RE: The importance of community building on Steem
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.