Morning demarkguy and so agree with you on being a socially active member of Steemit writing quality posts.  I really enjoy the social chit chatting, it give me a feeling of belonging.  Thank you for your wisdom.

Thanks for this post. I've been seeing and hearing all this talk about quality content. What actually is considered quality content? Like you said this is a social platform. All that talk will turn people off from this platform. If they feel hey I'm not that interesting or I can't make post with numerous paragraphs. "Why should I bother to post?" I'm also noticing some of these accounts with a large amount of followers and not following near half that amount back. Also post with plenty of upvotes and money, that don't reciprocate those earnings to the people in the comments. After if I'm not mistaken, it's free to upvote right. Anyhow sorry for my rant.

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> are we truly doing this as part of an effort to create a more active/interactive and vibrant community?

On this one I think and believe that  is the goal of @steemcommunity, to make a more active/interactive and vibrant community.

As for quality it really is all in the ey of the reader/viewer. I see steem blockchain as a social site/experiment, I am having a lot of fun on here, yeah there are bad days, bad players, and toes get stepped on, and everyone has a different concept of what the steem blockchain is. I choose to see the social side. 

> So here we double back to the quality question, and I'm not suggesting we look only for quality content creators; rather we should focus the minnow building efforts on sincere content creators — enthusiastic, happy to be part of the process and community, but might create all sorts of sincere content.

That paragraph pretty much says it all.

What are we building? That’s a great question. And what value does this platform add/is this platform adding/can this platform add to the world? That’s something that I think should be questioned too. 

Expansion for expansion’s sake is foolish. Expansion should have a purpose that is rooted in service and adding value to the lives of others. I often have the feeling that many of the initiatives you mentioned are rooted in expansion for the benefit of us, the early adopters. If Steem goes to the moon, those who have gotten their foot in the door will be rich, so let’s expand, expand, expand. The idea of becoming rich is a heavy motivator around here, I think. But it isn’t the only one. 

Steem is an interesting experiment. I really hope it can one day replace PayPal and give people a way to transfer money without fees being taken out. Of course, without acceptance of Steem as a currency, the fees will appear in fiat conversion, but it would be nice to see some alternative to PayPal for everyday people and vendors that didn’t deduct fees from daily transactions.

Great post, I believe we need to bring passionate people that love to share and create their content here.

I fully support your thoughts and I can say that all my content so far is about adding value to the community (of course as much as I can offer). I have stumbled upon your blog long time ago (I think you were one of the first I followed here) and I recognized your content as an "added value" or what they call quality content - genuine and thought-provoking. I follow very few people here and most of them are alike - they add value.

@denmarkguy

This is so thought-provoking on a number of levels.  I have in a number of comments opined on Steemit's being a microcosm of the world and had also forgotten that the "powers that be" talk of Steemit as an ecosystem.  This latter would fit, to some extent with @quillfire's pleas for reform.  An ecosystem is about symbiosis and balance.  It seems we have none of this at, the moment on, the platform.  

On the issue of quality and value, I also wrote something in which I also moved away from quality to value (https://steemit.com/dpoll/@fionasfavourites/memories-of-being-a-little-fish-why-im-voting-for-the-power-house-creatives) and, yes, it is a very fluid notion.  That's ok.  What's good for the goose is not always good for the gander, and continuing the bird analogy and idiom, birds of a feather do flock together.

The development of a middle class, I think is, again, the perfect analogy because it is the weight of numbers of people with a little bit of something (steempower) but not a lot (of steempower) that will allow whales to develop a following behind them.  They will rally support (votes/power/whatever) and that could change the power dyamic.  However, as I've opined in a comment on @quillfire's most recent post (https://steemit.com/powerhousecreatives/@quillfire/steemfest-4-the-whales-vs-the-minnows-chess-takedown-100-000-or-1-steem-prize), that to, if not handled in the right way, can be perilous.

Thanks for a great read and a great think.

Looking around in the comments, @denmarkguy, I'm surprised that the folks you mentioned haven't added anything.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with concerns about where things are headed, or what any of all of these initiatives and councils and alliances are actually ultimately going to accomplish.

And yet, it's hard to say a whole lot of negative things about people who seem to be genuinely trying to help others, or STEEM as a whole.

So, here we are, wondering what's to come of all of this, when so far, at least in my experience, it's just as much about what users are willing to do for themselves, as it is about who's helping who.

I do believe there is some kind of winnowing criteria in some of this, anyway, so who knows. Time always seems to be the means by which we get to see how all of this shakes out.

Hey guys, I just saw this post. I'm a fairly new creator so I feel my insight is relevant.

From my brief time being active the biggest thing I've noticed is how important communities are to this space. You see them for pretty much anything and new ones are popping up every day.

To be honest the best work I've seen has been been community based. [@freewritehouse](https://steemit.com/@freewritehouse) is a great example of this. The daily prompts and community engagement really encourage writers everywhere to contribute, and the result is some pretty great stuff.

These networks, and there are many, comprise the foundation that is steem.

I have struggled to join such communities but still endeavor to do so. Im new to making content, so doing that is enough of a challenge let alone doing it for a community.

If Steem is an ocean, then communities are the schools in which the fish congregate. Without them we're just lost on our own at the mercy of the tide (that is the ledger)

Maybe talent will get noticed if it is uploaded by itself with generic tags and no mentions, but the chances are rather low.

To be honest,  the bots that everyone hates are pretty good to encourage new lost-in-the-sea creators to keep going long enough to learn how to swim.

Maybe content delivery could be improved and it wouldn't be so easy for quality to get lost. Then again maybe I'm wrong im assuming it exists,  I dunno, I always seem to find it.

Anyways

Communities are easily where the value is located. here, we mutually guarantee each other's survival and prosperity.  Retaining value will encourage new quality content as well as draw good content from other platforms.

Strong communities produce good organic content designed to appease an audience.

Maybe decentralized audiences are communities

Hmmmm....? What exactly makes the quality content...... "quality...?"

I post about what is going on in my life. My Cat, My business, etc. Some will look at it as quality. Some will say it is the foolish ramblings of a mentally ill man. Both may be right.

So there are good thought provoking posts like this one, and really all of yours that I have seen [@denmarkguy](https://steemit.com/@denmarkguy).

Then there are "shitposts" who would argue with that.?

But the ones in the middle, the grey area, who decides the quality when it becomes a matter of oppinion?

Am I making any sense? Or am I way out in left field?

![](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://d1vof77qrk4l5q.cloudfront.net/img/418a99125058a670722f55ffbd94d101208cb43e.jpg)

if we had a 'consumer base' for quiality content then it would win over.  the problem is, we are all here creating, and not comsuming.  we need to bring in like 100 people to find one good creator ( if not way more).  I think a problem I would like to try and tackle after this 250 new minnows is finding content consumers, but thats for another discussion.

there are many strong arguements for building a solid middle class on steem.  not only does it provide motivation as its seen as a milestone, but it also gives time for the steem ecosystem to grow and flourish.

Making 250 new minnows in a month is going to be extreemly difficult.  it already has me and the team flat out contacting people.  lol dont put us under pressure we have till the 5th of april, that will be a month.  we are still in week 1 and I am so delighted it has provked posts like this :-)

@denmarkguy,

Hey Mate. 

Great article. I'm heartened to see intelligent discourse on this subject.

First off:

>I'm going to refrain from commenting on that last observation, because there's enough material there for an entire dissertation on short-sightedness and myopic paradigms, so... ONWARD!

*Nicely written.* 

>There's also little doubt in my mind that "Steem-as-Dan-saw-it" and Steem as it exists today are two very different things.

And that's the existential problem. The "Steem-as-Dan-saw-it" is why I'm here. And, I suspect, it is why the overwhelming majority of Steemians are here. And, I suspect, if it becomes apparent that Steemit will never, in fact, be that thing ... it's why we'll all leave.

A bunch of Dev's want Steemit to be something else. They want it to be a venture capital platform where they easily obtain funds to develop DApps ... and then subsequently, a venue where they can launch a SMT-ICO so as to cash-out for millions.

But here's the thing: There a finite amount of capital in the system. And so, whatever is spent on the one, cannot be spent upon the other. You can't have your cake ... and eat it too. 

The creation of content ... or the creation of code. Choose one.

As I've written endlessly, the Python writers don't know what they're doing. They're 20- and 30-somethings who possess but one skill in life: Writing code. They self-evidently know nothing about marketing, advertising, product design or basic business strategy.

And ... **_they know nothing about Securities Law._** 

All those SMT's **WILL BE considered securities by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the SEC WILL assert jurisdiction. And, every court in the US will grant it to them.** (I spent 20 years in high finance, most of that managing hedge funds.) 

Imagine how utterly asinine it would be if, in the real world, you were approached by an investment broker selling units in a "pooled investment structure" ... and the management of said structure could not provide you evidence that the structure itself was legally compliant. Would you invest in it?

**Steemians ... WHERE is a Legal Opinion, from a reputable law firm, suggesting, after careful analysis, that SMT's won't be considered securities???** (Perhaps this is something that should have been obtained BEFORE spending untold man-hours and money developing SMT's.)   

Because if SMT's are considered securities, they will accomplish precisely nothing. They'll essentially be "Reg D, 506 Private Placements." They WILL NOT be some grand innovation in capital formation. And, you WILL NOT launch a SMT for $1 as purported (unless you want to go to jail). Indeed, you'll incur tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees alone. 

And yet, a gargantuan amount of SP has been diverted away from its intended purpose, the Curation of Content, causing innumerable negative feedback loops. Add this to bidbots and multiple-account-self-upvoting ... and you've successfully castrated the Curation Process around which the entire endeavor was constructed. 

Imagine you own a gasoline-powered four-door sedan. It was engineered to be a passenger transport vehicle. But, you decide you want to make a few modifications: You fill it with diesel, instead of gas, because it's cheaper; you outfit it with a plow blade for snow removal; you throw on a trailer hitch and buy a 10 ton trailer with which to haul loads of gravel. 

Ought you be surprised if it "performs poorly?" It was not designed for the purpose for which it is being used. Wrong fuel. Wrong power train. Wrong weight distribution. Wrong shock absorbers. Wrong ... *everything.*

The design of STEEM was predicated upon Steemit functioning as a Social Media Platform. In essence, a Facebook/YouTube where you get paid to post and comment. It was specifically designed to QUICKLY curate the Quality of Posts, raising those of an exceptional nature to a position of prominence, thereby increasing their potential for remuneration. 

It was not designed to be a venture capital platform. It was not designed to be an auction site where position of prominence is sold to the highest bidder. So why is anyone surprised that it's not functioning properly ... indeed, barely functioning at all?      

A last word about **Quality Being Subjective,** a matter about which I've written extensively. I am a poet. There are many genres of poetry. Some I like, others I don't. Much like music, paintings and literature. Others have other preferences reflective of their own particular tastes. 

So yes, **Quality is Subjective.**

**_But it's not problematically subjective._**

I once did a satirical post railing against the "Theater of the Absurd," including people, supposedly poets, now calling "anything that's not a sentence in prose ... *poetry.* To make my point respecting the latter, I invented a new genre of poetry called, **"Misspelled Prepositional Poetry."** Here's is my Magnus Opus:
.
https://i.imgur.com/pky0Uli.png
.
https://steemit.com/poetry/@quillfire/ideologues-activists-and-the-theater-of-the-absurd-the-a-poem
.
Personally, I think one would have to be certifiable as an idiot to believe that there was even a modicum of poetry in my "poem." But, let's say for the sake of argument, that I was being serious when I posted such a  poem.

What would happen? A few of my kind-hearted Followers would see it and send me a DM, "Hey Quill, buddy ... you need to take a vacation to self-reflect." @jaynie would send me a DM, "If you ever post shit like this again, I'll bury my boot so far up your ass ..."   

Feedback, even when unfavorable, is an artist's friend.

But here's the point: There would have been not material damage to the system as a whole. No one's rewards would have been diminished by my artistic experimentation and, perhaps, I'd internalize the feedback and ... **_BECOME A BETTER POET._**  

We need to touch upon the philosophical for a moment. There is no objective way to determine some "Absolute Cosmic Truth" about the value of Art (I use the term broadly to include all the content created on Steemit). One cannot objectively measure "success" like one could by watching to see who was first to cross the finish line in a 100 m sprint. 

But that IS NOT what Artistic Curative Processes seek to achieve. Curation is merely a reflection of the collective opinion of an audience. That's it. It's a "popularity contest."

The same kind of "popularity contest" that elevated Shakespeare, Beethoven and Da Vinci ... and Elvis, Billy Joel and Taylor Swift.   

**_What's wrong with that?_** 

If you wish to be a long-suffering artist, wallowing in a world of self-pity because no one grasps the profundity of your eclectic creations, go for it. No one's saying you can't write Misspelled Prepositional Poetry ... just don't expect to get paid a lot for doing it. 

The universe does not owe artists a living ... it is their audiences that pay for their lunch.    

*Quill*

>Bottom line: For Steem to keep growing and thriving in the long run, we don't just need "members," we need active members!

agreed!

/ᐠ=ᆽ=ᐟ\\

I missed this post when it came out. My intentions when starting #tenkminnows was to build a more diverse set of users with some influence on Steem. I read frustrated that the number of minnows was not growing despite hundreds of accounts being created each week. Not everyone wants to be a creator, but they can participate in discussions and communities that give them value. They can earn from that through comment rewards are curation. 

We are being selective in who we promote, but then we are not going to give our votes to those who just take out show little interest in making Steem better.

Steem has a big issue with people giving up and we need the good ones to stick around as networking effects should mean they bring in others. We are still well below critical mass.

I'm still excited about Steem and I want to see more people benefit from it.

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I like quality contents and sincere contents. I dont think it is a binary question of having to have one OR the other. It's nice to have initiatives that promote either, because at the end of the day, then the entire platform can benefit from having both things, people who are passionate about quality contents promoting quality and people who are passionate about activity promoting activity and people who are passionate about sincerity promoting sincerity :)

Everyone contributes in our own way \o/

Sincere content, indeed. I like that phrase much better than "quality content" (which implies that someone can authoritatively determine what defines quality).

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