Running out of Steam

Steam, not Steem - though, I would always like more Steem in my wallet.

I am getting ill I think, because my energy levels are shot and today was a struggle through the training session. I am hoping that a little sleep will help for tomorrow, but tonight my clients have organized to take me out to dinner, which means it is a bit of a right-off night. Not because of the drinking, but I was hoping to have more of a walk around as the weather is great, but it will have to wait until tomorrow and I will keep my fingers crossed it'll hold.

Conditions change though, weather conditions, political conditions, economic conditions, personal conditions. Everything is always in a constant state of flux and when the conditions are good, it is hard to accept when the conditions turn less favorable.

I think this is what has happened on Steem where some people have had favorable conditions for so long, they expect that this is a solid state, things can't change. What many don't consider is that while the conditions are good for some, they might not be good for others, even if it is the majority of others.

For example, there are people complaining about getting downvoted for bidbot use without considering that even at the height, those bidbots were only delivering a couple of percent of all votes on the platform, yet were voting with around 40% of all stake. That isn't great conditions for most people, but for the majority of buyers, they wouldn't have got votes otherwise, and definitely not to the amounts that they were boosted. This is the same for the vote trading circles where guaranteed votes on low effort content led to comfortable conditions, for a few.

Conditions have changed however and the platform is finding a new normal, but even the normal that is developing is going to change over time, so don't get too comfortable. Acclimatization happens fast for humans though as we are pretty adaptive to our environment which gives us the advantage of being able to survive under a wide range of conditions, but once comfortable, we don't want to move again.

One of the largest hurdles for me as a software trainer is actually teaching usage, it is the change management process required to get end users to accept the change in software. I doesn't really matter what benefits the new software will have, how much time and effort it will save them - comfortable people just don't like new.

So, they resist. This is of course more pronounced when there is a sense of loss involved like there is on Steem for vote buyers and vote traders as the conditions shift to no longer support their position. That means that as the move happens, their comfortable position becomes a pain position and while it hurts, they still want things to return to where they have an advantage, even if that is a total cost to the the rest of the community and value of the platform.

Kings of peasants.

I don't believe there is such a thing as a good king, especially ones with crowns, but I think if there was they would have to consider the state of their kingdom as an indicator over the quality of their ruling. If the state is not improving toward a healthy environment, even if ones own position is ok, the ruling sucks.

I think that over the last few months the conditions of Steem have improved, but it is thanks to the people who have embraced and worked with the changes in conditions. While 2+ years of bidbot bullshit exacted a heavy toll, even most of those who benefited heavily from the conditions have changed toward a slightly better maximization model. Many more are manually curating, supporting contributors and looking a little longer than the 7-day payout window.

These changes have brought some new challenges also, but all in all, the platform is looking better and consistently improving as more people come into the fold. Obviously, the toughest holdouts are the ones who were happy with the previous conditions and benefited heavily, even though it was a burden on the rest of the community that enabled them to benefit at all.

One of the funny things is that without the rest of the community chumps that worked to keep the platform running for the last years by not being dicks, the people who abused it wouldn't have had a place to hang their hat and STEEM would be worth precisely zero. It is the same for all those laughing at all those who didn't sell during the highs, because if they had, very few people would have realized anywhere near the price they did, especially if Steemit Inc dumped a few million STEEM onto the market at once.

It is better that they are selling cheap now because it means that people are buying at the bottom and that many will realize a profit much sooner than if they had bought at the top and have to wait for Steem to climb. People buying at the lows can be happy much sooner than those buying at the highs and, as it climbs they will increasingly become part of the community, rather than those who increasingly fade away as the price falls.

Activity is price sensitive, as are signups, comments, spam (not much of a problem with Resource Credits) and general feelings about the platform. While many might be negative, a large enough bump in price changes tunes, especially when the benefits of holding Steem are realised.

Conditions will change for better and worse, but til death does the chain run.

Taraz [ a Steem original ]