Hello Steemians, I’m @andrarchy, the new Head of Communications and Advocacy for Steemit, Inc. But today, I don’t want to talk about me or my plans, I want to talk about the importance of eating dog food. Specifically, your own dog food.

No one knows exactly how the term “eating your own dog food” originated. In the 1980s, commercials for Alpo dog food always had their pitchman point out that he fed Alpo dog food to his own dogs. Others say the term came from the President of Kal Kan Pet Food who would, supposedly, eat a can of the company’s dog food at the annual shareholders meeting.

For those who prefer a video version of this content:

Delighting Users

What matters for us is not the origins of this concept, but the fact that the entire software industry has long since adopted this phrase to mean the standard practice of using one’s own products. The question is not so much whether one should dogfood, but the right way to dogfood.

Steemit’s Unique Challenges

At Steemit, we are faced with a unique set of challenges that have complicated the issue of proper dogfooding. As the authors of the open source software that powers steemit.com (called Condenser), there are certainly a plethora of ways that we can use our product that do not necessitate the acceptance of rewards.

Two Products

However, steemit.com is not our only product. We are also the architects of the Steem blockchain protocol and the primary developers behind updates to that protocol. Unlike most blockchain projects, our mission has always centered around building a blockchain protocol that was capable of powering real web applications from the moment it launched. That’s why we released steemit.com around the same time we released the Steem blockchain; to show off what it could do.

Scaling

It wasn’t long before steemit.com took off and we had our hands full developing a state-of-the-art front end while simultaneously updating a state-of-the-art back end to keep up with that rapid growth. At the same time, the crypto bull market provided us with plenty of capital to support that development. During that phase of growth, declining rewards did not seem like an issue. But times have changed. We now know the important role that steemit.com plays in the Steem ecosystem and the importance of making the user experience on this site as pleasurable as possible. We have an amazing and trustworthy team that has made rapid progress under challenging circumstances. If they are allowed to use this platform as freely as any user, that progress will be made even faster.

That’s why I plan to encourage Steemit team members to accept rewards on steemit.com, and Steem generally. While steemit.com is certainly important, it is only important inasmuch as it shows off what the Steem blockchain can do and steemit.com is no longer the only application flexing Steem’s muscles. Steemit, Inc. team members need to be free to use any Steem application if they are going to understand the needs of app developers and the users of their apps.

Appreciating Our Position

We understand our privileged position within this ecosystem and we have to be vigilant about maintaining an open dialogue both within the company and within the community about what is appropriate Steem usage for Steemit team members. It is my hope that this post will be the beginning of that conversation, not the end of it.

At the same time, however, I believe it is important that we not be too restrictive. One of Steem’s unique value propositions is that it is an open source protocol that rewards content creators in valuable cryptocurrency tokens. There are countless platforms that Steemit team members can use to publish our content for no rewards and there are many with more users.

Real-Time User Feedback

But there is only one platform on which we can publish our content and receive rewards based entirely on the votes of our users, and that is the platform we created. It’s not possible to “eat our own dog food” without taking advantage of the one feature that makes our product unique and that has the added benefit of providing us with direct feedback from our users. No other platform has the ability to tell us in real time exactly how valuable they believe our contributions to be. For that reason, it is important that we try not to limit our use of the platform unduly, for the more we do so, the more we deprive Steemit team members of valuable feedback.

The more restrictive we are with our ability to dogfood, the less inclined we will be to use our product and the more disconnected we will become from the Steem user base. For that reason, I do not believe that we should attempt to develop complex systems or rule sets to govern our usage of the platform, but instead leave it to social norms that result from our interactions with one another through the platform as members of the Steem community.

Trusting Steem?

Either Steem has everything necessary to enable its users (including Steemit team members) to self-regulate, or someone must add the features necessary to enable that self-regulation. The only way to learn what those features are is for the people developing those solutions to use them freely.

More Than Dogfooding

While this article covers what I believe to be the most important justifications for Steemit team members to have free usage of the Steem blockchain (which would include accepting rewards), I also believe that there are other reasons that are less tangible but potentially equally as important. To me, Steem doesn’t just reward content creators, it helps to build storytellers and I believe that storytelling is a priceless skill.

The Importance of Storytelling

Few people are naturally inclined to storytelling. The fact that our compensation is almost never directly tied to our ability to tell stories causes this skill to go underdeveloped in so many of us. The tragedy is that there are almost no occupations in which the ability to tell compelling stories around what you are doing is not a tremendous competitive advantage. In fact, I believe that there is arguably no more important skill in life than the ability to tell stories that capture people’s attention and makes them excited about what you are trying to do to make things better. For me this is one of the little-known “killer apps” of Steem; it rewards people for developing the most valuable life-skill imaginable.

Feedback Welcome

But what do you think? As I wrote earlier, this should be a collaborative process. We need to know how our users feel about everything we are doing. It is my hope that this encouragement will lead our team members to use this platform in a way that gives users a more direct insight into what they are working on. More importantly, I hope it encourages them to share why they are doing what they’re doing. What are their motivations, and what are they trying to accomplish? Do you agree? Let me know in the comments section below!

@andrarchy
Head of Communications and Advocacy

P.S. I plan to use whatever SBD I earn on this post to support community-led efforts.