#writing

Let's Talk About Quality Content. (Just Because I Can, And Because Everyone Else Does It!)

I have changed my mind, I have always said that quality content is one of the ingredients towards a succesful journey on STEEM, but the truth is, that quality content doesn't even exist on STEEM. At least according to some Steemians we have here. I could've called them authors, just like I have done in the past, but that will probably have to change...

You might be a writer of some sort, but I can't allow myself to call you an author, in case you don't show me evidence of a published book you've written. That's a real author, according to me. Someone who writes and publish books. Format doesn't matter, as long as it is a book. A writer is someone, according to me, that writes articles or some type of document, but it has nothing to do with being the author of a published book.

I am obviously wrong here, because if you type in: "what is an author" on google, you'll see this: "a writer of a book, article, or document."

However, I have figured that it doesn't matter what it says on google, because somewhere, I've also seen that "quality is in the eye of the beholder", and that doesn't seem to be a good sentence to use whenever you're trying to describe "quality content" on STEEM.

So with this new knowledge, I can either ignore to curate content on STEEM, or curate whatever content I want. No matter the "quality". That doesn't necessarily mean that I'll start to upvote each shitpost I see, well, excuse me, post of shit I see. But there is in fact a high probability for that to happen. Not that I am into "shit", but fucked up things are often amusing in some way... So I might even start to post piles of shit too...

I mean, I spend hours on my posts. I do anything from making original cover images, using dividers I've made myself, edit, change, tweak, think of headlines, spend time on google translate, edit some more, change this or that, and spend some more time on a half-bad title.

I know, I'm stupid. I probably spend about 2 hours on average on my articles. That has been going on since I joined in July 2016... And I'm still here, equally stupid as when I arrived.

I get it, 95% of the people here doesn't give a damn about my articles. I bet that about 10, if that many, out of my 3.5K followers reads the stuff I write. I get auto votes and a handful of comments. I love the support I get and comments are truly something I value greatly... But still.

Why the fuck do I spend 2 hours on each article I share, when I earn a dollar here or there, get only a handful comments and haven't had a decent whale vote in more than 2 years?

I haven't seen OCD, Curie or any of those "curation groups" either.

Oh, now I get it... I am the proud "author" of low quality content? - Thanks!

Fuck you.

That's the only thing I have to say about that.

I am not native in English, I am not an orca or a whale... I have carried my own ass up these "Steem-stairs" since july 2016... And I still don't get recognition or support from any of those guys. So, based on some of the things I've read recently, my content is of piss-poor quality.

Fuck that.

It's not about quality. It's not even about content. It's about "likeability". It's about sucking cock and bending over for the rich. It's about pleasing the upper & wealthy classes as much as possible. If you're good, you'll get paid. So, in reality, you're nothing but a prostitute...

And I'm not even good at that.

No, I wasn't serious above, even though part of that is accurate... Quality content to me, is content I like. I don't care about others in this scenario. I curate stuff I want to curate, for whatever reason I might have... But, I would never reward piss-poor quality, spam or copy pasted articles. I don't endorse that type of behaviour either.

So, let's talk about "piss-poor quality". You know what it means... No matter what type of content you like. We can all see when and where someone have put in effort into articles they publish. That is quality according to me.

Not necessarily time spent on articles, as a meme can be funny as hell, and we all know that doesn't take much time. But, if you're spending time on your articles, you're doing research or trying to educate people... Whatever. I would call that high quality, even if I didn't like the subject. I would probably reward you for it, even if I didn't agree with what you've said in your article too, because I can see the effort.

I don't like Actifit posts for instance (talking about Actifit because others have too), and I rarely upvote any of them, as long as the "writer" isn't on my autolist. But that has nothing to do with quality or effort. You obviously put in effort to reach "10k+ activity count", but it's rarely anything more than that. It's like Facebook and someone shared a photo of their breakfast. I couldn't care less and I never pressed that "like" button on those photos... I didn't like those photos even if I liked what they ate.

It does not give me anything of value. Nothing at all.

So even if you are my BFF on STEEM, and even if I turned into a whale somehow, I wouldn't reward that content. I wouldn't reward that sort of content if you were my brother, my sister, mother, partner, lover or my kid either.

However, in case you were good at sucking c***, I'd probably give you a 100% vote, because that "activity count" would likely have been the results of the time we spent together.

And there you have it. Quality.

Comments · 15

@brittandjosie(76)· 2713d
Wowwwwww did this realeave ..... I hope it did I know you write good stuff and I dont care if you published a book a novel or nothing ,

I read your bad times, I read your money issues , I was in that Stairway of steemit in the dark days.

I Thank you for this animated piece that took 2 hours from your precious time out of the study time.

And about that last part .... I nearly choked you figure out of that was about My breakfast !

No need to upvote this one Go and tell me if you want a flag on My last blog I am making a steemitworldmap with little flags for writing steemians😉😉
@free-reign(67)· 2716d
I agree with your points. I post every day, and similar to you, each day I spend from 3 to 4 hours researching and writing the posts. Having my posts not read by most steemians doesn't really bother me though, because the writing I'm doing is just building my own collection for publishing at some point. I'm thinking of publishing a book with my best poems from my daily "Spigot" posts on Amazon sometime soon.

I get such joy from writing that I don't really care that the majority completely ignores them, and satisfied that I'm accomplishing something good for myself.

But I definitely get where you're coming from.
@freebornangel(72)· 2716d
It's been a while since i voted a post with more than a dollar on it.
@lion200(63)· 2716d
Heyy @hitmeasap I posted about the lacking support for quality content some days ago. I can fully understand the frustration. And I am glad you expressed your feelings this way. I had a smile at some pieces 😂

I think that any contribution requiring some time, effort, energy, thinking etc. should be supported in this platform. But also social sharing is part of this platform. People like to share what they are doing, what they think about at that specific moment etc. This can also be considered quality in a way.

I also try to contribute to this platform since short time. Whether it’s seen as quality or not, I don’t really care :)

Posted using Partiko iOS
@newageinv(74)· 2716d
I am still unsure what sparked the conversation as I have been disconnected part of the week but I agree that we upvote posts that we like and it is as simple as that. It is our right just as we can flag them as well. However, where I differ is calling posts from dlike and actifit shitpost as they have there reasons and communities around them and we should let them develop. I have found myself in the middle here as I love @actifit and use it everyday as a motivation to be fit and earn here; win/win. If it takes 30 words and is considered garbage; fine, don’t upvote it as it is our right to do so. If we limit ourselves to these views, we will never be able to grow to a global community of Dapps.

Posted using Partiko iOS
@bashadow(70)· 2716d

Quality content to me, is content I like.

That is pretty much the only content I vote on. I do try to reserve a couple of votes for things that are of value to others and meet some sort of quality, or are from people helping people, but 85% of all my votes are on content I like, I also agree with the author issue, steemit and the web are good places to develop into an Author, but until you have a published book that can be ordered or purchased in a store, you are not an author. Sorry all those reporters and document writers and travel writers, and writers of this or that but no book, no Author Status in my view point/opinion.
@por500bolos(68)· 2716d

However, I have figured that it doesn't matter what it says on google, because somewhere, I've also seen that "quality is in the eye of the beholder", and that doesn't seem to be a good sentence to use whenever you're trying to describe "quality content" on STEEM.

Oh! @hitmeasap. ¿Does that means that you are now becoming into a "shit content" agnostic, or furious skeptic or just plain atheist here?

Haha, just click here and read and consume the whole darn thing. And after the whole blue pill test, let's see if your current religious beliefs still survive. };)

Cheers!!
@steevc(81)· 2716d
Voting is a very personal thing. We each get to decide what deserves a vote and that can be based on quality, friendship or a desire to play the system. As it stands the Steem community is far too small to really be considered representative. A few big players and the vote bots control most of the voting share. I stopped doing automatic votes as I want full control of what I vote on. There are people creating art, music, writing who I think deserve to earn more. For many of them it's their job whilst most of us are really just playing around in our spare time. It's possible for a busker with a smartphone to make more than a band who spent a year in the studio, but maybe that's what the community wants. Rewards do not have to be based on effort.
@yogajill(67)· 2717d
Well then! Now i know why i don't get your autovote. It's because my posts are mainly actift right now. Which is encouraging of keeping active. This is a huge blessing for a girl like me. I feel like almost all of my posts are shit posts! Someday i hope to contribute valuable content but for now it is what it is. Good luck with those whale votes Andre. Its good you arrived in time to get some of those. I was too late to the party for that. Whatever the story .... just be sure to have fun and keep Steeming!! 🌻🗻😊
@eirik(69)· 2717d
You could just end with that first paragraph and slap some rewards on it and you would:
1. Save time
2. Save yourself from thinking that STEEM is about manual curations and good content right now
Because it's not and that is why it's shit. You have even older account than me so you know about it.
@conradt(68)· 2717d
I love these rant articles of yours. Straight from the heart!
@skramatters(67)· 2717d
My name is skramatters and I am also a steemian... I haven't shitposted in a week. I'm taking things one moment at a time and I can't say I will never shitpost again, but today im shitpost free and here to listen.
@revisesociology(82)· 2717d
It would be interesting to do an analysis of certain types of 'quality posts' (above a certain research, length, grammar threshold) and see how much more they get paid compared to lower quality posts (measured by the same metrics)

You'd have to compare the same author - because likeability, the wealth of your friends, the value of your account (money follows money) all have a larger impact.

My feeling is that there'd be a marginally higher payout on the quality posts.

Or maybe not, I had a quick scroll through exlye's posts - his 'here's what I did this evening' posts seem to get paid just as much as his 'here's some analysis of steem posts' - the later being much higher 'quality', I mean unless you want to argue the toss that a picture of him with a steak is worth more than a 10 minute reflective vlog on SBD prices.

Actually pay varies quite a lot. Of course it's always above $20 because of his early adopter steem friends.

OK he's not representative, but based on his post payouts quality has very little to do with rewards.

@trufflepig suggests the same.
@denmarkguy(79)· 2717d
I hear you, and I feel your "pain."

For some 20-odd years, I have been part of a vast array of social content sites — some that compensated contributors, some that didn't — and the bottom line is that I am inevitably disappointed.

Social content and social media isn't — are rarely was — about quality. That said, it's also not necessarily a popularity contest.

In order to keep my frustration at bay, I instead ask the question of whether or not something adds a measure of value, in-context. Most Actific posts, and now DrugWars battle posts don't add shit, so I don't tend to curate/upvote them. A cute original picture of someone's cat? Maybe it does add some value, within the context of what we're doing here.

Sure, I have friends here... but I still don't go around and mindlessly upvote every piece of content they put out there.

I originally came here because I enjoy a genre I call "social blogging." I'm still here for that, and it's still what I write... and it's still what I tend to follow and curate.

And yes, I often spend two hours on a post. In 2+ years, I think I managed to post four posts in one day twice. Mostly it's once daily, sometimes twice.
@prettynicevideo(72)· 2717d
I wouldnt say I give a dam but if an article finds my way I read it... However long and rambly it is. What's a matter?