Mass Adoption OR Quality

in #steem6 years ago

Yes, unfortunately it's an either... or situation.

Even if your first instinct tells you to argue against it, I believe you'll see it's is very little to argue about.

But, first of all, let's see what we'll broadly consider mass adoption and quality on the course of this post.

If you have a small niche like high-class luxury watches, let's say, would being in the top market position be considered as mass adoption? You are obviously highly profitable and sought by the target audience of your niche, but is it mass adoption? Luxury itself says it's probably targeting less than 1% of the global population.

This is a contradiction to being available, not to mention adopted by masses of people. So, the answer is no, this is not mass adoption.

The first rule to exist mass adoption is that the product/service is accessible to the masses.

The second rule to exist mass adoption is that the product/service appeals to the masses. You can't have mass adoption if you narrow your focus in areas masses of people don't understand or care about.

The third rule to exist mass adoption is that the product/service is promoted to the masses by people they know, like and trust.

Now let's turn our eyes toward quality. "Quality is subjective". Right... Bullshit! Quality is quality, period!

The problem is at the receptor. That's the one introducing the subjective note to it.

Tell me a seller of second-hand junk or used cars who tells you they are what they are: junk. They will find some quality to pitch them to you.

Who thinks of his/her work of non-quality, non-valuable, without automatically putting him/herself down?

The truth is quality becomes rarer, the more distractions and attention deficit we have. This automatically makes us search for the easiest way to do things, the most convenient method to use, the less effort to put into anything.

It seems like a highly undesirable effect of the evolution. And highly exacerbated by social media and smartphones.

Maybe I'm wrong, and quality doesn't become rarer, but only shorter, proportionally with our attention span. This can very well be measured by the incredible number of people who share posts by reading the title and seeing the picture. Many fake news have been built on this simple observation.

You want another indicator? How many people go to the theater and how many to the movies (or watch TV)? That's a staggering disproportion. So where is the mass adoption? Not where quality is.

How about classical music versus whatever low-level music form you know that is popular? I have an example from Romania, but I doubt it would mean anything to anyone who is not from my country. Where is the quality? Where are the masses?

How about photography, since we are so big on it here on Steem? The masses use smartphones. The professionals use... well... professional equipment. Plus they know HOW to take a picture.

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Source

Pretty much the same thing about video.

By now you already see where I'm getting with this.

You can't have both. You have to choose. Either mass adoption or quality. RIGHT NOW, that's how things work on Steem. Hold on, I'm getting to the WHAT'S NEXT part.

Sure, one DApp may have more adoption than other, while other DApp may be more quality prone. Same with the communities.

But RIGHT NOW, all users of Steem share the same rewards pool, and that often irritates the quality authors.

Well, Steem will solve this issue, but not by conciliating the two sides (which is most likely impossible), instead giving them the opportunity to evolve separately.

This will change AFTER the arrival of Hivemind/communities and SMTs to Steem.

THEN, quality-based communities can be set up and have their own SMT token, and they will be the only ones earning that token, not shared with non-quality authors, or authors from other fields, like the reward pool.

Other SMTs will be more inclusive, it's likely where the mass adoption will happen, but remains to be seen what happens with the value of the token.

In this scenario, the mass adoption on Steem WILL HAPPEN, but quality authors will likely stay away from the general trends and into their own communities.

The solution is very good, given practically the irreconcilable arguments of quality and non-quality posters. Steem will have mass adoption, but only certain communities on Steem will have quality.


Contest will end tomorrow!

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