The Importance of Communication; Making The Case For Better Communication On/At Steemit.
Lack of communication clouds everything
Ideally, it's what should happen in a community!
What Is Communication
Doing a quick Google search,
com·mu·ni·ca·tion
kəˌmyo͞onəˈkāSH(ə)n/
noun
1
the imparting or exchanging of information or news.
"direct communication between the two countries will produce greater understanding"
synonyms: transmission, conveyance, divulgence, disclosure; More
2
means of connection between people or places, in particular.
Communication involves imparting or exchanging of information or news.
This is the only way people other than yourself can understand what your actions truly mean. No matter how noble your intentions might be, there's always the possibility of someone misinterpreting your ideas or actions.
When you communicate, you impart information or news. You tell the people what you intend to do, how you intend to go about it and why you're doing it.
This is even more important when these people are thousands of miles away/apart. You can't expect everyone to correctly see reason or understand your actions.
The other part to this first definition is Exchanging Ideas.
The essence of communication is not just to tell people what you plan to do.
People will ask questions, they'll have areas they don't understand or need further explanation. It's your duty to take time out to exchange ideas, information or news. This way, everybody has their fears addressed and when this happens, no one will be in doubt or show the symptoms caused by uncertainty.
I was going through the Trending section and saw this post imploring me to sign a petition to make Steem fully Open Source. Ideally, this will be a great thing so I went ahead to read the post and as I read on, some type of feeling began to brew in me. I was seeing the world through the lens of @demotruk and at that point, everything he said was valid to me. I was going to sign the petition, I just needed to know how.
So what changed my mind?
I got to the comments and found something I never expected. There was @sneak trying his best to explain things and answer questions.
The issue here is not whether you agree with the explanations or not. The issue is that these people ( @demotruk and others ) weren't ignored!
There was/is communication on going and that was/is very important.
So after reading what both sides had to say (at the time), I held off on signing (because I realized there were still many things I was in the dark about)
Without communication, this wouldn't have been possible and @sneak, I really appreciate it.
There are many more, some with threats to leave the platform. It's super evident that some communication channel needs to be opened up real soon.
The other definition states communication as a means of connection between people or places, in particular.
Communication brings connection
Without any form of communication, there will always be a disconnect between the members of a community.
It's never funny to wake up one day and see flags everywhere without any prior information on this.
When there's no communication, people feel neglected and when this happens, their actions can become irrational.
like deciding to sell all their steem
Nobody loves to be kept in the dark concerning any matter.
Nobody likes to be made to feel/look like a fool.
But these are what happens when actions are taken in a community without proper communication.
Imagine if we knew when this whole "experiment" was going to end.
Imagine if Steemit Inc communicated more with everyone.
Imagine there are regular updates on what's going on with the blockchain and Steemit.
Imagine if we all had new things to look forward to every week.
I, personally, will feel like i'm indeed helping to build something great!
Even employees need/get constant communication to keep them on track and informed, how much more those regarded as co-owners?
There's no time communication is needed more than this Beta period. It's supposed to be a period where there's constant feedback and when these feedbacks are being implemented.
Five years down the line, I should be able to boldly say "this part of Steem was my idea/contribution" but currently, that's not possible.
And it seems like communication in Steemit is broken from the very top. So broken that it wasn't even implemented in the Steemit UI.
If this is a social media site, then what's a social media site without a way to send messages?
You mean I can't slide into your dm?
Maybe it's purely a blogging platform but blogging platforms have ways for me to communicate with my subscribers/followers.
You know this!
So what's the excuse?
I think communication needs to be fixed from the very top and this should be done ASAP!
It's not an excuse, I think it's about implementing a system that is resilient to spam/abuse more than anything, coupled with providing privacy and that security:
Follow with me through the various issues.
For it to be on the blockchain it will be incredibly slow, not much chatroom more private message.
Next comes the issues with privacy which means it cannot be implemented in a fully transparent platform, so it will be much harder to implement simply because of privacy concerns and not so much because of bandwidth and abuse/spam.
For it to be outside the blockchain we would need to address these other issues:
Altogether different system, meaning registering again/twice.
Hosting and with that comes: who pays for it, how much bandwidth is there, and how much data it can handle.
Coding something from the ground up, or forking over money to use an existing/proprietary system, both require money, one requires testing as well.
With this outside system you lose resiliency and are open to centralized power over the system and therefore vulnerability to attacks.
We need a way to message users, that's for sure, and I'm not saying it's impossible to implement, it can be done but it won't have privacy, and that isn't such a big concern, just a bit disheartening that you cannot have privacy which you can find on other platforms, but it's a trade off because privacy isn't guaranteed on other platforms especially with all the censorship happening and your account is endlessly easier to hack on those platforms.
Well, luckily for me, I've found an example in Shadowproject.io and an excerpt from their webpage reads thus:
So it's something possible and something a different blockchain is already tackling. Messaging/communication is an important feature in any community.
Ok so if inbox/direct message styles aren't available or feasible for now, could there be things like "notice boards"? Anything to pass information across to a group of people? It doesn't have to be a one to one discussion type but maybe a newsletter style.
Not keeping people in the dark is my primary concern here.
Notice boards ran by who? I mean who is in charge, a notice board for everyone?
There's the chat room feature, if you didn't know.
Communication! 😊 Me want! So many people want. Great post on what I believe to be our most pressing issue.
Steemit is like a mighty colossal beast without the ability to communicate with its limbs; rolling around and pulling all kinds of silly manoeuvres.
And that's a scary image to imagine! All it's efforts needs to be coordinated and this can't be done without communication.
Even the human body has a communication channel/model/platform/whatever its called!
Preach, brother. The most common causes of conflict is brought upon by miscommunication. This shouldn't even be a question. Communication should be the top priority in terms of interacting with people. This is especially for interactions involving different countries and cultures.
There's no other way to put it.
Communication is important!
It's not even about whether people agree with what you have to say or not, just let them know what's going on.
My dad taught me this important lesson (and maybe I should have added it in the post). He always says "it's not like i'm monitoring you but just call to let me know what you're up to". Of course I revolted at first but I later found out it was simply the key to living a peaceful and trust filled life. Even if he doesn't agree with what i'm doing or where I am, at least he knows!
The head can come up with pretty toxic assumptions within seconds but all these can be mitigated by communication. I hope more people see this and hop on the train.
Oh, yeah, I get what you mean. I'm the same way with my mom. You should edit that in, that's a great addition to the post.