Grab some tasty snacks and buckle up; this is going to be fun.
I've been away from the keyboard for a week as I was visiting a friend on vacation. The break gave me a fantastic opportunity to self-reflect and consider where I'm currently positioned in life.
I will unpack this in another post because I think it's valuable for others to read.
This post is going to be something else entirely.
But before we get into that, I want to talk about myself and Equanimity briefly. Since the WOTW has started, I've continuously published my take about the word. I love the opportunity to test myself and my thinking.
I didn't make a post last week, but I had my own experience with Equanimity while I was away on my mini-vacation.
I planned to catch up with a lot of comments and the WOTW post grading while I was on my 10-hour bus journey. This didn't happen because there was no power outlet for the laptop. Some minor stresses found their way into the beginning of my break. It wasn't good because I wanted to disconnect and detach from this world during my week away.
Luckily, I meditated on this after reading some WOTW posts (especially @mineopoly's about the sea turtles), instead of stressing myself out, and I reached out to @scholaris to help with the grading. This took so much pressure off and allowed me to enjoy the vacation to the max while also keeping the schedule for WOTW on track.
And now here we are with today's post...
Below is an album I listen to every now and then. I think it encapsulates the word Ego. I've decided to set a goal for myself in relation to the album and artist.
If we manage to separate Proof Of Brain from HIVE (pipedream, I know), I'm going to make it my mission to get Oliver Tree on POB.
He's an artist who says what the fuck is up and flaunts his brain and talents to the fullest. I was hoping you could have a listen after you've had a read; let me know what you think.
As you can see from the #pob-wotw tag, this is a post about Ego for the Word of the Week. I'm pretty fond of incorporating a practical approach in my WOTW posts (Atmosphere and Paradox), and this write up will be another example.
I'm expecting this to be reasonably long, so I apologise in advance to @onealfa because as he has stated in this comment, long posts aren't his cup of tea.
Oh yeah, I tagged the "big dog" already, but don't worry; that is because I planned to make this post about him.
I will put my ego on the line with this publication and my reputation. I touched on "jungle justice" and mob mentality in a previous post, and I've been cautious about how I utilise the crystal clear transparency on the blockchain to point out others behaviours.
Please keep this in mind and read into that post I've shared because it is vital when digesting this "content" for yourself.
I decided to poke the bear while I was travelling back home yesterday. I'd been following along to a back and forth between @phusionphil and @onealfa over the previous days (phusionphil downvoted onealfa and onealfa retaliated with "considerable force") and an idea popped in my mind (here is the comment that sparked the idea).
I hope this demonstrates multiple examples of the ego doing its thing.
I plan to downvote @onealfa on Friday (not sure if he'll post, but it will probably be this comment where he says he "feels good" about owning 7% of the POB tokens in circulation), in which I'll attach a comment saying that "I've downvoted this because I don't like the message shared and I disagree with anyone using their POB to encourage this frame of mind".
I guess that this will be seen as a "call to war" and he will smile softly and think "oh, you just fucked up bwoi, thanks for giving me the fuel to start a downvote campaign on all your content".
Fortunately for me, I don't give two fucks about the rewards I may or may not get. That's a lie. I care about the rewards I get because they determine how much support I can provide to others.
Since I haven't posted all week, the only post available to downvote will be the Ego WOTW post. It'll be on the fifth day of its payout, and it'll be the perfect mark.
This is brilliant. Not only is it poetic, but it's also a post that receives upvotes because people want to support those on the platform that are taking part in the contest, further improving the platforms content, engagement, and distribution.
Rational thinking in this instance would tell @onealfa that;
If you downvote this, you are saying that you disagree with the benefits this post provides
If you downvote this, you are saying that you disagree with broader distribution and supporting those involved on the platform
If you downvote this, you are reacting to something you haven't thought through
My ego is present and exercising right now as I type this all out. I am optimistic in my thinking that @onealfa is this predictable, and he will do this exactly as I've described.
I'm manipulative here. I'm somewhat sociopathic. I'm playing with someone's emotions and putting myself into a sketchy position because I believe it's the right thing to do (how egotistical and self-absorbed is that). I fully expect the karmic forces will work their magic on me, and I will eat whatever comes my way.
I don't plan to edit before this sentence on Saturday when I post it (except for adding the links). Here are a couple of screenshots with the date and time showing that this is true.
Well... I look like a proper cunt.
It looks like I underestimated @onealfa's intelligence. Maybe I gave a reason to not downvote because of the reply I made to the comment I downvoted.
This was always the risk, and it's a glaring example of how the ego can lead you into troubled waters if you don't separate yourself and consider your actions and thought process carefully (I thought I did, but even so, my intelligence and understanding were lacking).
I still expect @onealfa to downvote this post because I have the word 'fuck' in the title. He 100% downvoted @barder102's post recently because it had the dreaded 'F' word front and center.
(I've added the #lols tag to this post because it has "fuck" in the title, for exposure to some right good cunts, and because I'd say with confidence that the post is hilarious for multiple factors, but mostly because of my own idiocy)
Never mind. The text below was also drafted on Thursday, but I didn't think I'd need to screenshot that. You'll have to take my word for it.
@onealfa and I go way back. Let's see how well my memory serves me.
I first poked the bear within his first week (or so) here on POB. This post aptly named "Cojones Active" was when I called him out for some self votes he made. He didn't respond, but he removed the self-votes, and I felt a sense of relief... "alright, this guy has some sense about him, I appreciate that."
A little while after this, I dropped a message to @onealfa on discord after seeing a message made by him about reaching some position on the richlist.
It was a bit of a jab at his intelligence, but afterwards, he mentioned that he is happy to be paranoid, and I'd said I was joking on for the most part and that I thought he could handle it. I felt like we had found common ground; I have also had issues in the past with paranoia (a story for another day, I did touch on it here though).
I was following along with @onealfa now quite regularly (nothing obsessive, just checking his votes and reading his old but relatively recent posts). Some things alarmed me, and instead of making another post, I decided to drop @onealfa a comment in the official discord about my thoughts on his voting habits.
I didn't get any reply from @onealfa, but @trumpman got into a discussion with me and shone some light on how @onealfa has done so much for LEO and how he's got some stick from others in the past. Fair play, admirable; I didn't have much more to say, just a shame onealfa didn't respond. We also spoke about the market activity and how @onealfa was partially propping up the price of POB alongside @richardcrill.
I published this about the burn posts and token burning on POB. This post came about because I noticed that @onealfa was consistently 100% voting the burn posts by @madstacks. My brain got thinking about the platform's token distribution and how @onealfa benefited from focusing this percentage of his votes.
I thought @onealfa could see the merit behind my thoughts because he 100% upvoted the post, but alas, this was brief as the upvote was removed by him the following day.
From this point, I'd say that I had my suspicions that @onealfa didn't give a fuck about the people trying to build up POB. He was just concerned about his wallet (this was my opinion, this is not to say it is true).
Around this time, I noticed a couple of posts by @scooter77. His first post was about delegations and who had been given stake from @proofofbrainio. In this post, @onealfa raised a comment about "who is @proofofbrainio" and urged for more transparency.
I found that rich and dropped a comment myself (I felt guilty about this as alfa and I were still getting friendly, and I hadn't dug deeper into his 5-year history on STEEM/HIVE).
The second post by @scooter77 was about a curation effort involving delegations from @proofofbrainio to a separate account managed by three POB members. I raised my concerns in a reply, but I also replied to @onealfa's comment which said, "All seems fine to me". I found that lacking in intelligence given his self-proclaimed issues with paranoia and security consciousness.
I've constantly dropped tags to @onealfa in my posts and been humourous and light-hearted for the most part. I don't think he's a bad guy per se; he just maybe has a bit of a chip on his shoulder and has spent too much time in the LEO echo chamber. I'll not bother to share these as I don't see the relevance any more than just saying that "yes, maybe I've been a bit of a pest".
So what? He's high up on the HIVE DPoS ladder and has made no statements about his motives for the platform. Am I in the wrong here trying to find out more information? My methods haven't been the most productive, I'll admit, but I have freedom of speech and expression? Do I not?
At this point, we approach the main reasoning behind making this post.
Remember that comment I highlighted earlier where @onealfa says he felt good about owning 7% of the total circulating POB? Well, he made this comment to @amr008 last week too.
I am only assuming here, and I have no idea who the "authorities" are, but I'm suspecting that I am the "wannabe whale" (could have just asked me, I've said here that I have no desire to be a whale) since it's in the context of me calling him out for circle-jerking, which I did on discord.
Instead of making a post about this, I just sent @onealfa a direct message on discord (for his benefit, I didn't see the need to drum up my concerns about his dictatorial mindset just off the back of this). I didn't get a reply, surprise surprise.
Here is where my concerns are.
If we disagree with @onealfa or downvote because we disagree with his content rewards, point of view, or the actions he takes, are we at his mercy since he's the 2nd largest stakeholder gunning for #1?
Does this sound like a healthy platform to you? If I had money to invest (I'm broke, so maybe my perspective is limited), would I buy into a platform that has this kind of mindset in the driving seat?
I'm still waiting for someone to do a detailed statistical analysis of @onealfa's votes, but I've been following along with them myself now and then, so here is my vague opinion. I can confidently say that a large portion of outgoing votes goes directly to LEO authors who have no true vested interests in the POB platform.
Now, is that circle-jerking? Maybe not in the sense that some people with minimal intelligence may define it, but it's directed and further adds fuel to this mindset that's insidiously cooking before everyone's eyes. Read between the lines.
"If you look closer to my voting patterns, you may notice that do avoid upvoting POB whales, which ( many of them) are already heavily involved in some certain voting "circles" . I do see much more pronounced such "circles" here on POB, compared to what I see on LeoFinance ( another place where I do exclusively 100% manual curations)" courtesy of the big dog
After following along with @onealfa's votes for a few weeks now, the names which pop up the most frequently are: @priyanarc @lbi-token @taskmaster4450 @madstacks @edicted @nirvana3003 @belemo @themarkymark @acesontop @funnel @trumpman @clixmoney @wiseagent (probably more, but there is enough to notice here)
If someone has the bollocks to do a detailed full vote analysis of myself and @onealfa side by side since the start of POB, I'll send you a 1000 POB delegation until 1st of September 2021.
Just have a little look back during the past week, https://hivestats.io/@onealfa.pob, (better yet, for more detail and so can look further back, visit https://hiveblocks.com/@onealfa.pob) and then read [this comment](recent comment to POB) and ask me if I'm completely missing something here?
Plus, how about this for shady. Please tell me what this means to you.
Phew, this post is starting to reek.
I'm not sure what this is all going to achieve.
If anything, it's a timebomb directed straight towards the culture of our tribe. I've said in another post that my efforts here won't be disrupted (even if downvotes are directed at me from now until the end of time). I see this as a learning opportunity, and if POB fails, I'll migrate somewhere else.
The only person I'm against in this race is myself.
If anyone wants to take my words personally or believes that I'm doing this for any other reason than to look out for the platform (this can be seen as protecting my investment? @onealfa, I'm sure you can at least sympathise with that), knock yourself out. Let me know when the rent is due.
Big picture thinking people.
If you are prepared to get bent over and fed what you get, you may as well print out a copy of your crypto keys and send them in a cute little envelope to your local government now.
Don't forget to write your post for this week's POB Word of the Week!
There is 800 POB (delegations) up for grabs.