There is definitely a lot of things about Steemits overall design that, at first, seems non nonsensical, but does make sense when examined more closely. My first contention with steemit was the flagging system. Then I would probably have to list the ability to vote for my own post as being a pretty close contender.
At first, I was basically obstinate toward both of the above ideas for being, what I felt at the time, obvious flaws. However, over time I have found myself slowly leaning slightly in favor of these contentious ideas in some fashion.
Decentralized media is like the wild west.
For example, if you think about the flagging system, as a whole, as an extension of the monetary value of the post rather than a form of censorship you might be able to see its greater purpose in the scheme of things. The end result is that contentious debate will very likely result in the destruction of a great deal of currency which will in turn reduce supply while increasing demand at the same time.
This is compounded by the fact that flagging is a fully public action as well, thus, creating risk for those who wish to abuse their steem power. Steemit is actually a platform where spiraling controversy could result in huge profits for the average user.
Its kind of like decentralized socialism powered by the tears of ideologues.
I actually am starting to like the flagging system as it creates a wild west environment. Everyone has to put their money where their mouth is. What I am not sure about is how things will actually turn out in the end. They often say the pen is mightier than the sword but the dark truth is that the wallet can purchase all the pens and swords you desire making this more of a pay to win scheme than an actual debate platform.
Only time will tell how this will actually pan out. Some day down the road this platform might end up being either a hive mind or a monetized induced troll spiral to the likes of what has never been seen before.
So this brings me to a core point I want to stress in this post.
What you Incentivize is usually what you will get.
These are the wise words of Elon Musk when talking about developing new technologies. In my experience this is true regardless if the end result was intentional or not. degenerative strategy is a common phenomenon in most simulated environments. I cant imagine that this would not be the case in live environments as well.
I am not sure if I am a fan of the 7 day window to make money on my posts.
So once again I sit at the precipice scratching my head while wondering why this was implemented the way it was. I have a handful of posts from the past that I have done where I would like to be able to maintain their relevance actually.
I can maybe see some arguments against simply removing the 7 day limit though. For one, its very possible that removing the 7 day limit could cause a sudden surge in currency creation.
With that said, it seems as though, re-posting previous content may actually be something that is incentivized right now. Would it be frowned upon for me to do a monthly repost of specific things I have posted in the past?
I want to suggest a possible compromise.
I want the ability to pin posts for a cost of about 1 SBD a month per post. Pinned posts should always appear at the top of my blog page. Also, pinned posts should be allowed to continue to earn steem as well.