I Have A Confession...And A Promise!
Joining HIVE and learning all about the dynamics of this blockchain has been...An adventure!
One of the 'battles' over the years has been the debates about...Self-votes.
On one side of the coin, people have no issue with it. It's decentralized, your votes, you can do with it as you wish. This was the side of the coin I have been on since day one of my journey on HIVE.
I mean, I invested my own money into this, why shouldn't I be able to vote for myself right?
The other side of the coin, I never quite understood....
People screaming rewards pool abuse on the previous blockchain, folks seemed to really get upset about it. I never understood why...If we are saying it's decentralized and it's your Hive Power...Why shouldn't we be voting our own content?
And then...
A combination of things happened this past week that made me look into exactly why going forward, I will no longer self-vote my own content.
Have you ever noticed some of these large accounts on HIVE?
Usually whales, but not always...Plenty of Orcas that create zero content...Literally, they barely even make comments...But then you look at the rewards they are pulling in...Daily!
Why is that?
The beauty of the HIVE blockchain....The 50 / 50 split between creators and curators!
And then to cement this revelation I had, this popped into my feed...
A remarkable post by @tarazkp
I started reading this and it was like...Lightbulbs started to go off in my head.
Almost 3 years of being on the blockchain and I finally 'GOT' why curation can not only be rewarding but can help HIVE grow to extreme levels!
Here's what I finally understood about my journey on HIVE....
I tell the world how great this community is, and how we have the best engagement on any social media blockchain....
But then I go around and use the rewards I could support others with..On my own posts? Instead of focusing on rewarding the amazing creators here...And these days, it almost seems like it's more rewarding to curate, rather than self-vote!
Hey look, I'm not saying I'm taking a back seat to stop writing and doing videos...I love this stuff...
But I can take my little voting power that I have...And focus on others!
That is the key for me...And in the process, thanks to the examples from some of the silent whales around HIVE, I now see how it actually benefits me...To help others with my votes!
I don't fault a single person for voting their own content...Heck I've been doing it since December 2017. It's your crypto, do whatever you want with it.
But for me...I'm done!
It's now time for me to use my little voting power and focus on the members of the CTP Swarm and the amazing creators and community here on HIVE...That's my focus now.
You know what is so amazing about this blockchain...
Even after almost 3 years into this place, I'm learning new things each and everyday from all of you!
Thank you for adding to my journey :)
We've got this crazy idea...To mix the blockchain with the action takers in affiliate marketing...
=> And It's Working!
Come check out the 'Swarm of ClickTrackProfit!
That's a good policy going forward. I never understood why there was a self vote option as it opens up so much abuse. Now I don't really care about noobs doing it as its so hard to grow but seeing whales at it drove me mad. They should be showing leadership to everybody else.
The 50 50 makes it less important than before and I try to vote the little guys as much as possible. I don't care about maxing the curation rewards. It's more important to engage smaller accounts.
Actually whales would be more motivated to do so (it a big fat payment).
They do not do it because big self vote seeks attention and then a trail of downvote start wiping out rewards to zero.
I think that's so important, for the smaller accounts to feel like there is a future here.
I admit, I don't do a good enough job of that...Need to step up my game!
Hello Jon, thank you again for providing value in the content that you post! I am truly blessed to call you, "Friend".
Thank you sir, and thanks very much for the comments!! Likewise!
Excellent post Jon,
I must admit I have not been into the Self voting, for some reason I felt like I was conning myself , lol
But yes I would rather use my voting power for the posts that I think are more deserving, I want to support other on this platform and maximise what I can offer
Yeah man, and it took me a while to understand that...I should have been much more generous.
I have gone back and forth on the issue. After reading this I am going to stop as well. thanks for the post. Lets go help somepeople out.
Awesome! Yeah I have nothing against anyone that does, but I just feel like I can help a lot more people out going forward using my VP like this :)
I have not knowingly self voted, but occasionally realised that I did vote for myself. I totally agree that most of my time spent here is curating, but would like to post more often as well. I know there are wonderful people here who follow me and would vote on my content and that is probably why I am so nervous about what I post when I post, I want it to be worth their time.
Oh man, you create some epic stuff. As much as I didn't understand it, I loved your PI content.
I'm a tech idiot, so it wasn't that you werent clear about it, I just have no idea what I'm doing LOLOL
Man that pay by @tarazkp is a gem. Glad you referenced it, since I would’ve missed it otherwise.
Absolutely loved it. Changed so much on how I viewed my own journey here.
Yeah, it made me more committed to post about what I like, rather than focus on the upvotes.
I have figured if I couldn't get others to vote for me, I shouldn't either.
lol I mean, again I have no issue if people do it..But I just think my votes can be better served.
Great post and decision Jon, when I started making daily posts 1.5 years ago I selfvoted a lot in the beginning, and that was because I did not know how it worked really, but soon I got it and stopped and I have not been doing it since, keep up your awesome work.
Yeah it took me a while LOL But I finally 'got it' when it came to all this self voting and curation stuff...Slowly I'm learning LOL
Excellent post here friend
I will say we are on the same side
And since I discovered the magic behind curating, i have love curation more
Oh for sure...As sad as it is, i finally 'understood' curating over the past few months...Now I'm hooked!
love it Jon, I never really up voted my own content. cause I want true love sent not just self love. That and I never really saw the benefit of up voting myself.
Yeah I agree...I'd rather upvote you guys in CTP anyways ;)
Interesting that you arrived at this conclusion after 3 years. 😁 Thank you for introducing CPT swarm and thank you for the support on my blog.
Thank you for the comments :) Yeah I'm most definitely not the swiftest person you'll meet LOL
Actually John I differ with you. Self-vote and Curation earning are 2 very different scenario.
Self vote is always considered as abuse and I think most minnows self vote due to frustration. Thriving on curation earning will be a different ball game and it really require to be a dolphin (own + delegated) to get some nice APR.
I think you will find this post as nice read though it is not related to any way to self vote and curation.
Appreciated.
Yeah I was always of the mindset that 'your vote, your choice'...But honestly, I think if I say I love HIVE and wanna see it grow, I'd much rather focus on supporting others long term.
Great post and info as usual.
I did vote my own content once, but that was early on and I just wanted to see if I could do it cause I didn't know at that time. But I feel like what's the point really in voting your own work. Besides you said it, why use your votes on your own when you can use it to support others.
100%
Yup, that's my mentality going forward for sure :)
Thanks for the comments!!
Early days, i think i used it once, but it was harmless as that moment i did not have any CTP power.
But i agree with you, self - voting should not be used.
Though its really tempting :-)
LOL Yeah it's there and people will always be on two sides of the coin when it comes to it.
I never fault anyone for doing so.
You and the whales you talked about make a great argument against self-votes. I have not decided what I will do in this respect. So for I have been voting for my own posts but I may stop in favor of more voting power for others.
You have been included in today's "I Am Engaged" challenge which I will post in a few minutes. Watch for it @slackerman
Thanks man. It's a habit I was stuck in for sure. Didn't think much of it until last week!