When do whales upvote?!
Why do they upvote this and not that?!
Do I need TITS?!
Why don't they upvote ME?!
www.catchawhale.com
Everyone seems to be on a hunt for the rare steemitWhale. Steemit sometimes feels like a huge ocean, studded with Ahabs on their obsessive quest to catch that whale (vote).
No wonder whales don't upvote as much sa they could. It's damn terrifying out here.
Look, I get it. I GET IT!
A big upvote can make a huge difference on your post visibility, on your rewards, on your self-esteem. Of course I get it. I know how sweet that upvote is, seeing your post go from 0 to many 0s is something else...but here's what I propose:
Let's take a step back! For a second. Let's look at the big picture.
Why are we here?
Are we here to get a fast cashout or to be part of a revolutionary experiment?
Are we here to get the whale upvote or to write good content?
Honestly, people tend to say the later but mean the former. Money matter. No argument here.
You know what's funny and ironic?
The more you write and the better your content goes the less you do it for whales and the more you do it for yourself.
I'm serious, this is my experience after about 3 weeks.
I'm now just so happy write and share. I like that I know my posts are good [ well, when they are :D ] and a whale upvote is just a nice recognition of my efforts.
But why do you even want be Ahab?? What good ever happened to that guy?
Chasing, chasing, chasing the whale and when you finally catch it ( if you ever do ) you realize that you've lost yourself in the process.
Am I naive? Maybe. Some will certainly say I am. Some, maybe you, will agree with me though. That's amazing.
It's easy for me to defend my naivete though. It's because in the long run, good content will net you more.
I do believe this and I think it will become apparent in time as steemit grows and evolves.
Sure, some days some awful post [ in your opinion or mine ] will hit it big and you'll wonder what's the point of life/ why is life unfair/ why is steemit like that.
But so what?
What does that have anything to do with YOU?
I love this louie c.k. quote:
I try to live by it.
So I hone my skills day in day out. Whale upvote or not. High payout or not.
Because at the end of the day: it's so fucking TIRING to be Ahab!
Why chase whales when you can write good stuff and have them come visit you!?
Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but they always answer the call of good content.
Where's yours?
re Quote: "or to be part of a revolutionary experiment?"
Sorry, but I can't hear the "You're all just whale-hunting" argument anymore.
Not trying to complain or bitch around, and I really love people being successful here whatever they put into it and seem worth sharing. So far it's more about understanding the community a bit better.
While your argument sounds valid, so far it doesn't feel in any way like a "revolution", but just the typical social-media-phenomena platform that favours gossip, shiny photos and arbitrary "look how great I am" posts.
But while all those "motivating" articles are great and all, I really start doubting Steemit as a useful platform from a "revolutionary" point of view regarding quality.
i.e. I wrote this article here.
https://steemit.com/travel/@oululahti/top-5-non-touristy-coffeeshops-in-amsterdam
I put a shitload of work into it collecting the information and putting them together after years of travles and making contact with locals that I would consider really helpful for those interested. Like a real travel-guide should be in my opinion.
Sure, it's a niche-post in a way and one might not like the topic, but in the end there were like 5 votes worth 0.03$.
It's not so much about the money or whale-hunting in any way, but the work doesn't seem valued if you compare it to other travel-articles getting dozens and hundreds of votes for 3 pictures with arbitrary text. I really love writing, but not sure what to make of Steemit yet and if that's some kind of revolution I'd like to be part of to support the next superficial fashion-trend...
If you like what you wrote, great. Write again! The posts that are successful are not the reasons why our own posts aren't successful. We just haven't written our own successful posts yet.
Yeah sure, as I said.
It's not so much about complaining, but about understanding and testing if I'd like to be part of the general trend Steemit is heading atm. We'll see.
You have a point but you're also didn't write too much either. You wrote 3 4 posts and expect to hit it big? I dunno if that's how it should even work :)
I did like your Amsterdam post though, can't wait t visit again!
No, in no way expecting it to hit big at all. But expecting to draw some attention compared to other posts in the travel-category, definitively yes!
But my point was to understand the project better, not complaining. Might sound like that, due to the fact english isn't my mother-tongue and it might sound harsher than it was meant.
IT's a grind, man :)
I tried to post original stuff in the beginning, didn't post many images with me. So I think you need luck on your side and good looks. Without those you have a smaller change to get noticed. That's from my experience.
...and the beauty is, the less you chase, the more they come looking for you...
:-)
Cg