Last week I started analyzing the steem blockchain with Python. I wanted to find out who are the most voted authors by whales. Here's the post.
Here I am going to do a follow-up of that post to see how the dynamics have changed since last week. I'll also discuss what I think about the trending page, followers, and the most recent feature of 'promoted' posts.
Specials thanks go to: @bitcalm, @furion, @heimindanger, @trogdor and @xeroc.
Most Upvoted Authors by Whales
The reiterate the process:
1. Get ~30 whale usernames from steemwhales.com
2. Analyze their votes only made on posts (ignore comment upvotes: if permlink[:3] != "re-")
3. Ignore all votes by non-whale users.
In the analysis you will only see whale votes as they are the heaviest. Should I have included all votes by all users, the situation may have been different. So, here's what I found.
Number of Votes Given By Whales - Plot
Number of Votes Given By Whales - Table View
Number of Whale Votes Received by Authors - Plot
Number of Whale Votes Received by Authors - Table View
In terms of votes given, whales have been slightly more generous compared to last week:
- total whale votes this week: 6124
- total whale votes last week: 6076
What I notice in the authors list:
- the top 5 has changed since last week
- some authors have received significantly fewer votes compared to last week
- some authors have received significantly more votes compared to last week
I don't want to be more specific. You see the data. You can make your own judgments and drive your own conclusions.
The Code
You can find the python code behind this data in my github. I don't want to unnecessarily fill this post with computer code.
Thoughts on the Trending Page, Followers, and Promoted Posts
To be honest, in the first week I joined steemit (late July) I would spend a lot of time scrolling through the posts of the trending page. I wanted to comment and vote so that I would generate curation rewards.
First and foremost, I was very frustrated seeing posts that would get hundreds-to-thousands of SBDs while I would make almost nothing with my posts. I would spend hours writing my posts while some of the posts on the trending page would simply be a photo or a short-summary of something. Really, it was extremely frustrating...
Second, there were a few people whose posts I was interested in most - people with similar interests. But it was no simple task to get their updates. I would have to type in the steemit author link to get to their blog. That changed thanks to the introduction of the 'follow' and 'feed' features.
My point is that the majority (if not almost all) of new authors face this kind of frustration. It may have been easier to get up from the ground in the first 2-3 months of the platform. Now, it's not as easy. It's least likely, in my opinion, for a newbie post (no matter how good it is) to be seen by a whale when the whale already has various trusted authors to vote. I assume they don't want to risk their reputation. And I think that's normal.
Several proposals have been made by @razvanelulmarin and @dana-edwards particular to this issue. They involve complex curation strategies and vote delegation, but until we find a good strategy for the retention of new authors, I'd recommend them to stay away from the trending page.
Instead they should look for people/authors who write on the topics of their interest and start following them. They'll be more naturally inclined to vote, comment, and socialize with these authors. The trending page is discouraging...
Ending Thoughts
I came to these thoughts by looking in retrospect to my own strategy. I stopped routinely visiting the trending page about 3 weeks ago. As I gradually started following more people, I began spending most of my steemit time on the 'feed' page and on reading the posts of the people who I followed.
I think many of you guys are doing the same thing, but if a newbie finds this post, it may be helpful to them.
Secondly, I have no strong opinion on the new 'promoted' feature. I somewhat think it will not live up to its expectations. Why?
Steemit is a platform that incentivizes its users, unlike most other social platforms.
Basic human psychology tells me that your average user is not going to be driven to the 'promoted' page simply because of the possible negative strong associations with a 'good' that is being marketed to them.
We are inclined to be more skeptical when we are being sold something. I'd suspect your average user is more likely to frequent their personal feed, and, by a long-stretch, the 'trending' page.
I'm sure some of you disagree with my thoughts, which is why I encourage you to come with counterarguments. I'd be very happy to see different perspectives on this, especially if they spring from rational arguments.
Oh, and if you have ideas for analytics similar to those from above, I'm open to suggestions.
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#programming #statistics #analytics
Cristi Vlad, Self-Experimenter and Author