Steemit from a N00b Perspective
Introduction
I have long resisted the siren call of cryptocurrency and anything to do with it. I still refer to the various cryptocurrencies as 'Dunning-Krugerrands' because there's just so many scams and so much oddball behaviour. The whole thing seems one step away from Glenn Beck trying to convince people to buy gold. In short, at least when it comes to all this stuff, I'm a n00b and have no real idea what I'm doing.
Still, if you're looking to attract people to this platform - and there are reasons to get onto it and to earn crypto - you need to appeal to people like me, who aren't completely hapless, but are also skeptical of what they see.
Steemit
All crypto has some hurdles to overcome. The aforementioned scams and the lack of trust in crypto. Then there's some Steem specific issues.
- The waiting list to get on is offputting.
- The technical nature of cryptocurrency is offputting.
- The lack of a decent wysiwyg editor is offputting compared to other blogging/social platforms. Busy is good, but not really up to par.
- The sheer volume of attempted scams and spam is simply unmanageable.
- There seems to be no rhyme or reason to who gets hundreds of upvotes and who doesn't.
- The bots that people have out there for 'plagiarism' etc are hair-trigger and the self policing in the community is almost as bad so heavy-handed forum moderation.
- As part of the above, things that are popular on other social media (sharing memes, art etc, are frowned upon by an active sector of the community. Flaggers seem to have too much power in some cases and not enough in others.
- Turning steem into actual money seems convoluted and vulnerable. We need alternatives to the existing payment processing etc on the rest of the net, but it needs to be easier than this.
Dtube
Amongst other things I create videos for Youtube. The continual problems on Youtube are driving a lot of people to consider other platforms. Dtube is one of those, but it just doesn't seem to have the reach or rewards necessary. It also has problems in that its upload interface isn't intuitive, is extremely slow and frequently fails entirely without really explaining how or why.
I'd like this to work and getting rewards - even if its just a few cents - for a post. Getting noticed at all is an uphill struggle and a favourite target for scammers and voting bots. The complexity and feeding frenzy combine to make it a tough thing to love.
I agree. There needs to be more positive things happening in all the categories you cite before we're really ready for the masses, let alone try to bring them on. At times it's felt like we're on the train hurtling for a destination without really knowing where we're going or why. We just are. There's a general idea of where we want to be (the moon), but no real explicit or known plan on how we're going to get there. So, who knows if there is a plan, let alone if it's being implemented.
There is a lot of confusing things about this place, and I agree, it's an acquired taste. You definitely have to have a high tolerance for all kinds of things that most people aren't going to deal with very long. It surprises me sometimes that I'm still here, but I've managed to fall in with a decent crowd and for now have found some purpose. That doesn't mean I'm glossing over anything you've mentioned. It's out there, and I do what I can to help. The problem is, most of it I can't fix, and so I put my time where I think it is best served.
From the noob perspective, the best that can happen is for someone in the know to give them a tour and show them the ropes. There are initiatives like that, but they're not so visible, like everything else around here.