Introduction

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I read this post by @clixmoney yesterday that got my brain turning. I also ready the comments. It was eye opening for me and had me rethinking my whole approach to curation. This post was supposed to come out yesterday, but I couldn't finish it as I was still digesting my stance. So, this post is me writing to come up with my own conclusion. It is not my best work, it is merely me thinking on a keyboard to come up with my course of action.

Everyone is an investor

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If you are investing any time on POB, you are an investor. If you have any stake in POB, big or small, you are an investor. I was originally attracted to St**m (which turned into HIVE) as a writer. I enjoy writing and have always considered writing as a career path for myself moving forward in life whenever I feel like my body is done in the construction industry. Being interested in crypto, this platform was the perfect fit. I could write and earn crypto for my effort.

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I quickly learned that the distribution mechanism was far more complicated than "write and get rewarded." I went down the rabbit hole. I learned all about hive-power, upvotes, voting-bots (i'm old school) etc.

I writing this post as an addendum to this post by @clixmoney. I feel that it is an important topic that could use more attention.

The days of vote bots.

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I remember writing a post, then going to check the vote bot calculator, dropping my bid and BAM! A few minutes later a nice upvote would show up on my post. I tried to only use these bots if I put in a significant effort on a post and wanted it to be seen. Clearly, there was abuse and vote bots went out the door.

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In my early days, I was far more concerned with my ROI than I am today... although I still am concerned with it, I am much more concerned about the long term success of the platform. I was using minnowbooster's comment voter. It was slick (and pretty scammy). You would lend your upvote to minnowbooster and it would upvote other people's comments and in turn, other people would upvote my comments.

It was pretty ridiculous how much st**m these comments were generating. I felt iffy about using it, but went ahead with it as I was early on and was out to maximize my return, not care for the blockchain. I had an orca that always upvoted me. He called me out on it.

The exchange went something like this...

"I really like your writing, but I am going to refrain from supporting you until you stop using minnowbooster." -Orca
"I have mixed feelings about using it... I lose a portion of my voting power but I do earn a lot." - me
"You could follow a trail like @curie that support good content. You won't earn as much as with minnow booster, but you will at least be helping st**m grow in a better direction." - orca

For the record, I was making way more using minnowbooster than what the Orca votes were paying me. He got me thinking about the blockchain, and caring about the direction it goes.

I thought about it and went for it. I quit using the service and followed the curation trail. The gains were 100x less, but the feeling of growing a sustainable blockchain was worth it. With that decision I left the early days behind, where I "came for the rewards". I now believed in the long term vision and decided to "stay for the community."

Things are flipping

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@clixmoney wrote a post calling for all 100% manual curation. He brings up some good points and his post is worth reading. I feel that "the usual suspects" do dominate trending, and perhaps I am one of them... although I like to think that I put together good posts and have been working hard to have my say on how POB grows. Regardless, I feel that his post is worth reading, as well as the comments.

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I joined a curation trail and became one of the "good guys." Now, being a follower of the 2 curation trails (that I know of) on POB, am I one of the "bad guys"? This is the question I am asking myself.

For the record, I am following @calumam's trail as well as @vempromundo's trail. I feel that both of these user's would do a better job curating than I would.

@onealfa showed a picture of @calumam's trail

There is a lot of POB power on @calumam's vote. That said, @onealfa has a lot of power on his vote too (about 1/3 of @calumam's trail vote). How much is too much? This is a legitimate question that I don't have the answer too. That said, the default answer is always, everyone is free to do what they will with their stake. The community can have their say and we can all act accordingly.

I joined both trails as I am not a curator. I will read a few posts a day and upvote if I feel I should. I do want my POB-power to be used as I want curation rewards and to reward good contents.

What is the point of POB?

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Are we here to make money, write content, read content, build community, build a successful platform, all of the above? I don't have the answer to this and I also don't know which way to sway my opinion. My wife @unicorn-tamer thinks that there is a flaw in the system and that curation trails shouldn't be a part of it.

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I am not so sure if that is the case for myself. I am sure that my vote goes a lot further on a curation trail than whatever my votes would look like. That said, are curation trails a problem? Do they centralize the voting too much? Should I try my hand at manual curation only?

Coming to the decision

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After looking at @onealfa's list and seeing how much weight that vote has, I left @calumam's trail. I also left @vempromundo's trail. I feel that they both do nice work and appreciate the effort that they put into POB, and were aiding me (nicely) in passively growing my stake, but I am on board with the manual curation initiative and proving that I have a brain on the curation side too.

I feel that curation trails do add value to POB, and I hope that they do spread the vote far and wide to get people involved. I also feel that there needs to be more trails than two whale run trails. I signed up for them both as I feel they both have the good of the platform at heart, and I am signing off to take on the task of manual curation.

Conclusion

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I feel that there is a place for curation trails. I hold no moral high ground when it comes to growing stake. I feel we are all here to build wealth. Wealth, however, is more than a balance sheet. It is an attitude... an awareness of abundance. If there is more than enough to go around, why do I need to worry about making numbers go up faster. I should be more concerned with how this platform looks to people who knock on the door. The numbers may go up slower, but may add more value as time goes on.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this. By no means am I bashing curation trails, nor the two trails I was following. I feel that there is a place for them and nobody should feel bad using them. These curators may do better work than me, but I will try my best.

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