[Discussion Post] Where do we take STEEM from here? A post for STEEM community discussion
100 percent of the liquid rewards for this post will go towards rewarding engaging and insightful comments. . .
Hello everyone! Yesterday my father and I contributed thoughts in a comment thread on this post to the Steemit team on how we think user growth, and in turn, Steem growth, can be achieved from where we currently are. We are at the unique point in the stages of community building in which we, the current community, can decide what is best for growing the community from here. @steemitblog's "100 Days of Steem" is a great initiative to start things up. Now this post is for discussion of ideas ranging from marketing, to ideas to make user experience better, to systematic changes that might be ideal.
At the same time, this post is yet another post in my series of experiments with utilizing the experimental @penny4thoughts account (set up by my father) to reward engaging discussion (see about the initiative at the bottom). I am going to quote @remlaps and @whatsup in the section to follow, then I will ask what your opinions on the matter are.
Thoughts from @remlaps and @whatsup
Here is a quote of my father's thoughts on how we might build a community amongst college kids in a similar manner to how Facebook built their community:
This is not my forté, but for whatever it's worth, here's some brainstorming:
- Start with colleges, not high schools, just to minimize potential legal/regulatory/ethical issues with recruiting students under the age of 18.
- Pick a few starting colleges
- Set up a "fast pass" to the account creation process so students from those schools can get quick/immediate account creation.
- Set up and manage Steem communities for the schools.
- Identify on-campus "influencer" students from other social media platforms or other research (maybe focus on comp. sci., journalism, communications, and other "friendly" majors?)
- Hire some of them into 1-semester part time jobs to bootstrap the schools' communities with photography, videos, or articles about campus life; to share those articles with followers on other platforms; and to recruit their peers into the Steem community.
- Provide them with guidelines about privacy, copyright, key security, accessing exchanges, etc.
- Advertise on campus, near campus, in the school newspaper, give away T-shirts & gear to students, etc...
- Make sure the communities are well-curated & moderated until they get off the ground. Keep rewards at realistic levels to manage expectations, but don't let them be ignored.
- Partner with Appics, Actifit, and/or others on the initiative?
- At the end of the semester, transfer community ownership to... someone... not sure who... faculty? admin? student? alumni assoc? endowment? Might vary by school...
- New semester, new schools. Experiment with different sizes and types of schools. Revise the program and scale up for more schools per semester as time passes.
- Hopefully, at some point, the network effect will take over and new schools will start coming online without active recruitment efforts. Not sure why, but for some reason the number "50" sticks in my head for the number of schools when Facebook hit some sort of tipping point. Maybe achievable in 3-4 years?
Don't know how useful any of this is, but that's what came to mind for me.
In her article on the same subject matter, @whatsup states:
So, in a way it's a chance for a fresh start. We often had constant conflict between content creators and other projects and we got focused on "Quality Content again and again. Due to that focus at times we let projects get defunded or attacked for the sake of trying to vote up the best articles. Yet, it never seemed like we achieved it, because stakeholders all have different opinion of what hold(s) value.
She finishes the article by asking:
What else should we focus on?
New Dapps?
Content?
Rewarding casual content that is more consistent to most social media?
Your ideas?
What do you think?
Although this may seem redundant with the post from @whatsup, I want to use @penny4thoughts to encourage and reward discussion. Please also go participate in the discussion on her post.
Where should we go from here? How should we market? How should we post? How should we curate? How should we proceed? What needs to change?
DISCLAIMER
Please focus the discussion on positive areas for improvement for Steem. This is not intended to be a gripe session. Assume everyone here is familiar with the concept of HIVE, and is not interested in hearing about it again. I will personally mute any authors of spam or disrespectful comments.
The Initiative
Right now, it is important to develop the discussion aspect of Steem. In order to do this, the experimental account, @penny4thoughts was created by @remlaps.
If the account (@penny4thoughts) is set as a beneficiary, it will evenly distribute the liquid portion of the post's rewards to the authors of comments that the post author upvotes with 100 percent voting power. For this post, and all future [Discussion Posts] in the category 'penny4thoughts', I will be setting @penny4thoughts as a beneficiary for 100 percent of the posts' rewards, and I will monitor the discussion and upvote valuable contributions.
Additional Information About My Use of Bidbot(s)
I am using bidbots to try to increase the amount of liquid rewards of these discussion posts so that there is more stake for rewarding engaging discussions. I know that the use of bidbots has been looked down upon, but I think an exception can be made when trying to enhance the community through rewarding positive discussion.
Focusing on user experience is important. Steemit has been around for a while and has a significant internet presence, and many users have come and gone. User retention is at least as important as adding user accounts through marketing. The truth is Steem does not need a large user base to be successful, it just needs more balanced distribution and an active user base. Technical aspects to scaling are another discussion and I'm not familiar with the technology, but I think improvements have been made within the last year. There is too much to flesh out in this comment, but the main questions for me are:
How can we attract and retain users?
How can we improve distribution?
How can we increase activity?
Some topics that come to mind:
I agree with this that every user experience should be Nice here without this no improvement visible.
I appreciate the initiative (100 days) taken by @steemitblog to increase the interaction between steemians and posting. It is really a nice thoughts.
My thoughts on prirority wise as below
Currently these points in my points. There are so many points for improvement but we to start from somewhere. So lets us start doing one by one and A day will come then we are at the top.
If I am going to be honest, I have always hated the trending page. Usually the articles there are there because of nepotism rather than quality, and usually the articles there all discuss Steem or crypto. I think stakeholders should make more of an effort to reward content that doesn't pertain to Steem at all because the users they are recruiting have no thought or care for Steem. What they do care for is something. Something which they are passionate about: like art, or horror reviews, or cooking recipes. By rewarding content that shows commitment, but doesn't discuss Steem or crypto, we have much more of a chance of attracting (and retaining) new users.
Personally, I think they should add a page that brings up random articles. I think a lot of articles get in trouble because they might demonstrate quality, but the payout isn't a lot initially. After a day or 2, it would be a surprise for someone to see a low payout article while browsing in a lot of the current categories. I think adding a category that displays articles randomly would help combat this. Maybe also make it easier to look for articles that users are interested by adding search filters. For instance, which categories you want for the article, how long it should be, what the author's reputation should be, etc.
I would like to know how you think the reward pool should be improved.
I don't really think they want to implement this change until the hive community has gone. If they implemented that now, the whole hive community would dump all of their stake at once.
A trending page not entirely focused on meta Steem will be a healthy sign. I think search filters to find content are extremely important. Following single accounts is primitive, and while communities seem like a step in the right direction, they have little volume and I'm not even sure how to use them. Using multiple checkboxes and keywords is a fairly standard way to enable discovery of content, such a purchasing a product on Amazon. I know this has been discussed for years, but either Steemit doesn't see it as an issue or they think other projects have higher priority. If you are interested in Python programming, you might be able to reappropriate this livestream program to randomly select a recent post by printing the output to a text file and using the random function.
I agree with you But their should be some logic and it should be accepted by whole community. I have no major idea about it. I just want to say that some informative things related to Steemit function/announcement should always comes in top trending, So that each steemians can see those things and get updated. I only see this uses.
The individual vote value doesn't depends on post payout, like current system/version is doing. It should be like
1 SP vote value say 0.01 STU
100 SP vote value say 1 STU
10000 SP vote value say 10 STU
Vote value should be liner and doesn't depends on post payout. I think it should be like previous HF version. Conclusion : I did not like current individual vote value system, which depends on post payout. If post value is less than X value, then vote value is very less and if post value is more than X value, then vote value is more. If have to provide every steemians same vote value according to their SP (linear).
Let them go in one shot, it is good for rest steemians those believe in steem. If they will get their whole steem in one shot say in 3.5 days, they will sell all steem and convert into Hive then What will happens? Steem price go to bottom say 0.01$ that good for us. They will not get the good return of steem, if they want then sell their steem at low price. We can buy these steem at very good price and powerup.
After they gone steem price again rise according to demand. It can go upto moon.
Why we want to provide them good return of steem, when they don't like it. Sell them at low price. We will see, how they get the courage to sell at 0.001$. Get them out from here, if they want.
I agree that a lower STEEM price is healthy to improve distribution and author rewards should be linear and not dependent on total payout. The official post doesn't explain very well, but basically any content below a few dollars is punished and everything above that threshold is increasingly rewarded.This encourages users to vote only the highest paying content for the rewards. Anything below a few pennies is known as "dust" and completely negated. Thus, the vast majority of financial rewards are claimed by large wallets and robot voters.
Yes, you understand correct. The old steemians (Big stake holder SP) don't wants to earn other steemians. They make the system to their earning only, not for all steemians points. So, now they moved from here and let distribute the reward pool to every steemias in equal parts proportionate to their SP. We have to encourage every steemians not discourage them. Each steemians has their value in this platform to bring it to moon. Thanks for understanding the point.
And do not forget the fact that Steemit is not the Steem blockchain. Just/only a dApp on the Steem blockchain.
There are many dApps on the Steem blockchain.
For example Steem Monsters/Splinterlands, which is nowadays one of my favorite blockchain games.
We should all be discussing these things. It is time to focus on the future and let go of the past.
We have a chance for a redo here. Let's talk about it.
We are looking to have a new working relationship with all of steem. Join us for a new Steem Witness Forum .
https://steemit.com/steemwitnessforum/@greenhouseradio/green-house-radio-online-steem-witness-forum
I personally would prefer Discord as I am more active there, however, of course my preference isn't what matters most.
Apart from that I suggest to discuss as much as possible directly on the blockchain, because the more users are using it the more lively it looks if viewed from outside, and in addition, one of the problems of new members is that Steemit/STEEM often looks like an empty city inhabited only by bots ... :)
https://discord.gg/bTfzfU
I'm whatsup on discord.
I am one of the few who decided not to power down; as a matter of fact i am one of the few who never power down at all...
After all the drama and what happen lately i decided to delegate all my Steem Power (6300 SP) to @qurator because i know this project since i join, and i know they are doing a great job supporting great content creators...
Now back to the topic...
@steemitblog 's "100 Days of Steem" is a great initiative to start things up, but i think they need to start showing a more clear vision of the future where they should first of all let us know who are the members of the team, who is in charge of what, and what are the plans for the near future...
I don't want to be negative at all but for the moment from the posts that they add so far looks like they are a bit lost as well... let's be honest they promote photos competitions not to mention one day they add a meme :)
But let's give them some credit in this times and let them organize fast and lets hope in the following days we will see more and more interesting posts and announcements from their side...
We need new devs and new DApps, that is for sure... as most of them left...and most important we need to promote as much as we can what we still have (DApps) as that is the way we will reach mass adoption... so first of all we need to see what and who is still around!
I know @steemhunt, @appics (i do apologize if there are others, but this two come in to my mind now) are two of the major DApps that are still around and that is great ... we should promote as much as we can all the DApps are still around (and here i include as well games, casinos and so on)...
For content creators we need more projects like @qurator
We need to figure out now for what Witness to vote as well, because for the moment here is a very unclear situation for the moment!
Now... the market will be flooded with Steem since so many are powering down and are leaving, and i think this will have a bad influence on Steem price at least for a while but i think that is the moment when we can actually do the move and get mass adoption specially almost all the people around the world are home and most of them online... just think about this for a while!
And at the end of the day all of us still around we will have to Steem On!
PS: I really wanted to add more info but its really late here; almost 3:11 am so i will add another comment tomorrow after i will wake up!
It is good that you are using your stake to help with a curation progress. Now, more than ever, I think it is of the utmost importance that we reward all of the "quality" content that we can.
In regards to the Steemit team being more forthcoming, I do think that would be very helpful in establishing a connection with the current community. I also agree that it would be good if they share a plan for the future, and I think that is to come within the 100 days of Steem. Overall, what I think is most important is that we, as a community, decide what the next step should be in order to help them get an idea.
In regards to DApps, I will say that @steemitblog's day 6 post announced a delegation to Appics, so that is certainly a step in the right direction in terms of stimulating DApps, but you are right that we should try to find ways to incentivise the creation of new DApps.
I also expect the price to drop from people selling, but it is a good time to acquire a stake (for pretty cheap), and in the long term, if this platform goes in the right direction, the price will rise.
I await your next comment.
The community has been discussing quality content for 4 years and where are we going?
95% or more of normal people do not create quality content, since they are not welcome, we will never have many users.
And that means that people who register don't find an audience...
Steemit has 200k daily views, but why can't it convert that into new users? Difficulty registering? Lack of incentive? Retention problem due to the difficulty of finding interesting content?
I think there is always going to be a need for some sense of quality in the content produced here. If there wasn't, the rewards system would not be sustainable. I think the misconception comes in the term "Quality". I think many people hear that word and hear the connotation that it used to hold:
I think of the phrase "quality content" as having one meaning: content which will be good for Steem in the long run. I think too many people try to put a lid on what this is. For me, anything which demonstrates time, commitment, or passion is good for Steem in the long run.
Hello, just today I was able to understand a little of the ... 100 DAYS OF STEEM!
I came to STEEM looking for the dream of cryptocurrencies, I live in a country with a terrible internet, in addition to other shortcomings such as lack of light, etc. I studied some of the movement here at Steem, and the only way to grow my account a little bit was to try and create some content. Participating in challenges and doing healing.
By famor tell me the golden secret, what else can be done in STEEM apart from that?
Does Steem have anything besides that that can be done?
Why invent the fearsome phrase "Quality content"?
My God, who invented the thermometer to measure quality?
Or is it that they have not found out about the thousands of different cultures that exist in Steem, where there are communities from India, Africa, Asia, Europe, America, where thousands of gods are worshiped and each being feels their culture and Do you think of something sacred of the highest quality?
And that happens everywhere even within the smallest homes, each house is a different culture although they speak the same language and have the same values, we are all individual beings.
Did you know that a Muslim learns by heart the verses of the Koran and if he writes a verse here, then is it plagiarism? Or an indu tells a story that he also learned by heart and because you don't understand how sacred it is to transmit that poem or story you accuse him of plagiarism.
I think I have received the hardest blows to my psyche from seeing these cases and from seeing the attacked steemians leave and not write any more.
I have received negative votes, 4 in a single publication of 0.10 ctm.
I think not everyone sees it the same way and I don't know what the basis for that is.
I don't speak English, I use a translator, but I hope you understand this. Thanks for asking.
I think 100 days of STEEM is incredible.
I think this is important to reconsider the culture of judging another person's content without any context. For all we know, the simple photograph that is downvoted may include a beautiful story that we don't see, such as the first time someone's child or elderly parent has posted on the internet. We should move away from the culture of downvoting for quality and focus on upvoting and commenting on quality. There is a different discussion about spamming/milking, and downvotes are needed to ensure a minimum quality, but the vast majority of social media is Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, and where is the "quality content" there?
Your point is very valid! There are many different cultures in the world with many different values. I don't necessarily think of the phrase "quality content" as a bad thing. I know a lot of people associate the phrase with long articles that take hours to write, but I think of the phrase as meaning something which is good for Steem in the long run. I would consider one example of this to be something which is original, and demonstrates something about the writer.
A Muslim might quote the Koran by heart, and provide a view which I may or may not have not seen before. To me, that is quality content because the article reflects a culture, and a passion. In the long run, both of those things will be necessary to help Steem succeed. You are right that even households right next to each other are different cultures (I don't think any of my neighbors care about Steem. Yet. . .)
I think a majority of what is posted, if the writer spent 10-30 minutes on it, and it demonstrates passion or commitment is quality content. It is the milking and spam articles that I have a problem with.
Thanks for your lighting spot.
It's really great to see so many excellent thinkers coming together to share so many constructive insights. I'm also delighted when I hear of fathers engaged in the lives of their children. Awesome!
I continue to bang the drum for what I believe is the single most important starting point for this Steem rebirth. We seriously need to address the abusive behavior on this platform, which has been going on for years.
The idea of seeking out new users from Colleges and Universities can really highlight this concern of mine. I think it would really be a bad idea to seek out this Generation of College students.
My wife and I are from the Nomad Generation - see Generations
The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 by Neil Howe & William Strauss - which for me, having been raised in the States, is Generation X, and my wife being raised in Italy, simply the Nomad Generation.
Generation Xers didn't really draw too much attention to proper social decorum; we were the nomadic rebels that wanted the "Establishment" to collapse at all costs. Manners were something we applied at home, with the family; but outside of that, there were no rules!
The present Generation is different! When I went to College, there was no reporting "microaggressions". Could you imagine how university students would feel if they saw the amount of abuse that takes place here on Steemit?! With no real way to filter it out, or block it?! They would be repulsed, and offended; and would not want to recommend such a platform. And as far as I know, the MUTE button only serves to remove posts from your feed of authors you are following; not to mute comments. In other words, when I hit the FOLLOW button, your posts appear in my feed; if I then hit the MUTE button, we remain Friends, but your posts do not appear in my feed. That's all; it does not help with abusive comments. For this, we need a BLOCK button, which I have proposed in the following posts:
Troll Hunters: A Community Curator Proposal
Decentralized Censorship of Social Media: A Democratic Approach
I am glad that the community is moving forward, the 100 Days of Steem I think is a great initiative. I am hoping to see more of it in the near future.
Your use of bidbots is I think justified if they can somehow regulate this where only quality content can be used with bidbots.
I think this is how some Steemians made significant earnings in the past, some income that is worth their time. Also a chance for newbies for their content to be shown with a bigger audience.
Bidbots should prequalify the content, some simple qualifications, like a requirement for at least 500 words and must be original content. Must also pass readability score where there is at least a topic intelligibly discussed in the article.
My view on bidbots is complicated. I don't think the community should shun it, but I don't personally agree with using them. The only reason why I have been using them for these posts is because I want to reward community discussion, and the bigger the article payout, the more liquid rewards for @penny4thoughts to distribute to the participants.
I think this will eventually be the case whether they should or not. As more and more people use them, they get mroe requests than they can fill. As a result, they have to choose which article they think will bring a better curation reward. Generally speaking, the article that is 500 words of original content will usually win in this scenario.
I have penned down all the suggestions bit by bit in the form of an article. I request you to read it once.
https://steemit.com/the100daysofsteem/@sapwood/it-is-a-perfect-storm-to-make-deep-rooted-reforms-in-steem-to-make-it-great-yet-again-a-steemian-s-resolve
Thanks.
I see the biggest Chance in keeping #STEEM and #HIVE together.
Revert the split of the community into communities, by nothing else than PROPAGANDA.
The Community should on the long term ge back in power on both #CHANZ,
build a #CHAINTWIN stable crypto network currency.
#TWOCHAINZ #BOTHCHAINZ #OURCHAINZ