As the title says I want to talk about succeeding at crypto. With there being red on every screen I check I think it is important to hold on to our perspective through changes. This is my perspective today
I am coming from the bottom looking up. I don't know how to succeed per se....or maybe even how to play. I can't help but to imagine this experience like the movie Finding Nemo. We are all doing what we know to survive, and the blockchain is the wide open ocean. Each day I log into Steemit and go. I am a reader, upvoter, and commentor. I love to read things I have never read before, and also enjoy a good read about something I already know but from someone elses perspective. Today was no different....but it was.
THE STRUGGLE
It seems that the struggle was real today. I was looking around for posts from people that I read almost everyday and they weren't there. After doing more research on several accounts I noticed they hadn't posted in several days. Normally I think about it just being an aspect of life. Perhaps they had something going on. As much as I would like to believe they were busy, it just seemed to line up with the Steem value drop . Was there suddenly "things to do" across the board? I noticed the usuals. The ones running programs, or the ones that function as mentors, but there was a gap. I saw a gap between new accounts and program curators. The average joe was missing. The 35-50 reputation seemed to not be as active. This is just what I noticed and think it is important to point out.
SEEDY UNDERBELLY
While cruising around Steemit this morning I went looking for something new. I was checking out all sorts of tags looking for good content. I stumbled onto something I didn't love. Posts were generally earning less rewards....except for anything talking about cryptocurrencies. These posts are regularly north of $100 per post. Once I started down this rabbit hole I learned more about bots and self voting. I learned how some top accounts are operating like a business. Not so much for the community but exploiting the uncensored ability to do what we please. This has lead to artificially inflated posts and accounts. This has also lead to a digital war between large accounts, and they are running bots against each other. Call me naive, but I didn't know this was a thing. I suppose in any type of system that you can earn rewards for you will have those that abuse and those that defend.
With this I noticed a paradigm of operation, or should I say survival. There are several levels that have been "given" to us to show our success to others. While I am still a very...very small account I have seen a few rewards.
Naturally in any situation we cling to the largest animal in the area to help us survive. It seems that minnows seek out large accounts in an act of self preservation, but hardly get noticed because of their low reputation or lack of content. Minnows seem to give their own steem to bots in exchange for votes and resteems, which I also did. Next there are the larger accounts. The larger minnows and dolphins that have experienced the whales, but seem to be in their own. They are not chasing larger accounts, and are involved with minnows as much as they would like. The whales at the top are winning. They have set up systems to earn as much money as possible and are often supported by minnows paying for votes.
So as looking at it from the Nemo point of view. The minnows are down on the reaf and spend most of their time looking up trying to see a dolphin or a whale. This means they are involved and post, but maybe not thinking so much about others on the reaf and are trying to get their account to standout and be seen. Like a billboard. The larger minnows and dolphins are not on the reaf per se, but close by. They help the minnows to build billboards, and do their own thing. The whales do what they want. Often unable to see the reaf and those on the reaf, the whales use the dolphins to support the minnows.
So this may be a crude way to see it, and I am sure there is a better way to explain it. There is even the chance that I don't see the full picture or the developers goals for Steemit.
QUALITY CONTENT
The highly subjective phrase quality content seems to be part of the Steemit vernacular. It is an undefined void that exists to determine the direction Steemit goes. We all have a different view of what quality content means. Some may see a funny meme as quality content, and others may think it has no place here. Or even something as simple as the length of a blog. Do you write a short form blog or long. Are there pictures and graphs and page breaks. Those are all great things, but what about the subject that is being discussed. That is where the invisible wall goes up, except we don't know where the wall is or what side we are on. We just know we want quality content.
As my time on Steemit continues I have my own personal goals. I have a goal to create a vlog 6 days a week, and make quality posts that others might enjoy. With that being said, is our time on social media about purpose or enjoyment. Is it all bitcoin metrics or philosophical vlogs. The other measure of quality is the response of people. If people think something is in fact quality they upvote it and resteem it. If not, it just disappears. This is an amazing aspect except for a couple of things. First, bots artificially increase a post based on the author thinking their own work is quality. Not talking anout resteeming but upvote bots
Another is self voting. This is something I don't understand because it is an act of inflating our selves in a perpetual cycle into an endless upvote earning increase. The more we earn the more our steem power goes up the more we give as an upvote the more we earn. With these there also seems to be a major lack of upvoting.(not self voting..plenty of that). People making comments without upvoting a post. There is also the aspect of engaging in comments without upvoting comments. The reason for this isn't clear to me. The reward pool is to encourage quality. If someone comments anything more that nice post I will probably upvote them.
SO WHAT NOW
For me this is a challenge. There seems to be less upvoting and commenting on my own posts. There seems to be less uovoting among other posts comments also. Each day I hope to make my experience here better....better than the day before. My vlogs are coming as a challenge from my wife to commit to the cause. Each day I will continue to read, upvote and comment. Though the price of Steem has decreased the number of posts, I know the ones that are here are always worth the effort.
I hope you all enjoyed this little bit of perspective. Each day presents something different to us, and it is what we do with it is what it becomes. Be well!🙃
Looking at where I am headed!
Hey @freedompoint ! Nice read! I like your way of thinking. You are a good man, and most importantly, you are real! When I signed up for the platform, I was told that this is a promise land. But unfortunately, it isn't. Most people seem to be driven by the money only. I keep wondering how to approach the platform to be seen more. Should I be myself or should I adjust myself to the public to please them? I still haven't figured it out yet. I have a lot to share, but will it be accepted? If something isn't crypto trading orientated then it seems that it doesn't get much attention. And I'm not going to upload memes or colour of the day pics or something else which is not that far from pointless just for the sake of posting to make a couple of bucks. The platform has tremendous potential as it can unite many people from all over the globe. Collectively we can achieve much more than individually. I Want to see a huge change for the better. Not only financially, but firstly I wish to see the global consciousness shift. I don't want this to be full of greed nearly MLM like system. I'm sure you know what I mean as you are a spiritual person.
I appreciate your idea of who I am. I am just a man. If you feel that you have something to share, I say do it. It is about what we each consider to be winning. Is it enough that we got our ideas out and even one person enjoyed it, or do we need to see trackable metrics to determine how good we are. I say be you. That is your brand. I am The Yeti, and I believe my vibe will attract my tribe! The money helps, but I love the chance to pour my ideas out.
One of the concerns I have on steemit is that too much is about building steem and not really about producing and reading content that educates and improves us. Youtube for instance is a powerful tool BECAUSE it is used to find useful information. Steemit doesn't seem to be about that - yet. It will not be as powerful as it could be until it earns a reputation for being a great source of valuable information.
I agree! Dtube is starting to do very well. I do like that content can earn, but it leads to alot of feel good posts. Not necessarily factual how to's. It may one day but there is still the idea that it is a social media for connecting. So instead of just searching for an idea about something you might end up connecting with people directly for infomation. Like discord
Upvoted ☝ Have a great day!
Thanks for this post. I think burnout with Steemit will always been there, but the price dip just makes wallowing in your burnout that much easier 😹 I don’t believe anyone consciously tells themselves, “Steem is low, I’ll stop posting”, but it certainly seems to happen that way. I know I’ve been less motivated this week.
But I do hope we see people plug in again, myself included.
Not sure how you feel about astrology, but you think that talk of super moons and what not has affected these things?
Yeah! I think the people will be back. Give it a couple of weeks and I bet we get flooded. After all, people love crypto and Steemit is a way to earn it and not buy it. I do believe the moon could have effected the energy.
I enjoyed your perspective on the matter.
I also notice there has been a slump or lull in activity... hmm.
Right! Everyone says this is a great time to move forward while there is less activity, but who is going to read our posts haha
Very good read!
I have also noticed a decline in activity. What's funny is that compared to a few months ago prices are still high and yet because they have fallen recently people are de-motivated.
Right! We see it as a dip, but people that have been here longer still see it as up. Maybe this is juat what was needed to clear out alot of not so commited accounts. I don't know.
I think so. The whole crypto space is probably loosing a lot of people right now that thought they would be driving a lambo in a couple months. This clearing out is necessary to move forward.
I agree!
I think of my self a little like Dory from Finding Dory. I am confused most times and a little voice inside says just keep swimming, just keep swimming. I hope that eventualy I will be like Dory and Find my way.
Haha that is fantastic.
nice post, yup I had to go there...
Myself I have just been super busy but still try to at least read a few posts.
Haha nice! Yeah I figure life certainly plays a big part. The timing was just amazing.
Be yourself and you can't lose!
;)
I agree. It is social media! I hope to attract like minded people but I want their personalities!
If only I could speak Whale like Dory... until then... just keep swimming... Nicely presented and wonderfully logical... I do hope steemit can continue to be fun, but wading through 12 posts on roses this morning just made me sign off.
Oh yeah! I enjoy it everyday. Life is good. I think that 2018 is going to be big for Steemit. The people are coming!
You have confirmed every thought I have experienced lately. What is going on? Why don’t people read the post . I do not live and breathe crypto as that is a sort of sale unto itself. Why do you make more money and steem is up only to watch your account spiral downward.? 🐓🐓
It is a real tricky back and forth. These are things that I habe noticed. I can't change the other post payouts, but I am teying to encourage everyone to upvote comments. It simeone takes the time to write a post they hope for an upvote and a comment. When someine takea the time ti make the thoughtful comment why not support them back? I think these are all minor things. Time will iron it out. The ones at the top will be out of sight, and the middle/little guys will be carrying in as usual haha. 🙃
IN MY view at that time in so so dip point you buy good coins and do trading. 2ndly you must gain your knowledge as you say it loudly. @freedompoint
Thank you for enlightenment