Note: This is the seventh day of @dragosroua's May 30 Days Writing Challenge. If you'd like to participate, follow this link to see challenge rules.

The topic for today is:

Name Three Things That Must Be Done Immediately To Make Steemit.com A Better Experience

Laying It Out

With many of the topics in this challenge thus far, there have been key elements of each which I believe influence how they will be answered. Today's topic is no exception. For me, the "must be done immediately" sets the direction in which this post should go, and so that's what I will be striving for. As has also been the case, there is plenty of room for subjectivity and relativity involved here.

I am not a developer, and while I can be when called upon, I'm not really a details guy either. I prefer the 30,000-foot view, or maybe it's more of an orbital posture, where I can keep my eye on the main goal. As far as the confines of this post goes, the goal is a better Steemit experience.

In @dragosroua's own post on the subject, he lists the following three things that Steemit needs immediately:

• Consistent Signup / OAuth Layer
• A Better Wallet / Desktop App
• Hivemind / Communities Layer

I'm not going to disagree with him. From what I've read so far, any one of those things would provide a better experience on Steemit.com. The problem for me is, I don't know if they will. Since I'm not the dev or the detail guy, I have to leave a lot to the experts when it comes to anything with specificity.

However, from my perch high above Steemit, these are the three things I would like to put forth as necessary to make a Steemit a better experience:

• More Intuitive

• More Secure

• More Centered

_{Image source—Pixabay}

Is Steemit really a game of Jenga in disguise?

Face it. There's A Learning Curve And It's Steep

How long would you say it took you to get the hang of Steemit? I'm not talking about the fundamental acts of posting, commenting and curating, but really getting into the weeds and the nuances:

• what/who and when to upvote

• how to find information (any information)

• the ins and outs of payout calculation

• the reward pool

• Steemit rules vs. Steemit etiquette

• What is quality

• How/when/why to flag

• Who and how to vote for witnesses

That is by no means a comprehensive list, but they are the ones that come to mind that are pretty important to try to figure out and master. I don't find any of it particularly drop dead easy.

Admittedly, the concept of putting a social media platform on a crypto currency blockchain is simple, but the implementation of it, not so much. There is a higher level of complexity here than you will find on any other social site, and for that matter, any of the existing attention economy sites.

So, there's going to be a learning curve. I'm saying, it doesn't need to be so steep. It should take a matter of days to figure things out, not weeks, months or however long it actually does (since I'm at the four month mark and still trying to get a handle on a lot of things).

Some of these things to make Steemit more intuitive are definitely code related. There are, however, plenty of things the community could be doing better, too, to make Steemit more intuitive. Don't get me wrong. Many people are. It would be nice if there were either more of it, or more emphasis placed on some things to get them right, then move onto others.

So making Steemit more intuitive is one thing that needs to happen immediately to make the site a better experience.

There's A Lot At Stake

Steemit is being attacked, hacked and phished in what seems to be at an alarmingly increasing rate. For a couple recent weeks, it was pretty bad. Nothing that couldn't be repaired, but it took a while, and it's hard to build ongoing faith in a platform where such things are the norm, rather than the very rare exception.

Now, not being the technical expert on these things, I don't know how much of what happens could be preventable with stricter security measures in place or better software, whatever. Anything of value on the Internet is a target, and Steemit is definitely a gateway to value. So, Steemit isn't the only site being hacked. You hear about huge sites by huge corporations (even governments) being attacked all the time.

It may well be a fact of life, then, but surely there is more that can be done and should be done to make Steemit more secure. Things that prevent hacks, attacks and phishing and other scams from even happening. There may very well be many measures in place. What I see happening most is the time, resources and frustration that many are expended to clean up after something happens.

Time To Come Together

What do I mean by more centered? Well, since centralization is not a good word around here (nor should it be), I chose the term center instead to address the issue of fracturing. Face it folks, we're all over the place here. There's quite a few competing interests here on the platform, and somehow, someway, it needs to be resolved. So far, the tactics have essentially involved whoever has the most SP wins. I know that's how the real world works, too. I hold Steemit to a higher standard though, because it's founding ideals are higher than most.

We need to figure out a way to come together. For a lot of us, Steemit is a blogging/social media site that pays. For others, it's more of an investment or purely a source for profit. Up to now, those two sides have treated one another at best as competing, and largely incompatible interests. At worst, as enemies in a battle between abhorrence and righteousness. And it is true that there is also some indifference, or shrugging going on. "It's a fact of life. It's just the way things are."

Well, I'm coming to the conclusion that there needs to be some way to co-exist. Not everyone here wants to or needs to post, comment or curate. If you want facts, here's one: many aren't particularly good at any of those things, and they know it. Or they'd rather spend their time and resources doing other things. And while that might be the foundational principles behind Steemit as a social site, investing and profiting are a part of STEEM.

So, Steemit needs to figure out what it wants to be, and then figure out how to become it.

In addition to the centering of its persona, what it is, Steemit also needs to bring in messaging and analytics so that everything is centrally located. There shouldn't be a need for a plethora of third party apps with different levels of functionality and reliability/technical support. Using the site, messaging users and analyzing performance should be all under one roof. Those influencers and social media celebs being courted because of their followings and the marketing they can provide are already used to that. Regardless, it makes sense for the rest of us, too, who are already here and splitting are attention between different apps.

You Done Yet?

Yes, that's it. The view from space. How it gets done doesn't really matter. What matters is that it gets done. I've learned over the years as a father, husband and business owner that there's generally more than one way to do things. Success isn't measured in who's right, or who gets the credit. It's measured in whether the outcomes were the ones desired. I believe that a Steemit that is more intuitive, more secure and more centered will be a far better experience than the current one and imperative for the growth, prosperity and freedom we all want to see come to be.