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After a little discussion in steemit.chat, I thought I would write a little fun post about the platform.

This user spends his time in general chat giving advice to new members who find themselves there, and encourages them to join a vote4vote circle with him. He has a Facebook page where people can drop links and get votes from other members. Nothing new there and this appears in many forms.

The problem I always have with these types of circles is that there is no guarantee on the quality of the posts and therefore can quickly descend into a circle of spam (This is usually where it starts anyway).

My discussion with the user surrounded the idea that he is convincing new users who may actually be looking to develop themselves to benefit from Steemit, into joining a scheme that is most unlikely to help them in their success. By posing as someone who knows how the platform works, he is able to encourage new people into his circle and potentially stop them from ever having a real chance here.

His argument was that if everyone agrees to the scheme, there is no harm but, with new users on a platform that works differently to other places, they do not necessarily know what they are agreeing to. There is future harm done when the advice given is knowingly poor.

I am not a scientific researcher but when a lab or scientist makes a research breakthrough, their data is submitted for peer review and their methodology and results are (hopefully) rigorously tested by independent researchers. If their results are found to be questionable or they are overreaching with their claims, they are quickly and sometimes ruthlessly criticised. This is because the products and claims they make can influence many people and may have impacts for years to come.

The flag system at Steemit is somewhat of a criticism mechanism by those who review content. Yes, it can be abused but I wonder if there was a link drop that instead of *vote4vote,* went ***vote4quality / flag4not*** instead, how many people would be willing to submit their work.

How many of the vote4vote people believe that their content is of a high enough standard that they will risk getting flagged and suffering the cost to income and reputation? 

Of course, quality content is not about topic of content. I myself can upvote content I disagree with because I can see that someone has put time, thought and effort into their post. My vote isn't on my approval or support of the content, it is on the attempt to present and argue their views or display their creativity. Of course, I am unlikely to give it a full powered vote as I reserve that for content I enjoy and find useful.

If anyone new to Steemit happens to be reading this I hope that before following any advice or joining any scheme, they review the offer and the person offering first. In regards to advice on success at the platform make sure that the person is indeed knowledgeable enough to qualify as a source. When it comes to the scheme, nothing is free and one should question why someone is willing to upvote their content before knowing what it is or who they are.

New users make many mistakes when they are starting out at something and this is true for any area in life. To build knowledge and skill takes time and effort as well as the right information. Be very careful with anyone that offers success or claims to know and be doubly wary if their process doesn't require hard work and a lot of learning. For much of life, there is no easy and fast way to success.

At Steemit, these people in an attempt to support themselves are actually reducing the possibility for success of many others on the platform. In doing so they are destroying the experience of these people who start to get disillusioned as after all, *they did everything they were supposed to do*, based on the advice they followed.

I hope this helps someone in some way or helps them think about and identify the types of users who are actually harmful to their Steemit journey. There are many ways to benefit from the system and if you would like to ask questions below I am happy to try to answer of find out for you.

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]