Product development will always outstrip our understanding of risk, but there is a lot we can do to narrow that gap. - Andrew Maynard
If you've participated in the Steem network for a longer while, then you've been able to witness its evolution over time.
While everything started out as an experiment, today the Social Blockchain Steem is a project to be reckoned with and which attracts entrepreneurs from all types of industries.
As @timcliff perfectly analyzed in It's time to start paying attention to Steem, not all plans we had for Steem have turned out to be successful. Yet, what matters most is that there has never been stagnancy.
Something I'd like to point out in that context is the fact that many changes - whether being hardware or software updates - were originated from and arose out of the community.
The concept of User Authority (UA) is such a case.
Here's why I stopped my power down today and executed my very first SP delegation ever.
Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together. - James Cash Penny
Change
The most important question that can be done both in the context of business and personal development is: why ?
As long as we can provide a solid answer to the question why?, it'd be hard to lose our way.
Probably we've not been asking ourselves often enough: why 'reputation score'?. If we seriously tried to find a reason why to keep relying on that little number close to our user names, we'd supposedly not be able to deliver any.
Why reputation?
The reputation score was considered as a reference for a user's integrity, engagement, influence and even trustworthiness within the Steem ecosystem for quite a long time.
By having a look at one's rep you could easily and quickly estimate a user's level of engagement (over time) on the platform, being those who had a score above 70 being more likely the early adopters, for instance.
In the words of the FAQ on Steemit (not updated yet :-)):
The reputation score is one way Steemit measures the amount of value you have brought to the community.
Effectively a reputation score is only improved by upvotes, considering that the more SP the voter has, the larger the effect.
Hence, the higher the score of a user, the more upvotes from larger stake holders (as a sign of trust) received in the past.
With vote buying and bid bot services arising that enable you to purchase the positive influence on your reputation score, the original way of evaluating user integrity on Steem is now flawed.
The problem has been recognized for a while, and lots of discussions around it have taken place. Yet, it took us a certain time to agree on possible solutions, which is actually a good sign being typical for non-centralized communties.
Especially in a decentralized community where consensus is not just required on a technical but also on a political level, change is inevitable but needs some time.
My first SP delegation
Delegating 1,000 SP to @steem-ua today is my way of rewarding a concrete effort to improve Steem.
I've been following the discussions around the new concept of User Authority on Steem for a while now.
What I appreciate most about the idea of User Authority is that it doesn't only offer a practicable solution to an existing problem (flawed rep score), but it can also serve basically every product or service built on this blockchain as a reference.
Before I'll provide you a rough inside into the concept of UA, I'd like to send a big THANK YOU to @holger80 and @scipio for founding the curation project @steem-ua and fostering the development of a new influence score on Steem.
Here we go :-)
What is User Authority about?
In their introduction post the @steem-ua team described it as a new kind of Reputation Score.
Actually UA is much more than that.
It's a new metric that attempts to estimate user engagement by a followers matrix. The more followers you have, and the more followers your followers do have, the better your UA score.
When I first heard about the concept, I immediately thought about the great benefits with regards to SMTs.
Why?
Influence is one of the single most important currencies traded in today's attention economy.
Having a metric on Steem that enables us to clearly identify our influencers, is definitely a great selling proposition.
New businesses built on Steem such as @oracle-d will appreciate the opportunity to market real (measurable) influence to their customers (= potential investors).
UA is more than a matrix, it's a game changer.
Every future SMT will highly benefit from UA when it comes to distribute their tokens. User Authority will provide the whole Steem network with more credibility.
If you're planning to implement a product or service on the Steem blockchain and aim to address those users with the highest level of engagement on the platform, then User Authority may become a crucial factor.
Just consider @communitycoin - the SMT to support community curation, created by @donkeypong - as an example.
67.6% of marketers consider finding relevant influencers their largest influencer marketing challenge. - Influencer Marketing Hub
I'm glad marketers will be able to easily identify those influencers on the Social Blockchain Steem.
By the way you can easily check your own UA score clicking HERE. This is mine:
Thanks for your attention.
Have a great weekend,
Marly -
Steem Ambassador
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This blog was created in July 2016, aiming to provide thought-provoking content for open-minded people who go on adventure, step out of comfort zones and embrace the new.
Thanks for being part of the journey!
PS: All my blog posts are created and submitted via eSteem Surfer 1.1.12 - my favorite Steem desktop client that was developed by @good-karma's @esteemapp team. Check out their account for more information.
Original content. Quotes found on theheadwaters.co.nz and blog.alexa.com
Wow that’s a big chunk of SP and I’m so glad people are starting to see the value in steem UA and supporting the project! Now is the time while things are quiet to try new things and work out the kinks so as we grow again we’re ready to take on an influx of new people and new content and reward the behaviors we as a community deem positive
Posted using Partiko iOS
Agreed.
Well it's ~44% of my current stake, so it's not only a delegation but rather a statement :-)
Yep, I have a delegation to UA too. An awesome initiative. It is great to see it getting such great support :)
Posted using Partiko Android
Definitely! It's one of the projects we've been waiting for :-)
Enjoy your weekend!
Welcome to the UA Club!
Posted using Partiko iOS
Oh yeah, thank you! I saw your large delegation which partly inspired me to execute mine :-)
I was in very deep talks with scipio seven months ago addressing the huge issues with reputation and trending, engagement. This is an attempt to move in the right direction and fix the problems that no one is talking about...
Posted using Partiko iOS
Awesome! I was so happy to discover this project since it's the solution to a problem we've been living with for too long.
It may be able to change the dynamics and bring back the social spirit. In fact this is already taking place, seeing people talking about how they may improve their UA score engaging more with the community and focussing more on their integrity than on the quick bucks.
The best is yet to come...🦄
Yeah we need new blood, new metrics and new goals.... otherwise it gets a bit stale and people leave..
Posted using Partiko iOS
Fully agreed! Innovation is key :-)
Great to have you onboard with steem-ua. It’s also the first delegation I have ever done, and so far I’m liking what I see!
Awesome! I totally second your point of view.
Really glad to hear you are powering up and chose @steem-ua as your first ever (seriously?!) delegation!
I think highly of the project too and will look to delegate more in the near future, yay! :D
Haha, I kinda knew you'd say something like that 😄😄😄
I was powering down on the whole stake in order to finance my constructing project, so I couldn't delegate anything. Now that the piece of land is paid, I can fully power up again and focus on growth.
I saw you talking about UA which also inspired me to check it out :-)
Have a nice Saturday, Asher
Awesome, you are kickin' my ass on Steem-ua! haha ... I'm around 217, I need to catch up to you! 😉 😋 🤣
LOL - since you surpassed me in followers, I had to set the benchmark in UA 😆
Let the games begin, hehe
Its refreshing to see great community members like yourself take these actions as it inspires many others in the community to move forward. I also recently delegated to this project and now am using their ranking system to guide me through my improvement process here on the platform. I find it great to raise my self awareness to see how I can continually inprove and add value to the ecosystem.
Thanks for your kind words, @newageinv - and glad we share the same philosophy :-)
May I ask how you generated those 5K in your wallet? Only by blogging, or did you invest in Steem?
I wish I could say by blogging! Though I have earned more than I ever thought I would by engaging via posts and comments, most of my SP was bought. I put in place a strategy to dollar cost average into STEEM almost twice a month since February. Now that I am at a milestone, I am considering how to earn more via engagement with different communities. I have been amazed on the amount of great content outside the normal area of my focus!
Good to hear that you have had such a positive experience! It's actually not a bad idea to strengthen your VP (influence) in the network through an initial invest and then try start growing through engagement, curation and blogging from there.
Me too
Posted using Partiko iOS
:-)
Thanks for showing and teaching me something new today. Enjoyed!
You're welcome!! I learned about UA not too long ago, and it's cool to see that I could share the newly acquired knowledge with you and other users today :-)
Totally needed... many of us think from day one that Rep Score is a big number to be considered (Even if I'm a newbie in the ecosystem)
Must say that was one of the first things I was aware when entered to the chain 15 Moons ago and measuring my evolution in Steemnow but not seeing the votes, seeing the Rep hahaha... so crazy.
I think that every responsable Steemian should delegate to @steem-ua... easy like 1+1
Good Waves!
Yeah, it's confusing when you see someone with a rep 70+ and then find out that it's only due to an excessive vote buying :-)
Haven't surfed a wave in weeks, since I started to do windsurf. But today may be a good day to leverage the board with no sail again...
Happy weekend!
Strong arms you will have! Windsurf is coming back from 80's :)
I do and noticed that during my today's regular surf session! Wow, paddling seemed to be soooo easy, hahaha. Amazing!!
Yes, Steemit is a good site where there are opportunities for high-end minds to share information and even make money. This is because participants work hard and work to the fullest to give real benefit only intellectually or materially.
Well this a amazing post. We've learnt a lot from this informative content. It's never easy to go forward without proper directions from efficient persons. As my reputation is now only 30, so that i don't have enough SP. But i made my mind that whenever i'll grow up in this community i would like to delegate. I think this is a great way to earn from steemit.
Well it's all in your hands. The best way to grow your account is to engage with the community, produce valuable content and power up :-)
Thanks for your nice advise.. If u've any more suggestion kindly advise me... :)
More fabulosity <<<--- my word!
Posted using Partiko Android
@steem-ua is one of the best initiatives on the blockchain.
Good time to buy steem if yer powering up!
I might have to check.out esteem surfer.
Posted using Partiko Android
cool, I have done the same, made a 300 SP delegation... That add some bigger vote then just covering the 250 for a vote per day and I do not post every day anymore anyway so this is also my way of supporting this cool new reputation score
Ohhh yes! <3
Wow respect that you have changed your mind about the current development on Steem and stopped powering down. That sounds to me like many other great influencers would consider to keep some more Steempower invested, because they could profit more from upcoming SMT projects, that will Airdrop Tokens to Users with high UA-Score.
I hope that this new System will also work for newcomers and Steem-only-Investors because of the less engagement with the community. If Newcomers and Steem only Investors get scared away by the new UA-System than we have a new problem coming up.
Lets see how things will play out. In my opinion we all should be more open minded and willing to adapt and change the UA-System if it creates new problems. With that in mind we could improve the new reputation as we go forward and grow the community.
Thanks for this good post and Input @surfermarly
Hi @surfermarly!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 6.504 which ranks you at #144 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 2 places in the last three days (old rank 146).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 429 contributions, your post is ranked at #3. Congratulations!
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server
Funny, for almost the same reason I delegated 62% of my SP yesterday.
As I only own 161SP yet it was only a delegation of 100SP but if I could I would give more.
Hopefully, that's the case soon.