Freewrite: What Constitutes Effort on STEEM?
This Photo From Atop Mt. Kilimanjaro Of A Glacier And Mt. Meru Took Me Months Of Training, and Tens Of Thousands Of Dollars For Me To Get.
Above I wrote about 20 words describing a photo I took. I regard what I went through to get this photo was one of the challenging things I have ever done. I spent tens of thousands of dollars in fees, travel costs, and equipment. Do you, the fine people of STEEM owe me anything for this past effort?
Let's take a look at some additional examples.
The Artist
You're an artist who just spent hours perfecting your work, and you decide to post a photo or scan of it to STEEM along with a short blurb describing it.
Should this be considered high effort?
The Photographer
You're a photographer, who spent thousands of dollars on a photo shoot in terms of equipment and travel costs, and decide to post scans of your incredible photos along with a short blurb describing them?
Should this be considered high effort?
The Collector
You're a collector of rare coins, and decide to post a photo and short description of a coin you just purchased for thousands of dollars.
Should this be considered high effort?
The YouTube Creator
You're a YouTube creator, who has spent hours producing a quality video to cross-post onto STEEM.
Should this be considered high effort?
Getting Rewarded
You deserve to be rewarded right? After all, it took a lot of effort to create this work you have chosen to display on STEEM. But can you consider it a high-effort post on STEEM based on your past effort?
Entitlement For Previous Effort
To be certain, showcasing your prior effort has some value. I frequently enjoy a short post consisting of a beautiful piece of artwork along with a description, and I will vote it accordingly. But should I vote this post as being high effort in terms of STEEM?
High Effort on STEEM is High Effort on STEEM
If you are hoping I would say, everyone should vote you 100% to help you recoup your sunk costs for creating your work, I disagree, and I will take it further in stating I think your post is LOW EFFORT in terms of STEEM.
Turn Your Low Effort Into High Effort
This time around, you take a series of your art, photos, or collectibles, and write a narrative about each one. You write about your process, You write about what you were thinking when you created your art. You write about the challenges involved with obtaining your photo. You write about the history surrounding that rare artifact you obtained.
This is high effort in terms of a STEEM post. The better and more informative the writing is, the better the rewards should be. The sky's the limit in my opinion on what you should receive for creating value on the STEEM blockchain, instead of attempting to simply monetize your prior effort.
Is This Entire Post High Effort?
It took me about twenty minutes to write, so not really in my opinion. Is it useful though? I guess you'll have to decide on that when you vote.
Stop Acting So Entitled
If you think anyone here owes you a vote, you could not be more wrong. Stop acting so entitled, it's not becoming of you at all.
Thanks for reading, I welcome your input and discussion in the comments.
This is the struggle we get with the Facebook crowd. They stick the pictures on, wait and wonder why nothing happens.
This is more like becoming a writer, a journalist. Some have it, some don't. Anyone can learn to do it, with varying degrees of success.
Even low effort has some value in my opinion, but I agree the expectation of some people is not realistic for what they are putting in.
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And YouTubers... We encourage people to come from other platforms, but of course VERY few will post to Steem/DTube/3Speak exclusively. They will just treat 3Speak etc as another place to spread their videos.
How should they be rewarded? The STEEM based effort is often no more than just clicking the upload button. At least hopefully they make some effort to add some text to describe what the video is about...
In those cases as a voter I look at how engaged they are on the platform. If they are merely just flyby cross-posting their content and not participating, I typically pass them by at the very least. In some cases when they are over-rewarded, and their replies to comments are non-existent, I'll downvote them.
@gardeningchannel hasn't made a YouTube video in a little while, but typically when he does, he is highly engaged in the comments. I personally want more rewards directed to creators such as this, and less to people passively attempting to monetize their content.
Yes agree on that differentiation.
@gardeningchannel is a good example of engaging. Pity he seems to have stopped posting at the moment.
That's all you need to say. I spend hours and hours in the music studio, invested in thousands worth of equipment, gear, learning production techniques... but that's got nothing to do with STEEM. I went travelling, spent thousands on flights, accommodation, activities but that's got nothing to do with STEEM.
When you then want to get something out of the platform/network/community, whatever you want to call it, you need to put the effort in to THAT specific platform/network/community. There's no magic formula, it just requires effort.
And if you can't/won't/don't put the effort in to make your posts (at the bare minimum) on STEEM then you can't expect to get much out of it.
Same with anything in life as well in that sense.
Well put my friend. Thanks for the input!
!ENGAGE 25
Ah I just logged in at the right time and saw this post. People who expect something for nothing grind my gears 😂
Skills on writing, video editing, music production can be taught to those that are willing to learn. Obviously you need some minimum level of initiative and creativity but a lot of it from there comes from drive and motivation.
The amount of times I've seen cookie cutter tracks and promo with just a link shared to the track as a tweet to be considered "marketing"...
Anyway, I'll stop myself there otherwise my phone keyboard will become less sensitive as the tapping on the letters from my thumbs become firmer with each word 😁
Thanks for the misterengagement.
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Quality is definitely subjective. To some people, seeing a photo with 20 words describing it is a waste of STEEM upvotes.
To others, they appreciate the work that led up to the moment captured by the photographers lens.
Same goes for something like a drawing. Some see a simple scan of something you drew and think it’s worthless in terms of voting and others see an artful piece that took hours to plan & draw.
This is why communities, SE and SMT tokens are so important with an ecosystem like Steem. It allows the people who appreciate photography to reward quality photographs and the people who love art to reward quality art pieces.
Same for written content. Some people want a nice, handwritten piece of content that dives deeply into a topic of interest. But that’s not for everyone.
I think a lot of people (too many) on Steem value content based on word count rather than actual substance.
Posted via Steemleo
This is why we have upvotes and downvotes in the first place, and through them can express opposing viewpoints of valuation.
I definitely agree that SMTs in theory should change the game. If there is an SMT centered around low effort posting (twitter and instagram type posts), how those rewards are distributed is none of my concern in terms of being a holder of STEEM. The spirit of STEEM base chain is blogging, and in that spirit, highly rewarding a piece of content that doesn't meet a minimum of standards from a SEO perspective is a non-starter for myself and many stakeholders.
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Damn make me feel like using the #shitpost tag on all my posts
Haha, if the shoe fits! Even #shitposts have some value, the question is how much? You've never struck me as someone with unrealistic expectations about it!
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@davedickeyyall you have received
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Josh, I agree with you on almost every points described in this post. But my main points are:
Of course, I can only speak for myself and in which direction I feel the winds are blowing.
I agree with you there.
I would argue that most of those shitposts are content, and have some value, just not very much. There's too prevalent a view that you should get points for just showing up. In that way it's a good representation of the current state of our society.
I fully agree with your last points, but I don't think it will change much until the platform matures and is viewed as an institution.
!ENGAGE 25
I think that won’t work for me any more, as I think I have 1000+ tokens :) ...... right? @abh12345?
Is performing quests on holy bread and kicking ass on splinterlands "high effort?" IDK but those games put more money in my STEEM accounts than my blogging does.
My posts take me an hour tops to type out, including editing, uploading and finding pictures on pixabay. Sometimes they get written even faster.
But... I spent a LOT of time perfecting my writing craft, I read lots of books, and I took lots of typing classes to get my thoughts out faster. Shouldn't I be making $300 bucks per post? That's how much I make when I freelance and write for companies.
Then go freelance. LOL
Posted via Steemleo
I'm guessing most of your statements are rhetorical, but I will respond anyhow.
It has little to do with how much you could potentially make outside of STEEM, and everything to do with how much the reward pool can sustain on STEEM as a platform. If you scale up the STEEM price, I would expect the potential reward in dollar amount to scale up as well. As far as the reward pool covering your sunk costs, the potential is there, but the expectation shouldn't be.
As far as using STEEM as a medium of exchange for trading game items, if you can make more money doing that, more power to you. I buy and sell Splinterlands cards using steem all the time.
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@metzli In my opinion all that you mentioned are high effort. I play splinterland too and I enjoy gaming in general.
However the question you ask is how you monetize it. It’s a valid question. To monetize anything you need a consumer. If your gaming content can earn $300 just like your freelance work, more power to you. But it is up to you to scale your time and effort accordingly. Right now there is no content out there in steemit that can pay $300 for an hour for your effort. So I am sorry to tell you that at this point in time this platform is unable to sustain your requirements.
I believe in the blockchain. At this moment, I feel wealthy, but am not feeling wealthy enough to invest in my future (traditionally speaking, using fiat) my steem blockchain efforts are for me to reap the rewards of in 10 - 20 years. Let's hope I am right in investing my time here.
Hi @joshman!
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Planktons voting less than 100%
Thinking about how to properly size your nanovote is important.
Usually if you are only posting photos and other images, you should be aiming for a bigger amount of text to describe the image/s, the topic involved, your thoughts about it and what you were doing and anything useful to share with the people of Steemit so they can better know the information surrounding what you have posted about.
Videos can get away with less, but not 1 paragraph, hell even 2 paragraph's isn't always the best. At times I try to aim for at least 3 paragraphs with a video to give some description about what people can expect in the video and information about things I chose and such.
I do want to try aiming for more text overall when needed with videos of my gaming, but I do my best to ensure I edit it to not be a constant stream of me playing. I chop it up to get the more important and better parts of my footage.
And yes, people who post less and expect much more need to stop expecting that. I am all for seeing posts with nice amounts on them, especially if my posts do, but I don't expect I get heaps and heaps and just enjoy sharing what I post about.
Hey look, this comment is bigger than at least half the posts on Steemit. 🤣
Nice, it looks like you have a great philosophy in terms of creating value. I think the most successful people are those that seek to create value, not simply concentrate on extracting it.
Calling all voters, calling all voters.
!ENGAGE 50
Well since new steem became about creating content, the posts I always aimed for quality but now it makes it more worthwhile as people upvote based on quality. So whenever possible, people should try writing more and making the post stand out or at least be a good post for people to enjoy.
Thanks for the engage too,mate.
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Great points you raise here bro,
I think it's human nature to experience moments of feeling like "things aren't fair", and that applies to everything, not just Steem. The harsh reality is life is not fair, and in a collective sense, humanity only needs to take a look in the mirror to see the source. Competition based capitalism is the world we have created, and continue to sustain.
Sometimes I get a little down on Steem, sometimes I feel like my post rewards are not high enough, but then I see people who've been here just as long as me, and probably put in an equal amount of effort, if not more in some cases, and I am making more than them. That is enough for me to take a step back and say "I am grateful."
To take it a step further, some people put effort into quality content on platforms like Facebook and make nothing.
I have a family member who's been peeping my Steem account lately and thinking about joining, and was blown away when I showed them my earned assets over the course of two years. It's not a ton of money here in NY, and I'm fortunate enough to be able to just stack it for the future. The point is, even if it's only a few cents a post, that is a few cents more than one will make on Facebook. In my opinion, that's reason enough to use Steem, while keeping gratitude in the forefront.
One last thing, engagement kind of sucks lately, and I'm willing to bet it has to do with that sense of entitlement. Comments do take a while to compose and think about, so it's understandable to a degree, but failing to engage and build relationships on some level with others is negating the intrinsic use case of Steem altogether, so the complainers need to check themselves! (imo) So, lower stakes can do those engage tokens and make alts to pump up low cost SE tokens and reward with those as a work around. Everyone knows they're getting some bilpcoin when the comment on futuremind's posts, and sometimes I'm in a good mood and blast all my Steem VP on comments too, who cares.. Less focus on the rewards, more focus on the revolutionary aspect of Steem!
ok done ramblingSome people's idea of fairness boggles the mind. It has nothing to do with work or quality.
I think the major idea is that most people can't get their actual friends and family over here from Facebook, so they feel like they deserve something out of any effort they apply here. If it wasn't for rewards, they'd be gone.
I appreciate the substantive reply!
!ENGAGE 50
I love psychology, and I agree that the fairness concept has nothing to do with work or quality. I mentioned to someone earlier here that I've been in contemplation about hierarchies and the nature of reality. Specifically human nature, and comparisons between intelligent organisms vs non-intelligent, or at least what we perceive as non intelligent. I won't get into it much here, but I'm thinking about composing a post on the topic.
I think that is accurate, but many are on a mission to earn rewards regardless of who they can onboard, and I have seen some people come and go that really had no clue just how good they were doing here. 10-20 dollar posts in no time, and saying they felt their content was worth at least 50 dollars a post or it wasn't worth their time.. ok.. Did you make that kind of money somewhere else blogging to justify your deluded perception of what you "think" your time is worth? And are you considering what that Steem could potentially be worth in the future? Just my frame of thinking, sense of entitlement is rampant everywhere.
Thank you for the engage tokens @joshman, that was really kind. How does that command operate? It prompts a token transfer basically? I checked out the token on SE, and Asher's engagement league is super motivating, so this would certainly be a good way to support the project as I see it.
EDIT: No need for explanation, I read this awesome post.
@futuremind you have received
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Nobody "owes me an upvote", but I certainly don't expect a DOWNVOTE unless I've VIOLATED SOME RULE.
If you want steemit to be an echo-chamber for whale sycophants, then, by al l means, DOWNVOTE any and all criticism.
However, if you want steemit to be a MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS, then we should try to let people who like stuff (even "low effort" posts like "word of the day" or "daily horoscope" posts or pictures of butterflies in their back yard) to express their opinions by upvoting.
Imagine if people could join pa.treon and REMOVE monthly subscription payments from content creators they DISAGREED WITH? Do you think this would IMPROVE the pa.treon platform?
I have never advocated for content-centric opinion-based downvotes, and feel it is a cowardly way express disagreement with an idea.
Thanks for the comment!
!ENGAGE 25
I agree. Thanks for clearing that up.
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I'm just not sure "effort" is the best predictor of "value".
Is a book (or birthday-card) produced by a printing press (low effort), automatically "less valuable" than a hand-written-book (or birthday-card) produced with much higher effort?
Are you familiar with AXIOLOGY?
Raw effort of course isn't the sole indicator of value.
I do value prior effort less, and express that through my voting. I prefer content created for the blockchain in terms of both post narrative and author engagement. I value simple digital reproductions of prior works, with little to no additional narrative (blogging), significantly less.
I am familiar with axiology as a general concept.
Sure, that makes sense.
But there are some that believe "low effort" posters should be stomped into negative rep.
And this is what I disagree with.
Every post made with honest intent has some value in my opinion.
Sometimes I just want to share something I find interesting, without any commentary, in order to spark a conversation.
Are there really lots of people complaining about not receiving enough reward?I have not encountered that yet.
Or are they complaining about the over abundance of flags?I have encountered a lot of that lol
Stunning 1st photo btw, breathtaking.
Effort and Value are very subjective terms. What may be a huge effort for me may be nothing at all for you. What may hold significant value to me may be completely meaningless to you.
The value Steemit holds for me, is in the conversations and connections. I am sure others will derive value from other aspects. I feel a bit confused by your post.
Many times the discussion surrounds a low effort post that's been over-rewarded and downvoted.
Thanks! They are subjective, which is a vote can be made from -100 to 100%, so an individual evaluation can be made. This is how the system was designed.
Wow thanks for the ENGAGE tokens : ) and the reply. So much to learn lol
I notice that some get a free pass with low effort posts. One turned up in my feed that had been resteemed the other day. It was just a one or two sentence question. I liked the question so I replied. I also looked at their other posts, all the same very low effort, but nobody gives a shit and he get a massive amount of engagement. I don't understand why people have a problem with some low effort posts and not others. I dont believe its just about the amount of rewards. More likely the ability to defend against attack.
Having said that i was having a look at mac-bot ? something like that, and I found an over abundance of accounts making up to 14 posts per day of what looked liked copy past with the same (probably alt accounts) voting. Well yea that needs to be sorted, but then he is also attacking that account tts which i think is a cool thing to use and would love to be able to call it the way you called the engage, especially with long posts.
Trying to dictate the quality of posts ! not such a good idea imho especial when it is not dealt with in an even handed way.
I guess reaching consensus on what needs to be flagged and what should not be flagged is difficult in a decentralized environment.
For sure, the focus tends to shift on what to go after, because there is only a limited amount of downvote power on an individual level, but there is also a limited number of people willing to use their downvotes at all. It can be a game of whack-a-mole.
If you see stuff that is particularly egregious, you can share it in the @steemflagrewards discord.
Thanks for the info and the engage.
I singed up with Steem Engine and to my surprise i found I already had some Engage Tokens and six other tokens and I have no clue how or why i got them lol
No complaints just laughing at my own ignorance
Thanks for the mention, brotha! I'll work on getting @trendthis on the mention exclude list as requested in about 30. (Feel free to remind me if I forget.)
If you are interested, I can set you up w a webhook like I did for @chops.token so people can see new @trendthis promoted content. lmk
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Keep up the great work!
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STOPI have nothing more to add to this i totally agree but maybe just one thing it is a shame and sad when i see a great post go unnoticed and then some post with a blurry photo and some broken English that doesn't even make sense and gets rewarded well..WTF..i don't get it 😣
That's more of an indication of our collective failure as curators in both the positive and negative direction.
Thanks for the comment.
!ENGAGE 25
It is a huge job to keep up with i do appreciate that 👍
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Thanks guys much appreciated 👍
Resteem your posting
Super