First, credit where credit is due- I noticed notification badges on the Steem website today(!)
They aren't perfect (the new content is not visually distinct from existing content, but it's a start).
Happy to see the evolution. Props to the team.
Second, and related: Let's talk about email notifications.
The other day I was browsing accounts to consider following, when I noticed many hadn't posted in a while (nothing wrong with that, many of us lurk even if we aren't posting). But by poking around the rest of their profile, it became clear that they probably hadn't logged in a while, either. (Again, not fatal.)
Dormant followers should know they're not forgotten
If I followed a dormant account, would they ever know? I wasn't just thinking on my own behalf (an opportunity for a follow-back), but on Steem's behalf- when a dormant user finds out about a new follower, it's an opportunity to revisit the platform.
And me seeing a good post from two months ago from somebody who hasn't logged in since, and following that user, seems like a missed opportunity for Steem to get that user to reconsider things. (Similarly- if I upvoted their content, with or without a follow, would be cool for them to find out about it.)
Watching out for noise and abuse
I want to make it clear I don't think it's a tragedy for people not to constantly be online/stay away from social platforms. Probably we could all benefit from being online a little less, even on Steem. :D
But what it is unfortunate is a user assuming nobody was reading/paying attention to their work, and abandoning Steem based on that misperception.
It's entirely possible there's a specific reason Steem doesn't do (opt-out) email notifications. But given that some form of them is done by every social major platform, especially ones getting their sea legs, I'd really love to read any thinking on this.
I also want to make clear I appreciate how these things can be abused by bad actors. But lucky for new platforms, most established platforms have solved these problems. For example, did you know if you "mass follow" a bunch of accounts in a short period of time Twitter will NOT send an email to all of them on your behalf? (Twitter doesn't necessarily think you're a spammer, or stop your follow from going through. It just (correctly) decides sending an email notification about all of them is not so meaningful.)
Growth Engineering
This idea of using mechanism design for marketing/growth has sometimes been called "growth hacking." That (rightfully) has a lot of douchebag connotations (plus, it can mean a ton of different things, some technical, some not.)
I've noticed an adjacent field called "growth engineering" that is a little less of a mess. (Though like other stuff that gets popular, its meaning will probably drift and get exploited by hypesters. Circle of life. :D)
If you're interested in this stuff, here is a great talk by Pinterest about how they decide to throttle up/throttle down email frequency for every user. (The first half of the video is about Pinterest email.)
(And here is blog post where Pinterest added a bit of context.)
Looks like they are doing a lot with Steemit to improve and help facilitate it's growth. I wonder what that will mean for the early adopters who've been here for a while...