This is the last Steemit related post I will submit for a very long time.
I'm annoyed, but not for the reasons you're likely thinking. I've done fairly well on my posts. I don't mind chatting about Steemit. I'm very much into crypto and love reading about it as well. I enjoy the development topics, the nerd discussions and the #circlejerk overall. It's just my cup of tea - truth be told.
However, 99.9999% of the world doesn't give two shits!
The reason I'm taking the time to write this post is because, not only am I powered up and vested in the success of Steemit, but primarily because I genuinely want to see it succeed for the sake of the entire crypto ecosystem. And so should you!
Quick story
I was able to get my girlfriend to sign up for Steemit the other day which took a lot of convincing. However, Steemit has not been successful in keeping her around. She may come back one day, but may not. That's unfortunate, not for me or for her, or any personal reasons; not even because she has the most amazing things to say and you'd be missing out. Although, I think that could be the case for some.
The real reason is,
"Steemit isn't for me. None of the posts appeal to me. It's mostly people that are only interested in stuff you like, computer, internet stuff."
I'm not too proud or disillusioned to admit that she's right! And that it's a real issue that needs to be addressed. It doesn't need to be met with, "give it time", "that's just how it is", "we're taking it slow", "it's just the core users, the diversity will come", or whatever other excuse can be conjured up. These are all self-serving excuses that do not do the community a service as a whole.
These excuses are hurting the value of any STEEM you have or will have.
Steem only has speculative value. That's it! Without speculative value and a strong supply/demand market, the community will not survive, your STEEM will be worthless.
Now, I think the economics of STEEM and Steemit are borderline genius. Hats off to @dan and @ned and the rest of the Steemit team on this. I've already mentioned to a number of people in my circles how well it was designed, before the launch and it did exactly what it was designed to do. So, please do not misunderstand me here.
The genius and the problem is that it's based on speculative value.
What that means is that if people aren't continuing to speculate value within STEEM, the overall marketcap would drop. This would have subsequent sell-offs, albeit minimized by the, well designed, vesting of Steem Power. However, over time, it could completely diminish value and overall interest in STEEM and the traction that's been generated thus far.
So, you may say that speculation has been great and the value has sky-rocketed lately. I'd be amiss if I didn't completely agree with you. It has, and again, that's attributable to the economics of STEEM - well done. However, there is nothing keeping this from fading at this point, just slowly and painfully. And this is not what anyone wants to happen!
In order for continued speculative value to be created with Steemit, there has to be more people interested in owning STEEM for personal/business and/or financial reasons. Now, it could be said that there are plenty of other people involved in crypto that could continue to provide value. But I'd argue that's a very limited number, the valuation has already jumped a lot, and the crypto community likes to hedge a lot. Simply put, it's not the future and shouldn't be the focus, even in the short term.
Now, you may be saying, "Okay great dude, just get to the point - what are you proposing."
Well, I'm glad you asked, because it's quite simple really. You see, the issue is perception. When someone comes to steemit.com, the first thing they see is a list of posts. If those posts do not peak their interest in any way, they're likely to leave. You could say, "that's okay, we need engaged people that will contribute not window shoppers", but you couldn't be any more incorrect.
Steemit needs to engage as many people across as many diverse lines as possible, ultimately. Now, initially, it's great to have really devoted and engaged people within smaller "steems" (like sub-reddits?), that's the best way to grow any community. But right now, we have people talking about STEEM, STEEM, Crypto, and STEEM. #circlejerk Sure, there are some other articles about travel and a token makeup tutorial, etc. But the majority of the articles are about STEEM.
To someone coming to Steemit for the first time, an introduction could be nice, but for the most part anything more than that is overkill. And if they want to read more than that, they can dig into it. People need to be greeted with topics and details that they actually care about, topics that engage them, let them know they're welcome here, there is a place for them, a happy home with trees and flowers and chirping birds and basket weavers who sit and smile and twiddle their thumbs and toes. Their Steemit!
And that finally leads me to my proposal
Every new account created on Steemit should be required to choose (say) 5 different tags/topics. From those topics, their home feed would be automatically populated with posts related to just those topics. That's it.
This solves a number of other issues addressed recently
Aside from displaying content that is relevant to everyone that becomes a steemer, this solves a number of other recent concerns:
- Unfairness with SP weighting
- Everything will be more dynamic. So the SP up-voting will be more distributed for one, but will also be more abstracted, since what you see is related to what you're interested in. Therefore, what you post will be compared to fellow posts in similar steems. Additionally, the SP votes within these steems will be more distributed as well.
- Same posts get all the upvotes
- The home feed would be custom per steemer. So the votes will naturally spread out more. This creates more people getting more rewards, improving churn, engagement, and creating Steemit ambassadors in the process.
- Everyone writing about the same topics #sheeple
- This one is pretty clear. Because everyone sees certain topics getting upvoted, they write similar topics. And because the topics getting the most upvotes are ones that speak to the SP elite, they're naturally falling within certain similarly held topics. This is also changed because people are seeing a more diverse set of topics, so what they choose to write about is likely to be something within those topics, not the same thing as everyone else.
I'm sure there are some others that I'm leaving out here, but those reasons alone are good enough! Additionally, what I've proposed is 1 day of development work tops. It's a simple change that can make all the world of difference now and improve the community as a whole, taking Steemit to new heights.
As of now, I will be flagging all topics on the home feed that are Steemit related and aren't considered important for people to read. I do hope that the Steemit team will implement this simple change. However, until that point, I hope you'll consider joining me so that we can curate content that appeals to a more diverse set of steemers and improves the diversity and overall value of Steemit. Thank you!
Fine, upvoted because you've stimulated discussion and made an interesting proposal, but two points:
(1) Some newbies come here and get excited. Let them. I'm not going to rain on their party.
(2) Distinguish between circle jerk and informational postings. Yes, experienced users tire of the simple 'how to' stuff, but it is essential to have on the boards regularly. If you don't like it, ignore it, but don't downvote/flag it.
There is no stickied content and finding old posts is a pain in the ass. Yet we are getting hundreds to thousands of new people coming to the site daily. There is a demand for "how to" posts about how Steemit works. Yesterday, another writer posted some information about how the voting system works, and to see the types of comments he got in response proves to me that a ton of people genuinely didn't know (before reading his article) when they were supposed to be voting.
If you're downvoting that kind of content, then you doing a disservice to Steemit and to people who do not yet understand how to make the most of the opportunity it offers.
All valid points - almost talked about this. People can always click into a topic/"steem" for Steemit, or "Getting Started", etc. While that may not be obvious, in addition to this proposal, maybe stickied content, or a "Getting Started" topic should be added as well.
However, I do not think that because of this reason, the overall experience of steemers, new and old, should be compromised.
Yes, you are right, but from my discussions with others, it does not seem like very many people are really browsing the tags seriously enough yet. We should use them and we will (have to) use them as more content gets posted, but I am a little wary of relying on them at this point for people to find informational postings. We certainly do need stickied content; it would put me halfway out of a job (as a writer who has done far more 'how to' stuff than I ever wanted), but I'd support some stickies in a heartbeat.
I don't disagree - I think this is important as well. I absolutely do NOT want new users being lost or confused. The beginner experience is critical to the success and in everyone's best interest. I do think these two should be done in concert.
I respect your reasons for upvoting here, but I put serious work into the posts that @jacobt flagged. Whatever else your upvote does, it validates his abusive flagging.
Sorry for that - really. I did explain the reasoning for that - not that I don't consider it well done content. :/
Absolutely agree with the need for stickied content and a better user onboarding process.
Even if a user's first load of the site started with an "admin" tag of sorts that contained great how-tos and information posts, I think that would go a long way to getting users up to speed and increasing the value of their contributions faster.
If I could give this more than one vote I would. I'm a minnow so they don't count much anyway. At least not yet.
I am going to speak from the perspective of a new user who is not in the tech world and, frankly, I know little about crypto and I find the topic rather boring. What @jacobt has suggested is quite valid. He is suggesting that the new user experience be improved upon. And he is right. There are many social medias out there, why should anyone stick around on Steemit? I would go so far as to say that of the 250 that join each day another 250 or more don't bother and they don't come back. And they tell their friends to not bother.
I am only here because a whale shared so much enthusiasm I came in to see what it was about. Although I signed up early enough I did nothing with it and I'm okay with that. I may never do much with it. But back to the new user experience.....
I realize that Steemit is new and experiencing growing pains. However, feedback from users is valuable if Steemit (or anything for that matter) is serious about longevity. So here is mine:
Finding a user or a particular post is very difficult to do.
All of these issues come down to organization. How the site is organized. And this place needs some organization for sure. Steemit needs to hire me! LOL!
I plan to continue to visit for now and perhaps post some more but I am an older woman with patience and curiosity. I see that this could be the start of something wonderful.
Most people are not patient. And it WILL take people to make this work. Arguing that it is new or that the crypto/technology feed will drop away will not happen unless you get enough non-crypto/tech people to not only visit but to actually stay and become active.
Human nature is what it is and Steemit will not change that. Take some lessons from Facebook and other sites. You don't have to like them to learn from them.
Damn, I should have just made this a post! LOL!
I would give you a spiffy gif or something but I have to work at doing that and I'm too tired to bother tonight.
Thank you for the post @jacobt. You obviously hit a button with me! I seriously doubt that you and I are the only ones with these concerns.
Those are all valid points.
I'm writing about gardening stuff because it's my passion and I want to see more content.
That's the thing - write about what you know. You could be just the expert someone is looking for. These topics do hold great value for many, as long as we are not too distracted by being the "first" voters because that just encourages a "what's in it for me" mentality rather than taking the time to comment and add contributive discourse to the discussion.
That is the exact look some of my friends gave me after seeing this site...
Great ideas. Getting new people to customize their feed immediately would be a great way to ensure they see at least one or two things that interest them.
Flagging peoples posts is not the way to do it. A filter checklist for the default sub that blocks nsfw, steem*, rape, and politics by default would work better.
Flagging is the built in system for depreciating content. It is not just 'the way' to do it but the only way to do it. If the developers had something else in mind they should have offered it, or they should offer it.
Go throw a few downvotes around for stuff that is simply miscategorized by new users then. You'll find out why it's not a good idea pretty quick.
Its not mis-categorization I have an issue with. its shitposting and using your considerable marketing clout and steem power with a group of like minded malefactors to ensure your shit posting is profitable at the expense of good content.
I don't think I've downed a new user. There is a clear distinction between people trying to use the site and people gaming the technology.
Steemit really is a very ... shall we say 'limited' social media platform. It lacks most (all) of the features we'd demand from a platform if we weren't crypto peeps or already making serious dosh from early adopter position.
For steemit to gain any serious ground as a social media platform its going to need to implement social media tools very quickly. The currency feature is a novelty but it wont last. Especially when we watch the way content is being favored.
I agree with this entirely. Steemit needs to implement some way to truly customize and build a community. What I've noticed is that the potential subversive value of Steemit is being missed out on entirely right now. The posts that are being rewarded financially are the same kinds of posts that get rewarded in the "real world". The posts that engage heterosexual bro-dudes, etc. I want to see this community grow to embrace all walks of life. All kinds of people. This place could be hugely subversive to the financial reward systems as they exist currently, but right now it's just feeding the same old/same old things that get rewarded everywhere else. If it continues on that path then it's lost the coolest potential it ever had--overthrowing the system.
The point about the 5 suggested tags when people signup makes total sense. Has this not been implemented yet?
Your proposal for requiring people to choose categories is a little extreme; however, it would be excellent if people were allowed to choose categories and then a recommender system gave people a personalized page. All good, and I'd love to see it done.
But come on - flagging posts just because they don't make the front page look the way you want it to look? Not cool. Not cool at all. But, I guess running a social media service on a blockchain means we have to live with people being jerks. I'll write a game theory article on it. ;)
I realize that my downvoting my seem like I'm being a jerk. However, it's been said and intended for that to be used for other purposes aside from the content being bad or abuse of the system. In my opinion, those articles don't need to surface as such, and therefore, the tool designed to address that is the flag.
I'm aware that makes me look like a jerk. That's not my intent, despite what it seems.
Downvoting because you're 2-1/2 months late with this and it's been said 42 times already. You're basically doing what you're complaining about. You picked a topic that's been beat to death and you capitalized on it. Congrats!
This is nothing original, just regurgitated tripe I spewed months ago when I invented the reverse #circlejerk. I should have copyrighted it. =b
certainly don't claim to have "invented" the #circlejerk. I've been saying for this a while as well. I think we even chatted about it in Slack. However, I knew I wasn't going to be able to reach as many people without putting it all into a thorough post. So, I did that.
Well, that's fair I guess. What's done is done, I've now received my payout that you reduced. :)
But let's be very clear: you are penalizing content creators for the inadequacies of the site's design.
I understand that. I suggest writing content for the site that benefits the community at large and overall progress instead of appealing to all the nerds here today for some coin. That's my point. I realize that it comes across as vindictive, but it does have a purpose that I do see as valid.
Thanks for the advice, but I'm not going to abandon my popular project in order to conform to your narrow view of what's appropriate for the community. I'll write out of my expertise; that happens to be the intersection of computer science and game theory.
FWIW, I don't know why you annoy me so much - you actually sound pretty reasonable and decent.
I love this! People need to branch out! I've been writing about my life, art, reviews on products and other stuff! I hope others will join too! I do like the Steemit how to posts, for those who are confused and need help. But I think we need to dig deep and read the other posts about a variety of subjects!
I'm writing about self-publishing and my photography work. Yes, I've had a few post about Steemit. There is other good content out there, as more people join it will be noticeable I think.
ya 100% agree with you. Ive noticed the same thing and made a post a qhile back about it. steemit currently is only catering for so many different people. I said we need to be able to filter content to show only things we are interested in. But maybe the 5 categories will work.
Nice post though, take my up vote.
There is a 'recommended' button on the dropdown menu.
Yea, actually saw that the other day. I don't think it's obvious, took me a while before I found it. This same filter could be used though.
I know its not the last of the Mahicans but it will do for beta.
Thank you! I haven't seen this.
I completely understand I am also feeling frustrated at the fact that the only posts that you tend to see are the trending ones and then you get stuck with seeing the same posts over and over again while many posts that could be good go unseen. I think they need a sort of rotation that takes place or give every other place trending so you would have high trending and then low volume posts in the list and this would give a better algorithm. Better navigation perhaps as well
Thanks for writing this, I wrote something along the same vein here, but focused more on how we can make steemit a valuable community (and avert devolving into a collection of posts about steemit/crypto and sexy ladies). https://steemit.com/steemit/@pieter/the-3-key-points-in-creating-value-on-steemit-and-anywhere-else
It is of course ironic to talking about not talking about steemit too much while talking about steemit, but so be it. :)
I think one of the main issues is the little, or sometimes big number underneath the posts.
Lots of people are just jealous that they didn't know that they could easily create a simple 5 minute video with a 20euro webcam and no other investments than a bit of time to make a years worth of salary Or that they didn't think of that specific meme.
So if people don't know about the sum of money a post generates I believe that the focus will go back to the content. This would at least remove some of the hate and pathetic posts around here.
I am still very new to the site, but my passions stem beyond the scope of just a handful of topics. I would hate to be "forced" into given topic in such a way. With that said, I love the post and do agree that from what I have seen it does look to be a bit of a #CircleJerk around these parts :P
Good proposal, that "choose 5 topics" thing. Could really help making steemit interesting for everyone.
Yes, and you do need to force people to choose them. Otherwise, new users will skip that and not get the experience they could, then they won't get it. I've learned, over time and through experience running a company, that ultimately users don't really know what's best for them many times (this doesn't always hold true).
I like the idea of choosing five topics that you'd be served on your open page, instead of the "trending" that we get now. I'd rather see what I'm actually interested in up front and CHOOSE to go look at what others are interested in by clicking on a "trending" page. I know Steemit is in beta, but I hope they are really looking at ways to improve community experience, ways to retain users and make it easy to build a community based on interests rather than the insane free-for-all it now. Also, yeah, I'll reiterate what I said in a comment above, I'm growing tired of seeing the subversive potential of this community fail utterly--the rewards are going mainly to the same kind of content that gets rewarded everywhere else.
Wow I really appreciate your original thought, taking the time and editing is a lot so I appreciate it.
It's a conversation we need to have. If I didn't already care about steemit, and I saw the first few posts.... Let's just say I wouldn't be back. Self-referential humor is cool, and it builds community... Excitement is understandable.. But what do we have to offer?
Accounts are seeded with what... 3 SP now? That has absolutely no voting power and no reward for voting. It's technically almost $10 on a market nobody can access.... To a lot of people, that's going to seem deceptive.
The way content is promoted by a relatively small number of users who happen to have been able to amass a lot of tokens when they were cheap is a real problem that we have to overcome. It's fairly arbitrary, and their interests are necessarily narrow, due to their financial incentives and their emotional investment.
Ultimately we need to find a way to actualize the democratizing potential of the platform. That means beginning to flatten the distribution of rewards and allow for a diverse range of content to flourish.
It's cool that @berniesanders can touch a comment and give somebody $800 bucks. But it's also a joke, right? On a bunch of different levels... But perhaps most importantly, it's distorting the market. If the incentives are designed in such a way as to promote the best content, then it should be left up to the users of the site to decide what that is. Arbitrary preferences of individuals shouldn't hold that much more sway than a thousand new users who find their contributions to be insignificant and unappreciated.
Since joining the community, I've tried to tell people that we need to offer something more than a quick buck. If the only thing we offer is the ability to make some money, we might as well pack it up and go home. The money is nice right now, but it's not going to last if the only people we draw in are here for their piece of the pie.
This probably won't be popular with the whales, but they are not that important and their judgement is not distinctly better than the rest of the user base. It's arbitrary and distorting to have content rewarded the way it is now, and it should be re-evaluated as soon as possible.
I was originally concerned that this was going to be a five sentence shitpost, but color me pleasantly surprised when I opened it up to find an actual thoughtful post.
We definitely need to get other topics heated up, and by that I don't mean the entire community upvoting a makeup tutorial. There are so many different topics and so many of us that we should have no problem generating diverse content and getting it going.
I’ve proposed an automagical algorithmic solution:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@anonymint/improving-steem-s-rankings-to-cater-to-diverse-content-preferences
I agree on the basic idea. Im a newb here, but since the very beginning what i thought was: "This need a better categorization".
If the frontpage is like a news channel, or we have a nice-dynamic responsive IA-powered (like TheGrid.io, when its completed... ;-) Tons more of people will find this medium useful. And traffic, references, cross links and overall hype is what will fuel the desires of all of us to construct more, better, longer and more substantial posts. Circle complete ^_^
Ha Ha ha.... He's annoyed because Steemit officially went public July 4th, and in 12 days it doesn't suit his girlfriend.
...and the fact it is that this is still in BETA....
Give it a year, and then decide. It's amazing how much people want "for nuthin"...
Steemit is FREE to use. It's a NEW project. It will find it's following eventually. Give it time.
If you feel the concerns aren't valid state that. If you don't agree with the proposal state that. If you want to take a back seat, do that.
The proposal is a day of dev work that solves a lot of problems - that's the point. Things take time, some things have higher values than others, etc, etc. This is a relatively easy addition that fixes a lot of issues.
Really? Then why don't you volunteer your time to help code it, since you're so sure that this is a "relatively easy addition".
Do you have prior experience coding such a large scale system like this? Things that "seem easy" may not be easy. It's not just technical perspectives. There's also social and political perspectives and other things that need to be addressed. Also since steem is a decentralized chain, it requires consensus which also takes time.
What really annoyed me is you're cynical view of the problems and how you've threaten to no longer post. For every 1 person that walks out the door, there's 250 coming in. Like any new "early bird" system, there always has to be the select few naysayers about how this won't work.
I bet you when Facebook first came out, there were people who groaned "oh god! whats this? a facebook? oh please. This is so stupid. no one will ever join. Facebook will go nowhere". They must have heard this thousands of times in the early days.
While some of your concerns are valid. Referring to people involved in steem as being the equivalent of a "circle jerk" is not only crude, but downright insulting. Aka, my response.
Here's one for you: This is my "last reply" on your post. I don't want to circle jerk with you either. How's that a nice way of conveying a thought? I just learned it from you.
Not sure why you're taking this post personally. I never referred to people taking part in Steem as anything in particular. I am one of those people. Do not take offense. I do want to clear a couple things up.
Technically you made sense on certain issues. But when you talk about circlejerking, it clouds what you're trying to say.
Then you added the "WTF is this shit" meme, which adds to the class even more.
Finally you are already eluding to how worthless steem will be, how in its current state it is doomed to fail. If anyone contradicts you, you label what they say as "excuses". You did that in the post, and you did it as replies too.
Steem is organic. It is growing and developing. We're all learning how to use the system, and that includes the developers themselves. Growing pains are inevitable, and it is not because of excuses.
I think with a little more patience and appreciation of where this can go, make your points. But please stop referring to this as one big circlejerk. It's just wrong.
@intelliguy the Steemit posts are the #circlejerk, not Steemit itself.
Oh boy, where do i start.
"However, there is nothing keeping this from fading at this point, just slowly and painfully. And this is not what anyone wants to happen!"
This is at least level 2 on the contradiction scale.
'Steem only has speculative value. That's it! Without speculative value and a strong supply/demand market, the community will not survive, your STEEM will be worthless."
According to economics I can say this exact quote about (instert anything here).
"However, 99.9999% of the world doesn't give two shits!"
Highly assumptive are we?
"These excuses are hurting the value of any STEEM you have or will have."
Should I lol or lmao, your choice.
"I'm not too proud or disillusioned to admit that she's right!"
Your girlfriend is right. Right!!! (s/)
"Every new account created on Steemit should be required to choose (say) 5 different tags/topics. From those topics, their home feed would be automatically populated with posts related to just those topics. That's it."
Do you know what decentralized mean?
I could go on but it looks like the sheeple are voting you up ( i did as well).
Steemit.com is not decentralized. The blockchain is. Steemit.com is an experience on top of the blockchain.
Just throwing you a bone, no biggie.
You have some valid concerns. However, I look at steemit as a much bigger platform that will evolve into something beyond what we are currently seeing. Participation and contribution will pay rewards for those who put in the work.
While valid, I would point out that it should be expected at a low user count. Girls make more money right now, later on guys might when a female population shows.
Some people might walk in here and drop 10k to become an instant sensation.
I get the frustration, I really do. I think over time with more users coming it will even itself out on it's own.
This is another one of those excuses though. My proposal is very simple, minimally invasive and solves this issue.
All that sounds good except for flagging posts.
To be honest, development topics are not great here, too. Unfortunately, steemit is not even close to Reddit and/or HN yet.
I don't know why. Is it because there are not enough developers? Or because this kind of topics are not paid off.
I think there are a lot of reasons, but blockchain tech is quite different from development as a whole. Not everyone is a developer for sure. You have a lot of "users"/miners/traders, etc. Sure, some of us are developers as well, but I don't think that's the majority.
May I join? Well, of course you are right, but you proposal is like stumbleupon works, I believe steemit could be diferent.
Listen, if steem ask for a post on registration? It could be like a tutorial how to blog in steemit and once inside the front page would presents #my_tags list.
Does it make sense?
umad
no umad! :)
Awesome article!
It's a chicken and egg problem. Early adopters of any technical platform tend to be tech-minded people with technical interests. Even so, we're beginning to see more and more beauty and travel articles appearing, and that will eventually broaden out into a more diverse array of interests as people who stay for those will foray into new territory.
It's cliche, but it does take time.
Yes, it takes time, but that doesn't mean that everyone shouldn't have a concerted effort to fix this issue. Unlike most other platforms, Steemit is designed to have wide appeal - that needs to be adopted by everyone and pushed.
Additionally, my proposal basically fixes this issue.
Very valid points and the reply made by tarindel is along the lines of what I was thinking. Steemit and steem in it's self is a very geek-central 'thing' and it's going to first be inhabited by the culture which surrounds it but that said, & provided development keeps pushing forward to widen the bridge then I see Steemit taking off in a big way. This thing is still in it's infancy and stuff needs to be figured out and I am confident it will be. I can't say I agree with some of your suggestions as far as the segregation of topics and so-forth but I think ultimately what is going to happen is people will eventually fall into their own niches naturally and we will begin to see a much more broad spectrum of content. I was actually thinking of writing a post on this matter myself very soon and I'm probably going to do it. It was a great post and the points you bring up are very valid. I think all we can do right now is see where it goes and help it along the way as seems to be the overall message of your post from the very beginning.
How do people fall into their niches naturally when you land on the page and see a list of irrelevant topics. Keep in mind that new users aren't going to be as diligent as you'd think. Most users spend very little time on a new site or service before moving on if they don't find what they like/want.
This issue is no different from any service/startup/software, etc.
You put in the work and time..you get paid! How awesome is that? This is the difference. Yes, the payouts do seem crazy, but that is the way it is.
I signed up back in May and didn't put the work in. This cost me in earnings, all my fault. I had the same opportunity but didn't put the work in. So, now i can't be mad because smooth is voting himself a $217 reward . I will say this, when I initially came on board and made some post, I felt like it wasn't a fair system.
Looking back, I didn't put the time in to understand how to maximize this opportunity. I unfairly judged the community and the platform my first time around. Now I'm putting the work in to make money.
@instructor2121, I think you mis-interpreted what was being said. No one is complaining here about the time spent and payouts.
I here ya. It is a little disconcerting when two-thirds of the post on the main page are all about Steemit. BUT (and this is a big but), I've been here for about a month and I have to say that my favorites posts are usually about...you guessed it...Steemit. Why? Because this thing is both addicting and different. It's like nothing that has ever existed before. It's taken me a month of reading to just begin to get my mind around it. And, contrary to your suggestion, I think there's a lot of noobs here who are EXACTLY like me in that regard. They want to read and learn about Steemit. To some degree, the more we feed that beast the better.
Having said that, I do go out of my way to vote up unrelated content, and I think all dolphins and whales need to make a concerted effort to do the same.
Very valid points here! I don't disagree. I'd just like to take those posts off the homepage and if you want to read about them, you can dive into the topic and read all about it.
If we had stickies as @donkeypong suggested with a welcome/getting started/intro that mentioned digging into that section, I think that still gets the job done without sacrificing some of the other mentioned benefits that could come from the proposal.
Good thoughts. Perhaps rather than the trending page showing all posts ranked in order of their trend it should show the top two or three posts in each category/tag ranked by order of trend. That would ensure more diversity on the trending page.
Yep. My proposal is that we get people to just choose those category/topics. So what you said, with the ability to choose those topics instead of them being chosen for you.
I share some of the same concerns. But, as I wrote in a recent post, YouTube content creators are going to start seriously poring into steemit to monetize their subscriber base, which will massively diversify the trending articles and change the appeal to general audiences to be the same as YouTube … except now you can get paid for interacting with your favorite content creators.
Check it here https://steemit.com/steemit/@shayne/youtube-will-dominate-steemit
I actually expect we'll see a Steem based UI for video soon. Something that competes directly with youtube.
good post.. thanks for sharing
yes
How much money have you made directly from your content on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit? :-P
Agreed, most of the topics on steemit are useless to me too. I don't give a damn fuck about people presenting themselves, steemit bimbos or dudes wearing bikinis or make up trying to make a buck.
I want to read topics that i'm interested in only, stuff that i really care about. Internet marketing, photography, hobbies to try, activities to try, stock market, nanotech, etc. And other people will be interested in other stuff. Good for them, but i don't want stuff that i don't care about to show on my screen.