Confused about the "Whale Experiment"?
This is business as usual! Welcome to Steem, a vibrant community that tolerates all opinion, including criticism of the platform itself. Some people have more influence, they're called whales. You are a minnow, because you have very little influence. There are also dolphins, which have a lot of influence, but nowhere near whales. Influence is Steem Power, which you can see in your wallet. To see how much a whale has, go to the wallet of smooth or abit. Then look at yours. Big different right? So when whales exercise their freedom to act, a freedom we all enjoy, they are often criticized for not adhering to arbitrary criteria because what they do has much greater influence than minnows and even dolphins.
Take on board this simple fact: all are free to write posts and comments, vote up or down, according to their own wishes. There is no absolute metric for "high quality" posts, no consensus whether this matters, or even for what deserves a down vote (AKA flag). Higher influence does not come with more rules, i.e. great power does not come with great responsibly. It does however come with greater criticism. This is by design, those who do well are more visible and open to scrutiny. The design changes based on feedback and observation of what happens on Steem, and has changed significant ways 17 times already. Don't forget, this is beta (i.e. incomplete) software. It is all really an experiment.
We might see the high advantage of whales reduced in the future in just such a change, but for the moment what you are seeing is the tactic of shaming them to coerce their desired behavior. In my opinion this is a very normal social reaction and I would encourage you to find out about how Steem really works before you are discouraged by it, either by appearance of infighting (lack of unity), power disparity or receiving a flag for no reason. Stay and get involved!
Got some flags? 1Β’ rewards?
If you get a flag, this is normal. If you get a lot of low reward posts, this is normal. This is not a get rich quick scheme. If you stick around and make connections, and act in a sociallyβ acceptable way, you are likely to see your rewards increase. If you reject that, you may still do well. But if your focus is rewards you will be disappointed at some point. This is because rewards are proportional to popularity, especially popularity with larger stakeholders.
If you do start to do well, do not count on this trend continuing. This is a big mistake people make here, and it leads to feelings of entitlement. Always remember, because all are free to vote, regardless of stake (AKA influence in Steem Power) what was rewarded today may not be rewarded tomorrow.
Finally, my best practical tip is to comment on posts and get involved in the conversation. This will increase your visibility and show what you're made of quicker than via your own posts, which of course you should still write.
Disclaimer
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I'm not a spokespersonz for Steemit, and others may object to my advice here. But I'd challenge anyone to prove that this isn't realistic advice and at least dispelling several points of confusion.
Post-script
Yes this is shade for some established writers too π