What Do You Think Are the Top 3 Most Difficult to Understand or Adjust to Elements of Steem(it) for Beginners?
Sorry if that looong question in the title makes it harder to read.
Regardless if one is a fan or not of Steem and Steemit, this blockchain and this platform is not something you see at every corner, you are accustomed to, and the switch from the other blogging or social media platform you use to this ecosystem is NOT a breeze.
There are quite a few novelties and differences here which struck at first even the most adaptable of us.
If you are really new to Steemit, you are still facing those adaptation difficulties, the initial steep learning curve, which makes everything much fresher in your mind. Plus, this post might give you some useful hints and links to other resources.
If you have been here for more than a few months (like I have), then we'd have to think back a bit to answer the question. It might not be so easy, you'd be surprised how much we learned in these few months and how much we continue to learn every day.
Nonetheless, let's have this exercise:
What do you think are the Top 3 most difficult to understand or adjust to elements of Steem(it) for beginners?
To make it an easier choice, I've put together a list of possible elements that can be on Top 3. Of course, yours could be completely different, no need to choose from this list.
Here they are:
- realizing you can't upvote and downvote everything you see, but that you should use the upvote button; understanding voting power
- understanding bandwidth limitations
- understanding the two cryptos of the Steem blockchain (Steem and Steem Dollars) and Steem Power
- understanding the reward pool, author rewards and curation rewards
- understanding the difference between Steem and Steemit; choosing the right app(s) for yourself
- understanding that you have the same account for all apps which run on the Steem blockchain
- understanding that if you lose your main password (owner key), you cannot recover your account if you lose it
- understanding that plagiarism, spam and other forms of abuse can be met at any time with a harsh reaction from those who watch that users don't abuse the system or other users
- finding the first step priorities
- finding the right niche(s)
- finding a relatively short list of people to follow, instead of following everyone
- managing disappointment
- joining one or more communities with whom you resonate
And here are my 3 choices for the top:
- understanding the reward pool, author rewards and curation rewards
- finding the first step priorities
- managing disappointment
So, now it's your turn:
What do think are the Top 3 most difficult to understand or adjust to elements of Steem(it) for beginners?
If we can come up with some answers, it will be a good indication of where people need more help with or where the processes need to be streamlined.
Hopefully, by now you have noticed that I upvote every comment that is not spam.
Great post@gadrian... one thing that can be confusing is that the different tools are not necessarily part of Steem but, they are developed by others to use Steem.
For me the bigger issue was the wait on account approval. Once I got over myself.... :) I was able to adapt much easier. I did not have to install a server or platform and I get paid for posts made!
Yup, the Steem blockchain is the backbone on which many other apps and tools - developed by anyone in the world, since Steem's code is public - grow into what we now call the Steem ecosystem.
Huge learning curve when you first get started. How the pay outs work, who gets what and why....Once you 'get it' everything else became easier to understand for me.
People are attracted to the potential of rewards but maybe that's looking at it backwards. The rewards should be a by product of delivering value every day. Through content, engagement and curation. Use this as a social media platform first...The rewards will come later.
The trick to all this stuff, no matter if it's on the blockchain or off...Is to stay in front of people and engage every single day. People literally introduce themselves and then disappear for months.....Having new Steemians understand that there is no overnight success here is paramount to the right attitude.
Really well said and explained Jon! Appreciate your input, if any beginner stumbles upon my post, your comment they should definitely read!
My Top 3 Most Difficult to Understand as a Beginner in steemit was :
Very good top, @obest!
I haven't included witnesses in my list, because I know there are people here after months who don't know what witnesses' role is and how to vote for one.
Even though witnesses are very important, apparently some just use this platform ignoring them for a long period of time. Likewise, I haven't included delegation among the first preoccupations of a beginner.
Your second point is very important! I only mentioned the importance of the owner key in the list above, but in the linked post, there's an explanation for the role of every private key. Yep, this should've definitely be in my Top 3 too! But it seems it's complicated to reduce them to only 3.
The third point is similar to my first one, except you explain clearly a certain difficulty you had when combining many of those new notions.
Thanks for your input, that's very valuable!
Well, I'm almost a year here and many of the items listed by you are still unknown to me. I know it's not good. I thought it was enough to focus on posts and relationships. But I feel the need to find out more about this platform and that's why I read with pleasure the posts that explain how it works.
Yup, I know quite a few people who are only involved in the content creation side and ignored for a long time the mechanisms that make Steem very different from other platforms.
Maybe I've got an advantage here because I'm naturally curious to understand how things work and I have a technical mind, which, occasionally helps here on Steem.
At some point (hopefully sooner rather than later), many of these particularities will be easily explained in intuitive interfaces, interactive help and simple tutorials, so that regular people won't need to search for relevant information, it will be presented to them, based upon context.
I learned different things about Steemit during this time, I've been following colleagues like you who have more knowledge like me. I'm impressed by those who understand the whole mechanism and admire them. I'm waiting for those tutorials, thank you! Thanks for upvotes and the support for Romanians.