm and excitement, the occasional RAGE, but most annoyingly I've felt this constant, aching frustration! And it came from a combination of things.
The first was probably my perfectly human envy at seeing other people make more money than I am, and some of them on pretty poor content.
Another thing that bothered me was the uncertainty in my ability: are my posts not good enough or is this system not acknowledging my GENIUS? (insert laughing emoji)
Besides, every time I wrote an article I felt a bit like it was Christmas Eve. You expect something magical to happen in the morning, then you wake up to realize you have no friends and don't believe in Santa. So you got NOTHING!
Recently I discovered the voting bots and guess what? Now I'm losing money paying them to make sure you guys get to read what I write, because hey, I believe in myself!
A couple of days ago I politely argued with a few people in the comments of this post: https://steemit.com/steemit/@corina/a-little-encouragement-for-newbies-and-minnows about the issues and needs of Steemit. It is still a young platform, and even though I believe in its potential, I can clearly see that many users are giving up; and for good reason.
When you get introduced to this place you first hear about the reward system, and you're pretty sure you'll get rich. With big expectations, disappointment is even greater when you face the above mentioned experiences.
In order for Steemit to grow, we don't just need to get more new users, but to find a way to keep them!
A lot of posts have been published about this, and no whales have gotten involved. So I ask you fellow Steemians to do a brainstorm and share ideas on how to fix the issues on this platform! If we work together, we can do it ourselves!
The perfect mindset here is if you earn something its just a bonus. I created a blog before, the 7 reasons why low payout is not the reasons to quit... Hope you read it buddy
https://steemit.com/steemit/@hiroyamagishi/7-reasons-that-low-payout-is-not-the-reason-to-give-up-on-steemit
I concur 100%! Steemit can be soul crushing.
You're led to believe that if you post good content, you will be rewarded. So when you do and hardly anyone respond to your Blog, you wonder why are you wasting your time, if no one sees or ignores you just because you're a minnow.
There's lack of integrity on this site, I believe. New Steemians leave in droves because they're led to believe this is totally different than posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: here you get paid for your efforts and it turns out to be false. It doesn't meet up with the claims on the package.
Then you're told that if want to be successful and have your Blog grow, you have to buy all sorts of things like bots, SP, upvotes. This isn't authentic...this is pure desperation.
Where are the Whales and Dolphins as this massacre is taking place? Why are they not reaching out to the little guys? Their pond will become become murky eventually if they don't welcome new fish and give them a taste of the bait.
So yes, I've been desperate and sent 0.700 SBD to hugewhale and received absolutely nothing in return. Another soul crushing moment! But I didn't give up. I sent another 0.700 SBD to some other service that promised the sky and received .55 and perhaps 5 upvotes. What a laugh...how was that worth 0.700SBD? Perhaps it is... I'm still doing the calculations but just look at the figures! Any idiot can see that this don't add up!
Anyhow, I'm not one to surrender!
I still like the potential of this platform and determined to grow with it.
Now if only Whales and Dolphins pull their finger out....
PEACE...OUT
Thank you for your comment. Yea I think the biggest problem is the high financial expectations people come here with. Everyone expects to make a lot of money and don't focus on blogging like they would on any other site. Unfortunately bots only help you get your posts seen, and you can lose money using them. I am at the moment!
But what can be explained for the ones making shitty post and people actually upvote them. They said in their banner that you get rewarded for good content they should be doing that
Thanks for sharing your experiences, we will learn from you and continue to promote steem, i think if we expect less and participate more we will get more out of this platform
Yeah this platform isn't the simplest in the world but on the bright side I think I may have a "decent" understanding of it. I also made a few less negative comments that are waiting on my bot army that is waiting on funding to arrive. Hard to compete with a $10 steem hater post but I can still try. lol You should do another similar post in the introduceyourself section next month when I am stronger and ready for the post to arrive. Feel free to upvote this stellar post at 100% and earn some creation rewards if you can beat me and one of my bot soldiers.
Let say we share our upvotes 50% opvoting our post and 50% upvoting good (OT TRENDING, BOT UPVOTED) posts, what do you say?
Hehe Your account sure does not look like someone who does not make money on steemit :P
Also i have noticed people who have little SP tend to give to new users. i give atleast one or two every day in the introduce yourself segment. but its the ones with the serious money who don't share. I am not really surprised. Thats just how it is in real life. Why would Steemit be any different. Steemit too is part of society and thus will reflect the values that society at large promotes....
(upvoted for visibility, please don't flag )
The money that is shown is what she has bought from bid-bots. That's what she means when she wrote "Recently I discovered the voting bots and guess what? Now I'm losing money paying them to make sure you guys get to read what I write, because hey, I believe in myself!"
You pay with your own money for bots to upvote you, like that you get on the trending page and you get seen. But, you pay for it.
I just joined Steemit, and it is pretty overwhelming. How do you make your voice heard in a crowd that is roaring (with artificial bot produced roars)... I am intrigued to see how it goes. Thanks for this honest post.
I agree that there's definitely a learning curve with Steemit. Do your due diligence, and never betray your 'gut'. This is not a utopian society; so, imagine it being real-world...a whole lot of good people and the occasional shade-sters mingled in who are all about scamming you out of your earnings...But, as a world traveller and crypto pro, you're too smart for that...Lol..Let's hope so, anyway.
Just enjoy Steemit as you would any other social-media platform. What sets STEEM platforms apart is that, potentially you get a tip for your efforts. These efforts add up and can be used as trading for other crypto, or just letting it grow as STEEM.
The bots are a thorn; but, really not so much, once it becomes clear that the actual value of the payout is inflated.
Best regards.
Peace.
Great post @corina
This place is a cross between Twitter, a rate my picture site and a role playing game! All very addictive but put them together and you turn into an obsessive lunatic! :) My wife now wakes up at 2am to find me tapping out a reply on my phone.
Obsessive or not, I still enjoy it.
Gaz
Man! Seriously. It’s great fun though .. even if no one reads it
It is kind of sad when no one reads your post but I still live in hope that, one day, I'm going to get 500 views on a piece of writing!
Is there a flying Pig emoji anywhere?
This is amazing! I've had (have!) the exact same feelings like you and you have been one of the people that I was jealous of because you seemed to earn so much money, lol!
And I know how you feel, I'm in a period where I feel the same thing. I don't want to put out my heart and soul in my articles just to get absolutely nothing back, so how to do it? Don't have an answer to it, was thinking to try to do the "nice" bots, @randowhale etc. Will see if that would give any results. I found one whale though who has the same opinion as us minnows and is trying to find a solution: https://steemit.com/steemit/@yallapapi/hey-steemit-whales-how-d-you-like-to-fix-all-of-steemit-s-problems-and-make-bank-by-doing-absolutely-nothing
Btw, your articles are really good, the kind of quality content that Steemit is meant for.
Thank you so much for your comment. Yeah, I haven't made any money since 2 years ago, when I was lucky enough to find Steemit early on and make some SP. I hope people who know more about how this platform works can come up with ideas on how to make it fairer.
Wow, interesting. I've only been on here for three weeks, I've posted some articles (and got somehow lucky and earned money on one of them, I didn't do anything for it) and then came across some other posts about the experience of other people on here. So I did some more research before I put too much work for nothing to see how I best go ahead with this, and I'm still in the process.
But you mean that your 61 points in reputation came in the beginning and that's it? Was the platform different then/ it was easier to be seen? And the reputation doesn't help you to get seen? I thought that if you are a whale (based on reputation, and for me 61 means "whale") you automatically get more coverage, but maybe that's not the case? And how is your "advertising campaign" working out btw? Is it worth paying bots?
Personally, I really like the idea of Steemit and I understand that it's just in the beginning so not everything can be perfect (and you seem to be of the same opinion), and I've been trying to see if there is anything that I /minnows can do, so we don't just sit around waiting for someone else to fix the problem. We are part of the community too in the end. Although I can see that that opinion is maybe very naive and many of the minnows/ people who don't earn money already have tried a lot of things.
The question then is: Does anyone earn any money on Steemit or is all of the post on the trending page bid-bots?
The reputation comes from writing and getting likes and comments, not necessarily from the amount of money you have. I'm also a minnow, very very far from whale. Whales are usually accounts that have hundreds of thousands SP. Dolphins are considered any accounts with around 50 thousand SP.
People who earn a lot on steemit are the ones who already have a lot of SP or a huge number of followers. When you SP is high you get bigger curation reward for any vote, or you can delegate the SP to bots and they pay you for it. I hope this makes sense
Ah, ok, then I understand. I'm working on some idea how to earn money with Steemit, if you follow me you'll get it in the feed when I post it. (Or maybe you have enough of Steemit and want to just leave it)
:) nice post
We're already getting there; steemit is growing rapidly; it's a huge plus
Ita a wonderful post, thanks to share your great thinking.
Same thing is happening in kr community also
excellent friend. You have all my support, I hope you support me to keep growing
I didn't mean to come across as a jerk yesterday, hopefully you understand what I meant. :) I wasn't trying to make you look bad or put you down, just wanted to point out that your upvotes were valuable to those of us who need them ;) I hope some day that more people upvote more content that's outside of their circle of friends. Simply looking for a newbie once a day and giving them a 100% upvote for a good effort is all it takes, if all the whales and big fish did that every day, steemit would have a lot more good content because people would have more incentive to make it.
I appreciate your efforts @corina, hopefully together, we all can make steemit a better place for everyone. Most importantly for some of us, a profitable one too. Keep posting good content and I'll keep upvoting it, that's why I'm here.
I didn't take your comments personally yesterday. Actually, I appreciate you taking the time to get more people (like me) to vote more.
Hey @corina! The wait is over 😁. This is the year Steemit is going in the world, so hang in there 😃.
The whales will get involved only if there's an incentive to do this. Yeah, money talks 😁!
@yallapapi is having a pretty good idea about how things work and what can be done to get those whales involved 😉.
Also, this is a life style. Consistency and patience will pay off in time. People who give up are not the right people for this platform anyway 😋. I am not telling you this, as I can see clearly that you already know how things go here 😄.
Another thing you know is that your writing style is easy to follow, and I enjoy reading every article you make.
Keep up the good work, can't wait for the next one 🤩!
I hope you're right. I know there are a lot of new accounts opening everyday, so who knows. Thanks for comment!
I was summoned by @corina. I have done their bidding and now I will vanish...
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I like your post ,I also wonder, what is sought in steemit, money, science or friends. if my opinion is distemed no one is knowledge, maybe what we say is not interesting for them.
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I could not agree more. Steemit can evoke emotions. Online social media platforms should be enjoyable. Sometimes life is a little more complicated than that. Honesty can upset. The truth really does divide. It forces us to make a choice, often painful ones.
Yes, expecting to get rich or heck even a decent payout is not something anyone joining should do. The way to look at it is to do here what you've been doing on other social media platforms for free anyway. The difference being, here you have a chance to get something out of it, it's better than no chance other platforms give you. Even if it's just a cent or two it's still more than you'd be earning with its competitors.
True, the problem is that the first thing you usually hear about steemit is the reward system. So maybe the marketing needs to change. Thank you for reading.
Are you complaining? 400 post and an account value of $6000? Gee I should get a gun and shoot myself then because I must be stupid. Look at my wallet, then go have a cry
The 400 you can see is what I paid the bots for with my own money. I was lucky to find Steemit early on.. who knows, you might have more money in your wallet once you've been here 2 years. :)
thank you for speaking for us all
you perfectly expressed my fears!
Wow I really hope Steemit doesn't make the addiction of social media worse... It seems like it is having that effect tho.
That being said, just like in the real world, less money less attention. Do you guys know any whales who grew up naturally or in organic way? I hope bots services will not compromise the promising future of this platform. I am new to this and as much as I want to add some suggestions, I just couldn't. There's a lot of things I still need to learn and I surely appreciate seeing someone like @corina having so much sympathy for us (minnows)
Greed for money could cause the downfall of this system. When I started, i just saw this platform as a free space to write a blog, then eventually learnt that I could also earn. Let's set the earning not as primary reason why we are here. Count me in! @corina although i know I'm just a minnow, small but many voices must be louder.
It would be ideal if everyone viewed Steemit like another social media platform and focused on reading and writing about their interests. But we all came here super excited to get rich instead! Thank you for your comment. :)
The thing that I have realized is that you can't come here with the expectation of making money- that will come with time and LOTS and LOTS of effort.
You have to stick around because you find this place to be a creative outlet for yourself and for others. A place to explore and broaden your horizons while meeting strange and interesting new people (among hundreds of comment zombies).
I am a believer in this platform because we are still so early in its development. Being a two year old platform using experimental technology that was also recently created we have come quite far I would have to say. With new user interfaces and some other modifications to the network I think we should see some broader adoption.
Many of the people who I have introduced to Steemit didn't stay with us. Either they lose interest, have no idea how to use it, lose their password or just don't see the value in joining a new social media platform. If we can overcome some of these problems then more people will definitely hang around.
I have not even been here a month and so far I haven't lost steam. At this point I get all happy to see others making a lot of money because I am in hopes that will be me someday. I am not one to give up easy and hope my determination gets me somewhere sooner than later. I am still trying to figure out if bots are a good thing or a bad thing. Some say good some say bad. I don't know but plan to keep posting. Steemit is addictive!
💖
I've just recently joined myself and can understand what you're feeling. There's a lot that can be improved that I can see just in my short time here. One of them, I feel, is the lack of notification services of interractions from people upvoting, resteeming, following you etc. The visibility of this, or lack there of, can sometimes make it hard to see people's interractions.
I hope with a little bit of patience people will find my posts, follow me, and then support my contributions. I'll do the same with you, invisi-buddies on Steemit! :-) glad to see I'm not the only one.
Okay, so how did you get so much on this post? By many bidbot's, which is an argument from many that this is an abuse of the system, right? Are you losing money or is the key to invest more money than under $20? You made over $240 on this post by what many field is raping the payouts for the Planktons and Minnows you are talking about. I'm surprised badcat and badpuppy hasn't come by to flag it.
Either way, at the end of the day it appears that there are those willing to do what it takes to "rape" the system and do what people need to do for them, right?
I admit to using bots, but nothing more than 1-5 SBD, I've worked very hard to post at least 1-4 posts a day, comment a lot, help planktons and minnows. i never got a curie or an upvote from a whale, but i work hard.
we shall see what comes of all of this, many financial advisors have stated that this will not be the main location of a decentralized platform because of too many discrepancies, i can see these reasons becoming a reality on a daily basis. too many on the high take, meanwhile too many on the bottom.
the issue here is newbies like us couldnt grow the account easily and whales like you should help community to grow up
I’m no more than a minnow myself!
Ughm, great post; but, of the current ~$200 in your payout, how much of this is lost to the bot kings?
Answering this comment would help the next person who gets addicted to this 'process'.
Clearly, bots are a great marketing tool; but, most fail to realize that they're primarily PAYING for 'ad space' and not necessarily quality of work. I think excess use of bots undermine the advertised purpose of Steemit: to get paid to grow your blog; not pay to inflate your account like a hot-air balloon. Eventually, this will burst, leaving the 'owner' hodl to air. Ever tried to do that?
Peace.
Thanks for your comment. I’m making 200 on this post, 50 of which will go to curators. That leaves me with 150. I paid about 190 sbd to bots..
Geez...Is my math off...or are you in the hole for $40?
I realize most people bot for marketing purposes; and, this 'loss' would be understandable; but, certainly not an income builder at face value.
Thanks for the reply. I hope this helps someone new to STEEMit.
Peace.
Corina you have spoken my heart out.