Steem Social Lab: we need a "charter"
By now, we have established that steem is much more than a blockchain. It has often be said that "steem is about the community", that "community is everything".
Utopian on the scene of Steemfest3 in Krakow, last year
Heck, most of the people spending time around steem hardly experience the blockchain itself, but rather interact with the dApps around it, and those dApps, whether of the "content creation and sharing" type or of the "gaming" type, are innately "social".
Yet things that are proven to work perfectly in a "currency-less" environment, such as blogs, Facebook and YouTube for "content creation and sharing" and countless online multiplayer games for "gaming", appear to fray and give rise to unexpected and unwanted behaviors when a currency is being introduced ...
The "emerging behaviors" we observe on the steem platform appear to confirm what "common lore" has always known and what social scientists have recently proven: money corrupts
What we see on steem is that "mere exposure to something which resembles money" triggers unethical behaviors, what we collectively call "reward pool abuse". This is a consequence of how we, humans, are genetically wired.
And yet all is not lost! While some degree of abuse will always exist (because it's in our genes), we are not helpless genetic automata, we can somewhat control our genetic impulsions. The degree to which it happens varies with "nurture" - i.e. upbringing and cultural background.
Trust is among the best indicators of "social" (i.e. non-corrupt) behavior. People who trust others to not abuse the system tend to refrain from abusing the system themselves! In the graph below, we can see that "interpersonal trust" varies a lot from country to country (which indicates that it depends strongly on "culture").
Interpersonal trust (i.e. share of people agreeing with the statement "most people can be trusted") can be as low as 10% in Brazil and Colombia and as high as 60% in the Netherlands, Sweden, and (perhaps surprisingly) China.
I have compared steem in several posts with a "virtual country", dubbed Steemland. As its inhabitants come from all over the world, the culture of this country is extremely heterogeneous. This poses a big challenge when it comes to trusting others not to perpetrate abuse.
As several scientific studies show, ethnic homogeneity correlates very strongly with trust (genetically, we are wired to trust people who look and act "like us")
If "social" (i.e. "not abusive") behaviour can be influenced by a "common culture" then we need to develop that culture! We want Steemland to be more like the Netherlands or Sweden than like Brazil or Colombia.
Culture, aka "norms of acceptable behavior", helps restrain and balance the frantic, "anything goes" scramble for money that so troubles and concerns us today on Steem.
A Steem Charter
There are a number of mechanisms that can help us develop our own culture. The first and foremost, as @llfarms observed, is to share a common mission and vision. In order to be as inclusive as possible, the mission and vision should be rather generic, yet at the same time not too generic as to become meaningless.
The best example I know of is the "Médecins Sans Frontières" (MSF) / "Doctors without Borders" charter:
Médecins Sans Frontières is a private, international association. The association is made up mainly of doctors and health sector workers and is also open to all other professions which might help in achieving its aims. All of its members agree to honour the following principles:
Médecins Sans Frontières provides assistance to populations in distress, to victims of natural or man-made disasters and to victims of armed conflict. They do so irrespective of race, religion, creed or political convictions.
Médecins Sans Frontières observes neutrality and impartiality in the name of universal medical ethics and the right to humanitarian assistance and claims full and unhindered freedom in the exercise of its functions.
Members undertake to respect their professional code of ethics and maintain complete independence from all political, economic or religious powers.
As volunteers, members understand the risks and dangers of the missions they carry out and make no claim for themselves or their assigns for any form of compensation other than that which the association might be able to afford them.
This five-paragraphs-charter has resisted since the inception of the organisation in 1971. And this organisation has grown and thrived as a non-profit. It shows the power of a shared set of values.
Can we come up with something equivalent for steem ? Can we elevate ourselves above the petty "blog to earn" self-interested ethos that led to the abusive behaviors that we have such a hard time fighting today?
What would a Steem Charter look like for you ?
5 Keywords: communities, freedom, respect, prosperity, happiness
Let's start from something tried and true, the MSF pattern:
Steem is a private, international association. The association is open to everybody who agree to honour the following principles:
Steem provides a home to communities whose aim is to further the prosperity and happiness of their members while respecting others. Steem does so irrespective of race, religion, creed or political convictions.
I believe it is important to think of communitieS, plural, possibly in a "confederation" setting, not try to see everything as a single community
Steem observes neutrality and impartiality in the name of the universal human right to seek happiness and prosperity, and claims full and unhindered freedom in the exercise of its functions.
Members undertake to respect the Steem code of ethics (to be defined later) and maintain complete independence from all political, economic or religious powers.
As volunteers, members understand the risks and dangers of the missions they carry out and make no claim for themselves or their assigns for any form of compensation other than that which the association might be able to afford them.
By agreeing on such a charter back in 1971, MSF has grown to more than 100.000 people and more than 1.5 Billion euros in annual revenue ... And that, without selling anything. People donate the equivalent of 1.5 billion euros per year so that its 100 000 professionals can stay true to the charter, can bear out and act according to that charter there ...
How powerful is that ? Especially when comparing with the "free for all" of the roughly 100 000 active steemians busy devising ever-more-clever ways to abuse the reward pool ...
I contend that building our own culture, probably starting with a Steem Charter, should be the first and most important task of the upcoming Steem Foundation (on which @llfarms works with such dedication).
From the Charter we can then derive principles and a code of ethics.
We can then oversee the creation of communities, with registered "sub-charters" and a remit to enforce compliant behavior among their members.
The story of Steemland
- How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bid Bots
- Revisiting Steemland: a fairer and more transparent art market as a new "export"
- Steembit: a decentralized storage marketplace for Steemland
If you know what witnesses are and agree that people commited to keeping this blockchain ticking play an important role ...
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Thank you very much for this valuable post. This article with the assessments in this post is the best I have read in steem.
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Thank you
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I believe the full potential of steem is still yet to be recognised by many
Hai sa construim o comunitate puternica !
Un set de comunitati, fiecare cu specificul ei, dar toate sa se angajeze ca respecta "charta" - principiile enuntate
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At present, steem is the largest community and least corrupt content payment social blockchain network I have found.
Unless it moved to Tron 😅
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wha? steem is on the tron network now? thats actually effing awesome.
I agree, traying to balance freedom and respect...and few more things
the global, steem-wide charter needs to stay short, simple, memorable. Then on top of it communities can be built which can more things, sometimes different, sometimes the same. Think of a tree: it has a common trunk and then, from that trunk, branches spread left and right
The idea is good, but I am not convinced that it will work. Who shall create the charta? How shall we vote for different versions of it? Where shall it be stored, so that steemians can find it?
Who is gonna reading the rules?
People are different and I think the charta will come automatically by talking with others. We create a culture by using steem. It stays fluent.
Achim
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That is natural, people are skeptics by nature. You need to seek for yourself arguments pro and con with an open mind. Look around you - have similar efforts ever worked ? I gave one specific example which has been a roaring success, Médecins Sans Frontières. But there are others. Think of the Christian religion for instance. Nobody was convinced it would work at the beginning. Then there were 12 guys who started believing and following Jesus around. Today, it is one of the most successful religions of the world ...
Yes, we are at the beginning of something big (maybe not as big as a religion, but the comparison is good, they also have a charta(but also a lot of rules)).
I thought, that we may put some rules into the calculation of the reputation. For example, if people upvote their self, than their reputation doesn't grow that fast, as if you don't do it.
What do you think about this first sign?
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I think that would be sensible. But a truly meaningful "reputation" would come from outside the platform. The one we have inside the platform is a kind of derivative indicator which is mildly useful
You got a 53.91% upvote from @brupvoter courtesy of @steemium!
I’m blessed with such truths coming from you. Indeed we need a charter!
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That's a cool charter to start with. As a personal opinion, I would like to bring in the aspect of open to change as well. The main problem in the last six months was the inability of few to change to prevailing conditions and hence either abused everyone from @ned to the kingdom afar or just left.
This is a blockchain world, knowing it for what it is and knowing pressures on cryptocurrency prices (which you rightly pointed out is open to abuse) will reflect on Steem as well. If this is expected to be a confederation of communities then it should be open to change in the prevailing conditions as much as future unforeseen situations.
My thoughts. 😊
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its shine me up, tq
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Thanks for sharing.
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Congratulations @sorin.cristescu!
Your post was mentioned in the Steem Hit Parade in the following category:
Hello Steemit Members,
Tejas Rane here.
I am new on Steemit and I am quite amazed by the technological reforms we have gone so far. I am literally experiencing the blockchain phenomenon through this platform.
How Historic it is!
I would love to know more of steemit.
Thanks for this wonderful post which teaches us to embrace blockchain to reach newer heights.
Community IS everything
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I'll agree with @oivas on the point of keeping things open to change as we continue to discover the many possibilities and possible problems we may encounter as the steemit community grows (and the world changes).
A little revolutionary change seems necessary every once in a while to keep the spirit alive and eager for adaptation as the communities deem fit.
I also will agree on your point @sorin.cristescu that there needn't be a single community. I think that requiring folks to congregate as a singular entity perhaps can be a bit too demanding, pushing us further apart within a closed community.
Like beauty in the eye 👁 of the beholder, Steemit is hostage to a subjective, situational culture. @sorin.cristescu
Throw stake-weighted voting 🗳 & paying oneself first, the highest & first full power upvote is a self-vote.
Are those with a high stake, willing to completely eliminate self-voting for both posts & comments?
Eliminating the self-vote would reduce the requirement for policing & removes a test of integrity for a fledgling Steemian.
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It is funny. I planned to edit this comment saying that I shared your opinion, but little by little, every time I have been reading more.
I realized that no. For the first time I thought I was going to read a realistic thought about Steemit. But.
Deep down, when you talk about sharing a mission, you keep talking about the same. That is the same opinion as that of "the Steemit community" so far.
I don't see anything new in your opinion / criticism.
Let's be realistic.
Steemit is killed by Steemit's own users, they are the first to use the platform 100% unnaturally and only talk about the same. About Steem, cryptocurrencies and Steemit.
That is of the little content that really receives important payments, from the witnees themselves and people of power.
In summary. Basically, people of power vote for themselves.
This attitude is supposed to be. An attitude, what is absolutely contradictory to Steemit's principles?
Wait. Thats not all. Those same people are the creators of most bots themselves, who vote for them too.
That to close the circle.
Yes. Steemit has fallen into the spiral of selfishness.
And that's not all. There's still more.
Selfishness does not only lead to that. If not, it also leads them to centralize the content of the platform under their own subrealist labels.
All invented.
They leave hardly any opportunity, neither in receiving payments, nor in giving visibility to publications that are outside their invented labels; and if you use realistic tags, you are directly absolutely excluded from the game. Steemit's
Because they will take care of that.
If there are participatory people in Steemit. Those people will drag sooner or later towards the people who are deconstructing Steemit with their subrealist organization by leaps and bounds.
Obviously. Participatory people do not meet with curators because they have something in common.
They just get together because they get paid. End of story.
There are complete communities that have and have destroyed more and more themes within Steemit, for the simple reason of wishing to group them all within the same labels.
These practices of the "false communities of healing" together with the lack of flexibility; to be able to open your eyes and be able to really unify the themes of publications naturally.
It is what has destroyed and will continue to destroy Steemit.
Because it is impossible for a "community" of farmers, photographs, programmers, selfie models, scientists and waiters; live together.
That is learned in nature; It is pure logic.
It is meant not to be durable, it is impossible for it to grow exponentially, there is absolutely nothing in common.
They simply mix their varied daily trash to collect their salary, without analyzing what they cure.
Always healing the same shit about "Hello, I'm new" posts and more and more posts from their own users, of your trails, of your users with more power.
They are closed cycles of friendships without any sense.
There is no desire to generate community, or have something in common.
No attempt is made to group people into specific issues in common; and the rest of the people are stepped on so that they cannot do it (through dirtying the content labels).
Personally. Enter Steemit to find people with pleasure in common with me, and know if I could create my blog on technology thematics here inside.
What is the problem?
It's basically impossible to talk to anyone in here.
People come to what is coming and they leave; and I can understand that attitude of people who generate spectacular content. But of the people who draw a drawing..
It is impossible to know if anyone is interested in something. Because there is only selfishness everywhere, it is impossible to share opinions, tastes, thoughts.
That happens. On the platform, and in the one hundred thousand groups of discord that exist.
People have the same behavior.
It's fun. Because if you talk to them, in reality, you will find many more hobbies or common themes.
The problem is that they publish exclusively on what they get paid. Or they publish anything, due to the need to want to publish daily (I myself have fallen into that attitude).
The key is naturalness.
Neither the curators nor the users. They are using Steemit naturally (in the vast majority of cases) And those who do. They are invited, encouraged and provoked not to do so. From all points of view.
They encourage you not to publish what you like. They encourage you not to talk to people who have your same tastes. That would be the most normal. But not, that is not the reality of Steemit.
They must maintain the platform for others to use, not to exploit it themselves. That should have been the idea.
Until they realize that, it is impossible for Steemit to grow. Because nobody will want to enter here, if the content is not drastically modified.
Obviously. With Bots, with trails of hundreds of inactive users, with pointless subrealist healing projects that mix 100 themes into 1 single label. And more. And more. And more. Etc..
With all that. It is impossible to see Steemit grow.
The faithful reflection of the poque is impossible to rebuild Steemit are the new communities.
They have already shattered. Literally. Generating communities with names of healing projects, instead of "logical and natural" thematic names.
There you have the faithful reflection of the formula and the thought that works on Steemit.
Pure selfishness, without thinking of the user at all.
In 2 days, they have managed to have the section of communities full of MIERDA. Literally.
It was not enough to have the tags full of shit everywhere. That they have destroyed the new platform project, in less than 2 days.
You see it. The leaders of the Steemit communities are absolute cracks.
They just need to throw up the selfishness that invades them and start thinking with the brain from time to time.
I don't think they will die for that, even if it's only 1 day a week.
Nothing happens if they do. I think.....
Thanks for taking the time to write such a long comment. It reads like a disabused rant though. To paraphrase JFK, stop thinking what others could do (for you) and start thinking what YOU could do for the others.
Have a great day
Insurance.
Me for the others here? I can not do anything. No one has ever let me do it.
If every time I make a "small" comment.
THEY CLOUSE MY MOUTH AS YOU.
Without any opinion other than vague words.
I do it somewhere else, where they let me open my mouth.
Not like here.That it is impossible to have your own opinion further from that of the witnesses. The only ones with permission to comment. I forgot it for a second.
SORRY.
You are 100% right in your wise words.
Better like that. I suppose
Greetings. Have a nice day. Equally.
Inverse in Bots and numerous multiple accounts. You are the ideal example of the great Steemit community. Applause. RISAS.
You just demonstrated in everything you help others. To leave them basically without money. Surely yes. You are helping people. Yes Yes. My fucking mother, what one has to read.
Goodbye.. 🤦♂️💪
https://twitter.com/sorin_cristescu/status/1381611203101855749