Looking for quality, finding Steem

When I came onto Steem, I mostly just wrote my post and kept to myself. Yes, I engaged a bit and the like, but didn't spend much time actually learning how the platform worked. Once I did start learning however, I started to go through a well-worn path of making assumptions about what this place needs without recognizing it for what it is, decentralized. What this means is what it actually needs is up to the users, communities and applications to create whatever they choose to develop for themselves and their audience.

One of the misconceptions I held about Steem is the notion of quality content and the importance of it. Yes, I agree that there should be quality content but the very idea of quality is going to come down to individual preferences and be heavily affected by interest (or lack of interest) topics.

The problem that I eventually recognized in my evaluation of quality and my desire to have quality authors was, it is important to me and therefore, personal. While I care about the quality of my thoughts, content and behaviors, I have no right to expect anyone else to behave according to my "demands". While I do think that most people would benefit from increasing the quality of their content in various ways, that is up to them. I can of course mention this as, I am free to speak as I choose - this is Steem.

The next issue I have is that of the process of decentralization which of course means, expanding inclusion. If I set a bar of expectation on quality I am able to live up to it if I can and, I am able to consume along those guidelines if I choose but, I also can't expect everyone else to create to my own opinions, nor would I want to. I don't want Steem to be a place where people fill their content out in templates specially designed to set the form of content to reach some kind of quality bar as I am hoping that eventually, people of Steem will have the freedom of creation where each can be an artist in their own domain.

The final issue (I will mention here) is that there are different ways to evaluate quality itself but, what of consumption? While I might consider something quality, what is the point if no one is interested in consuming it. Don't get me wrong here, there is value for the creator and those who do happen to read it but, for mainstreaming Steem? There is a reason that more people go to an Avengers movie than the Opera perhaps. Quality of content has very little to do with quality of attraction for an audience and for millions of people to be included on Steem, attention paid to content is an important factor.

What I do hope for though is that the attention paid to at least some content will mean that more people will consume more thoughtfully, rather than the thumbing through and double tapping without really caring what the post actually contained. I think that people on Facebook, Instagram and the other similar platforms are waking up to the hollowness of the "social" in their media and are slowly starting to look further afield.

One of the reasons I think tying economics to platforms like Steem is a good idea is that (if you haven't noticed), many people take it much more seriously as it affects their personal economy directly. The funny thing is, so do the other platforms, it is just that they don't share the proceeds with the vast majority of the user base at all. The billions of dollars they make every month (yes month) comes from someone's pockets and if you follow the paper trail, it is the users who are influenced to consume.

What is happening though is the tides are turning and there is growing expectation that the value of attention is a two way street and the consumers are looking for a return on their habits. The blockchain communities are already doing this of course, we are just waiting for the mainstream mass to catch up.

The paths of that centralized paper trail however only work if enough people consume as they are very top-heavy systems which means, the opportunity to undercut them isn't on price, it isn't on quality of content, it is in the ability to return something to users that has value in a way that the resource intensive platforms and businesses can't manage. This is already happening and while one can argue the flaws in the distribution, it is undeniable that distribution does take place, the Steem pool is being allocated daily.

It doesn't go to quality all the time and a lot of content is missed daily but, it does happen and it is going to hundreds of thousands of accounts daily and every account that is powered up is taking some of the inflationary pool through interest at the very least. Yes, far from perfect but, far from a complete washout too and, it has a lot of room for improvement and luckily, is always changing. The changes aren't driven by quality posts although they might play a part, the changes are driven by individual and community actions that enable and empower more inclusion on Steem, whether they can write a good blog or not. The decentralization of Steem is that quality of content is only one branch of the ecosystem and there are many more to come.

Quality is important however in one crucial area and that is, the quality of the Steem Blockchain. The chain needs to perform, it needs to scale, it needs to be reliable and it needs to be efficient; and no post in the world is going to deliver those things - no matter how well it is written.

While there are many arguments about many things on Steem, the beauty of the environment is that no one is tied to certain types of behavior, content, quality, application, interface, community or even on the blockchain itself. There is freedom to move, but people forget that movement always has ongoing reactions of various qualities.

Steem will always go where the community drives it. You know the rules - this is an economy, supply and demand laws apply.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]