The importance of community building on Steem
So, I'm staring in awe about how steem fortunes seem to have changed simply by the addition of the Korean exchange as noted by @acidyo here: https://steemit.com/exchange/@acidyo/upbit-recently-listed-steem-krw-and-sbd-krw.
It was an immediate overnight success!
or was it?
The whole thing takes a massive community building effort. The Koreans on the platform make up roughly 6 percent of the activity on the platform. That didn't just happen. It happens through community building and ensuring a portion of rewards goes to a segment of the population such that they experience some success. The overnight success was really a 1-2 year saga about building a Korean community on the Steem block chain. It appears to me to have been spear headed by @slowwalker and @clayop. I wrote a brief thank you note, but I really want to hone in how important getting that exchange on board and building the community behind that which made us all richer and more successful.
Witnesses come in two flavors
I often talk about two types of witnesses: programmers and social. The social folks are those that build communities. I started off in Frystikken's steemspeak. I interacted in Fuzzy's whaleshares. I figured out that building community is central to the needs of the platform. Those communities start off generally as a bunch of riff raff trying to pull their shit together or just clowning around on the internet, but eventually ties start to form, plans get made, tools get built, friends get called in, buzz gets created, an exchange adds our token, and suddenly the Koreans are purchasing $8M worth of Steem.
Good content is subjective
I keep hearing that "90% of Steem is spam" from people. I think it just really means that 90% of posts aren't what I'm interested in. "Content is bad here..." I mean, I find plenty of shit that I like when I have time to read it. Trending might be a little wonky frequently, but you can find good articles, and entertaining reads. I haven't once looked back at Facebook thinking, oh I really miss that place and all the amazing content. It was 90% shit I don't care about or more. I think it really just has to do with we are really only interested in super focused things. Until you join the perfect community made of perfectly like minded people and you're all sharing a community feed I think you're gonna be stuck wading throuh stu you don't like. So, I'm not seeing the same lack of good content others are... I just don't think a blogging platform geared for the whole world is focused on exactly on what I want nor should it be.
To get a good news feed from Facebook I would follow all the people that I found had content that I liked and then literally sit there for hours trying to find the articles that appealed to me. Steem is no different in that regard. You gotta work to find the content that appeals directly to you... now yeah, we're missing a real search feature on the block, but I'm betting utopian can fix that before long.
We need more audience
I think we are missing some audience though. I have a friend who is a painter. She writes about painting on a painting specific community posting board. She gets thousands of views... she doesn't make any money, but she gets thousands of views. I think we have to find better ways to engage our audience and pull people here. That's where the recent post by @bex-dk is critical that talks about adding value with our work and also @roxane who talked about a way to force Steemit to feed your other social media.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@bex-dk/adding-value-to-steemit
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@roxane/how-do-you-automatically-publish-your-steemit-posts-on-your-social-networks-with-zapier
This audience isn't gonna magically appear. We all have to work to build it, and I'll get to work on that zapier thing to push my content to my other shitty sites.
"Steemit looks ugly"
As for Steem and the steemit.com interface known as condenser there's always going to be something else it needs. There's not going to be one solution that solves all the needs for all the people. Eventually we're going to have to have 60 skins like Nightmode, but different layouts for people with different interests. You'll get your chainbb flavor, busy flavor, dmania flavor, and a million other flavors because people don't want the same thing. So, one man's perfect website is another man's shithole. What I'm saying that a perfect steemit.com website is subjective too.
We need people
The one thing that isn't subjective is that if we want Steem to grow we need more people. It's that simple. We need some folks focused on pulling in organizations, schools, churches, classes, businesses and friends. That's what will make this place have more content in the flavors you want, more tools to do the thing you need, and more value because more goods and services will be produced on a platform that has negligible inflation (compared to fiat).
So, ask what can you do to build a community!
Because if you find an answer that works we'll have the people to solve the other problems and you'll get rewarded because most people know this place has to grow. In the meantime try not to be dicks to one another, especially new users... we need them! And if you happen to see some great community builders then try to help them out cause they're lifting up the whole platform.
Community is everything, as I discovered when I first joined MSP. The feeling you get by helping, supporting and pushing other Steemians to do great things gives such a great deal of satisfaction.
I took what I learned at MSP and used it at The Writers' Block. We concentrate on creating good content, but are also trying to bring in new fiction fans through our social media efforts.
And @gmuxx, you are also curating the french content !!! Thank you so much again!
I was thinking about this as I found myself on reddit again just a few minutes ago. Although I'm very active on steemit, I still often find myself spending a lot of time scouring reddit. I think part of that is that the reddit mobile app makes it hella easy - and although I used Esteem for a long time, it really was pretty clunky when it came to just looking for content.
Another part of why reddit appeals more still is the overall higher level of interesting, quality stuff - which is a measure of reddit's audience size and - to some degree -
lack of auto voting and stuff<-- This is the stupidest thing anyone has ever said - but arguably the number of real users overcomes the bot problem - but maybe not even. Still, it is generally true that if you post something on one of reddit's big subreddits - even if you're gallowboob - that shit better not suck or it isn't gonna upvoted.Finally I think reddit succeeds because of its niche building capacity. I have a series of subreddits I enjoy and they are consistently producing quality content within that niche.
Now reddit has so many niches that I find myself just scouring at random now and again and finding lots of - well - if not "good" stuff, at least interesting stuff.
I feel like I, personally, will know that steemit has progressed to a more mature platform when I find myself intuitively deciding to peruse it on my phone. What I mean by "intuitively" is this:
Right now, I set aside time to parse my feed, and then a little outside my feed, to sit down, read things, upvote, and respond. But reddit still just happens. Reddit happens when I'm doing other things. It happened today when I was watching The Sopranos. Steemit is not there yet - and might be a ways away. It will require that magic mix of UI, niches or communities, and sheer numbers.
For now, things like steemstem - or the other growing niches given support by curie - are the seeds of the future niche-a-fication of steemit. Until then, I'll do my part in niche creation by resolutely refusing to write about anything other than mushrooms for the foreseeable future.
Edit: It's worth noting though that outside of more quality controlled subreddits, reddit has also moved towards a lowest common denominator style of content creation. Most of the most popular subs are just memes, comics and single photos - or crazy ass gifs. I guess the other way I'll know steemit has apexed as a platform is when I think about steemit today and think "those were the days." By then we'll be able to create a "truesteemit" community to fill the emotional gap.
Hello, @dber,
I totally agree with you about this sentence
Can you imagine that at a point all the french minnows starting to write about science (and not the stuff they really enjoyed) because someone from Steemstem told them that this is the content he upvotes (high). I was really sad.
This same person told me that the whole on boarding process in french was totally useless and nobody will support me doing that. So, that's true. I never got any support from theses Community Builders.
Seeing a whole (small) community talking about science only and seeing that I would not be supported was really painful. Hopefully, people stopped to write about something they didn't care, and I received everyday severals thank you / comments where people says that without all this on boarding stuff they would never stay here.
So... Just do what makes you happy or you truly believe it worth the effort.
Fundamentally, I agree with this final point. That's been the whole purpose of this platform for me - it's just a place that encourages me to learn and then write about what I learned.
Now, I should say, in full disclosure, I receive a ton of support from steemstem and curie - and I am a major supporter of the creation and maintenance of that and other communities. It just so happens that the thing I enjoy learning and writing about falls within the confines of biology - and so it fits in the steemstem niche.
But, at the end of the day, I still agree with you - on a mature platform, in theory anyway, everyone would create the content they enjoy creating and find a niche to share it with, rather than creating content they don't enjoy in an effort to win over a niche they have little interest in.
Theoretically, if steemit continues to grow, I may find myself sort of sub-niched out of steemstem, for instance. That's happened at reddit quite a long time ago - and r/mycology now has a devoted, but much smaller presence on the platform than the broader r/science.
You know, Communities are coming on Steem and this should solve the problem of niches :-) (We hope, if I have understood it well :D)
Is that a measure of article length at all to you?
I'm not sure I understand the question. Meaning is my instinct to check out reddit a measure of article length? Like is the compactness of reddit's content part of the compulsive draw?
If that's the question , then yeah, it definitely is - although the subs I frequent usually have longer form content as well. But, I guess ease of mobile access to my feed on steemit would also be a big help in encouraging compulsive use. It's difficult to compulsively scan steemit.com on mobile - and the esteem app tends to freeze up after reading and backing up from just a few posts.
(also side note - what kind of idiot am I saying reddit doesn't have a bot/upvote buying problem)
@dber i totally agree with you about the lack of a good app. Infact i mentioned this in one of comments earlier.
I believe the issue with the platform is that cover photos of articles and reputation score is a means to judge a post. Most of the time even manual voters do not read the post. In such a narrow scenario the content suffers. Desperate means are used to attract upvote via cover photos. Yesterday i end up reading a comment where someone said reputation score is how even without reading the article they vote.
The content is also dominated by memes, blockchain, photography. In fashion tag pictures of models are posted. Tags like history philosophy economics are so away from popularity.
I believe once heed is paid to these issues the platform will grow. Minnows need validation for good content.
So everything but
[flails madly at this] in particular. I have tried to explain this one a few times in context of
I'll just resteem this thing as you did a better job explaining than I would have done :)
i want to join the great community ..
thank's for sharing@aggroed
@upvoted and followed
hey waa me too!
thank you
I watch the kr posts and notice less bots and more commenting than English language posts. They do seem to have a better community going.
For my part, I try to use good seo on my posts and use lots of linking to internal and external related posts. I also promote my posts and those I upvote on my other social media.
Right now, my goal is to use the fantastic Alexa ranking for all it is worth - something many are missing or ignoring as far as I see.
More has to be done to onboard new Steemians and sustain their interest with the platform. It is a hard grind. There is just too much 'junk' to trawl through every day.
The well-known customer retention mantra applies here: it is easier/less costlier to retain an existing Steemian than to acquire a new one
Steem on!
There is certainly a lot of great content here and community is the answer to make sure the Best of it doesn't get left behind. It's what I've been about since day one as well.
I like to see new tribes based around common interests, ideas or lifestyles forming and those with heavier upvotes that encourage this kind of behavior.
Rather than continuously complaining about something you don't like, make a community based around something you do, right? That's the main lesson I learned in my first few months here.
Hi @aggroed, yeah. That's what I think too, here in Venezuela we are creating a big community, for example, i'm telling to anyone about this website, to all that people that I think they have something valuable to aport on this platform and make it better.
A punch of guys that i've talked about steemit are making "good profits" now, and they are very motivated, as you know here in Venezuela we are passing tru big problems and difficulties (i've have gained like 10 times one minimun salary, what here it's like 4$) and the way that Steemit make possible to get cryptocurrencies as SBD it's awesome to make people lives better, I know a few guys here that started from cero and they are now in a "good level" and they are seeing Steemit as wayout from the economic messup on their lives and in the long road a way to get passive income.
I'm so glad for being in Steemit, and every day that I make a post I think "Who i'm gonna help with this?"
i think part of the issue is the lack of support for new people in steem. they get in, theyre psyched, then comes the reality of the learning curve. I feel many people we recruit are put off by having to learn a system that can be somewhat complicated, so they just never bother.
I know for most games they have a new user intro. this is what button to push to make a jump, this is the command to kill the evil wizard. that kinda thing. it just seems to me that steemit should come with mandatory intro before you get anywhere. reinforcing shit like writing down your key, how curation works, how rewards work. basics.
the other issue. language. half our users dont speak english. i know mods spend a good deal of time explaining really simple things to people who say they speak english but are kinda clueless. a huge emphasis should be getting up steem mirrors that work in different languages. i'm sure someone is working on this.
i think we need to set up a mentoring channel or service, where people can volunteer to assist with specific situations that arent simple, like how to use various apps, coaching on posts if they struggle with writing. this would be for people who have a lot of specific questions centered around how things work. just a thought
Hello @torico,
I do totally agree with that sentence (if we want to onboard normal people... I mean, Mister and Misse Everybody like Facebook did).
This is why after 30 days, 5 Steem users on 10 leave the platform. And 9 users on 10 leave the platform after 90 days ! (Source).
The fact is that this stuff exist already on Steem. But severals of them are not correct (mistakes in it) and the problem is that it's everywhere on the platform (not a one place). So people get lost again.
This is a Steemit.inc job... or is it ? Steemit Inc, is more focused on the blockchain and that is a good thing. My belief is that we can also participate on this ... there could be dedicated frontends for instance but more importantly newcomers must be able to find answers easily (in their language is even better as not everyone is comfortable with english only)
Some people told me that There is no courses to get on Facebook, why would we have course to get on Steem?! Only because the blockchain and crypto concepts are not well known and understandable by everyone, yet (like the Internet, 20 years ago).
Good luck with your coaching / mentoring stuff :) If any questions, feel free to contact me on Discord, I am doing that full time for 6 months now ;-)
Most importantly (and this blows my mind) the answers are not obvious from the FAQ/Welcome page. Think about it. If people can get upvotes on posts about "how to use steemit" it's a pretty clear indication that the current "official" pages have huge holes.
Hi Roxane! I was about to reply to you above. I am currently working on my Discord Server List and have just added your Community Leader server. Did I hear that you have a french server? I would be happy to add that also.
It is because of those issues with the learning curve I started a collaboration for those coming in from YT but it crosses the barrier to others as well. 6 months in and there are still things I am learning.
exactly. its like D&D, there are so many permutations.