First things first, @nickyhavey @tipu curate (I hope it works - I'm still getting the hang of this).
Seriously (as if that wasn't), I am so glad that you went out on a limb and wrote this. I know that you thought long and hard about not doing it - for all the reasons you cite about negative responses to downvoting for lack of understanding, etc. etc.
It does take a while to realise, when joining Steemit, that the vote buttons are exactly that: votes which have value. It took me an age to understand this. Part of the reason, IMHO is because steemit bills itself as a social media site. I think that this is misleading and it causes a lot of damage.
It's still how it's being punted "out there". In layman's terms, had I understood that everything I did on Steem had a concomitant cost, I might have approached things slightly differently.
This post has, for me, consolidated a lot about the "new" Steem that I wasn't sure about, but sensed, instinctively. It did, for a while, shortly after HF21/22, feel like a kinder place. Somewhere between then and about two weeks ago, that changed. I am a recipient of those "mosquito" downvotes and although it's taken a while, I've become inured to it. I do hope that they run out of steem - in all senses of the word.
I do hope that what @nonamelefttouse's prediction
This concept of buying votes for each other will quickly turn into people buying votes for themselves using alt accounts and then things get messy all over again.
is not realised. It's something our other friend, @quillfire also suggested would happen some time back.
I have to add that the discussion on this post has been as insightful as the post itself, particularly from @raj808 - along with the associated discussion.
As a total technophobe, I'd like to see this post, and ones similar to it, becoming part of a Dunce's guide to Steemit's mechanics into which folk could dip if they were confused/unsure. This is because, again IMHO, too much of the guff written for and about Steemit is written by techies and it leaves the likes of me swirling like a dervish in the deep blue sea.
Thanks again, Nicky, for explaining the almost unexplainable.
Fiona
Hey @fionasfavourites the most epic of commenters 😁
Firstly, no idea how tipu works, you may want to have a chinwag with @dswigle for that!
I did want to write something like this to put my own mind at rest more than anything after the mental torment I had been through with all the many discussions I've been involved with from all sides really. But I hope that this approach to educate rather than incriminate serves its purpose.
Technically, it is still a social media site but if we were being honest, it's a social-economical media site. It is social but also provides investment opportunities and this is a concept very foreign to a lot of people (let alone investing money seeing as it's not something we get taught at school)!
Loads of talking points and great things pointed out by everyone who's commented on this. Can't quite believe the response it has got in honesty!
You don't need a Dunce's Guide... You have the Bluffer's Guide 😉 maybe I will have to wheel it out from retirement on a more permanent basis...
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@nickyhavey
Now there's an appellation...
@tipu have started a curation initiative with manual curators of which I am one. I am trying to come to grips with it. Probably need to go back to the destructions.
I agree that Steemit is a social site, but it's more than that, so not qualifying things and simply saying that people earn from posting is misleading. As for the investment bit - spot on - what you said. I like the term "social-economical" but it's not sexy, is it? Perhaps "econosocial".... #justthinkingaloud
Dunce's or Bluffer's Guide - doesn't matter, it's still useful and yes, it should be trotted out on a regular basis.
My final point, and which I tried to make this morning while I was on my phone and I was interrupted (by a cat, I suspect) and posted too early, is that this post, and its equally useful comments is getting no less than its just desserts.
Enjoy them.
Fiona
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