AskSteem: Would an onboarding program be viable for the SteemDAO?
Out of risk of sounding like a broken record, we've been checking with users in the community through very low requirements if they would be up for using our onboarding program we've set up through OCD. Our trial run showed some great numbers and with little time it would have made many who are interested in onboarding content creators outside of Steem onto Steem know how to effectively do so, but the interest has been low.
The question is now, is the interest low due to the way we incentivize the onboarding activity? It being mainly through post rewards after showcasing the onboarded users in a compilation post which we know today is something quite subjective to downvotes - mainly from users not even bothering to see where the rewards go to but some also disagreeing with the rewards.
So for that the DAO would be a solution, but then another question arises. Is onboarding something we should focus on right now or is that something that will get fixed in and on itself once we have everything here fixed and ready for them - communities, easy account signup and a more welcoming userbase focused on each genre of communities and content.
Anyway, with OCD being ready to support most activity that we deem beneficial to Steem, we figured we'd ask what the community thinks. Receiving incentives from the DAO would in a way be more "safe" and less relying on the post reward pool but at the same time there may be more crucial things that need to get done before that becomes a necessity.
Onboarding could be considered as marketing at the same time but is Steem prime for marketing?
Please remember that we already have the voting power to support content creators that join and even delegate enough SP for them to have their slider and other benefits mentioned in the past. So please don't make this post about user retention and support - it's mainly about what you think would be best moving forward with the onboarding program as it is one of the few things we haven't managed to get flowing so far and we think after the trial run it would do wonders for new content creators and the network effect it could have. Especially at a time where a lot more SP is focused on curation but the post count is dropping continuously as it has in the past leading to possible overrewarded posts or authors being hit quite often with votes which is also not a good thing for a healthy distribution.
I think this is a really important question and I'd like to separate on-boarding from the challenge of actually keeping people on board. Getting people to join is an external marketing issue tied to the ease and speed of getting and starting the account (I'm not going to go there - those technicalities are beyond me).
I also acknowledge that I'm in a particular demographic which, I suspect is underrepresented on Steemit (there are lots of us around who may be interested, and who produce
greatcontent), and who would be interested, if Steemit were de-mistified and user-friendly. We are the 55+'s and mostly women.Firstly, on front-ends: Steemit.com, as a creation platform, for folk like me is daunting: coding is not in my genes and I'd rather learn it by osmosis (I've learned quite a bit), but I think that the more user-friendly, "catholic" front-ends like @steempeak, @partiko and WordPress via @steempress (@steempress.io) from @howo and @fredrikaa are more valuable to Steemit as marketing tools than those dedicated to a particular tribe.
TMI, but I tend to use the first two for my "Steemit/blockchain-only" content and the latter for everything else. In some respects this includes a bit of low-level advocacy about Steemit as another vehicle for sharing one's content - with the potential for earning.
All of that said, I am going to weigh in on the retention issue. Knowing that you don't really want to go there, so forgive me for just getting this off my chest.
Here, I'd like to suggest collaboration with already excellent initiatives on Steemit that are working hard to help noobs navigate the rough and steemy waters of a social blockchain. And, before I continue, I'd like to distinguish between their work and the valuable work of curation initiatives like @ocd (yours) as well as @c-squared, @qurator and @curie. Again, I think they're separate and are critical to maintaining, of not raising, the quality of content - and engagement - on Steemit. There are other "quieter" curation and support initiatives that I've benefited from, and for which I'm extremely grateful, like @appreciator who also does great work supporting other initiatives - like @yourtop3 - among others, as well as @helpie.
Three initiatives that, in my opinion do good work, and which have been essential to my remaining on Steemit, have been, in this order: the Power House Creatives (formerly @steemitbloggers) founded by @jaynie; @pifc which is run by @thedarkhorse and SteemTerminal founded by @brittandjosie with @xcountytravellers. This last, with their @heyhaveyamet initiative is critical for noobs. I wish it had been around in my early days: I'd not have disappeared for six months. I only came back because of PHC.
Before I get on to my third suggestion, I'm going to nail my colours to the mast (again): I'm not a fan of tribes; I also don't get the gamification and the creation of tokens. I may be a bit of a lone salmon, but that gives you context (as does my demographic, to which I've referred).
There is a third category of "communities" which, IMO, deserve attention and these are the ones which focus on interests. I have an eclectic range of interests - not all reflected in my posts, but certainly reflected in my engagement. The discord groups that emerge from common interests and then spawn their own accounts are, I think critical to Steemit. These include SteemitMammas, cooking, plant-based food and lifestyle initiatives; music interest groups of which people like @nickyhavey and @bengy are part. Naming them is not important, but what is, from a marketing perspective, is that folk are attracted not by the potential of earning crypto, but because of being able to engage with great content and like-minded individuals - the social aspect cannot be ignored.
In summary, then, I'm suggesting that retention is integral to the marketing and new account creation. At the risk of sounding either snobbish, or like a control freak, I think that there are levels at which people operate, and into which they can and will settle - with help, and as they ease into the often rather turbulent waters of Steemit.
My tuppence worth.
Fiona
We'll welcome collaborations and as mentioned above mainly to curate what they curate, so no direct rewards going towards the projects unless you count higher curation rewards part of them. Actually we have a channel in the c2 discord where we invited a bunch of smaller curation project leaders to assist in upvoting their best content of that day/week when we received a lot of delegation after HF21/22 and of course we'll be looking to continue that collaboration and growing it with communities depending on where there is need. Thanks for the thoughtful comment and I'm looking forward to more teamwork and bringing together all the communities back onto Steem as they're spread too thin all over discords right now.
Having curation leaders join to help: fantastic strategy. I agree that communities are spread thin. I also think personalities (sadly) have a lot to do with this and unwillingness to share and/or accept/seek help.
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I think the time for a serious focus on onboarding is when Communities and SMTs are rolled out and when signups have been made easier. It's probably a good idea to test onboarding but starting a large scale program supporting onboarding is perhaps best done when the new authors can more easily find their home in communities. These are my initial thoughts.
People want to feel welcome. They want interaction on their posts, not just rewards. Most times people see and start an account for the payout but then do not realize they too have to go out and leave comments.
If you get a free account you can not comment as much as you want. I started with 35 delegated SP from INC. I could post and comment all day and never run out. It's how I met people. How I found communities.
You can not DO that with what you get with a free account. If you can maybe post once a day and then not comment you are SOL.
New Normal users are not going to know that OCD or a list of others are willing to give out a helping hand.
One of the reasons why the GU onboarding IS working so well is you are building a community of like-minded people or at least they have something in common. But that takes US going out and finding people, explaining what Steem is in very few words and time frame.
Just my thoughts for now.......
We need lite/guest accounts first. Communities aren't what will help onboarding.
It's not about having the community option, it's being able to easily enter the community.
People here tend to think that "if you build it they will come"...
No they won't.
Take a look at the folks you gathered in the GU chat.. (Brilliant move btw. I see what you're doing and where's that going. 😉)
even they have a problem when trying to figure out steem and they're crypto knowledgable.
Guest accounts are absolutely essential. What I'm saying is take a look at what @steempeak is doing and maybe consider voting their proposal.
Only if you make it as easy to make an account here as it is on reddit, Facebook, will people come.
Newbs don't know how awesome we are when they stumble upon steem and if you make them wait a week or even a few hours to get an account they never will. Lol.
Human attention span on the internet is extremely short. We shouldn't underestimate that.
Pinging Andy for a quick lesson. 😂
@andrarchy.
Make me rich you fuckers. Hahaha
Guy 1: why the post count is dropping continuously, we need to find a solution.
Guy 2: people are getting 0 for their hard work, so they stopped from posting.
Guy 1: nah, we need to onboard more people.
Guy 2: but we already have people here, we just need to incentivize them.
Guy 1: nah, we need marketing, I feel that I can look at the bigger picture.
Guy 2: the only big thing you are looking at is the size of the graveyard you've created.
Mainstream platforms are brimming with authors who get absolutely nothing for their efforts. It is utterly laughable to suggest that money is a requirement for anyone to post. User experience, engagement and positive feedback are key. There are literally billions of content creators out there who expect zero financial rewards. What we need is a platform easy and frictionless to use and great communities to attract them. The money will play a minor role.
Nahhh, mainstream platforms are brimming with authors who are trying to monetize their fame/influence in a way or another.
You don't have to kiss @acidyo's ass just because @ocdb followed you lately, you completely lost your ability of critical thinking. You even created a post to monetize the kissing because It is utterly laughable to suggest that money is a requirement for anyone to post, start declining all rewards from now one, be the raw model that you want everyone to be your lordship.
It's embarrassing, a graveyard worker.
Fuck off.
This is called PTSD, and your weak mind has just experienced it.
No you're just constantly being an asshole on every thread so kindly fuck off as you don't know shit.
A little soy milk will help you relieve your suffering.
Kindly,
Wtf are you talking about? Enjoy getting banned from each community early on, rofl.
I wouldn't bother reading that trolls comments too much, have seen his shit all over other people's posts, seems it's the only thing he's interested in. I have first hand experience of getting in new content creators as I was a big part of inviting them in the trial run we had and many said they loved the community and other talent that existed here and couldn't understand why not more people knew about Steem or remained. Most of the conversations had nothing to do with the rewards even so that was a definite +.
I can see where you're coming from. But let's just say that I find it useful to challenge myself by replying to a hostile interlocutor and explaining myself as thoroughly as I can. One old acquaintaince of mine, a philosophy student, would call that "methodical low self-esteem".
That sounds fantastic. When I first brought up Steem in my circle of friends in 2017, it was a total disaster. This year was better. That the crypto space as a whole has refused to go away since normos became aware of it in 2017 and despite the horrible bear market and all the FUD in 2018, their attitudes seem to have started to soften.
I just want to say I really appreciate what you add to a discussion. Whether you agree or not, you articulate your point well and try to further the discussion in a positive way.
I know that sounds maybe odd, but reading this thread made me want to relay that.
Anyways, thanks for adding to the discussions around here. I enjoy reading them.
Thank you for the positive feedback.
The sign up wait time is a big issue. If it was instant and they could sign up and get posting fast it would help. The next issue is incentivizing the mentors to help the new users to get up and running. DAO sounds interesting, you could offer some liquid steem to the mentor once the new user/s makes their introduction post with steem sign and date. Time is a precious asset and it takes time to mentor someone on steem. The tribes could offer delegation to users who would mainly be on their platforms.
“Is steem prime for marketing?” I feel once sign up is instant and the UI for steemit and the tribes switch over to that, it will be. It’s not quite ready yet IMO.
Sign up time is being resolved by a few front ends and even steemit mentioned a future hardfork with a light account. Perhaps it is right to wait for this to be further implimented?
I agree with this assessment. Getting a large number of people to join at this stage might have negative repercussions.
In my opinion, having something that become easy for new users to quickly get aclamatized is what sits at the top of the scale of preference really. Onboarding by all means needs to take a bigger leap
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The question to everyone is that even after the onboarding of new users are they ready and willing to keep the STEEM community running? Because records had shown that so many new STEEM users come and go after few weeks or payout when they have no constant support and encouragement through upvote.
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We have about 10,000 or so daily active users at present. At best, we had about 60,000. Imagine Steem apps manage to onboard 60 million. How many STEEM would the average user be able to earn when he the number of other authors competing over the same reward pool went up by a factor of 60,000? Could the price of STEEM go up commensurately to offset the stiffer competition? Not bloody likely. Steem is worth $0.14 at present. Multiply that by 60,000 and you get $8400. What would the market cap of STEEM be if one STEEM was worth that much? 350 million * $8400,
which equals 2,940,000 million or 2.94 trillion. That's more than Amazon, Apple and Facebook combined. A 60 million user platform. You need billions of users to reach a marketcap in that category.
Let's put the idea that you're going to onboard the masses by promising them money to rest. What you want is a user experience so great they will love it. For instance, gaming combined with the transactions on a public ledger is a killer idea. There will be no risk of digital assets lost because a single company that owns the servers goes bankrupt.
DAOs definitely will have focused on-boarding, and I think, we need to empower them better for onboarding as well as rewarding. For example @steemhunt already has got the necessary infrastructure to onboard someone pretty quickly. It also has the ability to reward them ( though how much may be questionable).
And even though you say not to talk about user retention and support, I think, DAOs need that ability, because only on-boarding won't solve the problem. Right now, OCD is looking for great content, but the DAOs objective may not be only great content. Take @actfit as an example. Many people will love to use it, but if there is not enough fuel for that, then the on-boarding becomes useless.
And you can take care of on-boarding the great content creators, but that may not lead to mass adoption.