I'm building a social network that is tied to Facebook, we launched a month before your site, so I have some feedback. Steemit has some strong points that move me to bid long term, yet there are things that should be fixed soon.
For example Retention, it is a great metric, yet it would be discouraging if not measured correctly. So what is your definition of "active user"? Or even ask: What kind of user activity fuels this platform? So you can report high user activity, but if users don't contribute value, then you got a worst problem.
Other big issue you guys have is to make it more clear how exactly people can spend STEEM, otherwise it will all keep feeling like a SCAM, the easier you make for people to spend their money, the stronger you'll get. That is a mistake I see happening in many other crypto projects and social networks, which only leads to frustration and miscommunication.
Hope this helps!