CONTEST: CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM AND IDEAS FOR STEEMIT by @tayon

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM WITH RELEVANT IDEA FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF STEEMIT

STEEMIT may have not gotten to where it is going but it is obviously not where it used to be. Going down memory lane, we have seen many social media platforms fail upon introduction. Some to date have no visibility while others have crashed due to many reasons for which a dysfunctional system is major. In fact, some had started only to realize that they had no capacity to deliver all promised services and hence have been branded “scams”. Steemit is no exemption to the series of challenges that served as catalysts to the fall of these failed platforms neither was there a magical ability that prevented her from being faced by these same challenges. Yet steemit, in spite of all the challenges it has faced has grown to become one of the leading blockchain social media platforms in the world. Steemit as a social platform has recorded notable growth since its introduction in 2016. And as a growing platform, it has stood out as a groundbreaking platform leading the way and setting the pace for others to follow. This is significantly remarkable!

The emergence of steemit has united people of different cultures and rewarding people for doing what they like doing. Unlike other popular social media platforms that have successfully enriched their creators and have benefitted a very small fragment of its users, steemit on the other hand has enriched its users and given aid to those in need. Before the introduction of steemit, one can hardly find a trustworthy and highly rewarding platform where “all” content creators can be rewarded for social activities. For example, many of the social activities on facebook and twitter that come with no monetary value have on the other hand fetched no small monetary reward for people on steemit. Imagine being paid for sharing with people how you spent your day! Steemit undoubtedly sees value in all things even the things we consider less important. This is because the idea of a group of people helping and contributing to one another is practical on steemit. The educational benefit of steemit is limitless. Steemit allows its users to meet different people without any barriers whatsoever. You are able to learn from different minds and acquire new skills and gain better knowledge about different places and topics. The innumerable benefits of steemit that project its success within a short period of its emergence are clearly inexhaustible.

Nevertheless, it is necessary to mention that one major catalyst for growth is the ability of a platform to agree that irrespective of the success it has recorded or keeps recording, there are still challenges confronting it from attaining a greater level of success. Therefore, identifying these obstacles and fashioning out ways to overcome them is imperative. This means openness to constructive criticism is necessary for the growth and stability of any and every platform which includes steemit. Steemit is a platform that gives credence to the thoughts and ideas of members and also has its success and failure directly impacting its users proving this discourse relevant to all as it is to @huzaifanaveed1 . So I believe that the motive of @huzaifanaveed1 for organizing this contest is for the good of all because the fall of steemit is the fall of many. Thus the need for this kind of contest that is tailored towards constructive criticism and generation of ideas for steemit is necessary as a preventive measure for the sustenance of steemit.

Steemit has jumped many hurdles and is still in its phase of development. It has recorded significant success but there remain some areas that attention must be given. As a newbie, I have found steemit generally easy to use and so far in the course of my navigating steemit, I have discovered just two areas needing attention these areas are:

ISSUE NUMBER 1. The platform seems to favor old members with high reputations over newbies.

In all honesty, the bait that attracted many people to this platform is the pool of rewards it has. And many people get disappointed once there is no considerable reward for their labor after a period of time. Steemit is not a get-rich-quick scheme but many really want to enjoy what steemit truly promises. The truth yet remains that many of those who constantly get huge upvotes are those who have spent a considerable time on steemit. In fact, it is painful to see sketchy content get upvoted over better ones. I quite agree that for many of these people their upvotes is a product of their long active years on steemit. However, it seems to me that there is now a fixed group of individuals who continue to get these upvotes with ever-increasing difficulty for others to access their cycle. I felt discouraged when I joined steemit and almost quit. I produced content, and posted them in a particular community but never got an upvote. Meanwhile, another fellow who had built his reputation would post a few lines almost hourly and get upvotes worth 50 dollars or more. This is unfair! It is one of the reasons why many people sign up to steemit but after weeks of fruitless effort, they abandon it.

SOLUTION TO THE ABOVE ISSUE.

A fair and well-structured rewarding body must be instituted to reward all contents across communities based on certain parameters which may include long-time participation but not solely dependent on it.

ISSUE NUMBER 2: Steemit still needs proper organization of content.

It is a bit difficult to find posts in a community. This is another problem that must be solved. In fact, locating your post a few minutes after publication in an active community is a bit difficult except if you opt for the “blog” option on the profile page. The need to have posts categorized is necessary for visibility and ease of use. Only content creators with a high reputation ever get featured on the trending page. The logical arrangement of all posts based on categories is necessary. For example, when people in the newcomers’ community post their achievement tasks, it is always very difficult to separate achievement 1 from achievement 2 and from other achievement tasks. All achievement tasks mix up. This is also true of other communities with a series of achievements. I remember the difficulty I had trying to revisit a post I had once read after a long period. I had to scroll down and down, in fact, the search was almost an endless one. This needs to be fixed.

SOLUTION TO THE ABOVE ISSUE.

I am of the opinion that the site must be improved to create a system that categorizes each achievement task, dairy, or contest as the case may be to designated places such that one can easily go to the section and bring out what one want. Call it a library or a catalog! This will help prevent the mixture of posts.

NEW IDEA FOR STEEMIT

I suggest “STEEMIT MESSENGER”. Steemit needs users’ personalized messenger like telegram or WhatsApp. The fact that steemit users use Telegram, Whatsapp, and Facebook as alternative modes of communication to enhance group and private communication is proof that steemit has not fully succeeded in meeting the social needs of members. It is not proper for a social platform like steemit to have an “external” alternative platform for private interaction between members. CAN THERE BE AN EASY-TO-USE SYSTEM WITHIN STEEMIT THAT ALLOWS MEMBERS TO HAVE PRIVATE CHATS AND DISCUSSIONS LIKE WHATSAPP AND FACEBOOK CHAT? I believe it is possible to have such. The development of such a system will help steemit record more daily participation on steemit and help members to see beyond steemit’s reward system to the social function it performs as all initiated conversations and relationships on steemit can be continued and further strengthened on steemit messenger.