RE: No. You do not own Steemit, Inc.
Steemit, Inc. is a privately held company. They have no obligation to the community or to SP holders. They can chose to run their company any way they want! They do not have to do anything we say.
Of course. Who's claiming that they must do what we all say?
They should listen to what we have to say, and do their best to try to keep us happy. We are their biggest asset. We are ultimately their main recruiters, onboarders, content producers, investors, etc. Without all of us, there probably would be no Steemit, Inc.
So, then you agree that they should be listening to their valued users and investors? What's your complaint then? That we shouldn't express our concerns because they don't have to listen to us, but they should listen to our concerns? That's quite a confusing message to your readers, don't you think?
That does not give us the right to demand how they run their company though.
Again - there aren't many "demands" out there, from what I've seen. There are a lot of users expressing some discontent on many issues and many people have either left or have considered leaving because of some of these ongoing issues. That ought to wake some people up in the halls of Steemit Inc. and it's exactly this kind of feedback from users and investors that makes them aware of such discontent and the levels that it has reached.
Now it's surely up to them whether they want to acknowledge issues and seek resolutions. Nobody is disputing that. But that doesn't mean everyone should sit down and shut up. If that's the attitude of Steemit Inc. (and I'm pretty sure that it's not), then they wouldn't have much of a user base anymore. They need users and investors just as much as the users and investors need the product and services that Steemit Inc. is supposed to be developing.
When you're asking people to believe in your idea and product and to invest their time, energy, and money into it, it's not wrong for those users and investors to have expectations - and to question behavior and actions when those expectations aren't being met. It's called being a responsible investor and ensuring accountability, especially when this is supposed to be a "decentralized" network (even though it's largely centralized at the moment).
Honestly, there is very little if anything in your response that I disagree with. Feedback, suggestions, and input from the community are all key. If I had to point to one thing I'd "change" (probably what my 'rant' was targeted towards) is attitude / tone. It is possible to do all the things you just said and still do it in a constructive way. If everyone's "suggestions" came across with the right tone and attitude, I probably would not have written this post.
Expressing frustration over the same issues over the course of weeks and months is usually going to be perceived as negative or "the wrong tone." Maybe these "tones" and "attitudes" are the result of a perceived lack of action. Maybe the correct response wouldn't be to talk down to those who are frustrated, but to instead ask for better accountability from those who are at the very least partially responsible for the frustration.
This post really serves no purpose other than to say what everyone already knows and already sees - that Steemit Inc. can and mostly will do what they want. Like I said - that doesn't mean nobody should speak up and we certainly should not be telling them that they're wrong for doing so because they have no actual stake in Steemit Inc.
Concerns should be expressed and a dialogue with the company's staff would be the best way to address them, considering the relatively small and relatively tight-knit community we currently have and the fact that this is the beta testing phase. Now is the time to hash these things out.
When you start to go to "that doesn't mean nobody should speak up", then we start to diverge in our agreement. It is not an "us" versus "them". We are on the same side. We want the same goals. It is not a fight between the community and Steemit, Inc. It is there company that we are interacting with, and we are welcome to offer our suggestions on how they can do it better. That much I agree with. If it starts to turn into a "fight" though, then I think you have the wrong idea.