Is Steemit the next Reddit?
Is Steemit the next Reddit?
As early adopters of Steemit we are all rooting for it's success. There is nothing that I would like more than for Steemit to have mass adoption within the next five years. However, to become a top contender in the social media ring it has a long way to go and I have some concerns with the way the community is evolving.
Financial incentives. Good or bad?
In theory this sounds like the best thing in the world. Paid to provide content and feedback on a social media platform? It's something that we all have been doing without compensation for years. But if you've been here long enough you probably understand that it comes at a price. Some users just pump out as much content as possible hoping to get a few more likes and followers. Rarely is this content original or organic.
Browsing the new section you will see people posting photos they ripped from a google image search or posting YouTube videos without a summary or any commentary. Commenters rarely read the full article and just make a quick comment based on the title of the post in hopes they will get a like or a follow. Many users just post straight up asking for a follow. Is it wrong? Not really... But is it going to be healthy if it continues like this 3-5 years down the road?
Curation rewards
This is probably the one that needs to be looked at the most. It seems like a great idea but I don't think it was executed properly. Right now the best curation strategy on SteemIt is to find someone who has the most followers and just vote for them whenever they post. Most people use services like Steemvoter so the process is automatic. The big dogs who got in early with a big following basically get a free ride. They could literally post a picture of their defecation and the post would still make $300+ dollars.
I'm not trying to say content from whales is bad and undeserving. Every time @sweetsssj posts I am amazed of the length and quality. @jerrybanfield probably spends 12 hours a day writing his content. These users provide value to the community and are deserving of rewards but I am sure you all know a whale out there that posts garbage and gets nothing but votes and praise.
It would be nice to see curation rewards increased when content comes from users with a smaller following. This will promote curators to search out for quality content instead of taking the easy route and only voting for whales. It will also help motivate contributors to do their best to provide the best content they can. Right now the curation reward system feels too much like a pyramid.
Steem Power / Vote Power
Your voting power is based on your Steem Power. This means that one whale has significantly more say than a bunch of smaller individual contributors... Which on the surface seems corrupt and unfair.. But I get why it works this way. If holding SP didn't have a monetary incentive than users would just cash out their Steem as soon as they earn it. If everyone was cashing out their Steem then the market would be all sellers and the token would be worthless. Holding Steem in your wallet needs to provide value - otherwise no one would value it.
Vote Trading
Unfortunately when someone's vote is worth $10+ they are unlikely to spread the love. The reality is that users holding the most SP are giving away their 100% vote to other whales and giving the low % to minnows. It's not wrong but it just doesn't feel right. Not to say that we all haven't been touched by an angel once or twice.
Contests
These can be fun based on what the contest is... However the authors that post these that have requirements of "must follow/upvote/resteem" are no better than the sleaziest used car salesman and have a special place reserved in hell.
Bots
I'm not sure how I feel about this one yet. I feel bots can provide real value. Reddit is a great example of how bots can help the user experience. The Remind me! And Twitter bot all provide tremendous value.
Although I do use some of them now, I feel that the vote bots are something that should eventually go away. Content should be voted for based on quality, not because of some bot or service.
Summary
SteemIt is a great platform and I look forward to seeing it evolve over the next few years. Hopefully all these problems can be fixed by adjusting the rewards and incentive systems to promote original and quality content.
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There are many problems that should be considered going foward. Your post made me think of many I hadn't even considered.
From a UI standpoint, we need better notifications. I would really like to see who my new followers, at the moment finding them on Steemdb is a real pain.
Thanks for your reply. I agree notifications need to be improved. I would also like to get a notification for new followers so I can follow back etc.
Luckily UI improvements are easy enough for the to make and I am sure we will see a lot in the not so distant future.
its like a combination of Reddit/Medium but better.
Great read! When I first discovered Steemit, I was immediately reminded of Reddit. I think with time this platform will be able to support quality content over time and not reward people solely on followers.
Great article, with great insights! I hope everything you write here will happen or will be taken into consideration. Like u said, the platform doesn't feel really healthy.
It's going to be a lot more than the next Reddit. My vote isn't worth more than $10 (only about half that) but I throw it around far and wide. A lot of people try to help others get rewarded. A lot more goes on behind the scenes then you likely realize.
I realize there are plenty of users such as yourself that give back to the community and I thank you for that. The whole community depends on it. I believe all my points still stand though.
My point was even the people with larger votes are involved in projects benefitting the community. Alot of them keep a low profile, but more and more people are delegating their power all over the place. There is just a lot that isn't apparent. Supporting new and smaller users is a high priority for a lot of people. Most of which you wouldn't even know they are doing it.
steemit feels so much like early reddit to me. but reddit really went down hill .
Thank you for the reply. I feel the same way.
Reddit is great for some things but I feel like it has almost become too popular and a lot of the front page is bought through fake accounts etc.
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I agree bigly on the curation bit. It doesn't seem to fulfill it's purpose of encouraging people to seek out undiscovered content. In fact by encouraging you to just throw your (limited) votes to the top 1%, it accomplishes the opposite.
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