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#steem

Open Letter to all Steemians - Hardfork 21: Culture Change

TimCliff@timcliff (74)2563d

Hello Everyone. As many of you know, hardfork 21 is next week.

What to expect

This hardfork is going to be a big deal. Not just because of all the economic changes that are going into effect, but because there is an opportunity for us to make a major change.

Hardfork 21 = bad?

I know there is a lot of negativity surrounding this hardfork. There are a lot of people who are concerned about how this will affect the "little guy" (average user) and how it opens up more potential avenues for abuse.

I suspect a lot of people will think that because I am voting in support of the hardfork that I am not listening to these concerns, but I assure you - it is quite the opposite. I am very concerned about those things as well. Despite those concerns, I am still strongly in favor of the hardfork.

In my view, hardfork 21 is exactly what we need in order for all Steemians ("little guy" included) to succeed.

Here is my view

Steem in it's current form is broken. It has tremendous potential, but for whatever reason(s), it has not and is not living up to that potential. It is not broken beyond repair, but we cannot keep doing what we have been doing for the past 3+ years and expect different results. Things need to change.

Stakeholders vs. Users

Our community needs to realize that we need both groups in order to be successful.

  • Users need stakeholders to buy STEEM in order for their rewards to have any value.
  • Users also need stakeholders to vote on their content if they want to earn any rewards.
  • Stakeholders need users to be telling all of their friends and family about how great this place is in order to draw more people to the platform.
  • Stakeholders also need users to produce quality content that attracts outside eyeballs to Steem and shows off the potential of our platform.

Users: Start thinking about what you can do to make this place more attractive for stakeholders.

Stakeholders: Start thinking about what you can do to make this place better for users.

Why is Steem broken?

Blame Steemit for the ninja mine. Blame stakeholders for not putting the needs of the community above their own self interests. Blame witnesses for being lazy and not doing more to improve the platform. Blame users for leaching off the system and producing little of value. Blame Steemit for not making enough improvements to the platform over the years. Blame the "alt coin bear market". Blame abusive stakeholders who drove users away. Blame the lack of marketing.. Blame, blame, blame. There is plenty of it to go around.

Diagnosing Steem's issues

There have been lots of discussions on Steem's issues and what to do about them since before I got here (~3 years ago). There is no shortage of ideas on what is wrong and how to fix it.

I have (literally) spent hundreds of hours hashing out ideas with various stakeholders, other witnesses, and employees of Steemit, Inc. trying to figure out how to fix this place.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but some of the top issues include:

  • It is too hard for new users to get noticed.
  • The platform is too confusing.
  • Signups are too difficult to onboard at scale.
  • There is a lack of funding (outside of Steemit, Inc.) to pay for community development and marketing.
  • Users who contribute a lot of value are not sufficiently rewarded.
  • Users who don't contribute a lot of value find ways to milk the system.
  • There is not enough of an incentive to buy and hold STEEM.

Hardfork 21

Hardfork 21 does not attempt to solve all of our issues, but it does provide us with tools to make a pretty significant dent in many of them.

Here is how HF21 is supposed to work:

  • Curation is now more profitable, so there is more reason to buy STEEM and power up.
  • Members of the community who have good ideas and are willing to put in work to improve the platform will have a mechanism to get paid for it.
  • Stakeholders will have a means to earn higher returns on their investment by doing something that is good for the platform (curating) as opposed to something that is arguably not (funding bid bots).
  • Curators who see content that is not adding value will downvote it, because it is taking rewards away from everybody else.
  • Curation communities and voting trails will form to hunt for undiscovered content and upvote it in order to earn higher curation rewards.
  • Authors who are producing good quality content will have a higher chance of being noticed, because now more people are actually looking for good content.

Here is the 20 billion dollar question:

Can we do it?

...

I believe we can.

Hardfork 21 alone is not going to get us there, but it at least gives us the tools we will need to achieve it.

What will it take?

The simple answer is we need a culture change. We need users and stakeholders to start working together to build the platform and community that we want.

Every Steemian is going to have lots of choices to make after the hardfork. Where we end up will be a culmination of all those choices.

Change takes time

One thing to keep in mind, is change takes time. I know a lot of people will get frustrated when their utopian view of Steem does not come to fruition in the days, weeks, or even months right after the hardfork. The key is to not loose hope, and to keep working towards our shared goal.

Where do we go from here?

The reason I joined Steem and the reason I still continue to be an active part of the community is because of the huge potential that I see here. I want STEEM to be a top 10 cryptocurrency. I want us to scale to millions+ of users. I want Steem to be as popular (if not more) than Facebook.

Closing thoughts

What I ask of all of you going into the hardfork, and in the days, weeks, and months after is this:

Start to dream about what this place should look like in order to be a top 10 cryptocurrency and attract millions of users. When you are using the platform, align your actions with that vision. Do things that bring us closer to the goal, and fight against things that take us away from it.

With HF21, we will have the tools we need to get us there.

No more excuses. It is up to us.

Comments · 68

  • @mysearchisover(70)· 2492d

    Plerase undelegate to and/or take me off the @spaminator hitlist!.

  • @mysearchisover(70)· 2508d

    FYI I don't think @spaminator really needs your delegation. lol

    Why does Steemit focus of killing accounts?

    If it wasn't for Steemleo.com I might be 100% back on Facebook. lol

  • @steem-bounty(72)· 2520d

    This post has been revived by steem-forever and will get extra rewards. This happens when a post is upvoted on steem-bounty.com after the 7 day post life.

    Users can simple upvote via steem-bounty.com continously, so posts can live and earn rewards forever. Authors can share their steem-bounty.com links and get upvoted forever.

    We hope this will allow everyone to earn more meaningful rewards over longer timeframes than before.

  • @pfunk(73)· 2540d

    I just came across this post and I don't agree with creating a dichotomy between stakeholders and users on Steem. Especially when it's a post encouraging a new shift in culture. @curatorcat touched on this point a little, but nobody else seemed to mention this.

    Surely there is a difference in approach between someone who has a larger stake in Steem and someone who is making posts and cashing out the rewards. There are also big differences between people's stake. However, if you're renewing the culture of Steem, the best way of doing so is to remind so-called users of Steem that they are stakeholders. This is the original intent and culture of Steem and I think it was a wise place to start.

    To create a dichotomy by saying stakeholders vs. "users", and saying they need to work together, reinforces a dead-end culture for Steem.

  • @chireerocks(75)· 2559d

    @timcliff, This will be time taking Process but for sure Culture Change is needed, if we will not change then change will change us itself. Stay blessed.

    Posted using Partiko Android

  • @richatvns(73)· 2560d

    Curation is now more profitable, so there is more reason to buy STEEM and power up.

    Nope! problem is small authors/creators and groups who have less than a total of $4 in upvotes (97% of the users) just had there rewards cut by 33%.....

    You just drove off 50% of your people and now bid bot owners (who are whales like markymark just got a free boost of 200%... you just incentized less worse content and paid bot owners more.... 

    Members of the community who have good ideas and are willing to put in work to improve the platform will have a mechanism to get paid for it.

    Are you talking about the foundation, because the top 20 witnesses didn't contribute anything in this hardfork, in fact they got more for nothing

    Stakeholders will have a means to earn higher returns on their investment by doing something that is good for the platform (curating) as opposed to something that is arguably not (funding bid bots).

    bs!

    Curators who see content that is not adding value will downvote it, because it is taking rewards away from everybody else.

    wow just incentized flaming and trolls of flag-rewards as opposed to correctly fixing issues with TOS and actual real system.

    Curation communities and voting trails will form to hunt for undiscovered content and upvote it in order to earn higher curation rewards.

    BIGGGEST LIE EVER! Actually the NEW REWARD CURVE (read the math) disincentivizes groups of small users over larger stake holders! a group of small stakeholders upvoting a contest post $20 in total receives over 30% less in rewards then a single stakeholder upvoting $20 with a single vote. THIS IS BY FAR THE MOST DISGUSTING GRAB FOR MONEY I HAVE EVER SEEN!

    Authors who are producing good quality content will have a higher chance of being noticed, because now more people are actually looking for good content.

    How by taking the little money they were getting and now reducing it by 30% and giving less money to smaller starting guys? are you freaking kidding. You have just made everyone leave...and disincentived new users!

    IN SUMMATION THIS IS A BIG DISCUSTING MONEY GRAB LIE!

  • @briggsy(65)· 2560d

    This goes a long way to solving a fundamental problem with Steem, and that is the automated systems that take a little slice of Steem (basically a transaction fee) to provide a service that solves a problem that these systems created in the first place.

    Upvote bots are not a long term sustainable business model, and it's obvious that the velocity of Steem has plummeted even as the price drops and the supply inflates. While the bots can be used to fund a project, Steem-engine is even more effective to fund a project in that users will fund a good idea, instead of someone running a bidbot to fund a project that they personally think is great but may flop because it wasn't something users want.

    Steem is prepped to take an evolutionary step, and the bidbots are going to shrink in the broader ecosystem where creativity and innovation get the funding instead of a vote-ception market. And vote bots will die anyway and be replaced with communities that collectively vote where the good content is, instead of letting their account be used for paid upvotes that only reinforce a need for paid upvotes to keep the circle jerk going.

    End of an era, beginning of a new era. The negativity surrounding these changes is to be expected, but once the growth and potential of a broader system is realized, the developers who are simply in for a quick buck will be forced to compete in a broader software market against other talent for funding, which will increase the price of Steem on the open market and incentivize developers to produce content that users actually want.

    HF 21 gives hope.

  • @coinchaos(63)· 2561d

    We are all crabs in the bucket.

  • @blewitt(76)· 2561d

    The 20 Steem threshold frightens me a bit to be honest. Most of my posts don’t obtain that and I’ve been here a year and a half, gone to Steemfest...networked...and gave out over $5000 worth of comic books to strangers at the event, work my ass off here, actively recruit new users in my community, and invested several thousand dollars of my hard earned money to purchase tasty Steem to power up and reward others. For the most part outside of a handful of folks, nobody gives a shit about what I post...and that’s fine.

    I’m not entitled to anyone’s support or anything like that, but I’ll tell you this right now...a few people I’ve dragged on that have have been posting and interacting with some regularity are real nervous. These are the people who always fall below that threshold. I’ve been talking this place up and working my tail off to slowly and organically build my community, and pretty much everyone is going to be beaten down a bit more by this aspect. That’s a bit demoralizing and a slap in the face to new users. Just my opinion and I hope I’m wrong about this, but it is just THAT much harder for newer smaller users to build towards success here. That’s a shitty thing as it was already tough to do prior to Tuesday.

    I’m hopeful that we as a community can work it all out and in time prosper...but there definitely is a bias towards the larger accounts with this specific move. I don’t see how anyone can honestly say otherwise with a straight face...

    Can someone smarter than I am explain to me how this specific number was decided upon and the reasoning behind it?

  • @tattoodjay(83)· 2561d

    Such an interestign read and I am waiting to see how the Hard Fork affects the platform, it could be a good thing rat least I hope so it will most likely reduce what I earn on posts but if it does lead to an increase inthe value of Steem and the interest for people to get on board with Steem in the long run it will be a good think

  • @curatorcat(72)· 2561d

    It will definitely be interesting to see what happens with this hardfork @timcliff, and I think you hit the nail on the head with the statement that we need a culture change in order for this all to work out.

    I definitely hope HF.21 takes us in the right direction.

    For me (and maybe I am just totally out in left field with this) one of the "elephants in the room" that never gets talked about is a general lack of definition of what "this" actually IS. And — more specifically — the great emphasis often placed on the primary sales pitch to the external world (about Steem and all the communities) of "make money."

    Truthfully? Most of us are here to make money, but there's a semantic disconnect in using that particular approach.

    Why?

    To MOST people (and ESPECIALLY those "trolling" for sources of "money for nothing") the idea of "making money" suggest that I DO something, get paid, and then walk away and buy a cup of coffee, or a pizza.

    Why is this a problem? Because the implication is that we're all about current income (which drains the system and puts downward pressure on the price of Steem) rather than investing and gaining from longer term appreciation.

    Hence, there is a HUGE difference between "create content and get paid" and "create content and become a stakeholder."

    THAT, right there, surely must also be part of the cultural change we need to strive for, here...

    I do share a lot of your optimism and hope for this community, but something has to give, in terms of how we approach telling others (externally) about what we have here!

    =^..^=

  • @arcange(79)· 2561d

    Congratulations @timcliff! Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade in the following categories:

    • Comments - Ranked 1 with 168 comments
    • Pending payout - Ranked 8 with $ 50,9
  • @sayee(75)· 2562d

    I usually go by what my conscience says and something tells me that Steem is going to attain new heights. I may be wrong but if I am not, then we can sure see some happy faces of all those who invested heavily in Steem and believe in the power of what it can do.

    As for good content and rewards and all, I think that a person writes because he/she wants to write for the sake of it and not just the rewards only. The incentive for curating good content will make people search for good work and make them share it as well. So, good content will certainly get more rewarded as you point out. All the best and I believe in you guys. We are in good hands, so why worry?

  • @viking-ventures(74)· 2562d

    I really hope you're right! I want to be positive, but it's difficult because I'm well below the cut-off for where the changes will hurt - at least to begin with.

    I've been saying for awhile that it's hard to be both a quality content producer and a good curator! Perhaps as the curators materialize, good content will benefit. I've also been saying for awhile that Steem needs a way to pull in content consumers - we can't do both! This is the chance to make it work - I hope it will.

    Thanks for your take on this.

  • @binkyprod(70)· 2562d

    I will monitor the situation, but to know that content I share, for which I put weeks of work into, will be getting less, is very disheartening. Less rewards and then even less for earning less that 20 steem per post. I have invested over 2 years, am a delegator, contribute multiple times a week, have grown organicalky. I feel like Steemit is trying to push us away. I just can't see the positive. I want to be proven wrong, but I just can't see how hf21 will help minnows at all.

    Posted using Partiko Android

  • @resources(45)· 2562d

    steemit resources.png Word cloud of this post and all comments. Brought to you by @resources and https://worditout.com/

  • @d0zer(61)· 2562d

    I’m curious how things will work out. I think the major positive thing here is that we’re actually seeing things getting done unlike the past.

  • @joanstewart(75)· 2562d

    Appreciate your insight into imminent change Tim, let us hope this is the right way to tackle an ongoing problem.

    Many invest both time and money into steem, those who arrived to rape the concept hopefully have moved on, with interested investors remaining.

    Number of members is not always a criteria, commitment in assisting those who do put in the effort, growing a strong community will attract new arrivals when knowing what is expected.

    Keep sharing steem content to other platforms, that in itself is advertising.

  • @valued-customer(75)· 2562d

    Ninjaminers hoarding more tokens will not grow Steem.

    You had a choice: support HF21, or no longer be a witness.

    I think you made the wrong choice.

  • @pennsif(77)· 2562d

    This post has been included in the latest edition of The Steem News - a compilation of the key news stories on the Steem blockchain.

  • @stephen-somers(64)· 2562d

    Change is always hard but so many great Steemians have jumped ship and I just can’t see how much of these new rules will help encourage existing Steemians to stay and get new people joining. Time will tell I guess. This place used to have a special vibe but flag wars, bid bots and scammers have certainly tarnished this. I can’t see how the changes will address these issues in a positive way. @timcliff I do certainly respect your opinions and if you think it’ll overall be a good move then let’s roll the dice and see what comes up. Hopefully not crap.

  • @joeyarnoldvn(68)· 2562d

    Encouragement:

    Possibly the most important factor, like you said, is encouraging more curation by giving them 50% rewards. To some extent, potentially, that decentralizes the curation system. It gets more people involved in curating. That helps curators and it more importantly helps content creators.

    Centralized Users

    A single account may now only get 50% in rewards, in HF21, which is less than 75%, which we had before.

    Mathematical Magic

    Yet, ironically, mathematically, curation is like a funnel. The single user is a central point. Instead of increase the smaller end of the funnel (posting rewards), theoretically, expanding the other end of the funnel (curation) has the potential towards expansion. I have my fingers crossed for this new hard fork.

    Content Creators

    Some might argue that content creators, to some extent, might be like employers. Imagine allowing employers 50% profits. I like that. Some might say that's too much. But before HF21, it was at 75%. So, this might be a step in the right direction. And other people argue that it should remain at 75% or more. I understand their concerns. But mathematically, the curators are like the employees. They upvote the content that is provided by content creators (employers). If you give a thousand curators more money, then they might curate more. And 50% of that goes to the employer. More curation means more votes. And more votes means more money for the central users. So, in theory, this will improve the Steem system. Mathematically, it's easy to understand the funnel system. I hope this second pool, the downvoting system, helps as well.

  • @free-reign(67)· 2562d

    Is buying steem going to be easier?

  • @lookplz(63)· 2562d

    Hardfork 21 = bad? I know there is a lot of negativity surrounding this hardfork. There are a lot of people who are concerned about how this will affect the "little guy" (average user) and how it opens up more potential avenues for abuse.

    I suspect a lot of people will think that because I am voting in support of the hardfork that I am not listening to these concerns, but I assure you - it is quite the opposite. I am very concerned about those things as well. Despite those concerns, I am still strongly in favor of the hardfork.

    In my view, hardfork 21 is exactly what we need in order for all Steemians ("little guy" included) to succeed.

    I have seen a vast majority of this "negativity" (I think some of it is just concern for what negative consequences could come for the little people, not so much being negative as "what negative could be about to happen to us.") and I get a lot of people's concern, I have concerns of my own, even.

    The thing is, I see it as double-edged. Sure, there's drawbacks like possible abuse of free downvoting and other avenues. I also see the little guys getting double the curation they were getting though. Curation that is, essentially, un-removable. (Unless people are willing to downvote whole posts just to take away your personal rewards...)

    People can worry about whatever or have hope for whatever, but what I'm glad to be seeing the most, is people talking about it. That is the first step to any form of growth moving forward. Discussion.

    This is by no means an exhaustive list, but some of the top issues include:

    • It is too hard for new users to get noticed.
    • The platform is too confusing.
    • Signups are too difficult to onboard at scale.
    • There is a lack of funding (outside of Steemit, Inc.) to pay for community development and marketing.
    • Users who contribute a lot of value are not sufficiently rewarded.
    • Users who don't contribute a lot of value find ways to milk the system.
    • There is not enough of an incentive to buy and hold STEEM.

    I think a VERY simple solution to the first issue of new users being hard to notice, could have been solved extremely easily a long time ago by any front-end.

    They simply need to have a tab like they do for the trending/hot/new, that says "Up and Coming" or something like that. It could say any number of things and it really wouldn't matter that much, but it would only display posts that had so far earned less than idk, say, 20-40 cents? A single dollar? It would stop displaying posts that reached above that and it would display them in a fashion like the hot page would. It would show based on how quickly it got to that amount, and slower earning posts would show up lower on the list, but it would still show posts at a max of less than a dollar at most, meaning that the top of the list will have only earned that much, but the quality may be just as good as some of the highest paying content. This will give visibility to that low range and not only give new exposure to smaller stakeholders/users, but it will also show what posts are rising the fastest from nothing. You see a good post there one minute, then it's gone, you look at the hot/trending, there she blows! The good post is not lost, but since it was noticed enough to earn above that cap for the page, it now transitioned to where it is getting the exposure it needs.

    I feel that that alone would allow people to organize content based on how much it's being paid, and see the posts that are doing well, but not earning much and allow the larger users who wish to reward that content an easy way to find said content.

    The platform being confusing is really just a matter of looks. I prefer Steempeak to Steemit and I don't feel that steempeak is confusing whatsoever, steemit, however, different story. I can understand that aspect. Some new people may not find Dapps that appeal to them for a while and may not know they even exist. I guess I just was one of the luckier ones.

    Can't really speak on signups, as it didn't seem that hard for me to get started, it just took a little while which seemed like nbd. I'm not privy to the issues that go along with that so I have no valid opinion. :P

    As far as funding goes, I think that really depends on the people here. How hard are the people working to bring new users/investors in? Generally there need to be solid ideas built behind things before people will want to invest. You can't just try to bring investors in on the hopes and dreams of creating something beautiful one day that is worth all of that value, there needs to be enough product already built for them to have real interest. Even the average person might need a good bit of convincing to even join in to an idea. As much as you say the thing about blame, people's finances being crippled by markets and inflation and just life in general, does matter, exponentially. That is yet another reason why we have not seen any real improvement in the crypto markets for a long time now. The world economy is going in the dumper as a whole and it's due to bankers and politicians. We may see some bright patches here and there, but from here on out, with the exception of crypto gaining more traction, we are headed for a very low, low. Across the board. This does directly affect things like this and as much as I hate to place blame on anything when there are a multitude of factors involved, this is one that I feel comfortable blaming for a very large portion of all of it. If we see economies start to thrive and rise again, we will see a massive influx of new members coming to the community. If not only for the fact that new people like me are willing to promote and spread the word personally. Especially when the markets are coming back and the steem I purchased at 16-20 cents is worth a dollar or more again. :) I will be all too happy to onboard as best I can. Make money (possibly, lol.) to be social? I don't see that being hard to market. Lot of people around me still don't even know about crypto, yet use instagram, youtube, and facebook. Lots of opportunity.

    As far as not being rewarded properly, I can see that. I can also see the side where you might need to spend a little bit at first, to get people's attention. If you aren't willing to invest in yourself, why should other people? I guess that's just how I was built though. Does that mean you will forever have to spend? No. Not at all. If your content is good quality and you spend a little bit here and there to get exposure, you could very well find people that stick you on their voting list. It's not insanely hard and I've had some luck picking up bigger stakeholders as voters for me, by what I would assume is just posting content they like and boosting it up a little bit so they can see it. If I had not promoted my content some, I may not have ever gotten any support. Could've been random chance, idk. :)

    I've done some research and seen what you're talking about as far as milking with no quality. That's pretty fucked. :/

    The incentive to buy/sell steem is in the ability to influence the content. I'm sure that for some that doesn't make sense or seems pointless... but look at steem like a marketing tool alone. Having power to promote your stuff to the top and such, is essentially advertising. In this example, you're paying for advertising. Advertising that can potentially earn you rewards the same way you might get customers for your product. (Although you might actually be selling a product here, so you actually are getting customers. :) )

    Also, just to cover the broad topic of abuse. Here's my stance:

    Yes, there will be abusers, anywhere, but here's the thing... If they continue to sell off what they get by abusing, to people who aren't abusing, eventually there will be less and less and less for them to sell. More and more of that stake goes into decent people's wallets over time (If they keep buying.) Meaning that as times goes on and instead of powering up and staking those rewards, the abuser is selling them, they are not growing in power at the same rate the decent users are. This means that it is only a matter of time and a matter of purchase power, before these abusers start to not be able to abuse at all. When the community has continued to buy what they're dumping off, and the rate they're dumping is far higher than the rate they're growing, then that abuser will be sorted out by the people eventually. If they are powering it up, then that means that they are not selling, so either way, we win in the long run by continuing to purchase steem and power up our stakes. It may take quite a while for this to occur (Idk how much power abusers have/how much abusers earn), but it's just like the law of large numbers in gambling. Eventually, it will happen. This also takes into account the idea that the community will actively fight this abuse when and where they see it. Another reason free downvotes are a positive thing, in my opinion. This now allows good users who may not flag otherwise, the ability to freely combat that bullshit post they saw that was being boosted through some abusive mechanism.

    TL;DR:

    Well, then you better learn to be patient and read! ;) :P Jk! If you care to know what was said though... really... you can take the time to read it. :) Not sue how to best "TLDR" this thing. lol

  • @institutdpos(53)· 2562d

    No other blockchain out there will be able to match steem for the next 3 years. So we have 3 years to make steem great again and later on build a bridge with other social network. Steem will be the glue. Steem on!

  • @steem-ua(64)· 2562d

    Hi @timcliff!

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  • @hilarski(76)· 2562d

    I hope you are right. I am a buyer of Steem here.

  • @cwow2(73)· 2562d

    If you learn to curate smart as the little guy. It would way easy to grow compared to making posts and get them seen.

    Curation and commenting is way more fun than posting for me. So I am looking forward to HF21

  • @ew-and-patterns(71)· 2562d

    This is the best post I have read here in a long time. resteemed to my 4700 Followers.

  • @stuffbyspencer(62)· 2563d

    Hey @timcliff, could you explain to me how you see the new 50/50 reward split is going to encourage whales to manually curate?

    Dies the increase in curation rewards also benefit bidbots? Why wouldn't one just keep their steem going towards that, a lot easier to make profits no?

    Posted using Partiko Android

  • @bleujay(74)· 2563d

    Well said @timcliff.

    What a concise and clear explanation.......thank you.

    All the best.

    Cheers!

  • @tuck-fheman(75)· 2563d

    great initiative!

  • @goldmanmorgan(59)· 2563d

    something constructive before i pick up my vow of silence and hope to keep it for a week Screenshot_2019-08-23_11-05-58.png

    blame, blame, always blame, not the part where i dont see "reward discarded" as i dont feel anyone should but steemit itself (but i also feel no one should get paid to run a node ... i'm a weird mofo after all)

    See that feed ? that's not blame, that's hard reality on "bills have to be paid" but also the biggest dump because there's no alternate source of income You got here, a huge pack of IT-genius who could easily provide service, PAID, to third party (there was also the option when the world was young to PATENT a system that's more than unique enough i like to think)

    BRIBING ... steemit never votes ?

    bribing zynga to bring farmville ... panem et circenses (but i guess that's morally not acceptable in the "the right way to do things" you need to bring a friend with money into the hyperinflation and his 50 euros will do the trick)

    sarcasticat at your service, its the world of finance, no compassion in the marketplace , i really dont believe the "ask not what your country can do for you" approach is gonna bear much fruit and yet i really hope i will be proven wrong on that part

    there's more than zynga, my little script to calculate a votes worth seems to be broken , probably the json output changed but it doesnt matter and last time i checked they were at 32 million, now at 29 .... q.e.d. and resting that case b/c it really feels like its way too much on my head daily for getting zero cents a year out of it with about 90% of all steem i have paid for out of my own pockets ...

    gud then, a month of silence but the posts (if anyone checks my thing , that stripmining i do here for four cents a post is basically a demo of what you can do with a €150 pc with a celeron cpu, steemchain and condenser, comes down to something that i been running since 6 months before the first announcements of SMT's, runs steem-equivalent at a level of 25 digits deep (but only uses 8) and is intended to be playcoin for a game im trying to develop) @tyrnannoght , https://tyrnannoght.alleycat.be with an e.t.a. of nAn, around 2050 maybe as its just me, but at least im trying (to get something that gets me actual money)

    kudos ...

  • @kiaromauw(42)· 2563d

    Just joined in yesterday. Hope it’ll be a good one :)

  • @theguruasia(69)· 2563d

    @timcliff, Not this one I am looking at the next fork! I think that's the major one in STEEM history! $trdo

    Cheers~

  • @fredrikaa(74)· 2563d

    It is too hard for new users to get noticed. The platform is too confusing. Signups are too difficult to onboard at scale. There is a lack of funding (outside of Steemit, Inc.) to pay for community development and marketing. Users who contribute a lot of value are not sufficiently rewarded. Users who don't contribute a lot of value find ways to milk the system. There is not enough of an incentive to buy and hold STEEM.

    At least we found a way for us to fix 1,2,3,4 and 5 without the need for any forks :)

  • @fleur(63)· 2563d

    I am a fan of the Steem engine tokens with 50/50 and 60/40 split as I have always done manual curation and as an author, I find people are more likely to vote on my posts as they will be better rewarded. I think this change will improve the Steemit experience. Your post also clearly explains the changes in layman’s terms so is helpful, thanks. I would like to invest but the disparity between the higher bitcoin price and low steemit price is a deterrent. In the uk, you cannot exchange fiat directly for Steem and if this were to change and the interest rate was not extortionate, I would invest. My main motivation these days however are the spin offs, Steem engine (and initially actifit until the recent changes which made it less rewarding for the newer members) 🙏🏽

    Posted using Partiko iOS

  • @deemarshall(67)· 2563d

    I have noticed that some Stakeholders are creating new identities on, I think, Github and Steempeak. Will they be able to make more curation payments for themselves by upvoting their own posts with these new identities?

  • @aaronhawk(57)· 2563d

    Thank you for restoring hope for this project!

  • @erh.germany(68)· 2563d

    Just the other day I was looking at your blog in the hope to find an article. And here it comes. You said some important things and I like to add some more thoughts.

    To me, Steemit is a big experiment. Decentralization is not something that people are used to living. If there is no central unit that pushes things forward, but a house is placed on the square, where interested people and passers-by can simply build their doors, create applications on their own initiative, then exactly what happened at Steemit happens: things become independent; and not always for the best. There is abuse everywhere and in every system. If the system is big enough, it will always endure those who use it for primarily selfish purposes. But Steemit has never been big enough for that. Unlike shoplifting or welfare, where firstly the theft is priced in and secondly strict control is exercised, freedom on Steemit has been one that is probably quite unique.

    The drama of abuse and opinions reflects exactly what is going on out there in politics and business. But the fact that we are now on a par with those whom we have so far liked to insult (and continue to do so) is, if we want to see it from the humorous side, a lesson that many of us can use. How easy it is to scold all those who hold the rudder in their hands and how hard it is to hold it yourself and not know who to ask or what to do with this freedom.

    If you compare Steemit to open source, you realize that, for example, participating in the further development of Linux or other projects of this kind, didn't hold out the prospect of any direct financial reward, was merely a satisfaction for those who had the ability and desire to continue working on something voluntarily and see what the baby would become.

    Here at Steemit, the focus is and has been far too much on profit. No matter if user or stakeholder: if you don't invest with interest and fun, if you see it as experimental or play money, you will never be happy here. Wanting to build one's existence and satisfaction on something as new as crypto currency in conjunction with blogging, on something as unfinished as this, without wanting to give the opportunity to grow, only produces disappointed minds.

    Wikipedia is a great example. No matter how you judge it, it's a phenomenon and a role model of how something can evolve without people getting heated. Or youtube: Rarely seen anything that has provided such an extremely long period of time with a completely free platform for consumption and production. As long as it lasted (without ads), everyone was enthusiastic and a lot, really a lot of people, benefited from it and will continue to do so. Behind one as well as the other are patience, a long-term intention and vision and above all people who have enough time and money, a really long breath. From the really impressive ROI's that have been here so far: Who else is here who has the same breath and hasn't been frustrated or bored?

    This social experiment, in which all users participated, could so far be considered a failure. The decentralization and freedom that so many people are calling for is suddenly a commodity that is handled clumsily. What do you do with it? Who tells you where to go? How do you behave when you are a small light in the offline world and suddenly a whale here?

    I don't condemn that.

    Decentralization is something completely new and different and it can take years or decades for people to get used to the fact that they have to get along without hierarchy. There are only interest groups that can work together, they are far from communities; that's how I see it. I find this word very misleading and emotionally charged. What takes place here predominantly without a central guidance, is a loose union of interest groups or hobbyists.

    The best currency is rising user numbers, not rising profits. For the outside world, Steemit is like a kind of village behind a wall. It behaves like a club and somehow doesn't keep the accesses open enough and, as I said, without a central unit that causes a sensation, the whole thing will rather splash on. The new, the exciting, such as in the beginner times of youtube or facebook can't offer it or has tried to offer it by putting making money first. But as always, when money plays the first violin, something is missing.

    How I see it: Why all the drama? Why not just going on and seeing Steemit as a long term opportunity and exchanging solutions in some different ways, like consensual voting method.

    Curators who see content that is not adding value will downvote it, because it is taking rewards away from everybody else.

    What a lousy task. I wouldn't want to give myself up for that. To vote down content that doesn't interest me, that contradicts the demands of my sense of quality: what kind of work is that? But maybe it's needed, I really don't know. Punishment, in my view, never works very well.

    I will go on blogging.

  • @galenkp(84)· 2563d

    Hi @timcliff I’d like to thank you for a really measured and balanced post about HF21 when many other seem to have been weighted one way or the other.

    I’m a small account and have blogged my way to that status with what I hope has been reasonable content. I’ve enjoyed it, and still do, however have the same fears and concerns others do. Your post has gone some way toward allaying those fears and for that I also thank you.

    I look forward to the future here, to continued content creation by myself and others and I look forward to HF21 making a positive change. Most of my steem has been earned by content creation and (manual) curation however I’ve added some purchased with hard-hearted fiat so I’m eager and optimistic on the future. I believe we can do this.

    Anyway, I just wanted to say this.

    Enjoy your weekend.

    Posted using Partiko iOS

  • @boosta(69)· 2563d

    Curation is now more profitable, so there is more reason to buy STEEM and power up - @timcliff

    Why don't you start buying? You are powering down :-).

  • @goldmanmorgan(59)· 2563d

    at the risk of breaking my radio-silence and losing my distance :

    that ponzi-thing where the masses need to do the work for the company wont work

    the company needs to attract money by providing actual potential added value to other business and people with money need to create entrypoints , i have no idea who the business/mass-psychologist for steemit inc is but they clearly have strange ideas on "the masses" there, i lost my distance again gods dam ... why is it broken ? because who the hell has heard of people getting PAID to run nodes and a company dumping its own coin as primary source of income AND then expecting to in a absolutely not ponzi way everyone just bringafriend with some money to infuse the system while every time anyone buys a 50 some whale thinks its time to sell off ...

    THATS WHATS BROKEN pardon my french caps , delusions on how the world works. And what kind of a major brand would come into a zone where you can actually downvote the competitors actual money ?

    delusional , i say ... i know you're a good guy, Tim , but i cant believe for one second you mean what you're saying here for real. It's crap and you know it. If THEY and the fortune 50 stripminers dont provide access that's attractive and money from real money then who the hell would come overhere to open up an account where you cant do jack with unless your FIRST spend extra money on it and THEN can't even post your daily puppy or you get steemcleanered ... what kind of "masses" do you people live in ? none , i think ...

    i wasnt gonna speak for weeks but i saw the post and imo its been a while, so i read it and ... well

    ah btw, you want me to do a poll in my town here and ask 20.000 people what an SMT is and what a stake is for ?

    i'll get you the results ...

    for about euhm lets see, at 20 cents that would be times 5 times 1000 steem then heh, lol j/k but i'm sure you get the point

    I hope to see it work, really , but i dont believe in it this way, so i hope the results prove me wrong ... the downvoting culture is definitely one of the biggest no-no's to serious brands and who would spend money simply to read some articles ? and WHO amongst their beloved masses would hang around for being downvoted out of REAL monetary value ? does this not compute to anyone upthere ? im not mister negative

    i'm mister real

    panem et circenses , mate, if you want "the masses" ... not 'curation' as in downvoting, you're aiming for a small niche, not the fucking planet ... pardon my english

    m yea im an expert at making myself popular with popular opinion, a great politician and a supreme diplomat but

    some food for thought :

    https://bitnodes.earn.com/

    https://www.investopedia.com/news/running-full-bitcoin-node-investors/

    a win on hackernoon ? great , but that's because its hackable - the big chunk of "the people" will NOT move from facebook to here to pay for the right to post, there needs to be incentive, more the likes of steemmonsters, less the likes of that ancient idea of "good content", that part is FIT very much for a niche within the whole, not to be the rule of thumb

    its my opinion, and i hope the HF21 proves me wrong in 2020 but i doubt it ... im gonna stop talking because i wasnt gonna for a few weeks as i feel steemit is taking over too much of my daily and i vowed myself no fucks would be given (yea my french again) but it seems to be harder than i thought.

    I KNOW, but euh, taking away the paidforanode ? ofcourse no one will propose that, that's like politicians who would vote to lower their own wage to save on taxes ... but bitcoin doesnt seem to need it and i hurr steem claims to have the bestest, low-cost, most memory and energy efficient system requirements too ... and and and ... by now im sure i made a lot of friends in high places, but i'm one of "the little guys" here ... and i dont feel its about me AT ALL ... i do agree with most of your list of issues there, of all people i have asked or mentioned no one sees the need since they have facebook and dont know anyone here and why and whats the point ? and the one who did said "i dont wanna b/c they ask my phonenumber" and when i said, it costs a euro today to make an account "do you want me to make you one?" a friend after all, right , she asked but can i talk to you just like on facebook then and i had to say ... well

    you cant do much with a fresh account unless you put money in it or spend A LOT OF TIME NETWORKING , i wont lie to a friend, right so she said "nah, save the euro, i wouldnt know what to do with it" ...

    but to blame it on little users "milking the system ? " while ichiban dumper is the company itself and the fortune 50 follow up hot on the charts ? blame ? your tenthousand active users will have a hard time milking 1% of that, you know that's crap, and you also know your standard Joe is not interested in all that handshaking or put money in it first ...

    so please,

    let that HF prove me wrong , heh, and i will stand corrected

    if you wanna take the "investment for the future" approach id say its a very bad time for that at 17 cents coming from almost $10 and consider the actual real situation (assuming the hyperinflation gets countered by 20 years from now and it gets a value of 1% of a bitcoin or something?) You get what ? say 10 million people retiring their retirement fund all in a very short time and what does that do on a financial market ....

    it's not sticking with me, man ... i know you have nothing but good intentions but the last year of salespitch on steemit is not sticking with me if someone can come up with a way to prevent the top dumpers from damaging or even better, a way to move from hyper-inflated to capped or pegged (i dont know how, okay, thats why im saying) i would get a lot more confident

    no no no, really, if you would see some family or something getting high on their own supply what would you say ?

    "good job" ?

    lol yea, and thanks there erika but here ... my way of phrasing is never suited to the current locale i have seen that a long time ago but i hope at least it shows im not here prying for a vote by coming with a pot of syrup and a jar of honey but my concerns are upright and sincere, i want, or maybe need to see this thing fixed just as much as the fortune 50 upthere and i DO think its the best thing since sliced bread and maybe the only true innovation on the original since satoshi and his cronies came up with BTC (which was capped from the start and that was about 75% of the whole point about it) but that doesnt change your beloved masses mostly want , and truly nothing but

    panem et circenses , the romans knew, they threw around free bread during the games too

    already sorry i broke my vow of silence so i guess i'm not strong enough yet lol, bem

    good luck anyway

  • @revisesociology(82)· 2563d

    A nice write up.

    The new system should also encourage more flagging of large abusers by smaller accounts...

    Given that it will be much less worthwhile to post mediocre content (no one's going to be earning $5 for posting about their daily meal anymore) then they'll be less posting of that sort - so less or no opp for retaliation if they do flag larger accounts.

    And of course flagging doesn't effect curation returns.

    I think flagging's going to be key to this new system.working.

    Posted using Partiko Android

  • @steevc(80)· 2563d

    I've been saying for ages that we need good content to get rewarded better. There has been too much of a dash for cash. Investors would look at trending and see junk. I'm interested to see if that changes after next week. The economics of buying votes will change, but will it go away? The sellers will find other ways to keep going.

    I believe in the potential of Steem, but it's really up to us all where it goes.

  • @improv(73)· 2563d

    The huge thing that you and all the other folks proclaiming that this solves problems are missing is:

    Steem is a social media site. Most interactions are people interacting with their community. The communities that thrive draw new people in. Not rich investors usually, but friends and family. You're all jumping the gun on this "Steem is broken" line and throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

    The new curve is going to incentivize piling on to popular content rather than discovering and welcoming new users. If my vote can give someone I like $0.20 or someone I don't know yet $0.10, I'm going to vote for the former. And will I ever offer an encouraging upvote on comments??? Never. Because the comment isn't going to get other votes.

    You will change the behavior of most users. You will change it so that we no longer behave like regular people.

    I joined just before we got linear rewards. I was near quitting feeling like my posts would never be worth anything. Then it switched. I didn't know why at the time, but suddenly they were worth more. They were proportionately as valuable as other posts I saw around. Still less, but not exponentially less. It made this thing seem possible.

    I wish the people in power had the imagination to understand what Steem is like for minnows and what it will be like in hf21. And not everyone is the same. But for a lot of users who have given a lot to building and bringing their communities to the platform, it will be a gut punch.

    Posted using Partiko Android

  • @culgin(72)· 2563d

    Great article! While I still hold on to my thoughts that the effect of the economic changes will be unpredictable, I agree it's a good change overall

    Posted using Partiko Android

  • @jaguar.force(73)· 2563d

    "Hardfork 20 alone is not going to get us there," typo, correct Also, pass me the crack.

  • @kommienezuspadt(79)· 2563d

    Well said, @timcliff. My commitment to Steemit hasn’t wavered at all. Once @mada first explained to me what the site and blockchain once, I had a very literal “You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” moment. I took the red pill. My distain for silo media, and the principle alone that I could earn anything at all for my content, was enough to lock me down till the bitter end.

    In many ways, I think Steemit is well positioned right now. I hope HF21 solves a lot of these issues. I’m seeing dozens of my creator/illustrator/artist and model friends leave Instagram in hordes. It’s a mass exodus, and they’ll need somewhere to go.

    I’m really excited about the DAO proposal platform. I have some very outside the box ideas and spent last week making wild pitches for projects to @lovejoy and @roadscape. The day that proposal submission form is live, I’m going to be bombarding the community with new ideas!

    Thanks for always fighting the good fight, @timcliff!

  • @jaydih(72)· 2563d

    Very motivating post! Great!

  • @fitinfun(72)· 2563d

    Hi @timcliff,

    Thank you for being one of few people "in the know" to be communicating about this fork. These is a lot of silence up in big fish land these days.

    I have been here for two years posting daily on three blogs. I write minnow tips, freewrite, review dapps and restaurants, post photography and travel and talk about natural weight loss. I have been living off STEEM and STEEM related money since Dec 2017.

    I post about 40 times a week and comment/reply 300 times a week between the three blogs. I feel like I am an asset to STEEM. I have a lot of regular voters, auto-voters and all kinds of people (new and old) who tell me my work here helps them.

    I hope I will be one of the little people still standing after the fork goes though. At this point, it is not looking good.

    I will be attending STEEMFest 4 unless I am dead. I live in Malaysia and so I will be in Bangkok. However, unless I win a conference ticket, I will not be attending the conference itself as I cannot afford the ticket now - much less after the fork.

    You ask us to:

    dream about what this place should look like

    I have already been dreaming about this for the whole two years I have been here. STEEM should be a vibrant place where people of all interests and income levels can succeed. My minnow tips are directed at new people so they can get over the many technical challenges to even be able to post.

    You are predicted to be one of the few winners in this new paradigm @dreemsteem projected before she left a couple of months ago, @timcliff.

    steem fork losers and winners.PNG

    100 fat people does not an vibrant ecosystem make. I am posting as best I can these days, trying not to let terror envelop me, and praying for miracles such as more people voting my posts.

    One of the "problems" I fight down here in minnowland is the 95% kill rate. I do not think we need to recruit any more people to come in the door if we cannot even support the few that make it now.

    "We need more people posting!" cry the steemers.

    "I'm not voting for those know-nothing minnows!" cry the steemers.

    So now what?

  • @camiloferrua(72)· 2563d

    I really hope everyone does their part. I also believe in the great potential of this platform, but it has to be more friendly, the UI has to be changed and new apps developed.

    Please take a look at this proposal I made some months ago.

    I think projects like this are the way to make Steem more actractive to no crypto users.

  • @kimzwarch(70)· 2563d

    Love the write up! That definitely sums up what will be happening in the coming week where HF will take course. Curation is definitely a very important part to incentify users to write more and better contents here on Steemit as well as other alt platform that utilize Steem blockchain. By having that good chain of incentives, it will get more traction whereby Steemit could make things profitable through activities like ad. In overall, sustainable is the key!

  • @angelro(58)· 2563d

    Thank you Boss for writing a brief, articulate article on the new system in the simplest way possible. After going through many posts related to this there was more Confusion than clarity. Now this post cleared some basic doubts.

    Though economy part was not my main aspect while I joined two years back I have to completely agree with the fact that steem had lost its appeal midway. Even I made a post on it. And we need Iittle more proactive approach to make the steem shining again so that everyone will gets benifited at the end.

    Thank you, Have a good day

    Posted using Partiko Android

  • @drakos(70)· 2563d

    The disconnect between large stakeholder and the smaller users has been a big problem, both sides trying to milk the system without showing much care about the system, their system. The blame game has also been great, because the system (not perfect) is broken on many sides. We all depend on eachother, if we don't act in the best interest of STEEM, the platform will have a hard time staying afloat.

    Hopefully HF21 will bring a new cultural change for all the reasons you mentioned. I still feel the original authors may take a hit on their rewards (that's why I'm not a fan of the 50/50 split in the EIP); increasing the curation reward doesn't necessarily mean authors will get more curators. That being said, perhaps things will even out eventually when the shit posters are deterred by downvotes, which equates to a better reward pool for the rest of the good authors. Nobody can predict what will happen, at this point it's speculations and wishful thinking. As with previous hardforks, we need to wait and see, then adjust if necessary to close potential loopholes.

    I also hope the HF21 transition goes smoothly, from the technical point of view, unlike the disaster of HF20. I'm happy that many scaling issues are being resolved, with more future optimizations on the horizon.

  • @mamunedt(31)· 2563d

    Good post

    Posted using Partiko Android

  • @doitvoluntarily(80)· 2563d

    looking forward to see how the changes unfold 😎

  • @holoz0r(78)· 2563d

    I'm looking forward to increased curation, but as a creator; I'm not looking forward to the inequitable decline in reward for my time.

    Curation is fast and easy. Taking the time to produce and share content that is too often under rewarded sees many talented authors go elsewhere with a captive audience.

    I really hope the quality of engagement improves dramatically.

    Posted using Partiko Android

  • @smooth(74)· 2563d

    Well said!

  • @yabapmatt(72)· 2563d

    I feel like this is all a bit backwards. We're basically all trying to figure out what the best way is to give out all the STEEM that's being created rather than trying to figure out why people should want STEEM in the first place.

    It seems we all have this assumption that people just want STEEM, which is true, but only because it can be sold for fiat or other cryptos that people want instead. It's just something to be milked and sold for something you actually have a use for. For Steem to succeed there needs to be another reason people want to own STEEM other than to earn more STEEM.

    If you look at your list of things HF21 is supposed to do, they're almost all some form of "buying/holding STEEM will allow you to earn more STEEM". If that's the only reason people want STEEM then the price will continue to drop until finally no one cares about earning more STEEM.

    I would love to see the focus shift from how the STEEM is distributed to how we can give STEEM value - or rather show the world the value that Steem already provides.

  • @freebornangel(72)· 2563d

    I've lost a lot of hope since steemit said the rich will be getting richer and screw the little guys. Props to them for at least being honest this time, but the people that were here for a few pennies a day are out, and those that were making dollars now get pennies?

    I don't think this place thrives only rewarding sycophants of those that already have steem.

    Nobody, with their dignity intact, agrees to play by those rules, imo.

  • @whatsup(76)· 2563d

    Well stated!

    Also don't forget to let everyone know this is NewSteem!

    It's alive, active, busy and thriving.

    #NewSteem It's what we make it.

  • @lukestokes(77)· 2563d

    Thank you, Tim. As always, you bring a voice of reason and personal responsibility which is the only thing which will move us forward.

  • @happyphoenix(69)· 2563d

    I just hope that HF-21 will attract new good stakeholders, because for this time there isn't many good stakeholders who concern about good users in this platform. Steem for this moment only full with speculation investor, they only take profit and leave after get it. They're only Short player.

    Posted using Partiko Android

  • @michealb(67)· 2563d

    excellent!

  • @nancybriti(71)· 2563d

    One of the serious problems I see with this platform is the little or no advertising out there. We are a closed circle that waits for people to come, without thinking that we can also go out and look for users. There's a lot of talent here. So I trust that this new stage of STEEM will be for the good of all and not for the fat and few killer whales that exist. Greetings

  • @acidyo(84)· 2563d

    Awesome post, Tim!

    I am very much in the same boat with you and I agree with most of your views. I am hoping the use of downvotes will increase but not the use of unfair downvotes. I am hoping people will see the long term potential of Steem like many others of us do and start investing back at these prices (especially smaller users - this is your and our chance at a great distribution even though we are one of the best distributed currencies out there already and it will hopefully only get better with HF21 - get there before the whales pick it all up). I hope there will be some projects that will use other people's downvotes wisely and unbiased and that we get downvote delegation pool possibly on the next HF with SMT's to mitigate blind retaliation and at the same time I hope projects will spawn that will counter such retaliation and that people find value in that and assist it with stake.

    I could go on and on about things I hope will start to occur after Tuesday but don't wanna make this comment too long. Let's unite as likeminded people and protect the rewardpool, our fellow users and show the world what we have here and welcome them with open arms. There is still nothing compared to Steem while all the older centralized giants are only getting worse and worse, it is our time to shine.

  • @witnessnews(2)· 2563d

    This post has been resteemed by @witnessnews.

    Follow @witnessnews to keep up with active witness updates.