I don't know about you, but I find the Steemit trending page fairly useless these days. It's full of what are effectively promoted posts. Mostly those are of no interest to me. If something is important then I'll probably see it on my feed anyway as someone will re-steem it.
Lots of people say you have to buy votes to get anywhere, but I think it's still possible to build a following without them. Make a community around a hashtag for a topic you enjoy. #RunningProject is a great example of this. Have contests and challenges in the community to keep people active. Maybe have one account share posts using the tag so that everyone will see them. This is a stopgap until we get the proper communities functionality.
I know a few people are using the #NoBidBots and #NoBidBot tags to indicate they are not buying votes. I'm seeing good content under those, and not just me.
Okay, so we may not get mega-rewards this way, but from what I understand it's not that profitable to buy votes. I'd rather get mine from other users who care about what I do. I don't mind not getting hundreds of 'nice', 'follow me' comments. I may miss out on some whale attention, but I expect they have their own ways to find stuff to vote on. I get a very few votes of more and a dollar and I'm grateful for those. To be frank I think my posts get about what they are worth.
I'm using my votes to support those who need it rather than chasing curation rewards. That's too much like hard work for me and the returns will be minimal anyway.
It's an interesting time for Steemit. The Steem price is falling, along with every other coin. Site views may have bottomed out, but are not that impressive for now. It's going to get interesting when we get the next hardfork and Steemit Inc start doing some proper marketing. Then we may get to millions of active users and you will really have to fight for attention. Now is a good time to build a following of genuinely interested people who will stick with you. @donnadavisart compared Steemit to a village and that's pretty much what it is, although it may be more of a frontier town preyed on by cattle barons and outlaws. In a year it may be a city and those are easier to get lost in.
Steem on!
I'll buy guitar picks for Steem Dollars
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Good move!
that's actually a great idea. using #nobidbots tag takes up 20% of someone's tag limit. and i agree, promoted content is fairly useless. I was just trying to find out about steemcleaners and how I can report really useless content, profitable or not. but having a section 'nobidbots' like, trending or hot, is really worth it. I have stopped looking at the trending page totally. when there are no new updates from those i follow, i go to tags that are of interest to me and check out the hot content (sounds so wrong). but i really like your idea. i think it will be really useful and will see serious acceptance. And i think it will also allow new users to find an audience.
PS. Thank you for the upvotes on some of my comments btw, has helped restore my rep.
I think the trending page is mostly viewed by new users, so you see posts where 99.9% of their rewards are from the 'bots'. Experienced users know to go elsewhere.
I'm happy to support you. I've been a victim of Mr H too.
true, i think one eventually finds way to good content.
yeah, i did come across a post either written by you, during what hit me in the last few days.
Mm you strategy is to just keep on chipping away. Trying to earn out of Steemit feels too much like a second job and I already work hard enough on the one I one I have already.
I don't visit the trending page at all as there never seems to be anything of interest on there.
It is kind of many villages lying in the outskirts of the known internet. You are like the travelling musician who visits a lot of villages, while I seldom have capacity to do anything but mind my own little community these days. Commenting takes too long for me.
I find bidbots stupid and destructive - it will only move value to the top of the pyramid, and I do hope we could get a larger middle class.
Ya mon, some excellent points of view here. I actually like the idea of the #nobidbots tag....Even though I'm actively experimenting with them under the steembirds account lol.
So far we have definitely found them to be unprofitable in terms of making overhead beyond the approximate initial investment. It's definitely a huge risk especially if your content sucks and gets downvoted.
The benefit has been that many more ppl see our content (songs that we've work extremely hard on and that we feel actively point out steem/steemit topics that probably should be addressed & discussed. Perhaps many people are either scared to talk about them or, just unfamiliar with what's actually going etc & it seems like through music and comedy, it makes it easier somehow for ppl to engage once it's brought to a large pool of ppl :)
In this respect, bots have been quite useful in inciting such epic discussions & I must say, it really does feel good to have something that you've worked very hard on and spent countless hours on actually get seen... We're talking about a few hundred extra views per song and maybe a 100 actual humans engaging and offering tangible commentary.
It takes artists hours sometimes days to actually write and rehearse an original tune and then to get a good take...that also (as you probably know) can take just as long lol
You're right, this is a very interesting time/phase for steemit. I for one am really excited to see how it all plays out. I personally find that these "low Moments" are the best times to engage and post consistently, when many ppl seem to be dropping out bc the currency seems low to them. This is really a great time to get real support and attention from real users, bc those are the ppl who are being active through the thick and thin.
It's been great to get your humble opinion on this topic these past few weeks, especially as someone who's been around the block"chain" (lol sry about that) as long as you have and who has seen a few of these "interesting times" first hand.
Hope all's well Steve
JB
You guys are proving me wrong in a way as you really do have some excellent content that needs to be seen by a wider audience. There are a few others I could list too. You are having to fight it out with your Steem Dollars to get up the trending page when this site is supposed to be about the opinions of the community. The trending page has been corrupted by paid votes, but then there were always issues as some people happened to have powerful friends.
I think there's room for the whales to act as patrons who support good content to get it trending without the creators having to pay and they would actually get much better rewards as well as recognition. The whales would profit from curation rewards.
I really don't have all the answers, but I see issues with how Steemit is working and wanted to offer an opinion. It's a whole new economy on Steemit and we have to find new ways to make it work for us.
Thanks for giving your input on this. This is exactly the sort of feedback I want. I don't pretend to always be right, but we have to have the discussions.
It's all good with me. I need to work on my next open mic song. Not got an original this time, but I'm working on some.
Cheers
I still think the voting bots are not the problem on the platform as long as the algorithm is the way it is - implement a new reward system and they would be gone. The big boys make use of it and this is the issue why it will not change. I have used some (or mainly one only) too - recently not a lot though - maybe the declining crypto prices will also stop usage of them. I do not know - I hear you and understand where you come from. If all agree no one uses them and they do a mirroring HF all is fine - however I would love we get rid of shitty, scummy witnesses before this is possible.
We each have a choice on how we proceed here, despite what some might say, and I choose to not use them as it feels wrong to me. I do okay as it is and I don't want to attract more spammers. I'll just have to wait longer for my rep to go up :)
Yes - totally understood and appreciated - now it is the voting bots - before it was the circle jerks (that got not mentioned anymore as of the bots - but these jerks are in my view more of a problem). There is a certain lady putting efforts into BI and data analysis that also says it is good now with low steem pricing as it helps to avoid spammers - i doubt that but I agree it is good to go low as quality "might" be better. But we all been here when Steem was at 7 Cents - the community feeling was better - so nothing new. People here sometimes claiming to be the helpers of a community be demonising things which are not doing anything better. Thanks for commenting @steevc - i am now sure you are the no. 1 Steemian with the best attitude of everyone.
I wouldn't put myself on a pedestal. I'm just putting my opinion out there to get responses. Some people are doing okay here, but this could just be the start of something much bigger if we can keep it going. I worry that a 'dash for cash' will be bad for Steemit. The majority will not get rich, but they can still make something in the long run. I want to see that happen.
Fingers crossed - we have the same wishes. Let us see if this is in line with the strategic direction taken from the guys behind it.
I stopped visiting trending page on any topic because the content of the most trending posts was really disappointing. It never occurred to me that the function could be used in a good way as you describe: to find "nobidbots" content. I will check that out. I am a strong believer that best way to find good content regularly is to find Steemians that are covering content that interests you with quality blogs and they often also mention other Steemians and so "guide" you to other bloggers with high-quality content... so you slowly build the network of people who write well about what you like or share similar interests. Here I would like to thank you @steevc: your posts Follow Friday revealed many interesting Steemians that I now follow.
I'm happy to have helped. As you say it's best to build your own feed of good content, but we need other ways to discover more
True: we need other ways to discover more. Looking forward to better ways!
Nowadays whoever I am asking how to increase my reputation either they say better you buy steem power or take the help of bots. What bots do exactly I don't know, sir please guide if I take the help of bots will it affect my blog reputation in the future.
Well I just increased your reputation with a vote. It's up to you to decide what path to take. Your reputation is supposed to indicate what others think of you, but what does it mean if you buy it from these so-called bots? They may give quick results, but I'm not sure they lead to long-term success. Build connections with those who share your interests. Make steemit fun and don't worry too much about the money for now.
You have made a good start by asking a valid question.
Sir..Thank you very much for showing me the right path. I will work hard to build my reputation and will try to focus on delivering good content.
I don't claim to have all the answers. I would suggest you space out your posts. They only earn for a week and you may want to save some for when you have more followers
Yes sir, you have given the right suggestion. From now on, I try to space out my post.
I have been using those tags for a couple of weeks now and I really haven't seen any difference between using them and not using them. I was hoping eventually I would start to pick up some more followers, but I don't think it is happening. I think people are still just chasing after the whales. Maybe my content is just crap :) who knows...
The trending page is nothing more then a 'Bought Add's". I never look at it because the posts that are on it are often not interesting.. I do look often at the NEW posts. The NOBIDBOT hashtag can be a cool one to use I guess.
Agree with all of that. I've used the tag almost since starting on here a couple of months ago. I've found some interesting posts and people also by checking it out. As for the trending pages, I'm not sure how useful they are at the moment. Many are saying they don't look any more and I've had a number of posts get a curie to go on to be trending for some time often with seemingly little or no further impact. It seems logical to look at the best performing nobidbot posts to find some good stuff.
The trending page is awful, I stopped reading anything that is there after my first two days on steemit. And after a while, when you've subscribed to people you like to read, and some curation users like @curie, you tend to get resteemed interesting articles/people.
While I understand why people use the nobidbot tags, it feels strange to me, link they would want upvotes based on the fact they don't use bid bots... It feels like they are trying to get attention because of that, whereas it should be the norm, in my opinion.
Again, one thing I think you're right about: good articles will be resteemed among users, whether they use bid bots or not.
I toyed with bidbots and promotion bots for a bit. Specially when some malicious flagging causes my reputation score to go negative.
The numbers just didn't add up. Why pay $25 for ~$25 upvote? Yes, it may make you more visible. But to who? Most sensible users of STEEM will avoid the trending page anyway.
Human behaviour is fascinating. There are loads of people complaining about missing out on steem when it was cheap and look at whales and dolphins as those who got lucky. Will those same people take the risk now and invest in steem while it's at historical lows? Nope.
As for the growth of STEEM. It has its flaws, but all things considered, it's a fascinating platform. But for me, what's more important is the chance to connect with some true crypto pioneers. As they say, Rome wasn't built in a day.
True AF! It's only in times of hardships and failure do we make genuine friends and companions who have our backs and believe in growing together instead of those who only pretend to be your friend when in reality, all they're doing is following the other fishes.
Maybe, if we try hard or come up with some great hashtag like #steemitvillage or something we could remain a great local feel neighbourhood in the bigger city of steemit? If steemit becomes A large city then we are that quaint neighbourhood that feels like a small town where people know your name or ask, "how you doing" and mean it. ;)
This is what I'm counting on @steevc. And one of the big benefits of the drop in Steem price I see is there seem to be far fewer spam accounts posting.
That means it's much easier to find decent accounts to explore while browsing the new feed.
A couple of weeks ago it was full of accounts with 25 rep and plagiarised content. Now i'm enjoying having a look around again. 😊
A "no bit bot" tab would be great. I have been using bit bots for a while now and they do have their percs. I don't think that I want to keep on using them from this point onward though. It does feel somewhat cheesy overall and seems inefficient in the grand scheme of things.
Spending my income on steem/steempower might be the better idea in the long run.
I think tags should be everything and it would lead to the concept of #hivemind, but then you find so many bad content under them...
My main (almost the only) interest is #music, but there you can find ANYTHING...
Of course what I'm saying has no relation to the "bots or not bots" discussion, but I had to write this because you mentioned it as a way to find the content that sould be interesting to each of us.
Tags are a simple tool, but they can be abused. This is when we have to use our votes to vote down those who try to cheat the system. It's up to us the users to make it work.
muy buena informacion
yes this is very great to promote effort of people @steevc
Fabulous one!!!