This article was orginally written for Hive, but it is also valid for Blurt!

In the post week I did read many post about the split between authors and curators. Currently it is in most communities a 50/50 split.
Some did add an extra corner to the relation, namely the investors. The question which does comes up to my mind, if those are really belong to the relation or not. To be honest I don't have the answer to this. Not the answer if a 50/50, 67/33 or 75/25 split is the best way to go forward.
Maybe it is an option to leave it up to the author. Just like they can choose to have the value of the post burned, do give a part of this to a beneficiary or keep it all to themselves.

But first let's assume we do have a blurt triangle. Who does have which role in it?

The authors

Let's first start with the ones who are adding some value to the blurt blogging part of this blockchain. The ones who are spending time to write a decent article. Let's assume that most do write a decent article. The quality of an article or if it is decent enough is always an extra debate.

My idea is that the post value isn't correlated with the quality of the article. Sometimes it is, mostly it isn't. The value of an article is mostly related to the blurt network of the author. The bigger the network the more chance on a bigger value, for sure if there are some big players in that specific network. We have to be honest and some authors could write a crappy article and still reel in more value than most of us will ever get.

But I am drifting, let's go back to the main topic of this article. These authors are spending time, without knowing what their blurt income will be. The ones with a longer track record could have done some math and will have an average post pay-out. In my case the average value of my posts is around 2.64. This is including the share for the other parties involved.

Most authors only write about the topics which are hot on blurt. Which mostly doesn't create real extra value for blurt outside blurt. Let me explain you why?
A great post, which decent SEO could be picked up by the search engines who do rule the internet. These post do attract people to a blurt blog, who are interested in the article but weren't aware that something like blurt did exist. Let's assume this is a great article but not a lot of blurt support. While this blurt newbie which is reading the article and does see a value below the post of $1 isn't getting enthusiast to create an account.
Let's assume that a post with an value of $40 is spotted by someone who didn't know blurt ! But this is a crappy post, yes we do still have such posts. This will make the blurt virgin enthusiastic to create an account. But when he/she does start posting reality will strike the author hard.

So besides adding value to the blockchain, the good articles can be seen as commercials for blurt. So the author suddenly also has become a marketeer for blurt.
But an author alone, can't do the trick. He does need support of the blurt community to become a marketeer and get rewarded for writing a splendid article. So he does need the curators! Being spotted by the curators is one of the hardest part here on the blurt blockchain. As a writer you will have to get noticed one way or the other.

So suddenly besides being an author and marketeer he/she also has to become a brand manager. Your blog on blurt is your brand. Your brand could be topic specific or more like a newspaper covering multiple topics, which of course will make it a lot harder to create a brand.

So suddenly we do have a triangle within the triangle. But wait, there is more. Besides being an author it is easier to getting noticed if the author also becomes a curator. It is important for the author that the overall brand of blurt is as strong as possible. Because with only articles of one author, blurt would be nothing.
But due to the fact that the author is also a brand manager and has to interact with the community, this is an easier role to fulfill.

But how does the author can become a good curator (value wise) if he doesn't invest his earnings in his brand. So besides the 4 other roles, he suddenly also has become an investor. The more power he/she has, the more value his curating votes will have, he can reward his customer with upvotes on comment and most important of all the more power he has in the complete blurt network.

So instead of a triangle within the triangle, we do have a pentagon within the triangle.
This does raise the question if the triangle is really a triangle or should this also be a pentagon?

The curators

Like written above we are all curators. We all have to tough task to reward the articles with a value they should deserve.

Not only is it a tough task to find the correct reward, but the tasks becomes even bigger to find content which does deserve their attention.

There are some curation groups doing a splendid job with trying to find that grain of sand in the desert which does deserve their attention.

Well aren't we all curators in one way or the other. But we may not forget that these groups do consist of people all with their own interest. This has a small negative side effect that great written articles, with such a quality that they could be listed for a Pulitzer prize, could be overseen due to not sharing interest with the curation groups. This is only human and will always have flaws.

I can't say it enough, the more diverse content we do have on this beloved blockchain, the better it is brand wise for Blurt . The combination of all this different content could become a wikipedia on it's own, a world newspapers with news from all over the world, opinions about every topic there is.
So the task for all of us is immense! We all are responsible for the Blurt brand and to keep the great authors on board.
But how many of us, do you use the search ability or try to find articles which are great but without our own interest zone? Not many, if we all would do this ones a day it would make an enormous difference.

Okay I have explained why the task of curator is so hard but also so important. But to have an impact as curator, we also have to be an investor.
So you can't be a curator without have a stake you own or having an investor backing you up. An investor which does trust to do well for the Blurt blockchain.

The investor!

Like I wrote in the author part of this way too long article. We are or should be all investors.
Besides buying up Blurt on the market and bring it towards the blockchain there are more ways to invest.
An authors does invest time into writing his article, so (s)he is a time inestor. Besides this the author could also invest his earnings.
A curator mainly is also a time investor, because being a great curator does take a lot of time. But he also does invest in the authors who do get rewarded. They are keeping the wheel of Blurt running around.

You also do have investors who do invest money into the blockchain but aren't interested in not writing or curating, they just want to make a profit on their investment, nobody likes to loose money.
This group does have multiple possibilities. Their first way of investing in just staking their power. Only by doing this they will get rewarded with a 3% APR. But of course they do want more. Because the value of their investment does fluctuate depending on the sentiment of the crypto world.
In the old days they could invest into voting bots, creating a daily income. These days, they could invest into Blurt tokens, buying Blurt mining tokens or delegating their power to curation groups which also does give them a daily revenue on their investment.

But regardless of what you do on this blockchain, you are an investor. An investor in the Blurt brand. If this brand get's bigger and bigger, the value of the investment will keep on increasing.
And if this situation occurs, people who are selling their Blurt on the markets are fueling the investment vehicle. Because without people who are willing to sell their share in the blockchain, there is no way investors could but a share of it!

Conclusion

Can there be a correct conclusion? We all do need each other, that's a fact. And I honestly I do think that a change in split of the rewards won't make a big difference. We did see that when the reward were brought down from 75/25 towards 50/50. And if there was an impact that the impact mostly hurt the small authors, suddenly see their income vaporize a little bit.

The only conclusion that I can make it that most of us here on the blockchain has to fulfill at least 3 or 4 from the 5 roles described in this article. We really have to see Blurt as brand and we are all responsible how this brand is seen by the outside world. This and only this way, Blurt will continue, Blurt will get bigger. This will have as a very nice and sweet side effect that the value will increase. And this will of course drip down to all tokens and communities on Blurt !

So pick your role, because we all have a role to play! We all are responsible for the future of Blurt . Not the authors, the curator or investors. Those are just name of the roles we all have to fill in.

Guess this post is long enough. Maybe it will give you something to think about during the weekend, maybe you will find it utterly bullshit, maybe you just like the post and move on. Regardless what you do, have a nice weekend!
I do think that this article is also valid for all communities with the Blurt ecosystem!

Cheers,
Peter