Yo

If you check out who is being flagged by @berniesanders, it's not the minnows buying the votes (99% of the time), it's the minnows selling votes (to themselves), mostly with @freedoms's delegated SP.

This has to stop before whales will consider delegating to curators, because it's much more profitable to delegate to these guys, instead of me for example, as I'd only be able to offer the weekly delegation rewards.

You are right though, large SP holders need to look further than this week and into the next 2/3 years.  The constant spreading of the rewards pool will make the community grow, which should in turn raise the popularity of the platform, and the price of Steem.

Find me a delegator yo!

Hey ! Firstly, very informative post, thank you. 
Still being a Minnow and still on the steep learning curve of Steemit I can't say i'm informed or so but I don't think the bots as they are now are a valuable thing for the minnows and the platform  in general, so I join you on  that point. Especially as this doesn't encvourage people to create nice posts as if they don't have an organic following they can still inject money to the bot. And on the long run I don't think the return on investment is worth it. 
Your idea to trade for attention (and I suppose some kind of Resteem or promotion in a whale's post) is a far better idea  as it will encourage to forge links between bloggers on the platform creating stronger bonds amongst the community, I can't see a whale accepting to promote a minnow if the later's post is not in line with the former's vision. Meaning there can be some kind of Whale's patrons helping minnows to grow, give more valuable content to the community in a given field, dynamise a friendly competition between minnows and build them an organic following. And the whale will still be beneficial, so it's a big win win. 
I definitely love your idea !
cheers !

It sometimes seems like steemit inc. does not really care in the end about fixing these problems that people have been experiencing so long.  Steemit inc. seems to be more focused on growth, yet I am not sure all this growth can be sustained.

You always have such good ideas  since I first saw your post replies etc a year and change ago @beanz.

Even if people do not agree  with some points you have brought up or given here and there -- if they are familiar with your body of work as a whole, they cannot say you do not come up with some  fair ideas and do your best.

Plus your accent.

LOL

-- have a good nite

I have quite a bit invested in bitshares as well, hopefully we get a boost soon

@beanz Hi , how are you?
I also wanted to say stop creating a police station in here who rules around but I just let them do what they like .... disliking or giving minus to people is not good!! if something is wrong we can report to the site! and telling them that this post is against humanity or it's lie or it's fake!! but we dont have to judge anybody, even if all the spammers write under my post, I wont downvote them!! I will just tell them what they have to do!! not hitting them or beating them with these kind of government style things!!!
I hate of some people who moves around to find people's faults and show their faults to all!! heyyy look this user was doing bla bla ....(it's so childish!!)
this means there is no freedom!! but this platform didn't do this to us, but we did it to ourselves by creating police officers in this site!!!
to catch us!! puting us in jails!! isn't it enough? we didn't had enough jails physically? it's enough in my idea!!!
if the user is a bot, then story is different but if it's a human, you dont have to break his or her heart!!! we have to take care of each other!!! ( people will run away if we do these to them!
( we need a free world!)

This is great information. I just got delegated some steem power and I'm trying to make sure I manage it correctly. I'm still trying to figure out what the best options are and these things are very helpful! Thanks for you hard work.

Hi there! It's been too long, I know.
This was exceptionally well thought out and makes a great deal of sense all the way around. I'm glad I chose to watch the video and not just read it, I feel  you covered it more thoroughly, and richly really.  It's been tough lately for me to figure out what I feel about all of the different things going on, but this helps tremendously.

Hope you've been well!

Wow! You hit the nail on the head!!!
"People come to Steemit to make money..... People don't want to watch a social media network of other people making money!"

I had never thought of it so clearly.  It's not just that you are told you can and WILL make money on steemit.......IT IS THAT YOU SEE OTHERS MAKING $20, $50, $300 and you are not going to stick around if you are only making $0.02 here and $0.09 there.  If you spend an hour on a post and only make $0.50 or less, most First World users will leave if they see posts of equal or lower quality making $20 or $200. 

There are ways to bring people around, and get rewarded through social interaction in communities and keep them around long enough to improve their posting and commenting skills so that they can earn too.... But atm it is not an easy process.

Thanks for being on MSP WAves, I only caught the last few minutes, so I appreciated your recap here!!

good post like it and upvoted...
thanks for sharing!!

Attracting investors and attracting users are VERY different tasks, and possibly at odds. 
I could not stay in the chat room, I do NOT like bots being able to vote. I think curation is what will attract users here. If the content is not well curated, no one can find good content and no one feels it is worth the effort to generate good content. So I went to the chat to speak  my mind... and people will defend those damn bots to their death. The tech-minded community did adopt steemit early, but MOST of America wants to be able to just go to a site and use it. They do not want to have to learn about bots, how to program, how to code... They want to watch videos, read stories, laugh at memes. If the only way to get established here is to buy votes, get bots, and (as my husband calls it) blow whales, this platform is doomed. It MUST be fairly intuitive to use, or people will not stick around.

The whales who can make or break individual users need dethroned. Sorry, but as you noted, the minnows get beat to shit by getting caught in the middle of a whale fight. The whales have largely delegated their curation to bots, but they cling to the power to destroy and wield it a bit capriciously, from what I have seen. Just a few whales, I should note. But ANY whales that CAN destroy accounts just for lulz.... that is going nowhere good. Having that type of power available to BUY, not earn through producing and curating quality content, will lead to minnows who are afraid to speak out. 
And with that, I am swimming back into my hiding hole and hoping no bot-loving whales see what I said to you...

@beanz I'm only ~6wks in. I have invested a fair amount of time to try & learn the system. Posted a little, but I'm not a "blogger" or really an "author". Mostly I tried doing the "reviewer" thing to try & learn about good posts & it is easier to earn 0.001 for a comment than spending 2-3hrs on a post to earn the same.

I would absolutely work to help curate! But I don't think it should be just by monitoring what someone votes for. I find myself upvoting some things due to being on other social networks.
What I would rather suggest is that someone make a site for designated minnows to curate a list of posts, and then the whales can either vote directly, or someone they designate can vote for them.

Totally forgot to comment on the whole downvote thing.
You absolutely shouldn't downvote **just** because someone used a vote bot. If you think the post is low quality, and the rewards are too high however, then sure, go ahead.
Totally downvote posts by bots though. They are abusing the system, and advertising themselves, which counts as spam.
But I'm just a lowly minnow, and my vote means nothing.

nice post @beanz

as I would like to think as opposed to purchasing upvotes. it's smarter to buckle down and assemble your very own decent substance work.then upvotes will go to your post with no exertion. a debt of gratitude is in order for sharing

Hello,  I really like your post and what your saying (not sure I'm informed enough to know if what your saying will work - but it seem like your ideas are worth a go or consideration at the least).

I agree the pay bot thing isn't the best.

As a minnow with average posts (won't say they are sht :) - as i spend several hours doing a post and try to improve each time) my steemit experience kindda goes like this:

1) I spend several hours making my post and hitting the button (already spent days putting source together) - I'm slow with computers
2) takes me an hour just to edit and clean it up -I'm trying to improve my english/writing/presentation skills.
3) I try to get some attention of curators, or followers to get some votes.
4) I Get like 20, 30 votes up to 100 votes, and I earn 7 cents
5) I watch the 7 cents get less (yes cause price of steem varies, but more likely that paid for bot is being applied again bot bidders, spreading the share.
6) I give up and try to experiment with the bots
7) I make like $1 a post (after bot fees)
8) I watch while people who just post a pic with unedited txt or refer a utube link (probably took them 5 mins, make $2 a post)

If I had published my book as e-pub like I was going to do, I would have made allot more money. 

For me though Its not so much about the money, I love the idea of crypto and trying to wrestle control/money just away from the few and give to the many.. and I really hope Steemit is a platform of fairness. I really wish the whalebot thing wasn't the only way I could make something.

At some point I'd like to help make things better.  I will follow you and if one day you want help with an idea please let me know and I'll try.

It's people like you that give hope. Please keep up the fight.

Cheers

The one thing I would point out - and appears to be a statement given without thought - steemit is not a free market if you can use a punitive tool. (down voting/flagging).

The whole principle of a free market is affirmative actions promoting good value. 
Where is punitive action is an option- against others - a 'free market' ceases.

This is the way it is -fair enough - but I wish people would stop banding the term 'free market' around, as though its a fact.

If choosing to buy (upvtote) benefits both parties - its a free market. A voluntary transaction.
That dynamic cannot be said with down voting.

Ah ! - I've  just let of some steam!

in my opinion instead of buying upvotes. it's better to work hard and build a very good content of your own work.then upvotes will come to your post without any effort. thanks for sharing