Steemit Livestream 3: My thoughts

So if you weren't able to catch the livestream of @ned and @andrarchy chatting about the state of Steem you can check that out on the link above.

So as most of you know by now Steemit, Inc. announced recently that they'd laid off 70% of their staff in an effort to curb costs and basically survive. Ned mentioned this was partially brought on by the bear market yada yada, check out those posts if you haven't already.

So my overall reaction is YES, YES, YES! Perhaps this was a good thing.

I've felt for a while now that Steemit was trying to do too much. It's not easy to create an amazing user experience for a social application. Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, these companies practically have armies working on them. If you've used the other frontends you can probably already see that they're already better than Steemit. The blockchain development for Steem should be the primary focus for Steemit.

If they can just focus on the platform and building empowering tools, let the application developers have independence and let them focus on creating great social experiences.

There were so many comments talking about attracting investors, and exciting investors. I was SO HAPPY to hear Ned say that that sort of talk "made him sick". The "investors" that we should be concerned about is not some big whale, it's regular people. I've mentioned this before, but 1 million minnows is far better than ten whales. In order to get more people on this blockchain we need AS GOOD or a BETTER user experience as the big dogs of social media, but if Steemit is building the blockchain, they can't also build the next great social application as well. It can't all be on their shoulders. I thought you all wanted decentralization?

In a decentralized community if Steem fails it's not Ned that failed, we all failed, we are all responsible for the success of Steem. Steemit's role needs to be reduced and focused into what they're good at, and what they've shown they can deliver, a strong and healthy blockchain.

The app developers have to play their part, the community members have to play their part. If you have a strong opinion on what Steemit has or hasn't done, think about making a list of what YOU have done that has added value to the community. How much value? What have you delivered? What plans do you have for the future? What more could you be doing? I think this should be the attitude for a decentralized community, but what I see is so many people saying they want one thing, but still actually shoving the burden onto a higher authority. When I've read people saying things similar to what I'm saying, I see users saying "...well what can WE do?" Exactly! What CAN you do? That's the question we each have to ask ourselves and decide what we have to offer to aid in the success of Steem.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox, but this is where my head is at. How about you all? What do you think?