Are rewards antithetical to political debate on microblogging platforms? Can we have political debates at LeoThreads?
Cover image made using SVG, except for ballot/poll graphic made using Excel 2003. Edits made using MS Paint.
Political debates and discussions take place on Hive blockchain in long form blogs across communities and tribes. Twitter is notorious for political debates (more like "debates"). LeoThreads models itself after Twitter, so it makes sense that political debates and discussions make their way to the latest microblogging platform on Hive.
A Good Question
@milaan had asked this question at LeoThreads regarding political debate within an environment of rewards-based tokenized social media:
@milaan
1h (2023-03-22 12:54:51 PM)
Do U think tokenized social media(reward-based) is antithetical to political debate in the microblogging platforms?
- Free thinking could be overpowered by incentives
- Political correctness could be there to shield ideological inclination
(Timestamp added)
If the concern is censorship resistance, LeoThreads has that covered by virtue of being a platform based on Hive blockchain.
However, the concern here is rewards-based tokenized social media. Emphasis on the "rewards" part of that. This ties into incentives for engaging in political debate at LeoThreads, 240 characters at a time.
From a rewards or incentives perspective, do I think that rewards-based tokenized social media is antithetical to political debate on microblogging platforms? I say no. Or, to put it another way, it's no more antithetical than engaging in political debate on long form social media.
Points To Consider
1️⃣ Some Positions Are More Popular Than Others
This is a given. It's even more noteworthy when rewards enter the picture.
For a political position which finds agreement with more people there is a greater chance of earning upvotes than not. A few of those upvotes may even come from Hivers with a large stake.
2️⃣ One Downvote Can Wipe Out All Upvotes Earned
There is always the chance that someone may be so offended by the content of a post that the post gets a downvote. Even if the chance of getting a downvote is 100%, within that context there is always the chance that the downvote comes from a whale. Downvote wars used to be a thing, and they got so out of control that 🤬Blurt🤬 social media was forked into existence.
3️⃣ Hivers with Higher Stake May Have Differing Opinions from Hivers with Lower Stake
In any large group, cliques and subgroups form. Like-minded people tend to gather. It happens along many lines: geography, language, interest, tribe, real-life age, account age. It also happens with stake. Individuals are unique, but groups take on a character all their own.
Many of those with large stake are also long-time account holders; when it comes to Hive, they tend to see things more or less the same way. Even if they come to dominate a discussion, that's not the same as saying "Discuss this topic, or else...." If they want to control a discussion, they start with posts of their own.
4️⃣ We Aren't Entitled to Upvotes, and No One Is Obligated To Upvote
Even if we know for a fact that certain Hivers share the posiiton taken in a post, there is no guarantee that any of those Hivers will upvote the post. It could be for reasons ranging from lack of interest to lack of access to the Internet to depleted voting power.
With greater activity at LeoThreads each passing day, it's possible that the discussion was missed. A 24-hour block of threads which used to take 2 hours to review now takes 3, 4, or more hours to review. If only 2 hours can be spared for that review, some threads and discussions will be missed altogether.
We can't control the upvotes we get, and we can't control the content people consume. We can only control the content we produce and the engagement we give to our fellow Hivers.
5️⃣ Thread Earnings Aren't Like Blog Earnings
By now LeoThreaders know that threads are simply comments made within a hidden post. Even if we upvote using 100% voting power, the upvote doesn't earn as much as a long form blog post. That's why comments can outnumber blog posts by at least 20 to 1, and they are valued accordingly.
A 100% whale upvote on a thread is great, but a 100% upvote by the same whale on a blog post can make one's day or week.
The incentivization isn't the same on LeoThreads as it would be for a long form blog post.
Discuss without Fear or Favor
LeoThreads is being modeled after Twitter. The Web 2.0 microblogging platform is notorious for the political disscusions taking place there. LeoThreads bills itself as "Crypto Twitter," although it allows discussions of nearly all topics (whatever doesn't land one in jail).
If the other microblogging platform can have political debates taking place 280 characters at a time, LeoThreads can have them 240 characters at a time. Their problem is algorithmic review of content to be viewed widely or narrowly. Our problem is incentivization of positions taken for threads produced.
Even if the incentivization is a problem as described earlier, that doesn't mean things will turn out that way. Time is limited, yet activity grows at LeoThreads both because of active users and because of their output.
Regardless of what positions we want to promote in a thread, we should feel free to post them. Regardless of the risk of receiving that killer downvote, we thread away anyway. Regardless of how high stake holders align themselves regarding certain topics, we should publish threads without fear or favor.
Just My Two Sats
At one time, the Internet was a great place to have political debates and discussions, especially in the time before Web2 social media. The best known Web2 platform for this activity ended up being-- of all things-- Twitter. Who would want to carry on these discussions 140 characters (or 280 characters) at a time? Yet that's exactly what happened.
LeoThreads bills itself as "Crypto Twitter," and that includes political debates and discussions 240 characters at a time.
Unlike at the other platform, LeoThreads is a tokenized microblogging social media platform which offers rewards for both threaders and upvoters. This adds an extra layer of consideration to thread content: will discussions be guided by incentives given by some threaders?
Not necessarily, and for any number of reasons. Incentives at the microblogging level don't have the same power as the same incentives on a long form blog post. With more active users over weeks and months, time itself becomes a limiting factor in how the incentives are distributed or collected.
Rewards and posting incentives are a concern at the threading level. Even so, that doesn't mean they defeat the purpose of political debates and discussions at LeoThreads. This is why I say that rewards-based tokenized social media is not antithetical to political debate on microblogging platforms.
For anyone who believes that conversations regarding political topics get out of control on a regular basis at LeoThreads, there is always 🤬Blurt🤬 tokenized social media.
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