If you walk around the office I work in and ask someone what their skillset is, over 80% of the time it is going to be technical with most being coders of some sort or another. This includes the management team. The difference for the 20% though is that this is a business that requires skillsets outside of the technical so, there are people like me here also who can easily co-exist.

One of the things that consistently comes up is how there is not enough support for contributors on Steem and, I agree. However, there is an alignment problem of sorts because Steem suffers from a selection bias where many users have come in from backgrounds that are technical, crypto related or investment orientated. The people who do the best here are the ones that have a little bit of all three and leverage and combine it to develop a broader foundation on Steem.

However, there are people (again like me) who might not have any of those backgrounds yet, are willing to learn how things work to a degree that they can use the experience and skills they do have in a way that can allow them to do some of what they love doing, and a fair bit of what needs to be done. Many don't have the will to do the need part though and expect it to be like social media in other places - which it is.

While there are confirmation biases in general, there are also ore specific groups where people tend to pool. For example, if you join Instagram there is a massive amount of follow for follow interaction and "nice post!" comments that are likely just as automated as they are here, maybe more. Why do people behave like this? Money.

There is money to be made in attracting followers and disseminating information through them and when the same people here of a platform that actually pays directly for some of this behavior, it is of course attractive so they come in and continue doing what they have done and treating Steem like any other platform they have done it upon. How many people on Steem have made significant earnings from saying "nice post" - probably none. Well, significant is relative to location of course.

For the other people however who do make significant earnings, they would likely do okay on the centralized platforms also from an attention perspective as their activities would likely have people support it, even if not monetized. For example my Facebook account use to get (when I used it) a lot more comments, likes and shares than those of my friends as I didn't share pictures of my lunch - I shared information that had some value to some people.

So, my activities on Steem didn't necessarily change so drastically than earlier, but it gave me a space where what I was producing had more value than a thumb up. This is another selection bias of a kind but it is something that a lot of people don't necessarily pay much attention to when they think about Steem as people see Steem as something new and innovative and think that everyone comes in with a blank slate. This is not true from just an investment perspective, it is also not true from a skills perspective.

For someone coming in with the "normal" social media habits, they are unlikely to do very well unless they adapt, while someone who understands what building a community on a new platform requires. Some larger YouTube people have come and gone from Steem as there are no algorithms to automate their experience here and just reposting isn't going to help them much - this is a reset, they have to build a community - at least for now.

Steem isn't for everyone just as being a YouTube star isn't for everyone as it takes personality and activity that not all possess, but as the space continues to grow and develop, more people are able to be included through various means like gaming and apps also-. This means that more people are Steem-type people without needing to be technical, crypto or care much at all about the way the platform operates. The more diverse the Steem Power, the more diverse the support becomes.

What this means is that while this isn't a place for every, to make it a place for everyone requires those with diverse skill sets and a drive to grow their interest areas to power up. While this might not suit everyone, there are an increasing number of people willing to take the plunge and do what is needed, not what they want.

Sometimes, it is as simple as showing up to participate.

Sometimes it takes more.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]