The idea behind Steemit is a great revolutionary one. The reality of Steemit isn't too shitty either. But nevertheless, there is a very big problem with this platform that no amount of technological advancement could begin to address.
You know what I speak of. All of you do. Though, it seems likely that some of you may have convinced yourselves that you don't.
Beyond the realm of Steemit, so many of us opt for willful ignorance over the acceptance of uncomfortable truths. We have all had times where our intelligence has permitted us to see through the deception before us, only to find denial on the other side.
Perhaps that's what's happening here. Maybe the reason that I have seen no one mentioning this problem, is because so many of us have chosen to remain ignorant of its existence in order to make our time on Steemit more enjoyable.
The biggest problem on Steemit is that you can never know who's real and who's fake.
No. I'm not talking about bots. We might have had some problems with automated voting and spam bots in the past, but bots have also done an excellent job of providing to the efficacy of the platform. I do not mean real or fake in a technological sense— but in a behavioural one.
In an ideal world, upvotes would be determined purely on quality and usefulness. In reality, however, we can see that your ability to network with other users on the platform is far more likely to earn you upvotes than even the highest quality posts.
This in itself isn't a bad thing. Not only can it provide people with an excellent excuse to go and make some new friends, but it is also a huge driving force behind community engagement on the platform. But it can potentially be a source of disingenuity too, and this is the problem I speak of.
There are many obvious instances of this type of behaviour out there. You have probably received more than a few comments on your posts that were in no way related to the subject matter. An ambiguous comment that could be copied and pasted onto any post without looking too out of place. It's obvious that the poster of the comment did not even read your work, yet they're brazen enough to link their profile and ask that you follow them. Chances are, they don't even want you to read their work. They just want a piece of your precious voting power.
I typically ignore such comments. But, I do appreciate their transparency. Some comments, however, you cannot be so sure about.
Take for example a 300 hundred word response on a post, that is entirely relevant to the subject matter. From reading such a comment, I can be sure that the author of the reply took the time to read my post. But, I still cannot know if they read it because they wanted to, and responded because they found it interesting and hoped to discuss it. They may just be hoping that many people see their comment so that they can earn upvotes or new followers.
This uncertainty can effect the user-experience on Steemit. There are so many people I have met on here who seem to be very lovely, very compassionate, and very friendly people. But which of those are acting according to their true character, and which of them are simply acting?
It brings into question, the legitimacy of many interactions on the platform. There are undoubtedly those on Steemit who are playing the role of whatever character will garner the most followers. They act in a way that they would not normally in order to make "friends" who will vote for their shit, and they take on a persona that they believe whales will appreciate, in the hopes of securing some regular, weighty votes in the future.
I don't know who these people are. I have my suspicions about one or two, but that's all they are— suspicions. I don't really know what they're like. I can't.
And that's the point.
As long as there is a monetary incentive to making friends — and there is a huge one on Steemit — one will never be certain if their friend is really who they seem to be, or if they are just acting as such to advance their Steemit career.
I can think of no possible way to fix this problem, but perhaps it doesn't need to be fixed. The world outside of Steemit isn't so different. Each and every second there are countless self-serving acts taking place across the Earth. Money is the real culprit. We all need to survive. We need it to so that we and our kin can live out our days as comfortably as possible.