I am seeing a number of posts where the number of upvotes is far greater than the view by more than 3:1, though I am sure there are worst ratios. What I get out of this is that some of you are just upvoting without even viewing the post which to me seems misplaced. And how bots play into this, I do not know, though my opinion of bots raises the question as to whether this is a decentralized human community or a bot-driven community? As you may have guessed I am not a complete fan of bots, though I am open to them being used in some applications though I am not sure how. If you do not view the post and upvote it, how do you know what you are upvoting, or is this just another tit for tat mentality. I voted for your post now you vote for mine. I personally do not want to play that game and while I am sure it will cost me in votes, I don't want your upvote if you re expecting me to upvote you regardless of content.
I like Steemit a lot and strive to produce quality posts as I want to build a quality community. It seems to me that bots have a degree of power that reminds me of corporate mass media that ensures only certain messages get through. I know a lot of people use bots and I understand the temptation. Some say that because others are doing it, they do it too. This mentality sort of reminds me of how and why the world is in such a disarray as it is. An argument of arms developers is, if we do not do it, someone else will and so the world spends far too much money on weapons and war and not enough on peace and freedom. So, I guess the question is to you folk is; are you trying to build the community or dominate the community?
Too many people, it seems to me, are here not to contribute to Steemit and building an online community, but are here to profit from Steemit. I see it in the lazy posts that consist of just a few links, I see it in the use of bots, I see it when you ask me to follow you just because you followed me or when you say I upvote you now you upvote me. These things do not contribute to making Steemit better over the long run but are entirely self-serving and frankly, that disturbs me if not outright saddens me.
I also see a lot of posts where they got a significant number of views and upvotes, but not one comment. Seriously? If a post is worthy of upvoting, is it not also worthy of comment? I appreciate that not everyone is comfortable with doing so, that for some the language of the post is not their first language and so are unsure how to say what they are thinking. But, for the rest of you who have no issue with the language why are you not commenting. To build a community we need to have a conversation as without open dialogue we cannot build anything. It isn't necessary that we all agree, but it is necessary that we respect our differences and share in those differences, for when we do, we become something greater than what we were.
This is my rant for today, thank you for taking the time to read it. Let's start a conversation, leave a comment below, ask a question, I would love to exchange ideas with you.
Peace
#daemon-nice