My Thoughts On Hardfork 21
- A MERE FORK OR THE END OF THE ROAD FOR ME?
© Diane Macdonald - All Rights Reserved
Two things will be happening tomorrow (Tuesday) at around 11 am; a new camera and two lenses will be arriving on my doorstep from Canon via FedEx, and Hardfork 21 will occur here at Steemit!
On the last day of our trip to French Polynesia my trusty Canon 5D Mark II packed in for good, Canon deeming it not worth the cost of repair. I've had some good life out of that camera, so I can't complain. Normally I would have upgraded to a more recent version in the Canon 5D series, but now in my senior years I needed to consider something a bit more lightweight. I had considered going mirrorless, but wanted to take advantage of the lenses I already own, so opted for a cropped frame consumer grade camera (it's made of plastic), the 80D. It will take some getting used to the cropped frame again, but of course with different lenses you can get the exact same results as you can with a full-frame camera. I am not much of an equipment snob - although I did own a Hasselblad and also a Sinar 4x5 back when photography required technical as well as creative skills, so admit to having been a bit of a film camera snob - so I'm excited about its arrival on Tuesday at around 11am when FedEx is normally on our street.
Am I excited about Hardfork 21? Not so much!
Ten months ago I wrote my last post on Steemit, while I took a break for about eight months. I had put my heart and soul into Steemit by devoting far too much time here, neglecting to upload enough fresh imagery to my stock agencies and art sites which at least give me money in the bank every month. I had watched my Steemit “income” evaporate while earning only dollars and cents on my posts, which are created not with free imagery from Pixabay which is already post-processed, but from my own work which needs to be post-processed by me – mostly in Adobe Camera Raw, even for some of my iPhone shots! I was struggling to see more than a few cents or dollars for each post.
I needed time out, as other things were being neglected as I spent more time checking up on and posting in Steemit. I had vowed in the end to stay away indefinitely.
So what changed, and made me come back now? About two months ago after returning from French Polynesia, I found myself itching to write about my experiences, and after much deliberation decided I would give Steemit another try, but this time without getting caught up in all the competitions for this and that. This time I decided to write only travel posts, and that's what I have been doing. The posts I wrote couldn't just be conjured up in ten minutes or so with perfect imagery to match, so I took my time carefully writing and rewriting, and processing the images I needed. As a result,I have posted only 17 posts in this time – that's only an average of 2 posts a week.
Again, although I have uploaded a few images to my agencies and seen some licensing from some of them, the bulk of my time of necessity seems to be spent on trying to write quality Steemit posts. Don't get me wrong; I have really enjoyed the process of writing about my experiences here, and honestly would not have given a thought about anything except that today a post from @steemitblog about Hardfork 21 popped up almost right after @dswigle casually mentioned it in a comment too, and once more I have serious doubts about remaining on here for too much longer as a creator.
So, what changes am I talking about? The following is a quote from the above post:
Rewards
The rewards curve is changing. We expect posts that would make more than 20 STEEM under the old rules to earn more after the changes. Those posts that would have made less than 20 STEEM under the old rules will receive less after the changes.
Reward Split
Reward funding is being changed from the 75/25 split that currently exists, to a 50/50 split between author and curator. That means you will be rewarded significantly more for curating content after the fork.
Seriously? The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer? I thought that Steemit was an equal opportunity place – in theory at least! We all know that posts with one inferior image and a couple of lines of text can make far more than a stellar quality piece of writing. It's either a case of paying a lot of bidbots, or the old adage of “It's not what you know but who you know” that brings success. Also, the whales have always been in charge here – not the creators of content.
I have been more than willing to ignore all that, because that is life. No one said lifewould ever be fair! But for posts earning less than $20 to earn even less after Tuesday goes beyond being unfair, because instead of following the blockchain's mantra of equal opportunity for all, it is following the ideal that the rich will get richer! And to add insult to injury, the author will not even be rewarded at 75% as in the past! So if you are more of a creator, than a “curator” (and that term is bandied about as if posts are really always “curated” with comments), then it is a Lose-Lose situation for conent creators!
So where does that leave me? I don't honestly know. Very disillusioned with Steemit, that's for sure! Who has been fighting for the creators? I just didn't think that I would see this happen!
Only one of my 17 posts from the last two months has earned over $20, and that was my first one back here after the 8 month break. The rest have languished with only dollars and cents to show for my work. This is not a grumble about that fact, and it is certainly not the fault of my true followers on Steemit, because their lack of Steem Power has rendered their Upvotes pretty useless.
Will I continue to post travel material? I have thousands of images from trips to Scotland, Iceland, Budapest, Bratislava, Czech Republic, Vienna, Fiji as well as French Polynesia to inspire posts for years to come, but I think my time will be better spent editing them for art sites and stock!
The jury is still out! But I doubt I will be rushing to make more posts on Steemit.
Photography is my source of income so if you like my work, please support me by checking out my my portfolio website on Adobe. There you will find links to all the places where my work is available as stock and art. You may purchase art prints and products through Zazzle, Redbubble and Fineartamerica by following the links there.
If you see something you would like to purchase in any of my posts, but can't find it anywhere on the stock or art sites, please let me know. Not everything has been uploaded there yet!
Thanks for reading!
Endnote: I wrote this post this morning, and at 11 am my new camera arrived a day early!
I would withhold final judgement until some weeks or months after an equilibrium is reached regarding the rewards. The reward system is a pretty complex system in its own right and when you add the human element to the mix, it will be hard to predict the results.
By the way, if photography is your main source of income, how do you make the most money in photography? By selling prints? Doing commissioned work? Your stock photos were very good.
I'm giving this post 70% because your photos are good, not because of your predictions of what will follow post HF 21.
Thanks! I don't know! I'm struggling to reach
Been shooting stock for over 20 years now. Most income comes from stock, but with over 8,000 images in the mix, it's nothing to write home about anymore considering I made way more with less than 1,000 available once upon a time. It's certainly not an income to live off like it used to be. I rely on it to supplement my retirement income and that's it nowadays! Prints don't sell so regularly, but they do sell.
This fork is basically to help the whales since they will earn even more rewards.
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Do not despair and do not hurry to get upset. Let's wait and see the result of what happens after day "X".
What I need to do is start writing posts with only one image, as preparing my photographs is by far the most time consuming part of my posts.
Create very short 1 minute Travel videos and post to Hideout.TV .... you will earn a lot more... US $ https://hideout.tv/viewerSignup.php?refer=100525
Thanks. I will check that out.
I bet you’re really looking forward to getting that new camera!
To be honest, if I didn’t love the fellowship so much here and the mingling amongst individuals and communities I would have been gone. Especially as one who has been around since the beginning when it was really an amazing platform before all of the wars and downvote craziness. It does seem as if the rich will be getting richer and the poorer poorer. When I first heard about the new reward system I felt it wasn’t fair to take more away from the author just to encourage more curation. I know some things are being done to try to better the economics here but I’m afraid it’s going to drive even more away.
I plan on sticking around but I am a little nervous about what these new changes will bring. I was doing just as you were back then, giving my all, spending way too much time here while neglecting other things. Now I’m only here 3 days a week, two of those days are posting days and the other one is catching up, curating and commenting. I start putting my priorities first and being here a lot less and now I don’t feel obligated or stressed about trying to post all week. I’m the type that puts a lot of effort into my posts (I try to use my own photos but sometimes I can’t shoot what’s relevant to my topic) so it takes me longer than an hour to get a post ready. So I just give the time I can here and support other Steemians when I can and keep it moving. It has actually been such a relief to step back from being here so much.
I respect whatever decision you make because you are the one putting time and effort into your post, no one else. You know how much you are willing to give of your time. I will miss seeing your beautiful photos should you decide to leave :(
My camera arrived a day early. So I have been playing with it this afternoon. It feels a bit more fragile than what I'm used to, so I'll need to be careful!
I wish I could prepare a post in an hour. LOL! This is the only one that has taken close to an hour because I used only one image - a quick iPhone shot with just a little processing to make it look old and tired. My typical posts take many days to prepare. I could use Pixabay or something, but I'm a photographer first, so my images need to be post processed from raw before they can be viewed. I could just point and shoot with my iPhone and add those images, but again, I'm a photographer. Hitting the shutter button is just the beginning of a photograph and not the end for me - even with an iPhone. It's not just about writing. That part I can do in little time.
I think I may just aim for a post every couple of weeks or so. That may suit my time schedule better while I'm waiting to see where all this goes. The thing is, I will have to stop eventually. I'm almost 72 and need to chill out a bit more. LOL!
I get it! You are truly a photographer and love what you do. Your passion for it shows tremendously. Lol hitting the shutter is definitely just the beginning. It takes a lot of time and effort to edit.
I think that’s a good plan. I would have never known you were that age unless you mentioned it. You are so vibrant and on the go! I definitely understand that you want to chill a bit more :)
Thanks! I have been a bit side tracked with all the hurricane preparation and then un-preparation. Hoping to get back into the grove again this week.
HF21 has coverted much controversy but I'm really on the positive side for it. It's difficult because the whole way STEEM as a blockchain is financed and works is really beyond simple understanding - this whole concept is complicated and the way I look at is where are the rewards coming from? And that's the problem really - the system needs to bring in funding to reward posts it can't keep paying out with nothing coming in - so more investors are needed to pay for STEEM, and more people coming to read the content already created - because right now everyone creates content more then it get's looked at.
The other way to look at it is - right now through the past few hard forks there has been little progress, if we sit where we are right now then most likely this trend will continue. HF21 will do something good or bad, and if it's really that bad then HF22 will resolve it.
!COFFEEA
Maybe it's all just too complicated for me to get my head around. So, it looks like it may be better just to read and comment than to post going forward. I don't know.
What happens in the next few weeks will answer all questions, particularly for anyone that posted regularly and received a constant reward value - ie 5 posts a week always at $2 - if that significantly changes it should be obvious - although the push is for greater curation which should balance the reduced creator reward.
I just can't do 5 posts a week. LOL! It's a bit much to be doing 2 long posts a week, to be honest. All my images have to be edited from raw and processed to where I want them.
I may start writing posts with just one image, as writing travel posts with lots of images included is very time consuming. People using Pixabay or even paying for stock are getting images that have already been processed, but I'm doing it all - maybe not appreciated on Steemit though. I know I am spending way too much time preparing posts, so it is not making sense to me to keep on doing what I am doing.
Absolutely I was not suggesting you do more posts per week, the example was that ideally earnings will not change that much - the reduced rewards are made up by more people giving them. And ideally what we want to see is more excellent content producers like yourself getting more recognition for you work - so all the effort if you put into the photos and text on the posts you create will get rewarded better - because people will finally have an incentive to upvote and comment on posts instead of just focussing on creating their own posts.
Haha! Didn’t think you were. I just balked at the idea. When I was posting before I used to post several a day and only a handful of longer ones now and again. On this return, I had decided to write longer posts - and less frequently.
Now it does make sense to get more people commenting more. Thanks for that rationalization of the facts. I appreciate your taking the time to respond.
If that post hadn’t popped up in my feed, I would have been oblivious to it all - maybe the best way to be in this case. 🤣🤣🤣
it is totally natural to have these concerns about the Hard Fork, I feel the same in a lot of ways, but I am waiting to see what happens as I have said I am here more for the community than the thought of earning anyything to take out onhere, I woudl of course love for steem to rise and have an income fromit especially when I go into retirement, but I dont see that happening with hhow things are going so I am not ruling out that HF21 could be good in the long run although at first glance ot me I do not see the good in it
I know what you mean. It’s nice to have community, but I am in a private Facebook group with friends from my hometown in Scotland, and have lots of community there. Also my Facebook friends are almost all friends and family I know. A few are photographers I “met” when we had pro forums to discuss the business.
I do like the community here. I’ve “met” some great people , yourself included! I suppose I could have community without posting too much too. It was my own idea to post travel stuff. I think once the French Polynesia series is done, I’ll go back to some shorter topical posting.
I think all that nitrous oxide from my root canals affected my brain! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yes I do have some personal private groups on farcebook with real interaction but that is the exception and not the norm for me onthere
but this platform will change a lot I suspect with this hard fork and its up to individuals to decide if its for them or not of course
I suppose it will change things. We all have to adapt and change with time anyway. It’s just going to be a case of how much change will there be.
I think your spot in we are all waiting to see how big the change will be
Silly me! Today’s another day. I doubt I’ll notice if my posts go from 3.00 to 1.00. It’s all peanuts anyway. It doesn’t change the fact that I don’t like it though. 🤣🤣👍🏻
Remember that 20 STEEM does NOT equal $20, at the moment, 20STEEM is around $4 which is not unattainable if you make good quality, which you do on your travel posts.
For me, I was initially disappointed with author rewards going down but I also curate quite a lot and engage with the community each day sprinkling upvotes here and there and comments on steemians posts. So I decided to buy steem, build up my account and do both content and curation.
It is of course up to you, you need to go where the bread is. For me, steem integrated nicely with my website and I enjoy using it but it's just a hobby for me that could bring in some rewards for investment. It might not but I've met people here which is worth more than a couple of hundred dollars.
See you around and enjoy the new lens!
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I know. Thanks for stopping by! I was just letting off STEAM! I hardly look at my wallet these days anyway. When I had a decent amount of Steem that could have been cashed in last year, I converted most of it to Steem Power so that my Upvotes would be worth more, but then it just all evaporated. Steem is a good name for it in that sense. Lol! I cashed out a few hundred dollars to see that The money was in fact real, but it was such a rigmarole, I’m not sure I even remember how I did it!
I did come back with my eyes open after the break, not really expecting much, and not really looking at it as a source of income. It’s the principle of it all that bothers me. I know that the reward pool has to come from somewhere, and a lot of big investors are gone now. I just don’t see how those with voting power are going to vote for and curate the little person in this game, no matter how good the content. They are going to Upvote those who already are making more Steem. That’s what I think, anyway.
I’ll still be around, I suppose. I had to have my say. I like writing through travelfeed.io, so will most likely continue at least until I finish my French Polynesia series.
Ha, yes we all need to let off steam. I am just chasing down the magic 5,000SP as I made it a mission to get to there this year and with prices dropping, I have bought a fair amount. There'll probably be turmoil in the coming weeks as things settle in but I'd say just stick with the communities you enjoy, don't think about the money, do what you can when you feel like.
There was a time when I was very close to powering down but decided to stay on and I quite like the way it all works. Anything that does come from it is a bonus and at least they are trying things out to change as it was going a bit pear shaped!
There are good whales, orcas and curation guilds around that are manually curating, also getting a lot of small upvotes is not a bad thing either as more will be looking to curate with these changes.
I look forward to reading your next travelfeed post 🙂
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Certainly the time to buy any investment is when the prices are low. Time to sell is when prices are high, too. I could have cashed in about $12,000 towards the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018 and invested it in something safer. But instead, I listened to all those who said to power up and invest in the platform, which I did. It’s harder at my age to think long term, because I don’t really have much long term left. Lol! I made the same mistake as I made with some shares a few years ago, but I did the opposite. I cashed in thinking they were at a high, then they split and went through the roof! Had I left well alone, I might have been one of the whales on here today. 🤣🤣
I guess, don’t follow my example if you are looking for retirement income long term. Haha!
Hahaha! I am not the best when it comes to this stuff either as every time I buy, the price drops, even now when I thought it was at its low point, it got lower! D'oh!
I got on steem in March 2018 so missed the whole all time high thing as well. Basically I'm a bad luck charm 😂
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I felt the same... and feel worse now! :(
But will wait and see... for all it's worth. As you said, it seems the rich will get richer and the poor, poorer. 20 steem is an achievement I don't see... whether I post an extensive one (as I had before) with more than 5 photos and paragraphs of writing... or a 1-2 photos post - it doesn't make any difference in earnings for the two in my case, so I've given up the former. Even though I know my photographs aren't great, but neither are majority of posts with earnings of 20 steem above! And I just want fair for what mine are worth... Guess as you say, Life's not fair and here, it shows more than ever... sad...
It is sad. Thanks for stopping by! We are expecting a hurricane evacuation soon, so will likely evacuate tomorrow or Sunday! I will try to pop in and make comments while we are away!
Oh dear, keep safe... Look forward to your messages soon...
It may stay offshore from us by the looks of it, but we don’t know for sure yet. It depends on how far offshore it will be.
With the HF21 Steemit is now for Curators. I am making way more Steem from upvoting good content at the 5 minute mark.... As a Creator (videos) I now Create short 1 minute Videos and Post to Hideout.TV. I signed up last month and already earned $500 USD - paid via Paypal.... US dollars. Real money in my bank account .... https://hideout.tv/viewerSignup.php?refer=100525
I like the idea of real money! I have not really been into creating videos, and don’t watch too many either, but I will check it out. Thanks!