Steem business, investment, content and future for all users

in #steem5 years ago

That was my 5 am breakfast, the restaurant car wasn't quite ready for SteemFest travelers. While I am pretty excited about heading to Poland, I am not going to post only SF3 content I hope so while on the train to Helsinki, I thought I would take the opportunity to cover another topic. I am going to take opportunities to write where I can so, bear with me.

On the weekend, I was talking to a friend who was the last person I know to join Facebook. I invited her in 2007 and she joined in 2017, just as I as cutting back my FB time to zero and ramping up my Steem. I invited her here also, but you know, maybe in 2027.

She was saying how useless she finds Facebook for most things and was complaining about one user we both know well that shills himself constantly, the type of person who is always personal branding and bragging about life highlights believing that there is actual value in the hearts, claps and thumb up he receives across platforms. To each there own of course and some people actually do monetize themselves but, how many can?

What people forget that part of the reason that Facebook is so successful from a user perspective is that there is a captured audience of sorts, family and friends. Almost everyone's first engagement on the platform was an invite from someone they know, in a similar way Google spread its email service originally. Most people on FB have locked accounts with limited outward facing material and most of their content is very personal in nature, their life their loves and of course, their hates.

Some people want Steem to be a paid version of much the same and even though it will come, that time is not yet because for the most part, people on Steem are relative strangers. At this point, not many are personally acquainted with many here and not many are willing to share the network broadly. There are several reasons for this but I think two of the major ones are the money and, the money.

While Facebook comes with low barriers, the potential to earn on Steem comes with high competition for Steem and the more people in, the harder it is to earn. How many people want to truly compete at this level with friends and family? What happens if the invitee outperforms the one who extended the invitation? Role reversal, upvote me kind sir? The other money is because how many people want to invite their friends and family to view their fortune or failure? How many want to deal with the jealousy or for some, the fact that what they say in an attempt to monetize their content is not necessarily a 'true to life' representation?

I was reading a post by @paulag about Trending and the way other platforms pushed the earning potential of themselves in the get-rich-quick mannerisms of evangelical internet gurus like Jerry. They all did it in some ways and many still do. Perhaps it is necessary to some extent, maybe first movers and early adopters by nature are more value driven than the average user. @paulag recommended more, not less success story shill posts in Trending, the difference being that unlike what is there now, there should be real ones. I will do one at some point for myself considering that in comparison to many, I have done fairly well here in some ways. I am not going to bidbot it to Trending though, if my posts get that far, it will have to be organic.

The problem is currently though that there are many people wanting Steem to be many things and a lot of their expectations are due to the programming of established platforms, they want it to be this and that because they already know what this and that is, they have used it. However as I have said many times before, this platform is not only not ready for this and that kind of adoption, it is fundamentally different to all other platforms or perhaps, it could be all other platforms rolled into one. Hard to say.

Would my friend who doesn't find Facebook useful find Steem useful for her day to day activities? Unlikely, but in time she might be able consume content from Steem in her daily life without caring that it is Steem content at all. Much like people don't care that much if it is a Youtube or Vimeo link they share with their friends. At the moment, the market for Steem is quite small as it caters for the early adopters, the risk taker investors, the get-rich-quick mentalities as well as the developers who are continually expanding the ecosystem to widen the market potential.

The people who are using it like Facebook or Instagram should count themselves lucky that they get any reward at this point considering that for most of us, no one cares much about who we are. What I mean is that, our family and friends are not here to support us for the most part, a group of strangers is. This is why the targeted apps are the immediate future because users can group around interest, not the individual.

Don't get me wrong though, the personal posts about lunch are going to come into their own and the more one engages and the wider their network develops, the more likely anyone is going to care about the day-to-day-life type posts. However, this is likely not to be successful through Steemit.com, it will be through other platforms entirely.

My brother @galenkp wrote a funny tongue in cheek post about all of the @steemmonsters posts that people are excitedly sharing that he cares nothing about. At some point though, there will be a large enough user base and a platform for such content and users to cluster and enjoy. There might even be a place that is good for writers one day.

At the moment, many are looking at the platform development looking to onboard users from other places who are accustomed to the tailored polish of Instagram or Twitter but it is a bit of a losing game for those users who arrive expecting that. Who we need to attract in are the early adopters, devs and risk-taking investors willing to put up with the spam, scam, shill and lack of cohesion of a catchall content environment and actually take the time and effort to grow it into something that can actually catch all users.

@paulag is right that we need the shill in Trending from the SteemApps and users who have made it either as contributors, investors or creators here but they should be real testimonials, not the false scam that gets bidbot-ed up there by people who are not successful but trying to appear so. Some of those accounts that have monetized themselves on other platforms use Steem as another way to further monetize themselves on other platforms by appearing as multi-platform success stories.

What I am hoping is that the real investors here start recognizing the place of the shill and the benefits in pushing real users, real Steem personalities, real Steem success stories into the Trending pages so that users who come in can actually look at the histories, find testimonials from other users and see that it is possible to be successful on Steem as an investor, curator and contributor but, those that have been have taken risks, have put work in. Of course, this can't be done if those very users have to advertise themselves in the same way as those who fake it for the audience as it means they become indistinguishable. This is the same for the App announcements doing it for visibility. If they have a good product, the community should recognize it as such and boost it into view. Of course, this is wishful thinking due to the bidbot voting power.

One day though, it could be that real success, talent people and potential killer Apps are organically supported into the limelight because the community recognizes the value of having outward facing content that positions Steem where it should be;

As one of the best opportunities for all kinds of users to satisfy their online needs. Whether they are looking to invest, earn, share, write, stream, argue, consume, develop, do charity work, improve business operations...

This place is nowhere near complete and thankfully never needs be as it has the possibility to grow with the user base and change as the demands of the market require it to. Due to the very nature of a decentralized platform, it never need suffer the same fate as Facebook as it can adapt to the environment, take new forms and be whatever the communities want it to be. Communities. Anyone of them can be one of the many faces of Steem.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

I am not used to getting up before I normally go to bed and, I am not used to writing at 6 in the morning.

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The one thing that bothers me a bit is that there seems to be no privacy options on Steemit (correct me if I'm wrong). So there are no private groups sharing stuff, and to an extent the same is true between friends/families. This makes this platform less intimite. It lacks part of the emotion/bounding that would become possible with privacy options. I'm also no sure if it's such a good idea to let everyone see how much Steem Power you got. Users with extremely high amounts of Steem could become a target for people with bad intentions.

everything on the blockchain is searchable. There are ways a community could section stuff off but I thin that it would be an offchain solution, not sure though. Yes, people are already targets of sorts here and as steem price increases, so too do the dangers.

Have an amazing time @tarazkp and if I were to pick someone to make a success story, you would be on the list for boosting.

But you are right, we are not ready and smts have not even gone live. However that should not stop us preparing and planning and thinking of ways we can really market the apps on steem. I actually enjoying the lull, because now we are really finding the core people on steem and hopefully we can create some success stories with the core that we have.

The lull is a good thing in my opinion as we are really seeing who is committed and has some vision and it is great to see that the devs haven't slowed down at all. That alone should tell people something.

Have a great time in Poland, and ... travel safe. There will be many people talking about Steem Monsters at Steem Fest, I am sure!

Regarding the personal nature of facebook vs Steem - I find it amusing that some of the most engaging posts that I have read on this platform have been all about deeply intense, personal experiences.

Human stories. Not stuff that shills themselves.

I'm guilty as all hell of getting caught in the Steem Monsters hype - it appeals to every part of my personality - collecting, strategy, and turning some sort of a profit.

The long term value of the Steem platform is only enhanced by applications such as this, and the human connections that it allows to form is what we'll all have at the end of it.

In fact, that's all that ever tends to make anything worth it at all.

I think Steem is much more personal in nature than FB as people tend to explore themselves at more depth with more effort involved.

Yep, it is going to take many apps, games and the like to build a robust ecosystem that can weather the many storms to come.

I think that the Hivemind update will make enabling these communities much better. I would envision an app that functions like Facebook to come here and be more oriented to those type of posts. This will help filter content which is great to keep feeds more streamlined. I also see a lot of the @steemmonster posts because many are card or pack giveaways that require a resteem. Although I love the game, I do not like to resteem and clutter feeds so I barely participate. Hivemind will hopefully help with this.

Hivemind shoud act as a decent separator as well as a disovery function so it can build strong communities with people who actually want to be in them. It will hopefully still allow a lot of cross-community action. UIt would be a shame if it became too walled.

Have a good time in Poland...Hopefully the platform isn't dead over the Steemfest period. 🙄

Posted using Partiko Android

Dead? It is one of the busiest times usually :) depends what you are into of course as the content of interest goes up and down with the waves.

I love steemit.Thanks for sharing this post

Another amazing article! I’ll have you know, your blog is one of the few I actually read and leave wjth something almost every time!

The proper use of bid bots is something I always go back and forth on. If I write something actually thoughtful that might add value, I want people to see it. If it’s just a post about my lunch that’s totally different lol

Maybe it’s better to just focus on organically growing even with good content. There is a daap on steemit now that allows you to receive upvotes from your older posts by using their tag. Good alternative for minnows not getting support for quality content to earn when they get more popular

Posted using Partiko iOS

Hi @tarazkp!

Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 6.146 which ranks you at #257 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has dropped 4 places in the last three days (old rank 253).

In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 243 contributions, your post is ranked at #5.

Evaluation of your UA score:
  • You've built up a nice network.
  • The readers appreciate your great work!
  • Great user engagement! You rock!

Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server

This is one of the most sensible posts I have seen in a long time on the future of steem. It is just not ready for the masses; we don't want them here yet anyway until we get all of our ducks on the pond so to speak.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading your perspective on this matter. Have a great time in Poland.

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