I understand what you say, we often publish quality content and often do not have enough support, but fortunately certain users who realize the quality of the posts leave in the comments what they think about it, perhaps their voting capacity is not strong, but provide sincere support which motivates us even though our publication does not get the value in SBD that may be appropriate, I think that lack of support in certain cases is becoming frequent and something must be done to change that attitude, even from users who have time on the platform.

I would give you 1,000 upvotes for this post @roxane.

I am new to Steemit and I see the value of it. Personally I think it can become the new Facebook or Reddit, but it will take a lot of time and it all depends on us as a community. 

It saddens me to see people posting about everything from personal development, to blockchain, to celebrity gossip to sports, and so on just for the sake of money. 

In my newbie opinion, a valuable Steem user, is the kind of user that writes only about the things he has a real knowledge about, supports the projects that help the community (e.g. @curie @sndbox), and helps the platform gain exposure through their personal network in other distribution channels.

I hope to see more posts like this from you! Even if it might feel that your efforts doesn't matter, they do! Thank you!

Dear @roxane,

Thank you so much for your support. Such a post , somewhat dedicated to supporting my work, makes me blush.

Just a few comments:

> I am not an Utopist (I try not to be)

I am! And I try to stay!

> People like @arcange can decide to shut down SteemSQL and leave the platforme for a lack of recognition, for a lack of support.

This is not something I would do, at least not because of "lack of recognition or support". I simply want to stay break even for the costs of the infrastructure and why not earn something decent for my work.

> What if everybody starts to monetizing their work ? It will just be like the real world... And not everyone will have access to all the ressources.

Even on Steemit, resources are limited and some will fight to get the biggest part of the pie. Steemit is just  a digital transposition of the real world.

> Does @arcange still need to proof that SteemSQL is worthy ?
No. Nobody cares, except those who use it.

Take care =)

I just joined thank you @roxane for a better insight

Could we have a way to get steemSQL decentralised ? I mean this is odd enough to see such a problem within a community that based all it's backbone on a decentralise blockchain suffering from this, I mean I agree it's a shame that the feedback wasn't what he expected but he has touch one of the limit that centralise system have isn't it ?

Yeah it gets frustrating taking the time to make posts and have them go nowhere and in general to have questions but no one on here willing to help. I try to be the best Steemians I can be. I wish others would too.

everyone needs a little support so i guess that's a wise move from their point of view

I can feel your passion in your writing this well written article.
    Steem is just as you said, there are a lot of people out there doing great work and putting a lot of time and effort into steem, there’s some that just don’t have the time and then those who want to just get paid for nothing. 
    I try to make more comments than post as I just have limited time, thanks for your input and thoughts.

## This might be a very long comment

We are all here for different reasons! Some are here for the money, or a part of it, some are here for the interactions, the community, etc. So you have to make the best of all those different interests, incentives to build a platform like steemit. 

## Who is suppose to support the develpment?
The community. Mainly the community. We are in an open source environment. You can't expect a company( which is for profit by definition) to provide services without a business model. *Note: this is why it is a bit weird with blockstream and bitcoin*. Steemit, Inc make the choices that interest them. I am among the opponents of the SMT, because I think they will dilute the sense of community and the strength of the network. 

The community support means everyone, with his or her capacities, can help the platform gets bigger, better. Some have technical skills, some have communication skills like you. Of course I believe that we should be able to help on the top of steem rewards but the reality is that you might not get. You might not get noticed. The #french speaking community has been more and more active, same for other like #cn and #kr. But steemit is very hard if you don't interact in english.

## You are entitled to be sad not angry
as I am very happy to see the level of support you get  now on your post. We don't know the personal life and implication of everyone. I, for instance, am a witness. Since I am a low ranking (0.25 block/day), I am *losing money* being a witness. I do it for fun, for education, to help on security and not because of some ROI. I just go [100 Steem for Witnesses Below Rank 80!](https://steemit.com/witness-category/@jerrybanfield/100-steem-for-witnesses-below-rank-80)  as part of @jerrybanfield #budgets. This means I can keep my node running longer and start writing on other part of the #ecosysteem.

## We can get better
Witnesses for instance can be involve more, much more than whales that I would vote to leave alone. But the community, as a whole, should be aware of that. ***We have a marvellously easy way of crowdfunding: post an article and ask for vote to pay for whatever idea you are proposing.***

i am new user in steemit, i am still very layman about steem, by reading your post and reference to other post i can understand a bit ..

You are touching a most sensitive point. The Steem blockchain is powerful, transactions are fast and zero-fee and the model with which content is rewarded works quite well. 

But ultimately, it's the community, the collective Steemians, that is at the core of the Steem value. How we reward each other is key. And when a project like @arcange does not get the support it deserves that says more about the quality of the community than about the quality and the value of @arcange's services. I hope I'm wrong.

From my viewpoint, and I don't want to sound communist or socialist by any standard, the problem is wealth distribution. A few whales simply don't have enough hours in a day to see everything happening on the platform and to support all the valuable things that are happening here, instead we sometimes see them investing time in other activities like flag wars and such..

But in the end, I think this is only a temporary snapshot of the state of Steem right now. There are just too many awesome things happening here to stop the trend that is already showing: Steem is growing, getting bigger and more valuable as time passes.

Great post tnx for sharing i just upvoted  steemit all the way check out my new posts.

thanks, your post! have a nice day.

Just think positive and don't give up, just make this a hobby :D like me.

It can be very discouraging especially for newbies like us. Hard work they emphasis but is it hard work till you turn 60 years???
I hope there could be a change of the ways things are done here to encourage  new entrants. Just thinking so

Great Post!
Steem On :)

@roxane thank you for talking about this because this is the same issue I have talked about as well and built a system to help with.  Anyone can submit a project for funding now on the tag #budgets to get funding from @budgets which currently has about 4,000 Steem to fund projects, apps, ads, and anything else to grow Steem!

Thank you @laurabanfield for making a transfer to me for an upvote of 18.62% on this post! Half of your bid goes to @budgets which [funds growth projects for Steem](https://steemit.com/budget/@jerrybanfield/introducing-steem-budget-proposals) like [our top 25 posts on Steem](https://steemit.com/budget/@jerrybanfield/the-top-25-steem-posts)!  The other half [helps holders of Steem power earn about 60% APR](https://steemit.com/budget/@jerrybanfield/new-automatic-daily-payouts-of-60-apr-for-steem-power-delegations) on a delegation to me!  For help, will you please visit [https://jerrybanfield.com/contact/](https://jerrybanfield.com/contact/) because I check my discord server daily?  To learn more about Steem, will you please use [http://steem.guide/](http://steem.guide) because this URL forwards to my most recently updated complete Steem tutorial?

Hi @roxane, I agree with you. 
When I made [steem activity](https://steemit.com/steemit/@jga/steem-activity-explore-what-is-the-best-time-to-publish) for the first time I only get 9 USD. After that many people write me telling that it was helpful for them. **I realized that if I wanted to be rewarded for this tool then I would need to make updates and next make new posts** telling about that. This is what I done, and [I get more reception](https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@jga/steem-activity-update-new-way-to-calculate-the-best-hour-to-publish), but this time thanks to the @utopian-io project and you.
**The problem with the actual scenario is that the funding of the projects are dependent to updates**, and other things like infrastructure and maintenance can not be taken into account (a post is not interesting if you say you did maintenance).

Your post has made me think that maybe there is a solution to this.

# Solution 1: like @jerrybanfield
Jerry as witness has important steem incomes. He has a project called @budget. You have to make a post telling about the project that you want to deploy and the amount of money that you need including maintenance costs. And if it is approved then you will receive funding from him.
**Advantages**: It is funded from a witness. It is working now! (there are very good projects right now).
**Disadvantages**: If the development is liked by many people but not Jerry, then there will be no financing. That is, everything is reduced to the liking of 1 person.

# Solution 2: Payments after a week
I think we can propose a new way to compute the reward system: **Imagine the possibility to be rewarded for a post indifenitely**. That is, eliminating the 7 days limit. 

This will not be for all post but for a special type of post (an additional checkbox for the author to claim rewards forever). After the first week the payment is like now. After that, every week the blockchain pays only to the author based on the new votes received. From the side of curators we need an option to automatic vote this type of posts (if we want to support them).

In this situation the author can fund his project for maintenance and infrastructure. And he need to do the right things in order to be rewarded continuously.

**Advantages:** It is funded by the community.
**Disadvantages:** The philosophy of steemit is proof-of-brain. People could use it badly, asking for funding where it should not. For this reason I mention that it is not for all posts but special posts (and the curators have to select well).

People don't value free things

I have many mixed feelings about this post.

I think I understand where you're coming from and how you want those who create great things to be well supported by the community here, but I also hear a bit of the "Utopist" thinking you, said you're not doing. It's possibly I'm misunderstanding you (and also possible the language differences play a part in that), but it kind of seems like you have an entitlement mentality where everyone should have access to value regardless of what they contribute. To me, that simply does not work.

I have some more thoughts on that <a href="https://steemit.com/entrepreneur/@lukestokes/how-to-make-an-entrepreneur-mad">here</a> and <a href="https://steemit.com/life/@lukestokes/expectations-breed-frustration-expectancy-brings-joy">here</a>. Expectations are powerful, and if we don't control them properly they can make us angry, sad, frustrated, etc.

I think @arcange is a fantastic person who can charge whatever he needs to in order to be motivated to provide the service he provides. Others may disagree and do something similar for cheaper. Or maybe it will just go away and people will use other options such as MongoDB. The point is, the markets will determine how to price things because no other system out there can without threats of force (i.e. government). I'm okay with that. I also think those who provide value should be rewarded. Those who just want to take value without providing anything, well, they are what I consider a moocher. They aren't helpful.

I think you're asking a lot of good questions and they seem to come down to a core question:

<h1>How do you define value itself?</h1>

Many people get confused by this. To me, financial value is determined in the moment of transaction. It's subjective. Just because SteemSQL was previously "free" doesn't mean it wasn't valued. People don't often pay for free things. I think SteemSQL is valuable and I, personally, will pay something to use it. I only run a half dozen queries a month currently, so I'd personally prefer to see a pay-per-use model. Or, at the very least, cut off the people who are over using it. Give everyone a unique login and those who are using it too much have to pay. The rest, well, they aren't the ones driving up the costs of the infrastructure.

#roxane ok

A very big possibility exists to positively change the world via steem.
It's pretty saddening the fact that he got insignificant level of support. That shouldn't be a deterring factor.
The zeal to accomplish the SteemSQL should be much more activated provided the aim is set right.
@arcange do not be discourage keep pushing further...
I seriously wonder why some good content aimed at boosting steem or growing the platform go unnoticed and often times ignored.

I think I'm a valuable user. :)

Thank you! In a short time you have achieved a lot. You make the community more cohesive. There are a lot of people who write good posts. Money is not the most important at first, it is important to see what your post is voting for, recognition is important. Motivation is lost when you spend more than one day writing a message and then you realize that no one has even looked at it. You write again, you change the tags, but everything repeats. And then you understand that there are bots and that it is enough to pay him and only then the message will go up. In our community, capitalism flourishes, it spoils the mood. But then I read your posts and I understand that social ideas also have a chance. And this gives me hope and does not allow me to surrender. Thank you!

Awesome and well written, Thanks for sharing this informative post @roxane

Well, DTube is rewarding some folks with huge payouts and Steemit could do the same thing. One of the problems we still have to overcome is a visibility problem. I didn't know arcange or SteemSQL existed and now that I do, I don't know why I need his services because I still don't know what he does. SQL database for what, who and why? I also noticed that having followers does not translate into getting seen or read. The feed is a string, and if I post in the morning and you turn on your computer at 5pm, you'll never see my post unless you visit my blog. I make it a point to visit certain blogs so I don't miss anything, but if I had to do that for 100 bloggers I would have very little time for anything else. The only thing I can think of is to throw out 1/2 of the people that I follow to keep my feed manageable and give those left the attention they deserve :_(

This is a very sad topic, but at the same time it is an important issue. We live in the wild west... everything is new, no rules but those implied by the system. That's why people will always try to find ways to "game the system", while others like arcange or you do it by working hard everyday, trying to bring value to the community. This honours you both. And I strongly believe this will pay out "in the long run". Unfortunately it isn't possible to live from that in the short run, neither to pay for bills or food. Seeing some earn a fortune for mediocre contributions or just for making announcements with nothing following up makes me mad from time to time, too.

You are right pointing out that @arcange in no way has to proove anything more here. He always is an extremely professional, nice and helpful person. His move to monetize his great work is fully understandable and possibly the only way to grow awareness that even in a community of "freedom" valuable services are not to be seen as "free" or can be taken for granted.

To your questions:

For me a valuable steemian is one who does not try to game the system. This includes no vote buying, this includes not to copy-paste, this includes not to take out every dime earned, this includes investing (time and/or money) and involving (not in everything, but in certain areas, where there is a chance to excel). This includes actually reading stuff, or at least following someone with a vote who does it. This includes not to take from the reward pool for  curation work and finally this includes voting for others instead of 10 selfvotes a day.

You know what I am doing to retain people...

What STINC could do... well... a first step could be to communicate. (And I mean more than the divorced-couple-talk between dan and ned, and more than rebuilding a great opportunity into a pyramid scheme where only the strong survive. In short: I don't expect anything and prepare for the worst while hoping for the best...

For the last question... that's a tough one. Value is quite a subjective thing. When I see months of work going into my @steembay providing a free service for all while earning around 50$ / day for 2 people compared to some obscure guy taking out 10 000$ a day I sometimes doubt that this anytime will get more fair... on the other hand: What is the use of being bitter about it, this only eats away my good mood, my creativity and my power to keep on getting better with what I am doing. There have been times when it was a good idea to invest in a business and not earning a dime for the first several years.

Keep up the good work and don't let your head down.

Bises
Dominique

Steem SQL???
How it works ??
(Sorry! i am new on steem it )

I hope that longterm quality posts could help me to become independent some day - hence keep it up always

You'd be amazed how difficult getting long term, dependable funding for projects, programs, initiatives, jobs, etc can be on here.

To some degree, it's the 'nature of the beast' in that Steemit's setup for things to be seen for a short period of time (i.e. one week.) Once that first announcement post goes away, it becomes 'old news'...even if followup posts are made.

I honestly don't blame @arcange at all for making the move to the paid subscription model. I've had to start telling people that I'd respond to their questions (in private messages) when I get to them...they'd have to pay if they wanted my time outside of that.

Whether it's creating/maintaining an app or website, mentoring new people, answering questions in chats...anyone giving something away for free is quickly overloaded with little to no compensation. 

Personally, Steemit Inc has not seemed concerned with funding many projects (they have done some) and if you're not on that list, then you have to either drop it or find a better model (i.e. requiring payment).

This seems even more the case with people actually doing 'jobs' or services like manning the #help room or moderating the #general room in Steemit.chat. If nothing else...I'd LOVE to see funding go towards things that large populations of Steemit are using (i don't know how many users SteemSql had, but I def can see the value here) as well as anything towards those on the front lines of customer support.

I'd love for a steemit inc member to sit in one of those steemit chat channels while everyone's bandwidth has been restricted...see how much value those people bring.

Sorry, end rant. Lol

{Upped for visibility}

Hi ! On est nouvelle du coup a pas encore eu suffisamment de temps de découvrir steemit mais ce que tu as écris est très intéressant et ça fait réfléchir ! :)

His tool is very valuable. I don't use it myself but I still benefit from it from the many persons who use the tool and I even ask Paulag to do a post which I knew necessitated SteemSQL and I'll probably ask for many of them in the future. 

I gave @arcange asking for help post a 100% upvote. That being said I see possible issues with the tool being totally free which paid version solve. Sooner or later the tool will be abused just for the shake of abusing it or creating a competitive tool and making the competition unusable.  

Under paid version people who might only need it for very few queries might just end up asking some people who pay for it to do those queries for them for a small fees or things like that. It's not perfect but no option is perfect.

> How do you let them know that they are valuable for the plateform ?

People might or might not have value to the voters but that doesn't mean they don't have value. We can't decide for others. 

> And what are you, as a newcomer or an "already known" Steemian, doing everyday for retain a valuable user ?

I support the platform and try to improve it. If the economic incentives of the platform are aligned with human values then the platform will be valuable to everyone and thus in the long run everyone will have the right incentive to use the platform. 

> And how do you think people who provide value to Steem feels they see others valuable (or not, it's always from the point of views) post getting crazy rewards ?

A lot of the time people don't realize how much the guys on the trending page are distributing everyday through their votes. These people are most of the time distributing a lot more than they are making. When they aren't the one distributing those rewards, their sponsors are and in that sense they have to have the freedom. Freedom is one of the basis of this platform. 

Also someone with 10 SP shouldn't have the same expectations than someone who owns 10,000 SP or 100,000 SP but they might entertain those expectations coming on the platform and not knowing how it works. Time and education will help this issue.  

People don't expect billionaires or the ultra rich to have the same reception wherever they go to less wealthy people. I wish things would be otherwise but they aren't. 

Steem economic incentives weren't initially designed the way they are working today. I tend to think the initial design made fundamentally more sense. These can always be reverted back in the future. I tend to think they will at some point because I tend to think the current system is flawed but that's another story/post. 

Take care Rox! 

> Vast majority of steem users are great, but the steem that exists today is not what I created with its linear reward curve. I did try to fix it, but the community was very much against it and so was Steemit inc which no longer wished to follow my advice. I always try to fix past creations before moving on. @dan

https://steemit.com/eos/@dan/proof-of-good-governance#@dan/re-dhouse-re-dan-proof-of-good-governance-20180101t041025775z

I understand what you feel - i had my ups and downs and endless discussion with honks too - I personally stepped back a bit and focus on things I like. The advice you mention at the end is what I heard often from big guns as well - lol, what shall they say to excuse for ignoring you. 

But honestly - do not give up. Hope the same for @arcange which i do not know personally - also never use SteemSQL too.