Randumb Thoughts: Tribes, Photography, Tag Farming and "What Were You THINKING???"

It has been very cool to watch the proliferation of new "tribes" and "side chains" spring up through the Steem-Engine network, over the past couple of months.

Just speaking from a personal perspective, my otherwise waning interest in Steem/Steemit has been somewhat reversed by this new development... and it also feels like one of the "strengths" of a decentralized social system: Since Steemit, Inc. has been promising us "Communities" for years but still hasn't delivered, it seems that "we the people," have found a way to develop aforesaid communities without waiting for someone else.

And that's a really cool thing.

Where is this ship sailing to?

And so #photography became a tribe!

Speaking of tribes, there's a new player in the community: The PhotoStreem tribe is now officially a "thing."

Since there definitely are lots of talented photographers here in Steemlandia, it's definitely a relevant tribe that hopefully will be able to to fill the space once occupied by @photocontests which did manage to become a pretty far reaching presence a couple of years back.

That said, #photography is one of those tags that could be applied to a significant number of posts here, and certainly could be subject to widespread "tag abuse" so I very much hope that founders @news-today and @swedishdragon have a plan for keeping the likely spam and abuse under control.

Yes, all the photos are my own, but this is not a "photography" post...

Because... Tag Farming...

Not surprisingly, the practice of "tag farming" has already become pretty widespread in our wee ecosystem.

What exactly IS that?

Well, it's the practice of creating a post about pretty much very little at all (could even be your basic standardized Actifit update) and then tagging it with every conceivable tribe tag you can think of... and often NOT the actual tag that's relevant to the post.

In a sense, it's just a variation on the same thing that usurped the original use of Steemit, only different. More about that, further down!

The fog rolls in...

What Were They THINKING???

Like tends to hold true for pretty much all things, tribes are presenting us with the good, the bad, the indifferent and occasionally even the what were they THINKING??"

The latter of which is the kind of project I see, scratch my head and wonder if I am just looking at a poorly dressed "Exit Scam."

I think a lot of tribe founders mean well, but don't necessarily think through what they are about to do.

Like the ones who have a good basic idea, idealistically bring it to market... and it (seems like) never crossed their mind that a huge number of people would immediately try to take advantage of the situation. And — in doing so — would pretty much ruin it for everyone else.

But that's a whole different post!

Joshua Tree and desert landscape...

Consciousness and Legitimate Usage

Now, getting back to tag farming and usurping "legitimate use," I suppose it demands/requires a certain amount of consciousness and integrity to not just go overboard.

And maybe that's where we so often run into problems, in communities like these... relatively few people actually go through a conscious process when creating content.

Consider:

I am posting this to #palnet because that is an OLD part of the Steem ecosystem that supports and curates quality content and originality.

I am posting this to #creativecoin because — along with using only MY OWN photos — I consider this one of my Creative Non-Fiction pieces.

I am choosing to NOT post it to Photography, because it's really NOT a post about photography, although the new tribe IS getting a shoutout here... but for promotional/awareness generation, only.

I am NOT posting it to SteemLEO because it's NOT about investing, and I'm NOT posting it to Interpreneur because it's NOT about being in business for myself, and I'm NOT posting it to Marlians, because it's really NOT a "Ulog."

See what I'm doing here? A little discernment goes a long way, and it also helps maintain some sense of order and relevance. Just like blank "Actifit updates" are NOT about a whole bunch of tribes that nonetheless get tagged in those.

As a metaphor, SURE you can "ride the Subway without paying," but does that make it the RIGHT thing to do?

Thanks for reading!

(Another #creativecoin creative non-fiction post)

What's YOUR experience with the new tribes, so far? Which ones are your favorites? Do you think any/many of them are doomed to obscurity? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 190822 12:56 PDT
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