Hello fellow Steem Vulcan,

I am sure communities, SMT's and RC's will make a difference to the ecosystem. It will be positive for sure.

Like you mentioned easier sign in is going to be key here. I have lost the interest of many when I go in the four different keys for Steem. Then they get onto to Steemit (which I am now not doing, but directing to steempeak instead) and they are lost in the sea of content. Plus the newbies have the expectation set by steemit, that they are going to earn for their content. This from the very outset and I think this is fatal and should be reconsidered. Again we all have experiences of people we know getting upset that their content wasn't earning to their set expectations. They most likely left.

Steem engine tribes have been out for a while now, but has that increased onboarding significantly? They didn't market their products, so I find it hard to listen to Steemit's logic that marketing/promotion isn't a priority. Additionally a lot of past users had a bad taste of Steem, cause they where under the impression it was only Steemit. We know the ecosystem has grown and evolved, but do they?

Steem needs to be promoted as Steem blockchain and not as a blogging site. I agree with you Dapps will make Steem successful.

Good luck with the weight loss as I know the feeling. I stopped drinking alcohol over a year ago and that shed the kilos off me. Processed food is everywhere and I do my best to avoid that too (not matter how good it tastes).