GreyBeard Dreaming

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Steemit: A social Media Experiment.

Steemit: A Social Media Experiment.

Ya'll might have noticed that I haven't been on FaceBook too much lately, not near as much as I have been in the past. There are several reasons for this.

As you all know FaceBook is getting more and more dictatorial. I have some 'friends' who have laboriously built up a following of several THOUSAND with the expectations of using it for business purposes. In fact FaceBook promised as much.  Then..after all that work FaceBook says 'pay me'. Facebook 'throttled back' so that groups such as 'The Tenth AmendmentCenter' (https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=tenth%20amendment%20center) on FaceBook are only reaching about ten percent or less of those subscribed.

FaceBook is definitely Liberal and LeftLeaning. If you are not you suffer. Facebook has been caught with it's hand in the cookie jar a number of times.

And that's all right. ZukieBabie built it.  It belongs to him (and the shareholders)and he can do with it as he pleases. I don't know about ya'll though.  I'm getting pretty damn tired of being treated like a red headed step child.

So...as it happens I've discovered a thing.

It's called Steemit. (Steemit.com). 

In a lot of ways it's like FaceBook used to be in the early days. There are not many active users.10K maybe?  Perhaps 50K? Although the number of accounts is over 105K and rising, most of them are inactive. Doesn't matter to me.  I'm getting to know people here. I've found that it is MUCH more diverse than FaceBoook. I suspect that FaceBook (can't prove it, see no need too, just a feeling) keeps the herd separated into their own little pastures.  Easier to control perhaps?

Not Steemit. I've carried on conversations with people from every continent.  Want to know what it's really like in SAfrica, Venezula, Russia, England, Serbia, ...etc..etc...etc...?  I know a guy.

Steemit is open to everyone. It's a lot of fun.

Like everywhere else, there are Makers, Fakers and Takers. It doesn't take very long to sort them out. Steemit has an 'unfollow' function much like FaceBook, and a 'mute' which is much like FaceBook's block. It has one other thing though. It has the dreaded FLAG.

Think NUKE.


An armed society is a polite society. On Steemit everyone is armed with a flag.  If a steemer flags another steemer the one that get's Flag is 'greyed out'.  Kinda sorta.

There's this thing called "reputation". You can't buy a reputation, you have to earn it. Reputation is determined by a complex algorithm built into the system, among which are how many votes (similar to facebook 'likes') your post receive. Other variables include how many times you voted, how many times and how well received were your comments...and other things)

So...one might say. Survival of the fittest.

Yeah? So?

It's an experiment in FreeMarket Economics, something like an ecosystem.

In fact...Steemers acknowledge a hierachy akin to sea mammals. The new entries are give $2.50 Steem Dollars when they sign up (more on that later) and have a reputation of 25 (gotta start somewhere).

It takes a while  writing posts to increase that reputation. Every post you make earns votes (or not) depending on how well everyone else likes them.  To begin with you only get 1/1000's of steem if anything. (think of it as playing poker with tooth picks). Eventually the toothpicks add up and you get more SteemPower. (hokey name right?  think of it as a game) Your reputation also increases fractionally.

Low reputation, low steem power, " just off the boat" are plankton. Then as you grow you become Krill, Minnows, various types of fish, then sea mammals.  Dolphins, Orca's and Whales.

Just so you know. Whales have REAL power.  A flag from a whale can smush you like a bug. Whales are the founders and investors. Between them they have invested literally millions of real dollars. (at one time the market cap was half a billion)

But forget all of that. 

Think FaceBook when it was young.  If youre tired of the way FaceBook is now...come join the fun on Steemit.