# Earlier today I read a post from @Hilarski where he proposes a [referral program](https://steemit.com/steemit/@hilarski/steemit-referral-program-and-incentives#@hilarski/re-zorg67-re-hilarski-steemit-referral-program-and-incentives-20161224t205819396z). ![](https://pixabay.com/get/e835b6072af2063ed1584d05fb094592e47fe2d11dac10459df2c77ba4edb4bd/money-1078267_1280.jpg) Below is an excerpt from the article: *"What is the biggest problem we have as a platform? Frankly **it is the difficulty of using it.** Many people who are not technical come to Steemit, try to post and get frustrated because it is not intuitive like other social networks. Now imagine if I was vested in the success of that new user. I would feel more obliged to help them with their first few posts. The problem is that it takes time to teach people. Most people, 95% in fact will not make the effort to learn on their own like we did."* My response was: *"I am against referrals. There is a set amount of Steem created every day. That would take away a piece of the pie that could be used to pay content creators and curators."* Hilarski's reply was: *"Referrals as part of the profits of the content generated by the new writers. If they are good the referrer does well. If they don't perform they earn nothing."* I was writing a long reply so I figured that it's better to make a post about it...So here it is: ![](https://pixabay.com/get/e836b60c2bf2023ed1584d05fb094592e47fe2d11dac10459df2c77ba4efb4b1/hands-1373363_1280.jpg) Taking part of the profits is still taking a piece of the pie from the the reward pool allocated to the content generators. Currently there are 5 categories of participants that get paid from the network: 1-Content generators. 2-Curators. 3-SP holders. 4-SBD holders. 5-Witnesses & miners. A referral program would add another category. The payment to the referrers needs to come from somewhere: a)From the general reward pool or, b)from the rewards earned by the content generators that were referred. With the first option someone in the above list needs to take a pay cut. With the second option we would end up with 2 types of content generators: 1-Those who pay a royalty to the person that referred them. 2-Those that earn full rewards. Having 2 classes of content creators will lead to a perception of inequality and could divide the community. If it's done voluntarily by some sort of smart contract I would not have any problem with it. Let's say a mentoring program where you agree to pay part of your rewards for x amount of time or x amount of posts to who is on-boarding you to the platform. But there would need to be full disclosure of all the options *including the fact that you can sign up without a referral* **but...** ## <center>If the main argument is that Steemit is difficult to use (as shown above) then the solution is simple:</center> ## <center>***Make a better interface not a referral program***</center> Images from [Pixabay](https://pixabay.com/)
post_id | 1,619,524 |
---|---|
author | zorg67 |
permlink | response-to-hilarski-s-proposal-for-referrals |
category | steemit |
json_metadata | "{"format": "markdown", "links": ["https://steemit.com/steemit/@hilarski/steemit-referral-program-and-incentives#@hilarski/re-zorg67-re-hilarski-steemit-referral-program-and-incentives-20161224t205819396z", "https://pixabay.com/"], "app": "steemit/0.1", "tags": ["steemit", "incentive", "ideas", "referrals"], "users": ["hilarski"], "image": ["https://pixabay.com/get/e835b6072af2063ed1584d05fb094592e47fe2d11dac10459df2c77ba4edb4bd/money-1078267_1280.jpg"]}" |
created | 2016-12-24 23:52:42 |
last_update | 2016-12-24 23:52:42 |
depth | 0 |
children | 1 |
net_rshares | 1,929,984,066,236 |
last_payout | 2017-01-25 04:44:57 |
cashout_time | 1969-12-31 23:59:59 |
total_payout_value | 0.066 SBD |
curator_payout_value | 0.020 SBD |
pending_payout_value | 0.000 SBD |
promoted | 0.000 SBD |
body_length | 3,010 |
author_reputation | 351,200,847,744 |
root_title | "Response to Hilarski's proposal for referrals" |
beneficiaries | [] |
max_accepted_payout | 1,000,000.000 SBD |
percent_steem_dollars | 10,000 |
author_curate_reward | "" |
voter | weight | wgt% | rshares | pct | time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
hr1 | 0 | 1,400,765,617,396 | 100% | ||
boombastic | 0 | 337,166,812,433 | 100% | ||
bingo-1 | 0 | 937,224,694 | 100% | ||
fyrstikken | 0 | 142,829,850,412 | 10% | ||
rubybian | 0 | 37,785,756,272 | 100% | ||
onthewayout | 0 | 3,187,780,301 | 100% | ||
alex.chien | 0 | 672,395,033 | 100% | ||
jlufer | 0 | 2,893,601,390 | 100% | ||
fyrst-witness | 0 | 1,401,531,085 | 10% | ||
zorg67 | 0 | 2,343,497,220 | 100% | ||
barvon | 0 | 0 | 100% |
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post_id | 3,245,970 |
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author | steemitboard |
permlink | steemitboard-notify-zorg67-20170531t222616000z |
category | steemit |
json_metadata | "{"image": ["https://steemitboard.com/img/notifications.png"]}" |
created | 2017-05-31 20:26:30 |
last_update | 2017-05-31 20:26:30 |
depth | 1 |
children | 0 |
net_rshares | 193,936,817,694 |
last_payout | 2017-06-07 20:26:30 |
cashout_time | 1969-12-31 23:59:59 |
total_payout_value | 0.366 SBD |
curator_payout_value | 0.119 SBD |
pending_payout_value | 0.000 SBD |
promoted | 0.000 SBD |
body_length | 628 |
author_reputation | 38,705,954,145,809 |
root_title | "Response to Hilarski's proposal for referrals" |
beneficiaries | [] |
max_accepted_payout | 1,000,000.000 SBD |
percent_steem_dollars | 10,000 |
author_curate_reward | "" |
voter | weight | wgt% | rshares | pct | time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
kaylinart | 0 | 184,722,694,635 | 62% | ||
soushi888 | 0 | 9,214,123,059 | 100% |