How Are We Doing ... Looking at some Metrics.
Finding different ways to view our overall performance. Let's take a look at some stats.
First let's look at the price:
Currently the price is about $.85 USD and .00012620 in BTC. The chart above is from Bittrex, and displays Steem vs. BTC in 7 day candles. on 9/21/2018.
You can see the overall trend is down.
While looking at the chart, also acknowledge that nearly the entire cryptocurrency space is down. So, price alone is not a good indication of our performance.
Let's move on to User Data.
New Users
New user sign ups are also trending down and sideways. (chart by @arcange)
Showing less interest from new users attempting to join Steem, as we know there have been some limitations on new user sign ups which will be addressed in HF20 on September 25th, 2018
Active Users:
Again chart by @arcange and his explanation of a user is: The green line shows how many of them have been active at least once (by active users, I mean those who made at least one post, comment or upvote). They are included even if they become inactive later.
This chart also shows a slow and steady decline of our active user-base.
Let's not just look at users though, let's look at overall traffic on the site, often a key performance indicator in web-based applications.
It's important to note the graph above is related directly to steemit.com, and not the overall traffic on the Steem Blockchain.
As we see more of our dApps get active that number will likely continue to decrease and that is also not a great metric to determine how well things are going.
Let's move on to our rankings in CoinMarketCap, which shows us in relation to other cryptocurrency projects.
Screenshot taken from https://coinmarketcap.com, with the following filters -rankings, all, top 100.
We are currently sitting at 38th and our overall projectile on this list is also down. All Time High was 5th, and we started the year in the 20s.
In general it is hard to find a metric which shows us headed in the right direction. My thoughts below.
Our best laid out plans have gotten us here, and I fear unless and until we do things differently our current situation is likely to continue - slow decline in nearly every metric I can think of to look at.
However, we do need to weigh in the past year where other things were likely a factor.
- We were stagnant on any user facing development as HF20 and Scalability took center stage
- Many Development Improvements were the focus.
- Cryptocurrency had a major price and interest adjustment down.
- Early adopters began to move to new projects, as early adopters often do.
What are your thoughts on how we are doing and if we have done enough to turn this around.
My post is not meant to be negative, strictly looking at various metrics to determine where we are.
The most frustrating part for me is there is no ONE person who can change the direction or make a decision so doing business in a decentralised way is worse than herding cats, as no one even knows where we should herd them.
:)
Yeah, based on this, things look pretty glum.
I can't adequately write an intelligent response to shed much light on this from simply a comment, so I'll just make a couple of short points.
Decentralization is a marvelous ideology filled with promise, but it's a shit business model... I was skeptical when I first got introduced to the idea, and I'm even more skeptical now. It's all but impossible to move projects quickly and efficiently forward when you have "planning and action by committee consensus."
As we have seen here, there are lots of marvelous and potentially game changing ideas... but implementing any of them is all but functionally impossible. I know the witnesses are quick to point to their marvelous cooperation whenever the house catches on fire... and I totally applaud that, but very little happens when the house is NOT on fire.
But I want to make my second point the broader perspective.
In the cryptospace, people tend to get a little myopic and start viewing everything in the narrow context of the cryptospace. But we're part of a much bigger economic and geo-political system. And it also includes Human Nature. And the blockchain — as marvelous as it may be — is not exempt from human nature. And some of that points to the negative trend you've outlined.
From my very first week here I had massive reservations about what I felt was the "mismarketing" of Steemit. All everyone could say was "It's a place to MAKE MONEY!!!"
Well, if you're shouting that from the rooftops, who do you sincerely think is going to show up? Hordes of bloggers and content creators, looking for a new long-term home to park their content? Probably not. What you end up with is a long stream of "money-for-nothing-seekers" who'll basically "grab and run" like many have.
The adjunct "large scale" comment here is that I have been part of "rewards for content" venues for 20 years... and I've heard this music before. About 60 times, to be precise. We're somewhat blessed to have time on our side... "time," in the sense that people are being compensated with Steem, rather than fiat dollars, so there's not some corporate coffers being drained to zero. The market sets the value of the content. There's no "you'll get 2 cents per page view" promise to keep.
But we have a long hard road ahead... and it involves getting back on track with this being a "social content" venue, not a cash grab. The low price has been good, in that respect, because a lot of the people who thought they might score an easy Lambo have left, and you and I (and a few thousand others) are still here. Now we just need to get out there and recruit another 100K "you's" and "I's" to get back on track.
OK... I think it's time for me to stop here, before this goes overboard on the length.
I think we still have a great opportunity here. And I think we're in the middle of a "shift change." The emphasis is going OFF the initial big whales who were early miners, and more towards "community building" influencers... like (for example) @fulltimegeek's intent to start a witness and get into the top 20. It's a new approach. And it is much needed.
Some of our whale/investors are parasites and the community's unwillingness to flag has really got me down.
I'm fine with people posting what they want, but it doesn't work well if the community doesn't use it's stake to help drive valuable content.
I'm stuck between not having enough stake to matter and not wanting to put more in to be diluted by the current flow of money.
I'm probably just having a fear mood and it will likely pass, but it is frustrating. Not my own performance, I am doing fine, it is the stake of the network that has me down.
I hear you.
Whenever I get depressed about it, I remind myself that every Steem that goes into my holdings is a Steem that will NOT be drained from the system or misappropriated by some greedy miscreant.
So true - you do nail some shit sometimes - there are still a couple of us left!
I think there are good initiatives like @steem-ua in there works which could make a difference.
To me, the user experience is the low hanging fruit in the equation, and i think you start to fix rhat by fixing the reputation system. Most experienced users know the rep score matters very little as far as a gage for trustworthiness or respectability, but the average user has a hard time reconciling the fact that a platform which is supposed to facilitate unpopular speech allows certain individuals to have such an exaggerated affect on their "reputation".
I also think now (while the price is low) is an opportune time to get businesses on board and selling their wares on Steem. Let's move beyond seeing Steem as a speculative investment and on to increasing its utility as an actual currency. Imagine the promotional value of being able to do your holiday shopping with Steem. It would be worth it to see look on the faces of naysaying friends & family members when they ask where you got that great gift from and you tell them that you paid for it with Steem. The lower prices translates to lower risk for sellers and may incentivize them to hodl steem.
First of all, IMO, we should check those metrics during a better market period.
Nonetheless, difficult to understand why BTS has a better coinmarket cap having similar properties as STEEM but less "usability"...
STEEM needs a better marketing campaign as other blockchains do.
WE HAVE THE BEST BLOCKCHAIN BUT WE DON'T KNOW HOW TO SELL IT...
IMO, we should be checking the metrics at all times in order to view our progress.
I agree that our performance and our ability to share the vision or market the blockchain is weak.
I think it all looks pretty bad - BUT - when cryptos go down so does Steemit - one month of rising crypto prices and all this could start improving - I think we are small potatoes...
Steemit is a reflection of these charts first and foremost.
And keep in mind that there is still no competition - yes I'm calling EOS a scam!
If it weren't for the drop in coinmarketcap, I would agree and that is what I've been telling myself also.
As far as moving with the markets, I think we are fine. As far as how we are doing at the building a user-base and gaining value, I'd have to say we are not holding up well at all. Believe me, I do not want to be saying this. :)
First I would like to say "I have tried to herd cats and figured out you have to use mice". I know a lot of people wanted SMT out by now but to be honest I think fixing the problems we have on the back end first was the smart move. Now we can have SMT out on HF21 and be able to deal with any new problems that may come along with it faster. Yes it's true we may suffer for the short term but it will get better once things get back on track and SMT is out. I do agree that we really need to see some strong leadership, direction and it be conveyed to the users as that alone gives the people a sense of being apart of the community. It doesn't have to be from steemit but someone. I know easier said than done but we have a lot of smart and talented people that are apart of steem/steemit, You can find a lot of them on steemspeak on discord should anyone want to check that out. Anyways thanks @whatsup this was useful information keep up the awesome post!
Haha. Your mice comment... The "mice" were supposed to be rewards.. :) They are going back in the hands of the pockets they came from.
Ohhh I see...
I don't usually post links in the comments, but this post kind of compliments mine from 2 hours ago, in which I did the math and evaluated my time spent here. Honestly I'm on the fence about what to do about all of this.
Some Steemians are like the 🙈🙉🙊 monkeys, and you are perceived as disloyal or negative or weak if you aren't always being an enthusiastic steem cheerleader all the time, but it's very understandable that some of us are struggling at this point. Besides, you were just sharing the facts. ;) Thanks for the information!
I figured this post would not trend... lol...
You can't change what you don't acknowledge, we have to track how we are doing IMO.
That's okay lol. I just thought of a fun little way to make anyone feel better. If steem goes to the moon and is worth $50 someday like some people still say, how much money would your SP be worth? Minus the 50 SP delegation, I would have $33,600! ;P
There are things STEEM can do and there are thing external to STEEM , my conclusion at this point is the overall market effect is overwhelming and drowns out any internal STEEM adjustment.
When market gets bullish the internal levers of STEEM will play a more pronounced role , in my humble opinion.
That's an interesting view and I'm willing to entertain it.
Don't get down this is only the beginning. We haven't really even started and one has to look over the next five years to look at stats.
Technology doesn't wait... Not saying you are wrong, but we've gone from being ahead to being behind in several categories.
I feel like despite our best technical analysis the markets are more often than not completely irrational.
However, my estimate for Steem this time of year during the month of January was something like $20. I was thinking we would be $5 $10 or $20. It honestly never occurred to me that could literally be below $1.
It never occurred to me that that $0.85 level could be the top for the foreseeable future. You know I mean we're stuck in this "bubble of despair" and nobody knows if things are going to rise back up again. It's beyond frustrating it's downright depressing.
I tried to be extremely fair with the metrics. At some point I hope they are a baseline we jumped up from. I don't know though.
This would be an uptrend calling for some massive bull explosion according to my very tiny TA knowledge. Or maybe it is the contrary. Who knows.