Everyone is getting fired up about the coming hardfork, and rightly so. Without content and content creators, there is nothing to vote on, and no money to be made. And that brings us to the heart of the matter, money! Humans are greedy by nature, and contrary to popular opinion... greed is NOT good. Changing the rewards to 50/50 is another bad idea, piled onto a mountain of other bad ideas. Decisions are made not in the best interest of ALL, but made with the best interests of those that are in power.
Steemit is a microcosm of the macro, the world in which we all live. Things are bad out there, just as they are here. I have considered this platform a home of sorts for damn near two years. And not much has changed in that time. The people at the top, who make the decisions do so for that all mighty dollar, and STINC. People need to wake up and smell the napalm... the house is on fire.
You want some change? I would say... yes. Here is some change for you.
1. Content:
Everyone is harping about bad content, and the rewards for said content. To be honest, anyone can make an account here, and shit post away and get rewarded, usually by sock puppet accounts that the original shit posters create to upvote their other accounts with. And you all know exactly what I am talking about. Too many accounts flood the system with useless content that is there for one purpose and one purpose only, to make money. I can imagine what most potential writers and content creators with any self respect think when they come across this platform, why on earth would I waste my time?
What do people see when they come to Steemit.com? Trending. What is in the Trending section? Ok... I'll wait... Shit Posts!
Mainly useless crypto speculation posts, that anyone can create using a handful of words and a chart that they copy from trading view, that is making a lot of money. Then the copy cats come along and repeat the process. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Solution:
I said it before, and I will say it again... One verified account for one person. Account creation should require verification with a Photo ID. Most exchanges require a Photo ID to trade crypto, and so should Steemit. Exceptions to that rule should be one community account for the different communities that are on Steemit, or one account for a business or charity.
2. Rewards, Upvoting & Downvoting:
Downvoting is a waste of resources. The way things are currently setup, downvoting is abusive in nature, and anyone that you happen to piss off on any given day can take your posts to 0 simply because they can, and they have more Steem and rep than you. If you don't like the content, do not upvote it. There are people that do nothing except downvote, it is ridiculous. And let us not forget the downvote clubs, that is pure genius.
Removing the ability to upvote your own content should also be considered, as it is also part of the problem.
The proposed solution is to take away a big chunk of author rewards? Hmm.
Solution:
Remove downvoting from the system, and leave the current 75/25 rewards rate. Curators will upvote quality content and still make out like bandits. Remove the upvote your own content ability. Quality posts will shine, and others not so much. Simple.
3. Decision Making:
Leaving power in the hands of those that make the most, simply will not create change. Currently, only the Top Witnesses make the votes that count, the rest have to fall in line or else. That is a conflict of interest, pure and simple. Witnesses should all be treated equal in decision making, from the very top all the way to very the bottom, regardless of ranking.
Solution:
All decisions about hardforks and which direction the platform should or should not go, should be made with All Witnesses having a vote, instead of just the Top Witnesses. Any proposed measures should have a 95% approval rating before being passed. Witnesses are important, and I know quite a few good ones that are often ignored.
Final Thoughts.
Let's face it, things have been going downhill for a long time. No matter what side of the fence you find yourself sitting on, nothing will change for the better until certain problems are resolved. You can kick and scream all you like, these are the way things stand. Feel free to chew me out, call me what ever you like, I really don't care. Dancing around the problems will not make them go away. STINC created the monster, they should fix it. There are a lot of talented developers out there can fix these problems in no time at all. Using all those mined and mysteriously siphoned off Steem can fund the repairs needed for this sinking ship.
I get so tired of hearing how content creators should just STFU and leave well enough alone and let things progress. Well fork that too! I spend a great deal of my time supporting communities on Steemit, and have given away most of the Steem and SBD that I have accumulated over my time here. So what makes someone elses investment in Steem a greater value than my time and energy, and my Steem and SBD spent? Just because you have more than others, that makes you supreme leader? No it doesn't. One investment is just as good as another.
It only takes minutes to curate a post, and it takes quite a lot more time to actually make a decent post and content. Sometimes days and even weeks. Why should curation be more valuable than the content that is curated?
So why bother at all? Because some things are more important than money. And what might that be you ask? The people that we call friends who make up different communities on this platform, that's who. So can we at least agree that everyone needs to work together just a bit more, and make it happen?
These are just a few ideas and questions that I thought I would share. It is time to change things for the better, and spread the power that moves this ecosystem around just a little bit more. Speaking of power... To quote one of my all time favorite movies... "What do all men with power want? More power." In this case let us rephrase that to "What do all people with power want? More power."
Go ahead, say I am crazy and know nothing and etc. In the meantime I will be re-evaluating my witness votes and do some unvoting until we manage to somehow make it through this shit storm.
You want things to change, it's time to stand up and share your thoughts. This place could be the crown jewel of social interaction on the web, with great potential to fix a lot of problems, or it can remain scam central you decide.
