User Retention (from a newbie)
"PC Load Letter Error? What the FUCK does that mean?." Michael Bolton, Office Space
My first foray into Steem has very much felt like this at times. I was told it is a platform where you go and you create content and maybe, eventually, get paid for it. Turns out, this truth is very blurry on this platform and comes with a STEEP learning curve.
First, like anybody putting out content, you have to get some followers to look at your content. I was writing at first thinking many people would have access to see what I had written, but it doesnt work that way! You need to develop a base.
To other newbies:
Some recent advice I was given is to be active in the comments section of material you enjoy to gain traction and some following. This makes a lot of sense to me now.
Now, onto questions that I would like help in answering that maybe other new people would be interested in learning.
What is a witness and why should I vote a certain person/entity to be one? Do I lose anything if I give out votes for witnesses? Should I hold onto them, should I give them out like candy? WTF?
I still do not know the answer to this and I even accidentally gave one of my witness votes out. @intothewild maybe you have some answers, you are easily the most helpful person I have encountered so far.
Next question is about investing: I really enjoy the idea of giving time to develop a reputation. However, it seems there is a way to bypass this and become automatically a bigger fish, and that is by investing money. That being said, I do not understand exactly how this works. What value do you actually gain by investing in the platform? I may have 500$ to spare to invest in something I believe in, but I need to figure out why its worth it and what my investment gets me! I love the idea of decentralizing our news/content, but is that what really is happening when the large stakeholders control who gets worthy upvotes?
I have a lot more questions and cannot think of them all right now, but this would be a great start.
Thanks for reading my somewhat incoherent post,
Curt
Damn it feels good to be a gangster!
Witnesses act as the consensus to approve or deny transactions on the blockchain. They keep everything running. You want to pick witnesses that you feel will improve the platform and share your ideals. You don't have to use all of your witness votes, but you should definitely use them on people you feel are good actors. Don't hand them out like candy, you are essentially telling everyone else here that by voting for 'X' witness, that you align with their vision. You can always take away witness votes if you feel they aren't acting as you think they should.
Unfortunately, this isn't really correct. The only way to improve your rep score is to get votes (preferably votes from people with lots of SP). The votes themselves don't make the difference, it's the weight behind each vote that matters. So you could technically help yourself grow your rep by investing and voting for yourself, but that is no highway to heaven (w/ $500 anyway). The other way, which I don't really like because in essence it is paying for your rep, is to use bid bots. You pay X amount of SBD to a bid bot and they upvote your post close to the same amount you sent them. So it could be a loss overall, a break even, or a gain, but the best part is that the SP behind the bot goes towards your rep. I personally don't like that method because you are paying for your rep. I prefer the grind and hard work, but that's just me.
I don't give investment advice, but if you have $500 to throw at anything, I don't think STEEM would be a bad choice. Your vote would actually be worth something and you'll gain more curation on your votes.
Happy to help bro, take care.
awesome help as always...if I vote you, @intothewild as a witness does that then help you? You like disc golf and help beginners. I can certainly align to that vision.
Haha, I appreciate that! But no, I am not running a node to even qualify, nor do I believe I currently have the technical aspect down well enough to launch one, nor the $ and time to keep it going. It's not as easy as 1-2-3.
We do share similar activities, but I was alluding to things you want to see happen here, on Steemit. That might not make sense to you really, because you haven't seen many changes implemented in your short time here. But there have been some drastic changes made in the past 2 years that have been quite contentious. How rewards are given out, bid bots, payout time structure, lots of things. The most recent in my mind is the SBD debate, on if it should be forced closer to the dollar it is supposed to be pegged to, or to leave it alone and see what happens. Lots of different ideas from different people, you would want to vote for the witness that is going to vote on what you would want to see happen. @timcliff is a top 5 witness who lives in my home state, he does a witness progress report every so often where you can see for yourself what the witnesses say they have been doing, and then go from there.
Okay, I see what you are saying, so you want to vote a witness who is making community choices that line up with your own values. Im in the middle of reading the white paper and it is incredibly helpful. I wish I had done that first thing. I just finished up about how SBD is being forced to the dollar and that is an interesting idea to me since all I have read about cryptocurrencies is that they are such a volatile commodity. I have more reading to do...thanks again for your support and help.
Spot on.
Definitely finish the WP, lots of good info. The SBD is actually one of the only cryptos pegged to the dollar. It was supposed to be that way so that businesses would accept it because of it's consistent price. But it has gone up like crazy, so it's not really doing is job. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next couple months.
Any time man!