In such dark times the community should come together and help keep steem afloat, I voted for you as witness months ago and I still stand by my vote.\n\nWe all should try to bring value to Steem if we have any skills that could contribute in adding value to the blockchain.

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The vote is still highly appreciated!

> We all should try to bring value to Steem if we have any skills that could contribute in adding value to the blockchain.

And yes, a decentralised project is exactly that!

I would like to know more about what an "average" member can do to help keep things moving in the right direction. Those of us without technical skills per say.

First of, staying active on Steem and sharing your feedback & opinions about things valuable for Steem. But I'm sure @meno has more ideas about the "average" Steemian as community guru.

thanks @therealwolf . You've been someone I've relied on for advice and action since day 1. I appreciate your input.

Honestly all Steemians play a role in keeping this place looking lively... if you help others surf these difficult waters, show them the basics, and the not so basics. If you invite friends, content creators and people who are looking for something different, people who can become core members of this community, you are doing more than your part to help the future of Steem.

:)

thanks @meno . I think a start is that I'm now following you. I hadn't seen your profile before so happy for the discovery . Already heading in the right direction lol

It is true. We need everyone in these Steem to share all the goodness and joy of having steemians.

It very simple, actually. Most developers are not good at communicating the value of their own products and desperately need “average” members to deliver the message to the outside world. You are the best marketing resource Steem community has. In fact, your personal effort in introducing new users to Steem is what we need the most. Also, help developers fix user interfaces so that non-technical people can enjoy dapps too.

Thanks @grampo . I'm now following you. The thing I enjoy most is plucking people out of the real world and getting them on steemit. It's fun but its a process. They want instant success . But I love doing it.

Well said! Now is the time we hunker down, and put our money where our mouths are in terms of supporting blockchain tech. I know blockchain can, will, and already has revolutionized the world, and it's only to become greater from here on out!

One suggestion I might have is maybe have better info on how other users, such as myself, can help directly support the blockchain infrastructure of Steem. The world of Steem Witnesses, despite myself being fairly well-versed in blockchain technology, is another world to me. I'd love to see some info on how other users, such as myself, could pitch in and help prop up things like that!

Great way to launch the vision going forward as this attitude will be needed to sustain the ecosystem going forward. As a community member and having experienced great moments here, I want to see it not only survive but succeed so I will be looking at how to support as well.

Posted using Partiko iOS

Lets make steemit easier for everyone. I think once you sign up you forget just how hard it really is to sign up and understand Steemit. I have friends that tried to figure Steemit out..... I tried to encourage them... and they gave up frustrated! We need to fix this!

We've got @anomadsoul and @coruscate working on @steemonboarding, which will make onboarding of users on Steem much easier & effective.

Very good, this is so important, especially now!

We need a transition app as to bridge people from places like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, onto places like Steemit. One app of Steem that could help might be Dtube. People like videos. But Dtube might also be a little hard for beginners as well. So, what do we have for beginners to start with?

Dtube never loads..... even @ned when he did his video used you tube. Most beginners are staying with Facebook, they can blog to there friends for free. Tell them you can only vote 10 times a day, and in the beginning only post 2-3 times a day....... they are gone......

I really try to on board my friends, no takers......

My reputation went from 55 to almost 50 back in September of 2018 when I talked about Dtube. It was around that time. So, I was downvoted or flagged (are those two things the same thing lol?) for telling people that my Dtube videos disappeared and/or will not play. I wonder why Dlive left to Lino.

Wow............ I need to think about that......🙃

IPFS Centralized?

I've been told that Dtube videos are on IPFS, on these other servers, but NOT directly on the decentralized Steem blockchain servers (witnesses). So, in other words, like another system, possibly a centralized server system stores the Dtube videos for a set amount of time but only for people who make enough money on the Dtube videos and only for about 2 years.

More Money Please

I've read that you have to pay more money to keep the videos on Dtube beyond 2 years or something. People need to correct me if I'm wrong but that's what I've heard & I can't see my older Dtube videos which makes me sad. That's why I stopped uploading to Dtube some months ago.

In the beginning of my Steemit I tried to do Dtube. I got frustrated when only days later I tried to view my videos and they would not play 🙃

I have not been able to play many Dtube videos from different people for over a year now. I go to posts. I see people comment on Dtube videos. But I did not see comments saying that they could not see the videos. It makes me wonder.

I would hope Dtube fix the video availability and not take them down. Keep in mind that hosting all that video data requires a massive storage system.

The videos cannot possibly go on the blockchain. The blockchain is meant for small transactions such as money, votes, and text. I believe pictures are not even on the blockchain. The blockchain actually has links to the database that stores them.

If a blockchain had the ability to add pictures and videos to the blockchain, it would quickly overwhelm the nodes.

While your text and money is decentralized and protected by the blockchain, the pictures and videos are not. Sorry.

If you are truly in need of protecting your video work forever, here is how to do it. You secure a domain name and host the video streaming from a server that you own or from server space that you rent. Then create STEEM blog and link your video feed within the blog. The link is text in the blog, so it is forever stored in the blockchain. You then have the control of keeping the video available or taking it down.

I know that it is a lot of work and not really practical. But here is the catch, If you learn how to do this, you could generate your own Dapp video channel to compete with Dtube. You know Dtube takes a healthy cut of your creation rewards.....

No. They took down Gab.com. They attacked Infowars.com. They have their domains but they were taken down. Websites are being attacked. Did you not see that? Everybody's talking about it all around the world. It happened many times already. Videos should be on the blockchain. It needs to be done. Don't say it's too big, too hard. I am shooting for the moon. I was told that pictures are stored on the blockchain via a BitTorrent technique. And a video is a bunch of pictures. Blockchain can do it. We are working on it. And it's only a matter of when. It will happen if it hasn't already happened. It's coming. Mark my words. Eat Oatmeal.

I don't think there are computers powerful enough on this planet to operate as nodes that run a blockchain that stores videos. I am with you though. I wish there was a way to make it happen.

It will happen if it is not already happening. It may not be as hard as some people might say it might be.

Good point @silvertop

Indeed I agree, that Steemit is a very difficult place if you're just trying your first steps here

Anyway right now their focus need to be on cutting costs more than anything. We've enough quality content and solid userbase, but cutting costs of this network should be priority. Otherwise steemit inc. may be a main reason why STEEM value would completly die. Which noone here wants.

Yours
Piotr

I have a terrible fear that STEEM could drop to zero value(or close to it) and then no exchanges wanna sell it anymore, and no one wants to pay to be a witness; and then it's over. I doubt that'll happen, but it is a fear of mine. I believe it'll pump again. I still believe in STEEM very much as a long term investment, and I'm buying when I can afford it, and I'm certainly not selling for a loss. I'm here for life or until there's no more blockchain.

Thanks for all you do. Your work for Steem is noticeable and I finally voted for your Witness. We need more people who are visible and active all day every day, to develop the platform further and to keep the energy up.

I'm always searching for the best way to be involved since I've always been struggling with my 'Jack of all Trades' skillset, but those who need a pair of extra hands in their team can always contact me - I'm here to stay and work on advancing this place in any way I can.

It's pretty bitter we'll probably see the timeline for SMTs delay even though we need this boost now and people might be willing to invest heavily in projects now prices are so low. But a delay is always better than a naive continuation of something that's not sustainable.

Anyway, as always, Steem ON!

Thank you very much for the vote, it is highly appreciated!

And you are right. Negativity in this situation is not an option. That's why I'm determined to keep the energy and spirits up!

> I'm always searching for the best way to be involved since I've always been struggling with my 'Jack of all Trades' skillset, but those who need a pair of extra hands in their team can always contact me - I'm here to stay and work on advancing this place in any way I can.

I know this feeling, as I'm very much alike, doing many things - hopefully good :) I will keep this in mind and get back to you if something fitting comes to my mind.

> It's pretty bitter we'll probably see the timeline for SMTs delay even though we need this boost now and people might be willing to invest heavily in projects now prices are so low. But a delay is always better than a naive continuation of something that's not sustainable.

There can always be an upswing, but even though it might be bitter, this is the reality we're living in and we need to adapt and do the best with this situation.

Thank you for commenting and sharing your positivity with us.

> Jack of all trades, master of none

You are not the only one @soyrosa! 😁 But yes, it's time to roll up my sleeves and become more active here.

Really good article I agree let go for it!

Steem's power comes from its organic energy, not some corporation building it

another one of those ‘must read articles’ to our things into perspective.

awesome stuff man and i agree 100000%

we are steem for real!

Posted using Partiko iOS

Thank you for the feedback - glad you find this post a must read!

There's plenty of opportuion nities here for smart people.... someone can make the new dapp that pops. Only question is that is the grass greener here than anywheres else .... i don't know hardly anything to be able to answer that ,

Thanks for the positive vibe @therealwolf you are truly bringing value to Steem. I just wonder why is Steemit.inc the only ones who are developing the core-code of Steem? Why is a cooperation running the development of a decentralized Network? Why don't we have more freelancers as developers who contribute to the code and Steemit.inc is more or less the coordinator?
I'm not really into the field of coding so would br great if you could explain about it.

just bought some more steem today...powered it up !!

The great line is we are steem.

Do you know what will happen with the SMT target date?

It will be pushed back even further. There isn't the monetary structure behind $STEEM to add another leg to this blockchain.
Steemit Inc. has failed to grow the user base as the entire cryptocurrency whales were heavily interested last year.

Posted using Partiko Android

Postpone the SMT target will not be a good business decision!

100% support your thought, friend. It's time to focus on the value of this community.

How about we support advertisement on steem. Buy steem to show ads and those steem tokens go to null.

''But we all want a Steem that is healthy and growing, right?''

That is a nice thought. But i do not believe that all the accounts which hold significant amounts of Steem want it to be a raging success.

oh man, you got my vote long time ago, we are steemians and we must stay together! :)

Still here and will be for a while.. I've been calling to the community to stop waiting for Ned to fix things for a while.

I'm not even sure what it is that he's supposed to "fix". Other than maybe adding ads, I've been a supporter of the idea since 2016. It's a tried and tested revenue model online, after all.

Other than, I dunno. The biggest problem around here ever since the beginning has seemed to be (in my opinion) dumb and short-sighted stakeholders whose actions have dragged down the value of everyone's stake.

And there's nothing that can be done about them. One can only hope for a redistribution - to which this price slump, as well as whales dumping, gives an opportunity.

What I mean to say is. It's a stake-based platform, as we know. No matter the hardforks or code or whatever the fuck, it will always be shaped by the stakeholders, first and foremost.

Not @ned or Steemit, INC.

I tend to agree. The stakeholders have a larger impact than SteemIt, Inc.

I know! You're an honest voice here on Steem, which I very much appreciate!

I'm wondering if it is time for business minded people invested in Steem to create a voluntary group of StakeHolders, to meet and figure out how we can improve engagement, investment and growth of Steem.

Have any interest?

I sure do!

[IMAGE: https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmWpTsRMHEUnbft3pbpseMLdFk794BG2NuiY1DXEbyTurh/2470557_M.jpg]Excellent words, we are a Spanish speaking community, and we receive the support of @enginewitty, we do not have great voting power and we try to keep the community active with contests and others, always thinking that the community will be alive while we continue publishing Unfortunately, the problem is that many users are moving away instead of reinforcing the mutual support among all of us.
When the request for votes for netcoins was made, we showed that together we could be in first place, and now is the time to come together to move forward and grow in this great platform.

[IMAGE: https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmSjaECV2nrnHiiHnUFTiKfaTFHutYo7Y6nviiPDCUmxX9/Escudo.png]

Great point with the Netcoins reference. Community will keep STEEM alive and we'll all be stronger for it.

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We are steem!

Posted using Partiko iOS

Steem depends on witnesses, right? As long as they take care, we won't be in much problem or is it?

Posted using Partiko Android

To everything there is a season. A time for every purpose under heaven and this is a time of thin.

> "Steemit Inc. are the creators of Steem, but we are the ones bringing it to life."

yes. and i feel like too much focus is on ned and steemit inc. this is clearly not the end because steem is meant to be decentralized. they may have created it, but they should've started focusing down on just providing the api and nodes right from the start.

sheeps will sell and leave (and they'll be back when the prices go up). personally i see this as an opportunity for the community to make some changes. or at least start the talks. even in the worst case scenario, a decentralized platform shouldn't even be affected by one company going bankrupt.

the Steemit Team miss Management is so big. To be real, the Steemit Team has no idea how to grow a company.

No Marketing, No Salesmen, No Advertisement. Nothing.

And a Company makes always Money Selling Something.

Ned Thinks he can finance it with Steem. So what he does? Nothing.

If thats the plan we need Steem / Fiat. I know so many people, there would buy steem. But it is to difficult and to much work. Not like 1 click.

Its hart with laws etc. But he says he spend 2 Million on Team a year. OMG thats so stuppid.

For 1 Million you get a License as a Bank in Eu. Then you can play Crypto / Fiat Bridge.

And Steem had the Million in Past. And to be real. Steemit has 70 Million Steem.

He can sell 20 Million and get guys doing this for him. And then he gets for every Trade Money. Ez Finance and a new Major Coin.

I bought yesterday again some Steem. Because i think the Steem Blockchain is good.

But now with the new News from Ned i think, OMG why is this guy so stupid.

Steem needs a New Face. A new Frontend. A new Ceo for Steemit. ( Ned can do some Technical stuff he like, but not the Money Stuff like paying employee, Sales, etc)

We all pay as a Community for his Miss Management.

Some more, some less.

Without a plan from our biggest shareholder, i see Black for Steem.

@ned doesnt see it and do now some whiny stuff, so thats the best sign he needs a real CEO, a Salesmen.

Or we all wait and he sell his Stake. Then somebody build a new Frontend and we see what happens.

New Face solve this problem too:

most guys think Steem is Steemit.

@therealwolf i wrote this to @ned https://steemit.com/steem/@freddio/re-ned-2fajh9-steemit-update-20181128t030730542z

i Think Steem is like Shares from the Blockchain.

But i dont feel like a shareholder. is more like nobody cares.

Thats only my 2 cents.

@therealwolf i really like your arrangement. I think also you are nice guy with good ideas. Steem can be so fucking awesome, but it need a big change.

Have a nice day,

@freddio

I agree. Steemit Inc is selling nothing except tokens and hope...

Steemit relies on the price of Bitcoin. When Bitcoin surges, so do the altcoins, and every Steem user can make easy gains by selling Steems and Steem Dollars. But when Bitcoin drops, so do Steem, and then, many people power down before the price is too low. When the money is leaving Steemit, the voting power decreases, and so do the rewards. When the rewards are lower, people are less active and produce less upvote. Furthermore, the demand for Steem and SBD decrease. It's a vicious circle.

Steemit needs to produce value independently from the price of Bitcoin. Otherwise, the system is not sustainable enough.

Sometimes we need to make certain sacrifices to achieve a greater goal especially if it involves not just yourself but also to many people. As a newbie in this platform, I do appreciate everything about this community.

I've only been here for more than 10 days but I can truthfully say this place is spectacular. The Steemians have always been helpful and welcoming. Everybody is interacting and when I join here, it seems like I belong and I felt connected to my fellows even though I know so little about cryptocurrency. This platform will stay and it will go higher because its power doesn't just simply come from the investors but also to the will of every Steem members.
I am proud to become a Steemian and I will do my part to help this one of a kind community. I don't want to lose this. Steem On!

I agree, it's good to sacrifice, endure, to be patient, diligent, in long-term investments like Steem, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, in the future ways of doing things for many decades to come maybe. But we gotta give it many years for it all to work. Many years. We gotta endure many years. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Great post @therealwolf. 2 things happened that I honestly feel put him this postion. He created panic when he cashed out 2.8 million STEEM. 2. HF20 reversed how things ran. Comments were more than votes and people wanted to do a way with bidbots, now it's the other way around. Someone with 15SP can barely make a post and a comment twice a week.
So that created an immense amount of resentment. It caused people to question why they are here.

Overall, You're absolutely right. Bad attitudes, negativity, in-fighting are not what is going to keep Steemit alive. It is and has always been up to the Steemians. Leaving the platform in a panic and brining others down so they do not want to even be a part of the community does not help. We have to keep doing what we have been. Consistency is everything on Steemit. Build others up and support each other is the only way this platform will survive. The whalewars hopefully are a thing of the past, People don't want to come here for drama.

I love this place, regardless of whether the company can hit the targets it set for things like SMTs. It's disappointing, since so much seemed to be reliant on that happening in early Spring, but my daily experience of STEEM remains unchanged.

I still create content, pretty much daily. I still love interacting in the comments on my posts and those of others. I still recommend the place to others and try to teach them the ropes so that they are successful on here. This is still a community I really enjoy.

I am aware, however, that there is a new risk to my stake. And that honestly makes me take a pause on additional steem purchases I was going to make to power up. There is too much uncertainty for me to go in further in that particular form at this time. But neither am I powering down. I also don't think the coin is in danger of going to zero, and as long as things keep running, I'll keep posting, upvoting and commenting.

@therealwolf,

Are you ready to open a centralized exchange where STEEM and SBD are common trading pairs with everything else?

There is no single better way to do it than this. You will make so much money that you can buy out Steemit Inc. Then you can run it like it should be run.

Opening an exchange and dealing with regulations is very tall order.

Opening an exchange that trades fiat/crypto is a very tall order due to regulations. However, opening an exchange that trades only crypto is much less of a burden. This community will have amazing support. I was amazed that people here rallied around Netcoins contest to list STEEM even though Netcoins is not a real exchange. Imagine the support for a real exchange? This exchange will have something that no other exchange has. STEEM and SBD trading pairs with every currency listed on the exchange. The community will support. I guarantee.

Very well said. If we panic now, we will loose everything. Scott and I have made the decision to stand firm and be there to encourage others to stay calm. Right now is not the time to flip out.

@Dreemsteem you will like what this man says.

Thank you for what you do.
Ren

Such a great post to read and everyone should take a look of such posts to know this platform's worth and its efficiency.

I'm not goin anywhere my man.

Posted using Partiko Android

>We have one thing in common: we are all invested in Steem - some more than others. But we all want a Steem that is healthy and growing, right?

This is why the dysfunctional and in-fighting community of Steemit has always puzzled me. Every member wants the same thing in the end.

Or at least should want.

Yet it's impossible to get this group together on anything.

Having said that. I very rarely check the site anymore. It's hard to come up with a reason to use it. The rewards aren't there, no one cares anymore. And the two-three-four people that actually engage with me, I can engage with on STEEM.chat or Discord or wherever.

In the business world, to lay off 70% of workers could mean something negative. I dont know with the blockchain world. What you said made me believe that it's not that negative at all.

Posted using Partiko Android

See, I’d love to get involved with something. I have no tech skills whatsoever, but I have ideas about something that I know I could manage and help build with a team .... techies (who understand SMTs), people who can raise/find capital, promoters and marketers, etc.

But where can someone like me go and say “hey I have this idea” and hope that others with shared vision and expertise can make it happen?

Posted using Partiko iOS

Ouch, that's some rough news to start the day! But here I am, doing my little part to keep the light burning through these tough times... Posting, commenting and just being active!

well said

Would it help if more people could Seed, Mine, Witness, Serve, or whatever you want to call it, for the Steem blockchain network?

I think it is very important to support Steem in this hard times! I can only say that for myself, but for me it's very difficult to understand all the processes. I would like to know how I can support the community the best way.

Posted using Partiko Android

Thank you for writing this @therealwolf, and thank you for your work and investment into this platform. It feels good to see that you're motivated to keep moving forward in a time where motivation can be hard to find.

I tip my hat to everyone who's continuing to build great things for Steem and its communities. Truly inspiring!

Thank you - comments like these make me smile and are showing me, that what I'm doing has the right message! :)

Keep on working on Vimm.tv! If you need any help (dev, steem or business related) feel free to message me.

No problem my good man

This might be hurting to see as a whole and I'm personally alarmed by the news @ned is bringing. But it takes a lot of courage to inform the community regarding the layoff.

The price hurts and the bear market surely killed potential investors. We'll soon get there, I still believe.

It does hurt, but I'd argue that the price is actually good for investors looking to get into Steem. A high price is a barrier, while a lower price attracts those wanting to get in.

Thank you for commenting!

I am a new user in Steemit with lifestyle content, art and inspirational stories, I think your writing is really useful.

Hi @therealwolf I have to admit that I agree with you, the community should focus on the only goal of growing strong and healthy. Just last night I published a post on how Steemit could expand its business by following the model of facebook and youtube. I had nominated you but if you have not read it yet I would like to hear your opinion.

Maybe there will be less selling now.
If they paid there costs in steem, less costs, less steem sold.

Checked my voted wtinesses to make sure I didn't left you out. Your wonderful contribution has always been inspiring and even become something to look up for in a down market like this.

Despite of the fact that STINC is holding that significant amount of Steem, their role is often overvalued in an ideally decentralised environment. Steemians are criticize everything the company is doing. Even Ned playing guitar could be blamable topic lol. How is it different from the citizen criticizing on the centralized government operation?

Of course, it would be best for the overall community if the biggest stakeholder like STINC could really perform well with centralized effort. If not, I'm sure brilliant developers/witnesses like you would be more than willing to take it over.

I did shift my view on steemit as well. As you said, decentralization demands benefits linked with efforts. I joined in Feb 2018 with the goal of being a dolphin by the end of the year, providing real contents to be used.

Now I'm looking forward to add value with translation as well, which is something I've been doing for a long time and that can help spreading important posts or services towards various community.

Let's ride this tide, till the wave will change direction @therealwofl

Still here and standing on our feet!

The captain has already rang the bell for all hands on deck...

Posted using Partiko Android

Awesome article..realy this post brings value to steem. Already Upvoted ..all the best

What a powerful article this is @therealwolf. Of course, the ultimate goal of all Steemians is that our "Steem" must never run out of "steam" at any cost. And we appreciate your commitment for the same. This article, in fact, pushes us all to go beyond the boundaries and do whatever we can to lift the "Steemit" back to its original position. Your blog fired up our spirits, thoughts, and goals and fueled our killer instinct to make the impossible, POSSIBLE! Take a bow!! A beautiful hug to you @the realwolf.

Good Bro

https://youtu.be/BmXCmXlXhNI

Dear @therealwolf.

I used to read you a lot, and always I enjoy your thoughs writen. I want to say you thanks for all you do here. I'm a little red-fish fighting to grow into a minnow (i'm almost there), and beside all the economic problem in my country, the general panic in the community, I'm staying here. Because I trust in this platform, because friends and because I have to much to show, a lot of music to make and share and more friends to do. Keep steeming fellas! This is only the begging of the path.

I’m new to steem but it’s been great so far

Posted using Partiko iOS

I believe steem is open source, right? Maybe @ned should put some @utopian.task requests in.

I believe that an external source of revenue, ie, advertisement should be a option on the table. I am sure it has been mentioned before, but it should be something to reconsidered.

your ideas will help community to grow , pls dont slow down , keep up the good work

like everything in life, there are things that have their ups and downs, at this time it is up to Steemit but we can assure that we can leave this as a group, organization and community, as they say it is necessary to keep ressommable and firm, that this is just a trick and all of Steemit are in the task of seeing us grateful for this page and help her that if she falls we help her to get up, that if she goes down we help her up.

"I personally will shift my completely focus as a Witness, Stakeholder, Steempreneur, Developer & Steemian effective immediately towards bringing value to Steem."

And how are you planning to do this? Or to rephrase, what will change?

If it means just more features to smartsteem and more "Steem is fine, we just have to believe together" posts, I'm not sure the direction is correct. These might make the insiders more happy, but to outsiders it looks just more of a cult than it already is. Also, some could argue that bid bots have made this place the ghost town it is, I've noticed the change in my behavior since I started to sell votes. Probably about 80% drop in manual voting is the result, I wonder if the effect is common.

Sorry for being a bad cheerleader, I only have little stake here. For the first time ever, I'm afraid Steem will be a total failure though. Seeing Ned's incompetence as a leader and now 70% layoffs despite huge ninja mine. If Steemit inc ceases to exist, which could happen, since Ned's talking about wanting to survive already, I wonder will Steem cease to exist with it? How decentralized are we really? I know there's very little blockchain development happening outside Steemit Inc, but reading how it literally takes millions to run their systems, should we all be powering down before it's too late?

I hope this isn't just seen as fearmongering, but rather serious questions that I'd like to hear answers to and probably thousands of others as well. There's reality and then there's delusions, hopes and dreams. Let's stick to reality, at least for a second. It seems serious discussion isn't happening... at least on these top trending posts. No offense, just wishing for change.

But now, let's continue to sing kumbaya together!

> Also, some could argue that bid bots have made this place the ghost town it is.

It has contributed, yes. Just another way folks sell out our future for short term gains.

I do believe we will come back from this better than ever, however! The low price has allowed many of my friends to buy #Steem for their first time ever! xoxoxo I believe this deep drop is a real blessing.

What everyone wanted when Steem was at $8. Ooh they just wished it would drop so they could buy some. That's what so many were saying. And now look lol.

The true visionaries of Steem will see this through. The ones who can see the long term. Steem is not going anywhere, even if it hit 1 cent. We are still here. We are the value. Humans are the Value of Steem.

Appreciate the reply. Yes, what we have been lacking is good distribution. The wider we can spread Steem to people that really care, the better our growth will be in the future. The initial distribution was horrible. A social platform where ninja mined stake gets to be the whales and decide what's valuable and what's not? That's like letting Zuckerberg decide where the new Steem would go, imagine that :) We're still suffering from it...

What I'm questioning is can Steem survive without Steemit Inc, that's what I'm hoping to get answers for. What is Steemit Inc spending millions for in a year, and if they go bankrupt, who will run these services? That's what I'm asking, can the blockchain run without them. After that comes the issue of who's going to continue developing it. It would put my mind at ease knowing we could survive these worst case scenarios.

The #Steem blockchain can absolutely run without steemit.

Have you ever used any of the other interfaces? Try out steempeak.com, it's awesome! Lots of folks use busy.org, people with phones use partiko app. There are many many ways to access the blockchain!

We are all stakeholders in the Steem blockchain. Not steemit.

Lyndsay, there's a lot more going on beneath the surface... These are just interfaces that show what's on the blockchain, I've developed few myself actually so yes, I know. Thanks for the reply though.

Ok, cool. So what are some solutions you have thought of?

We just need to make sure the system can operate smoothly even if Steemit Inc ceases to exist one day ( they do a lot more than just upkeep Steemit.com ), I'm not going to jump into details with my limited knowledge however.

The biggest problem is that the costs of running API nodes is so high. And normally, one API node is nearly not enough.

You can ask @themarkymark, who ran by far the fastest community RPC node. It was really expensive and got more expensive with time.

Now, I'm not argueing that this has to be fixed, but Steemit Inc. are doing exactly this - making it much cheaper to run API nodes and once that is done - the community will hopefuly stand up.

At least I know that I will work on something.

Thank you for the reply, just to be clear: API nodes serve data from blockchain to services? If there aren't any public ones, any service wishing to use Steem blockchain would need to run their own node?

I'm glad to hear Steemit Inc is taking steps towards minimizing these costs, as a long term investor in blockchains, I expect the ones I'm active within to be running for forever, or at least 100 years. Otherwise there's no point if the system can't handle that.

Should we require top 5-10 witnesses to run public api nodes and increase their pay if needed, after Steemit Inc has done their upkeep reductions?

I am sad to hear you say so iggy -- But I have just put some money into STEEM now that it is down so much, it's a nice buy in.

I think crypto as a whole is just crippiling along... so until crypto has some new life breathed into it, there is little hope for Steem. Cause and effect here. That being said I think if it does go down the way you say. Well we need the shake up! We have people who have always believed in the platform... if it is a cult like tribe as you say. So much the better for the people will have to figure out a way to get back that which they knew was always theirs to begin with. Personally steemit will always be my form of expression. I just might put it down sometimes. It is time to change the platform. It is time for someone else to heed the call and take up the mantle.

Steem needs a take over by the people. The stakeholders - you and me IGGY

I challenge you iggy

What can we do together to change this place?

We don't need these people. We find the right people! Talent has seeped through these digital walls. You know that as well as anyone. What can we two do? What can we start. What was your dream for Steemit? What rallying call must be rung so this place can stay for the people?

Well my biggest worry is that Steem the blockchain itself is in danger due to it relying too much on Steemit Inc. If that's solved, I think Steem will survive, one way or another. I do have big hopes for SMT's since they will enable people that care and share ideals and moral rules to organize and build their own ecosystems. One of the biggest problem has always been the distribution of Steem. Those who hold stake in systems like these play huge part in how successful it is, so SMT's that manage to give largest stakes to entities that think long term and can view ideas from far away perspective will prosper.

> What can we two do?

Now that you mention that, I do have one project that you might be interested in. We should chat on discord about it some time. It's too late
for me to touch upon your comment fully, but I'll just say that I saw Steem as a platform where people would reward good content they personally like. If millions would do this, the trending would be really interesting place to visit, attraction that non stakeholders would also want to visit, every day, but sadly this isn't happening. Perhaps some day though, with the help of SMT's!

One thing is bad distribution of STEEM / SP, another is bad distribution of rewards. Of course these go hands in hands, but maybe we could do at least about the latter.

Posted using Steeve

Yes, the latter we can do something about, but that would require offering stakeholders an option to just receive their rewards without actually selling their votes or using it to vote content without curating ( vote circles, self voting through alt accounts and such ), that will just mess up the content discovery and diminish any true curation efforts, eventually forcing everyone to become a rather passive stakeholder if they wish to not feel utterly demoralised and just leave Steem as a whole.

We have a lot of people who would love to find great posts, I'm sure. And I can't be happy with Steem until real curation has an meaningful effect.

How things work now:

Top 20 trending is decided by who pays most to the passive stakeholders, these stakeholders aren't doing anything, yet they get rewards that match about 10 self votes a day + curation. This activity draws a lot of rewards from the reward pool, so the reward pool that is actually in use for manual curation is already diminished. This passive vote selling doesn't care about what gets seen on our trending, that the outsiders see first and judge the whole system by. And yes, it isn't pretty, but what can we expect when it's decided by who pays the most? So since this kind of activity is going on, even I with close to 6k Steem Power won't bother with curating. I don't have an effect, and if I do manually curate, I'm losing out on rewards and on effort needed.

This is a devious cycle that will lead to majority of people just opting to sell their votes, so a trending can be formed that nobody truly likes or is proud of. Quality content doesn't matter, and it will be obvious to anyone who isn't deluded by their stake in the system, hence hoping for better. I'd like to be proud of Steem, but self appointed "community leaders" with their feel good posts, who at the same time sell Steem's dignity to the highest bidder makes it harder every day.

How Steem could work:

Divide the reward pool by rule like it already is, between passive investors and active ones. Doing this we can actually save the curation process from the devastating effects that passive investors currently have on the system and actually make the work of active investors worth more, since they get to decide what gets rewarded and shown to everyone visiting Steem. They'd actually feel appreciated, who knows! Encouraging more curation by people who wish Steem to succeed long term. There are people who would like to do that job, even if it would pay a bit less, but now their work is muddled by passive voting, indifferent to quality of the posts. And it's a sad, sad state. Not sure how long I can take it, I might just take a hiatus and wait for SMT's and hope they can solve this issue.

https://i.enkiquotes.com/pJmFF2_TfYXF6nWHrVRO-Hi0-CE=//images/2016/11/3a5f0381eefd6aebbc99fef8d5457912.jpg

I share your feelings and agree with your description of the situation. However, what you suggest as a potential solution can be already done right now! At least most of it.. :)

We at Steeve are boosting manual curation. You can read more about how we are doing it in this post published last night.

Our idea is to use AI to process the vast amounts of new content created every day and learn the taste of our users. We can then use the AI for giving personalized recommendations of potentially interesting posts outside of user's regular feed. We will then upvote the most popular posts on our platform. This should improve the reward distribution, as good quality content will have a better reach and curators will be actually rewarded for their manual work, not like now. This should also motivate curators to accumulate more SP and thus improve the ecosystem overall, including the price of STEEM.

Would be curious to hear what you think about it :)

Posted using Steeve, an AI-powered Steem interface

Any steps taken towards quality content being found on here and brought to light is step to right direction. There's multiple ways to do it and AI is interesting approach, but one that tweaked right could provide a lot of value that sets your service apart from the rest.

Actually, I'll be switching over for Steeve for a while to see how it feels in action.

> And how are you planning to do this? Or to rephrase, what will change?

Different Projects that have the primary goal of bringing value to Steem.

> If it means just more features to smartsteem and more "Steem is fine, we just have to believe together" posts

No. This post was created to keep the energy and positivity up on Steem. The 70% lay off is huge and should be taken seriously, but Steem is much more than Steemit. Don't you think it's important to act as a positive leader for the community?

Smartsteem will, of course, be maintained and kept on an innovative level. This project gives me the ability to work on projects which don't have a revenue stream and have the single goal of bringing value to Steem

For all of my current projects, check this out: https://therealwolf.me/projects

For future projects, follow me and watch out for posts :)

> Also, some could argue that bid bots have made this place the ghost town it is, I've noticed the change in my behavior since I started to sell votes. Probably about 80% drop in manual voting is the result, I wonder if the effect is common.

If it weren't for promotion services, I would have left Steem very early. Who wants to be on a platform where manual curation is flawed and the chance of being seen is based on the luck of having a stakeholder rewarding your post.

> Sorry for being a bad cheerleader, I only have little stake here. For the first time ever, I'm afraid Steem will be a total failure though. Seeing Ned's incompetence as a leader and now 70% layoffs despite huge ninja mine. If Steemit inc ceases to exist, which could happen, since Ned's talking about wanting to survive already, I wonder will Steem cease to exist with it? How decentralized are we really? I know there's very little blockchain development happening outside Steemit Inc, but reading how it literally takes millions to run their systems, should we all be powering down before it's too late?

I understand and I can sympathize. Fact is, words are worth nothing. So instead of me trying to explain everything, let me work on bringing value to Steem, before it's too late.

> Don't you think it's important to act as a positive leader for the community?

I mean this respectfully. That line bothers me. ACTING and DOING are two different things. I'm not singling you out, I know there are more, like you.

If I wanted your support, I'd have to purchase it. I get it. Maybe you look at us and see money instead of people. I don't know what you see.

You can ACT like a leader here, and say the right things, all you want. When will you be able to see the damage your services have done to this community? Specifically, I'm talking about the vote selling and bidbot. You're not the only one, and I know this, but I'm talking to you right now. How have you been able to maintain the ignorance it takes to NOT be able to see the problems voteselling and bidbots have caused? As someone who offers a service that is actively harming the community, for profit, how do you see yourself as a leader? Who are you leading?

I mean this respectfully

If you'd open your eyes and stop living in your bubble of Steemit 2016, you'd realize that I'm actually DOING a lot.

I don't want and need to be the leader for everyone. Those who find that my message resonates with them can follow me and those who don't, can do something else.

And you know - you're making a lot of assumptions against me. Just because voteselling & bid-bots don't fit in your world, doesn't give you the right to act as if I'm the profit-driven, unhuman and unemphatic IDGAF devil on Steem.

How about you actually read my posts? Do I write valuable and honest content, or not?!

Read the comments of this post, you're seeing a lot of people who find my post inspiring, who said that it gave them energy and removed their fear & uncertainty. Would they have seen it, without me promoting it? Probably not.

I see the problem of abuse of promotion-services and I'm in favour of implementing a downvote-pool. This would solve the problem of promotion abuse.

Every time I'm seeing one of your comments, it's full of sarcastic, negative energy. And I'm done arguing with someone like that.

If you want to ignore all the other flaws in the system, which gave their fair share on turning away users from Steem, (circle voting, unfair stake distribution, horrible content discovery, low quality of content, spammers) then do that. But don't expect for me to give you any more of my time.

And I mean this respectfully

I was truly hoping you wouldn't take my response and questions personally. I'm sorry that it comes across as sounding negative, that was not my intention and coming to you with respectful intentions was not sarcasm, I truly meant it but knew full well my questions might take you out of your comfort zone. I'm sorry for putting you on the spot.

> If you'd open your eyes and stop living in your bubble of Steemit 2016, you'd realize that I'm actually DOING a lot.

I've been here since 2016 but I do not live in a bubble for I have been here since 2016 meaning 2017 and now nearly all of 2018 exist as well. I'm fully capable of being able to see problems, regardless of what year it is. If it offends you that I've been here since then, I'm sorry.

One of the biggest problems I've faced since I've been here is the fact that when I come to these places to express myself, I'm consistently struck down and shunned by those who I'm attempting to speak to. It has become frustrating and some of that frustration has been visible in comments I've left around here and there. I am not ashamed of being frustrated, nor am I proud of how these discussions turn out.

> How about you actually read my posts? Do I write valuable and honest content, or not?!

I do. I recently started following you. I even took the time to leave a lighthearted comment in the form of a meme for a recent post you did asking for a meme.

> Every time I'm seeing one of your comments, it's full of sarcastic, negative energy. And I'm done arguing with someone like that.

I think I now know why you blew me off. The meme was a joke. I typically write humorous comments and have a lot of fun here. We don't get to see that so much on the trending page here, when I speak to anyone. I'm actually a humorist, most days, and an artist as well. Most visit my blog to have fun and smile. It's unfortunate that I can't seem to be that guy here, in this space.

I realize now, speaking to you was a bad idea, and I will stop.

Have a good day.

I respect and appreciate your comment. I guess we started on the wrong foot. I only want the best for Steem, if I could fix all of Steem's problem right now, making it as good as possible for User to be active here, then I would.

But there are multiple depths levels to it, including blockchain relevant coding changes requiring hardforks, which is difficult.

And I actually saw your meme, maybe that's why I took it personal as I thought we were over this topic. The last thing I want on a positive post, is someone questioning my ethics. Especially since I'm all in on Steem.

So, with that said: I apoligize for understanding your comment the wrong way and hope we can start over fresh.

> if I could fix all of Steem's problem right now, making it as good as possible for User to be active here, then I would.

So would I.

> Especially since I'm all in on Steem.

So am I.

> hope we can start over fresh.

Good idea.

If everyone, whatever role they play, from all walks of life, here, could meet on the same level, instead of working against each other, or thinking their way is somehow the only way or the better way, we'd be on to something. That's where I've always stood, even though it might not look like it on the surface.

There are things I'd like to say, but until the whole positive/negative everything is black or white; good or bad; up or down; here or there mentality is thrown out the window and replaced with something more realistic, those things cannot be said.

I'll see you around.

Silencing dissent is your answer to criticism?

This thought also came to my mind. It just seems so paradoxical.

There's no community involved at all when it comes to deciding what posts gets to trend on Steem.

Thank you for voicing this

Again, I appreciate you taking time to answer my lengthy post. Earns my respect for sure even if we might think differently on certain topics involving Steem.

> "Don't you think it's important to act as a positive leader for the community?"

You kind of answered your own question with "Fact is, words are worth nothing." - When I go to trending I'd rather just see some interesting content that community has upvoted through organic curation rather than "positive posts to read when the price is down". Well, I'd settle for just interesting content since bid bots dominate trending :) Imagine if Reddit was a publicly traded company and when the price of its stock plummets for a while, their trending would be filled with "feel good" posts suddenly. I know it would drive many users away and fast. I'd like this place to also serve people who don't actually have stake in here already. That's why I don't like bid bots, the normal end user gets the short end of the stick with them.

> If it weren't for promotion services, I would have left Steem very early. Who wants to be on a platform where manual curation is flawed and the chance of being seen is based on the luck of having a stakeholder rewarding your post.

Yes, the manual curation was flawed since many stakeholders chose self voting or voting circles instead of actual real curation. These people also happened to be ones with biggest stakes so it set a bad example for everyone. We need to offer a solution where passive investors can have their rewards without messing up the content discovery process, where real people vote on content that a) They actually like b) They think others will enjoy

I think the idea of dividing Steem Power to two camps, passive and active is one of the best ideas I've heard so far that could solve this huge problem.

Has bid bots improved curation? Who wants to be on platform where trending shows posts that just have paid the most? Isn't that just plain advertising? We could call it promotion yes, but there's no difference other than the term used or is there?

That's not the only negative effect bid bots have. I'm sure you've heard them all but most probably haven't seen all the cons. Top promoted posts set certain expectations for people, and when their own posts don't meet them, it makes many feel very negative vibes, the opposite you're trying to bolster with your post here and they'll just leave when they see the system inherently as unfair and broken. At this state buying votes is almost required to have any change of hitting top 20 trending, so we're requiring new users to pay to comment and post and then pay hundreds to have their post seen on trending. How attractive is that on its own? Yes, rewards are paid back but it's still an obstacle.

I'm not even going to bother listing more cons since this reply would turn into a book rather than a comment.

> let me work on bringing value to Steem, before it's too late.

I hope your new projects as big success as Smartsteem, keep up the good work. I hope you consider this input when it comes to deciding on what to improve next :)

It's true - I used to do quality content for this platform until I realized it was completely rigged - So I resorted to shit posting because it really doesn't matter for a little guy either way. The system literally makes you have to find other reasons to stay other than a chance at trending,or reward. Otherwise you feel like shit for putting in the work and not seeing anything come from it.

Painful truth that no one wants to say out loud, because it doesn't get upvotes. But here, have one from me. We need more real talk here

So, will this delay the SMT’s?

Can steem by shifted so that it runs on a decentralized infrastructure?? I have a bunch of old gaming computers ... I would set up a node to run the system ... tell me the truth you smart people out there!! Can we build it!?

Wir sind gekommen um zu bleiben und wir gehen nicht mehr weg. 💪

Posted using Partiko Android

Right on let's do this together
[IMAGE: https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmUeQxj9qccBKth2iRwGVdCZAcQuhcuTvC5MbzkojYfnag/image.png]

We are Steem: yes
The accounts who voted your post to trending aren't the people of steem. They are bots. Don't you think "we" would have brought this post to trending? Don't you think the community is strong enough to value good content? Maybe bots are one of the many problems steem seems to have.

When a level 31 account starts to lecture those who have been around... I find it funny.

to some extent, reputation is a reflection of the use of bid bots

In some cases, I agree.

What bearing does reputation (a metric perverted by vote selling) have to do with how long one has been here?

Most people pass 32 on their introduction post, before they know what a voting bot is. Nice job at getting a dig in about your pet peeve though.

You know me. ;)

But even an more of less estabished Steemian can get downvoted to oblivion by a whale having a bad day to the negs and we've both seen it.

Wouldn't it be better to engage the ideas versus the identity of the one presenting them anyway?

The person holding that account lost my respect by: A. Jumping in and forming opinions without any experience... Or... Is too weak to use his own account. Not someone I'm interested in exchanging ideas with.

I think it's an alt though, I'm curious to know who's the main 🤔

@wehmoen or @mkt

To me it seems a little that the people who have been here longer, think they are better than others. Don't take this offensively, I am just trying to discuss this and I don't hold any bad feelings against you or anyone.

I care deeply for Steem to keep on successing and imo that includes a lot of new people hopping on that train. Which means that we need a lot of new and unexperienced users and we shouldn't be mad if they express their opinions or try to discuss with the "bigger guys." This is how they learn more about Steemit. We shouldn't jump on them madly, but just open their eyes towards what's really happening or explaining our thoughts further more.

Maybe it's an alt, maybe it's a new account, but we should still be as great as we are and be kind to everyone possible. He really didnt offend anyone that bad to get mad. He just asked some questions to be answered.

Maybe it's just me that I am able to stay neutral on those cases and not get irritated, but you big guys shouldn't get mad at everyone who thinks differently or wants some answers. If you want positivity, you need to give positivity. ;)

Be kind!

Level 31 has not even done 2 posts. :) I think that's a little too early to feel you have formed an opinon.

But I do get your perception and think you make some good points. I am not at all offended by being challenged in a very reasonable manner, by someone who has obviously has a point to make and not a snide inuendo.

Yeah I get what you're saying, but for example. I joined Steemit in October 2017, but made the first post in January 2017. The three months were just to look around and get the "hang" of the place. I also know quite some people who aren't bloggers or content writers themselves, but those people should also be allowed to share their opinions via comments. Not everyone is great at writing articles. :D

All what I'm saying doesn't have to apply to that particular user which caused this topic atm. I'm just talking looking at the bigger picture.

Of course there is always a slight chance that someone is just trolling with a second account etc, but this shouldn't always be the first assumption. :D Or if it is, ignoring the comment of that account would be better than to jump on it.

Thank you for the kind response, but it is 100% an alt account. https://steemd.com/@edward.heath

Whats the problem with using alt accounts? Can you please answer to my reply here ? :)

HA HA!! YES! I found it ironic too.

How about you have the balls to write with your main-account instead of trying to hide behind an alt.

Especially, with such a disrespectful statement. There are many highly reputable Steemians who upvoted this post manually. And I pushed it to trending, as this message is of utmost importance. I didn't want Steemians to be scared or acting irrational, instead I wanted to bring positivity to Steem. I guess this is not something you like - positivity.

I talk about bots not about the other steemians. So you accuse me to be disrespectful against bots? Yeah. I second that for you. I still believe, especially after I saw that some highly reputable Steemians upvoted my comment, that bots are one of the large problems. And we can't save steem or steemit with positivity or kind words.

@therealwolf, you are an example for this community. I wish you the best of luck!

STEEM ON!

Posted using Partiko Android

You speak like a politician. Have you ever been in politics @therealwolf?

Thank you! I haven't but Steem feels sometimes very similar. :)

Every good investor will do every thing possible to keep his or her investment afloat especially if people have extra ordinarily buy into the invest. Capt.Ned has to cut down on current cost for running the steemit inc. This is a very good idea simple business skill warrants this. So lets believe steem will climb up the ladder again so that our investment will bring out divident. Kudos @therealwoif

I will stay on Steem even if STEEM = 0. 00$ (But I will have to stop my witness at current price).

Posted using Partiko Android

I'm doing my little part! We are Steem!

Sounds like we should consider to regulate the rewards like a global TOS for steemit. And more Abuse fighting support would be good too :D.

Harsh economics have taken a toll on Steemit Inc and others, such as witnesses, are struggling too. Don't users despair at the low Steem price, but many of us see a thriving community that still has great potential. It's only really suffering bec general confidence in crypto is low. It's up to us to bring in people who can help build the community. We need developers who will build exciting new dapps. There are massive opportunities as Steem can do things that other platforms cannot. It offers freedom, but also freedom to fail. How much do we want it to succeed?

My confidence was boosted at Steemfest. There was very little talk of the steem price there.

For every reason they (the upper rank like ceo ) must have their headache because of the bear market . If the marker still constant growing up , i think they will not layoff 70% of their worker.

Can you imagine what a huge different from 8 usd persteem to only 40 cent persteem. Its not only 100% downturn but it was more 2000% percent negative value.

What company on earth can really survive with that downturn. So ,change must be done . Its not because they want , but it because they have to do that to survive. For us , steemian and myself , only can put my trust on management to holding out until the crypto market will stabil again.

Steem on

Posted using Partiko iOS

Awesome man👍

Posted using Partiko Android

A video I made this morning addressing this! We are on the same page @therealwolf I believe Steemit Inc and this community will find a way to ride out the storm!

https://steemit.com/steemit/@joeparys/we-re-freezing-how-can-we-make-steemit-and-steem-better

https://steemit.com/steemit/@joeparys/we-re-freezing-how-can-we-make-steemit-and-steem-better

Go suck your dick jerrydumbfield no.2

He isn’t a true Jerry, hasn’t done a fangirling post about me!

Thank you so much for updating the current status... I'm voting for you as witness now.... I LOVE STEEM platform sooo much and believe it will survive and thrive!

Thank you so much for updating the current status... I'm voting for you as witness now.... I LOVE STEEM platform sooo much and believe it will survive and thrive! Just set you as my proxy mate!

well if it were not for the milkers the situation would be different.

Yeah I dont think so. Its all over but the crying. I recently explained this in a crypto conspiracy in another thread that can be found here.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@everittdmickey/6cpd7p-this-is
My comment is near the bottom of the thread. About 5 or 6 from the bottom.

@therealwolf, thank you so much for your loyalty, dedication, work, and your unconditional love for our @steemit platform.

Steemit is a great community, can be improved for a better future.

Success requires us to have courage to continue, that is what counts, hard work, perseverance, learning, continually educating ourselves, studying, and most of all doing what we love to do!

With positive thoughts and some transformations for a great and @steemit platform, I think will be unbreakable.

We are Steemians

Posted using Partiko Android

I could create that message - https://d.tube/#!/v/mynewlife/lgyook53

Fingers crossed we will keep the good content creators and investor as well as attracting more investors here - what has changed? Nothing apart from a post - move on as community is key. And you as a witness play an even more crucial role.

Good post ♥

> I personally will shift my completely focus as a Witness, Stakeholder, Steempreneur, Developer & Steemian effective immediately towards bringing value to Steem.

Does this mean you are no longer running bid bots?

I didn't know that I ran multiple bid-bots. But if you're asking if I'm going to stop Smartsteem.com, then the answer is obviously no.

I was just referring to that service as I don't know who runs the others. I just find it a bit odd that you don't see the contradiction in what you are saying here since bid bots are substantially responsible for the loss of interest among the userbase - but I don't expect you to agree.

> I was just referring to that service as I don't know who runs the others.

Exactly, you don't know about them, because most of them are anonymous/inactive. In contrast, I am not - which makes me an easy target for blame.

> I just find it a bit odd that you don't see the contradiction in what you are saying here since bid bots are substantially responsible for the loss of interest among the userbase - but I don't expect you to agree.

I agree. But circle-voting, horrible content discovery & low incentives to vote on others peoples content are also responsible. Don't you think?

The thing is, in my eyes, Steem is not a forum or just a social platform. It is the blockchain of opportunity and hopefully dApps. Which means, that I'm seeing some of these things with different eyes.

Do you think it's unfair that @steemmonsters are promoting some of their posts with promotion-services? Or do you think that this brings value to Steem by making more Steemians aware of @steemmonsters.

I fully agree that some people abuse promotion services and usually, in bad cases, we're blacklisting those users from Smartsteem. And in extreme cases, we're even un-voting.

Do you think that promotion services are somehow part of Steem? And would you rather have them in the hands of some anonymous guys, who don't care, or in my hands - who cares (maybe too much) about Steem and is always available via Discord/Slack/Steem.chat.

> Exactly, you don't know about them, because most of them are anonymous/inactive. In contrast, I am not - which makes me an easy target for blame.

I appreciate that and I am not blaming you for anything really - I am just highlighting something that I would like to hear your response to and to learn if maybe I can help to redirect your energy a bit :)

> I agree. But circle-voting, horrible content discovery & low incentives to vote on others peoples content are also responsible. Don't you think?

Yes, all of these are relevant. I am just commenting on your thread here because I see such a glaring contradiction in the message of the post and the actions in reality.

> The thing is, in my eyes, Steem is not a forum or just a social platform. It is the blockchain of opportunity and hopefully dApps. Which means, that I'm seeing some of these things with different eyes.

In order for opportunity to be real for users and not just something obviously and disturbingly fake like 'the american dream' and 'land of the 'free'" - the blockchain has to be able to fully support 'proof of brain', or at least not totally diminish it for short term financial gain of those who 'corner the market on opportunity'. Like healthcare, opportunity isn't actually a market, yet people have found ways to make it look like one.

I am here both as a financial experiment and because I value censorship free social media. I would use Steem even if money wasn't involved at all - but the issue is that people like me actually won't use Steem because they see the glaring unfairness of how it is right now. I actually know for sure that over 80% of people I know (many of whom aren't so much like me at all) won't use Steem for similar reasons.

> Do you think it's unfair that @steemmonsters are promoting some of their posts with promotion-services? Or do you think that this brings value to Steem by making more Steemians aware of @steemmonsters.

I think that great products get spoken about in social spaces such that they succeed. Products (and messages) that rely mostly on paid placement tend to be of a variety that the majority actually aren't so inspired by.. Hence they are paid. This is a generalisation, but having studied business and information systems to degree level and worked in numerous industries - including having studied the psychology and history of marketing, I maintain that generally if I need to pay to promote my 'thing' then it probably isn't as good as it could be. There's nothing wrong with marketing, but in an environment which is specifically designed to promote good 'things' for free - paying is a sign of failure somewhere.

I personally don't relate to steem monsters, it's not my thing and I don't really have any interest in it's success or failure, but if the community loves it then they should promote it to the top of the list.

We are really talking about the difference between 'proof of brain' and 'proof of wallet'. 'Proof of wallet' is the old world that many know needs to die.

> Do you think that promotion services are somehow part of Steem?

The ability to upvote is itself a promotion service. The original 'promotion' system that is built in to Steemit.com was always pathetic (I even considered leaving Steem when I first used it and realised how badly thought out it is) and I offered an overview for a redesign of it over 18 months ago - but like most suggestions here, it was ignored.

> And would you rather have them in the hands of some anonymous guys, who don't care, or in my hands - who cares (maybe too much) about Steem and is always available via Discord/Slack/Steem.chat.

Promotion on Steem was designed to be in the hands of everyone with Steem Power. The Terms of Service for Steemit.com actually state that bots are banned - but this has never been enforced. I think it's clear that both @ned and @dan want to take whatever steps possible to prevent the use of bots in the future since it breaks the basic design.

I think that as long as bots are being used it doesn't make a huge amount of difference who runs them, at least in terms of the effect it has on the public perception of Steem. I know that there are bot operators who are far less rational and perhaps less well intentioned than you are - but it still doesn't change my feeling about the belief that says that you are acting always for the best interests of Steem, while at the same time participating in the primary activity that harms Steem the most.

It would be great if we could all collectively re-envision Steem so that it is optimally attractive to new users and investors. I have, in the past, participated in an early social networking startup that attracted the biggest venture capital groups and I know how they basically think about investing in such projects. They are generally looking for projects that can gain mass adoption and there is no way that Steem can achieve that as long as people see such glaring exploitation of the system occurring.

I'm sure that if you weren't running your system, then someone else would just run something to replace yours - I just don't see much of a future for Steem as long as people are actively supporting the mechanisms that are destroying it. It's a lot like a drug addiction.

I'm definitely with you on this, completely agree with everything you mentioned in this post. It's about time that we come together as a community and start building the social network we want.

I've been powering up the past couple of days, I hope that I'll reach 5000SP over the next couple of weeks. That's an investment which will not be withdrawn for quite some time.

As far as my activities here go, they've not decreased in any way since the price started dropping. I definitely intend to keep it that way.

I sincerely hope that there are many more people who think the same way. Looking at the comments, it does seem like that's the case.

What a great confidence boost thanks a lot u hope everyone gets on board with this!

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Estupendo! mil gracias...

Your welcome no problem.

Posted using Partiko Android

Your welcome no problem.

Posted using Partiko Android

Great article @therealwolf!
Thanks for sharing this powerful message of unity!

@vimukthi wrote this article it is basically touching the same topic, maybe a bit more on the practical side, there is also a poll/vote so you can choose which of the different solution you as a user would/could prefer.

@vimukthi suggested that "Keyword based ads" would be the cheapest and fastest way to implement, ads.

I suggested hiring an "emergency elite sales team", no initial salary but very generous commissions for those who managed to close deals with potential advertiser?

This is just a couple of solutions to get a new revenue stream, fast, to solve these temporary financial difficulties...

Stay strong! And sincere condolences to the people who lost their jobs...

/ @friendly-fenix

And now I voted for you as a witness @therealwolf

Yes we are steem and even though the news were not appealing we should not fear and complain. We should take action, meet and create value so that we grow

Posted using Partiko Android

you are right although am new to steemit... I have seen the revolutionary change and effect it has had to the world .... I want to encourage as u help steemit grow from strenghth to strength ..... Steem on!!! 🤛

Thank you for your optimism! You are a true leader!

Posted using Partiko iOS

que tal! te agredecemos tu trabajo y esmero en esta plataforma y estoy de acuerdo en que tenemos que unirnos para que steemit no muera sino resurga con mucha mas fuerza por hay que estar todos con nuestras diferentes capacidades aportando para esta blockchain

I think there might be more of us who are on the same page, here.. I wrote an in-depth post about our current situation: The Sustainability of Steem - Is Freemium Broken?

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you are hooman :O Always wondered who are you haha Thanks for helping me when I was much smaller than today.

woohoo! This made my day

Steem will be sustainable when Bitcoin leaves this bear market

Hi @therealwolf. thanks for sharing this. I think Ned did his best to take this decision. At the end of the day business are business. I've invested some money on this too, so I'll try to find a way to help the steem network grow its value. I just worry about how long a bear market can go. In a worst case scenario, witnesses profits can be turned into losses due to a low steem price. I guess reducing "mining" costs will help in some way.

It seems there are many ideas out there to help steemit. I just wondering which are the most critical. Not an expert on blockchain, but I can bet that reducing infraestructure costs is one of them. if that's the case, focus should be on this matter.

Ya know, I'm starting to like you...

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I think it says we are number one :v

Such true words! I think we need to remember to stay active, post, upvote, etc more than ever. Thanks for the reminder and motivator!

It’s not the strongest who survives in this game.its the ones who can adapt to change.and more change.i believe change has come for steemit.it had to in order for it to reach its full and real potential .change had to happen for steemit to now have a chance to truly flourish.
That’s why I am still here.i had a dream about steemit once.i saw a turtle and a frog in that dream.
The meaning-
The frog-good luck.
The turtle-slow progress.
The total meaning.slow and steady wins the race.
I believe in that message and I BELIEVE IN STEEMIT 👍🏽 This is why I remain on steemit.❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
1:55am. A good change is here for those who are blessed by Almighty God himself.

[IMAGE: https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmbBmXtMxZ3kG2pMAPRKNajWnXYJogrL5zaspU5VnSJWeq/881CAE2C-5B9F-4146-B81B-92BC34C52DC9.jpeg]

Athena

thanks for your writing. we love you bro.....

Its sad, but "due to the harsh bear market (low Steem price)" in business one has to expect things like that could happen. We will all support #steemit no matter what, and i am a newbie here and of which has noticed a true value of steemit not just on value but family.

I did do a post on what i would think could bring the platform forward "Steemit & open, linked data"

https://steemit.com/steemit/@gibraltartoday/steemit-and-open-linked-data

Wonder what will happen with Smart Media Token. It seems this is the end. With the pressure of EOS, and competing social networks and such, it seems that moving to EOS is the future for most of developers and such. Is not like the BPs are swiming in money but it seems more sustainable at the moment and with more brain power right now than old little steemit.

Felicidades por este post, yo también pienso igual que tu... Por equivocación conocí a steemit en agosto y aunque todavía estoy empezando y cada día estoy aprendiendo cosas nuevas, cierto que pienso exactamente como tú referente a steemit.

Esta bajada de precio en todo el mundo cripto va a reforzar a steemit mucho más de lo que estaba.... por eso también pienso que "todavía nos queda steemit" por muchos años.

DIOS les bendiga!

Love the optimism man, this community is great. Just keep at it :)

Yes right we are steem and it time to take responsibility.

Great

indeed, i heard a thing here and there ...

that must have been unavoidable then but i dont see the ship sinking yet, as you say the steemchain is more than steemit, as long as the witness servers run it should keep breathing

sadly i could barely afford paying for my domain name in advance this year so its a bit of a paradox , until the price rises i doubt i could run a node myself

and btw ... there's more storm ahead :

https://youtu.be/TRYSxIYHS0w

you have to network for this, please be so kind as to spread the word

@therealwolf

(ye great work btw ... but i still feel a downloadable file with all the votes/voters on a bought vote would help a lot for personal statistics ;-)

it shows how little the fabled "investors" and mythical mystical whales care about the carnage they leave behind on real people with real lives making real money off of this futuristic sci-fi (almost 15 years old by now ?) planet Crypton thing.

they care not

so you're right, but its not one million plankton you need to keep floating

you need a few REAL brandnames, like Flixxo has coca-cola , has pepsi, has rayban, kenzo, nissan , paco-rabane, greenpeace and whatnot ALL SPONSORING their project

thats what steem needs, not strongarming, not blacklists

not another million plankton with no money to boot

all those major marketeers telling people to do it "the right way" should prove themselve and try to bring in at least ONE , if only one

major brandname WITH money
(or is that immoral or something because sacking 70% of the workforce because its the only way seems a high price to pay for high morals)

it must be one of the hardest decisions to make but it's unavoidable if you're the captain so i hope he's not on three day bender, that's the cost of doing business in an avalanche, hard decisions in order to keep going.

I'm personally not on a first-name basis with bill gates yet but maybe someone on whale-street upthere has a little company with a sales/marketing department doing cold calls all day ?

could try to get like one or more real investors over maybe ? could at least try

because the people down-here don't have the reach or the clout or the means, or maybe not even the inclination, i personally suck at marketing and handshake-day myself but if i had a company that works it would have people who do that for me , right ?

just ONE would be a lot of money, right ?

and money is what's needed

and ofcourse also :

https://youtu.be/0BTHoUMDYY8

나는 10 일 이상 동안 여기에 있었지만 나는이 장소가 훌륭하다고 정말로 말할 수있다. Steemians은 항상 도움이되고 환영합니다. 모두가 상호 작용하고 있습니다. 여기에 가입하면, 내가 속한 것처럼 보입니다. 그리고 나는 cryptocurrency에 대해 거의 알지 못해도 동료들과 연결되어 있다고 느꼈습니다. 이 플랫폼은 그대로 남아있을 것이고 그 힘은 투자자뿐만 아니라 모든 스팀 회원의 의지로도 발생하기 때문에 더 높아질 것입니다.
저는 Steemian이되어서 자랑 스럽습니다. 저는이 지역 사회를 돕기 위해 제 역할을 할 것입니다. 나는 이것을 잃고 싶지 않아. Steem On!

Great spirit and forward we go. Support.

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I offer my services as a developer. I would commit at least 8 hours per week. If anything like community development is going to be organised please make it visible as much as it can be. So anybody who is willing to contribute can be informed on time. Also I think it is good idea to organise STEEM blockchain solution for contribution, something like gitcoin but with STEEM. That would be great incentive for developers.

Actually I just realized that there is project which we could use to support Steem and Steemit development. It's Utopian. https://join.utopian.io/

Congratulations @therealwolf!
Your post was mentioned in the Steemit Hit Parade in the following categories:

• Comments - Ranked 2 with 190 comments
• Pending payout - Ranked 1 with $ 331,74

Thanks for your post. I've gone through several post on Ned's post published recently. Your post is really inspiring to me to stick on our path. Thanks again and hope for the better future, I'm sure good days not gone!

Wenn SIe und die anderen solche Reden schwingen, nach dem Motto ,es wäre noch nicht vorbei. Was ist, wenn die #Cryptoblase einfach platzt ?

Man things are looking slim for steem but I hope we pull through. Meanwhile I'm just buying more lol.
Anyways, i have an unrelated question I hope you can answer.

What happened to the option to convert sbd to steem? I'm not talking about the market. Along with the market there used to be an option to convert sbd to steem which took like 3 days if i remember correctly. If you know anything about what happened or when they scrapped it please let me know.

Thank you very much for you do. We are developing a Chinese community.And we will do our best for steem.

Posted using Partiko iOS

Please see my dpoll inspired by this post -- https://steemit.com/dpoll/@steemingmark/should-we-help-the-steem-community-and-get-dpoll-users-to-1000

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Hi @therealwolf,
I think you are right, we can put our bit ( as many have been doing ) to keep things going. Wish I had time left and resources to help more but I'm always trying my best looking for good steemians out there.
My support, Keep on!

We who form this community are in the obligation to save it each and every one of us give our best to make quality content part of the solution goes through our hands FORWARD STEEMIANS!

Hi @therealwolf, smartsteem is one of the best add-ons we have had on this platform. I have reserved my votes for whitelisted members. A post like this has my full support, no matter if I manually upvoted or it was performed automatically by smartsteem.

I stand with everyone who is truly passionate about helping this community grow. I know @crypto.piotr would also have agreed with me.

As a tech writer here for almost a year, this platform has given the chance to hone my writing skills as well as educate me about the blockchain and cryptocurrencies. New doors have opened for me, invited as a media partner for the Blockshow Asia 2018 conference, networking with like-minded people and getting to know real people in the blockchain industry.

As a decentralized platform, we have to realize that we cannot solely rely on Ned to be running the show. If he were to run the show like Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook, we will not be seeing the profits of this platform going back to the people who contributed here.

It is definitely the time for all of us here to take responsibility. It is in times of a bear market that we really see who are the strongest that will survive in this emerging tech industry. I will continue to stand firm and be unfazed by the bear markets, write and produce more high quality content on Steemit because I know it is worth it.

Thanks Timo!

- tysler

Hi @tysler

> As a decentralized platform, we have to realize that we cannot solely rely on Ned to be running the sho

You've nailed it.

Unfortunately, many users seem to depend on Ned and rely on him to much. Perhaps current situation will open our eyes, that we're trying to create decentralized platform where efforts should also be decentralized.

Hopefully going through those hard times will only strengthen this community (at least those who will still remain here).

ps.
Again I would like to thank @therealwolf for this post. What we need is more awareness and working together as a "decentralized team".

Truly yours
Piotr

I admire your dedication. The bear market has sapped the energy of most bloggers but I hope many will be inspired by this. Let's all work hand in hand to keep SteemIt afloat! Gambatte! ✊

This post has got extremely valuable comments. Most agree with your suggestions. I suggest you put together a team and start working on suggested solutions. I am for it and commit myself for any initiative that we will take.

Thank you @prameshtyagi, I'm working on a few things right now. Once they are structured I'll make an update, but I'll keep your proposal in mind.

I very much appreciate it.

Thnx @therealwolf

Bumps in the road, that's all. The community here is stronger than ever in my opinion. The price will not stay down forever.

Fakewolf you piece of whore

Very awesome, keep the positive vibes going

I don’t have a clue how old things were done but I have new ideas... I come with them.. ready... 💥

Posted using Partiko iOS

Thinking that any of us minions have any power to change anythinghere is sillly. This place is fucked

WOOWW good post brother. This in formation will be useful to me, it is very valuable. Many greetings from Venezuela

Hey, @therealwolf!

Thank you for your contribution to the crowd. We are the Steemit project dedicated to empowering The Wisdom of Crowds. You can find more about us on our official blog or whitepaper and you can support us by voting for our witness and joining our curation trail on Steemauto . We are also inviting you to join Crowdmind Discord server. Don't forget to use the #crowdmind hashtag and happy crowdsourcing!

[IMAGE: https://i.imgur.com/RCtwFLg.png]

Additional comment:When we started this project, we were not so sure that people here recognize crowdsourcing in its essence, or that they would believe in that unique synergy we call the Wisdom of Crowds. This is valuable post and discussion. We will read it in detail, try to learn from it and upvote as many good answers we can.

Edit: We resteemed and voted for the witness!

This ship is sinking fast

Good to hear, we are living in a day and age when automation is in fact more efficient than the human form and the human needs to adapt to the changing environment.

Hi @therealwolf

Indeed this is a crucial time for all of us, who invested our resources (money, time, effort) into this platform and it's great to see that so many of us are trying our best to support @ned and his efforts. That only proves how strong this community is.

Thank you @therealwolf for being part of this platform and for not abandoning it in current difficult times.

RESPECT.

Yours
Piotr

I think STEEM has a bright future!!

Hi
I sent 10 steem to promotion yesterday,,spent about 4 steem but the money what wasn't used didn't get returned to my account,,is there an issue at the moment ?
Thank s 😁

Muy buen trabajo!

Do you suck ned's cock every single night?

Your post is great. I really care about Steem as many here in this space. But we should be more realist about that. Just care about and don't put ideas to work or try to show up something new... I guess that this isn't enought. So, Who do you think if we have ads on SteemIt? I think that we should have that... the Korean SteemIt has that! Why the SteemIt! don't have that?

I love your service @smartsteem yet in the past few times I've purchased upvotes return was around 100% not the 110% you promise on smartsteem, how is this possible? Normally it works perfect :)

Hi, i have a problem with smartsteem, yesterday mi upvote pay 0.0003 steem, today, with same setting (vote if your voting power is more than 85% and 0% on donate percentage) my upvote is sold with 0.00001 steem approximally, there is a problem with bot. Thanks in advance

> ## This is not the end. We are strong enough. We are Steemians!

>This might be too daring of me to say, but I know for a fact, there are plenty of people on Steem who share my passion for this blockchain.

Yes! I've recently been lucky to be selected to @smartsteem's initiative to support and curate fellow Steemians and it really makes you feel that you're not alone. I even believed that you've given Steemians another reason to stay and embrace the community.

With this initiative, I could think that others will want to be curated and will better their works which in return could uplift the value in the community and the value of Steem.

@therealwolf oh what a thing to have done. Authors like me are very grateful to this.