Is Steemit failing to retain members in the platform?
I'm very happy to complete 229 days in steemit as of today. It is always quite an interesting experience with mixed feelings. Today I read a few articles about how HF20 is going to be and what plans are being made to make steem blockchain a better and fair place for everyone. After reading so many articles today, I have a mixed feeling now. Till yesterday or even today before reading articles, I had good hopes on STEEM blockchain. But now I feel there can be lots of changes to the way the blockchain works. Currently, the blockchain is based on proof of stake concept and that is the reason why Whales are being able to earn a great income from this platform based on their investment and holdings. They are also capable of deciding who will grow in this platform. In a way, it is good for the stakeholders in the growth perspective, but that is a big reason why lots of people are leaving Steem and looking for alternatives. We already have lots of similar blockchain powered platforms emerging. Of course, they cannot beat steemit but they also foresee a great future. In this article, I would like to share some details on why steemit is finding it difficult to retain members here.
Why are we failing to retain members here?
There are a few types of people in Steemit. The first type is someone who visits the website and finds the rewarding schemes more attractive here and ultimately tries to milk the system as much as possible. They do all sorts of scamming and use all sorts of shortcuts to get maximum benefit out of the system. Some are persistent explorers and some people get fed up and leave the platform. People who are consistent in doing this task, use bid bots and other possible ways to earn and get maximum out of it. Another type of person is a hard-working content writer. They put their heart and soul into writing and their earning will never cross even 1 $. They either get fed up or continue to stay in the platform. Below are the few reasons why we fail to retain members in steemit:
Proof of stake concept
The concept and algorithm used here are simply awesome but unfortunately, it is also another reason for failure. Most of the people here see this only as an earning platform and not a good resource for articles or knowledge. This is all because the rich guys know how to make money here even if they don't post any valuable thing here. Poor guys here even though they put their heart and soul into writing will not get even a single organic upvote. Most of the value goes for paid upvotes. Whales in steemit delegate their SP to bid bots to earn passive income. The platform is being used as a good source of passive income by the whales fading the fact that it is basically a content-based blockchain platform.
No payout after 7 days
In other platforms like Youtube or personal websites, the content creators earn a lifetime income based on the views and ad clicks. In steem blockchain, a person will be able to generate income on their posts only for the first 7 days. After the 7th day, the post goes unnoticed. Though technically it is a difficult thing to implement in the blockchain based on the current reward pool, there should have been better methods to make even old posts generate revenues. It is believed that SMT tokens are addressing this issue where even after 7 days a post can be rewarded. We still don't know how it will be implemented. This is one of the major reasons why people join Steemit and leave.
Misleading trending page
The trending page in steemit is the most abused page ever. People who are influential in the platform spend lots of money on bid bots and make their posts hit trending page. Nowadays it is not adding any value to the posts but however, for new joiners and for people who see the platform for the first time, they will find it as a scam. We usually see someone with a single photo getting around 400 $. They might have paid for bid bots and used bid bots to upvote their posts. It is quite unfair and misleading. This is one of the main reason why people leave steemit after joining.
Bid bots
More than 60 % of the Steemit users are bid bot users. Everyone is comfortable using bid bots to get a boost on their post. Though not all the attempts are a successful one, they still continue to use bid bots. Every month we see many bot accounts emerging in steemit. I don't know whether to say this as a good feature in steemit or a curse for steemit. People who are rich make use of bid bots to become richer. Most of the whales and dolphins in steemit use bid bots to boost their posts and make it hit the trending page. There are also many abusers who make use of bid bots to boost their posts and hit the trending page. The post will have just one image and they boost the post up to 150 $.
There are lot more factors contributing to the failure of member retention. I will stop with this for now. Everyone is eagerly waiting for HF20 where it is expected that most of the above issues will be sorted. But people here are highly upset with the speed of development happening. There are lots of questions being raised but we will continue to hold the hopes.
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Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://bala-blog.com/is-steemit-failing-to-retain-members-in-the-platform/
आप ने बहुत ही अच्छी पोस्ट लिखी है. यह steemit की आज की हकीकत है चाहे कोई माने या ना माने.
एक नया Steemian जुड़ता है बहुत ही आशायें लेकर जब उसका इस हकीकत से सामना होता है तो उसका दिल टूट जाता है. यहाँ अब मुफ्त में upvote तो नहीं के बराबर है ओर जो भी है उनकी वैल्यू लगभग 0.01 $ के आसपास ही होती है.
यहाँ बिना investement के पैसा बनाना मुशकिल हो गया है.
मैं आपके सभी बिन्दुओ से पूर्णतय : सहमत हूँ.
जो बड़े steemians (whales) है वे अपनी मनमर्जी चला रहे है उससे platform पर नकारात्मकता ही फैल रही है. वो करें तो सही, दूसरा करे तो गलत. उनके बनाये नियम मानने ही तो ठीक, नहीं तो bye-bye करो.
इन्ही वजहों से पुरे crypto मार्किट में steem को लेकर नकारात्मकता है और ये ही इसके दाम बढ़ने से रोक रही है. वरना इसका दाम आज के दाम से कई गुना होना चहिये था.
आपने सही कहा है। बड़े investors भी यहां पैसे कमाने के लिए संघर्ष कर रहे हैं क्योंकि सिस्टम में बहुत सारी समस्याएं हैं। Hope most of it gets solved after HF20. @veganomics
I can't argue with any of your points.
But I can only speak for myself if I say that SteemIt stopped being about the money a long time ago. I try to stay true to myself, and for that I've been rewarded with one of the most amazing communities I ever saw.
The pay-it-forward mentality, people being prepared to work together and actually achieve goals. I used to get all worked up about everything that was wrong here (which is quite a list), but I had to let go of that, or I would have quit long ago.
Instead, I'm focusing on all the good things that are being done on this platform, the friends I made (which I never thought would be possible by interacting with complete strangers) and the fun we have.
There will always people that will rigg the system, and SteemIt is far from perfect, but I just keep doing my own thing, sticking to my own morals. And I know any others are doing the same.
I strongly believe in a new generation of people that have the right values to make this a success. Maybe we don't have a lot of influence just yet, but by sticking together, and helping eachother grow our accounts, this new generation will have the power to turn things around.
For now, we all might be rep 45-60, but imagine in a year from now: our influence will grow. And I believe a lot of these people will stick to their values, instead of turning into greedy little monsters.
Maybe hope is for fools, but if I compare where we are now compared to 6 months ago, I still believe we are the generation that will break the rigged system and make SteemIt a better place for everyone.
The hardest thing is to be patient ;0)
"I used to get all worked up about everything that was wrong here (which is quite a list), but I had to let go of that, or I would have quit long ago."
💙
I completely agree with all your points @simplymike. It is so true that we made lots of good friends here and had a chance to be a part of many wonderful communities. There are definitely lots of positive takeaways from the platform. Even I don't really care about all the rigging that is happening here but still, at times I used to feel that the system would have been even better if we had a better way to handle abusers.
I agree, but we don't, so instead of getting frustrated all we can do is try to set a good example, hoping to get the message through to as many others as we can :0)
Hi @bala41288! Nice to meet you. I have to agree with @simplymike whole heartedly. The community here --esp. interacting among relative strangers and the positive supportive mindset i see. Is super encouraging. As with all of life we can focus on negative or positive. It's a choice we make each moment. The cool thing is, just be you! Find your tribe. Do your thing. It makes me feel hopeful & positive about the moment and the future. Congratulations on being selected by the @asapers!! Have an awesome day!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts @yogajill. I definitely value your thoughts. Whatever happens to the platform, we are already beneficial because we already made lots of friends here. That is so true. And yes being ourselves is definitely the key.
“Congratulations @bala41288, your post has been selected by the @asapers for a resteem and a feature in our brand new curation post. Issue 86
What does this mean for you? Well first an upvote from some members of the team, we are no @curie or @ocd but who is going to be unhappy with some extra upvotes. Also each post featured in the article will receive a 10% share of the SBD generated from the curation post.
Keep up the great work and please consider supporting the @asapers with an upvote and/or a resteem on the post you feature in. Please wait seven to ten days for payout.
Your friendly @asapers
Giving back A.S.A.P
I hope several of these will be corrected soon @mirrors
Thank you @asapers
Agreed first there are the barriers to entry and the steep learning curve then there is the abuse of systems make it hard to see long term.
but in the meantime I'm loving this platform and its people
I believe in the coming months or in the coming years there will be betterments to this platform @shai-hulud. There should be a system in place that should control abusers. Let's see what magic happens.
I know you are right but I so want steemit to be successful and more members to join and go on to be number one
Everyone is hoping for the same @sayee. Let's see how it goes. Let's keep the intentions positive always and stay strong.
I think majority of the new comers on the platform come with the sole motive of earning money. They don't really come to share their ideas or their thoughts with the community and as you said, after some time, they leave.
The minority who actually want to be a part of the community are still not in a position to up their standing on Steemit. Whales, orcas, and dolphins are less in numbers but they hold a big majority of all the power and eat the biggest share of the reward pool.
Original content creators who are still minnows have to struggle way too much to get attention on their posts. Out of them, some give up and think it's not worth the effort and the remaining keep struggling.
But I recently read an article showing that whales are actually losing their power.
So I guess not all is gone to crap yet..
i hope this will improve with HF20 :(
Hopefully, that is what everyone is expecting @malos10.
I agree with your assessments of the main reasons why people leave. It is a platform where you can easily feel like you are posting into an abyss, whilst other people seem to be posting bad content and getting huge rewards. One thing that bothers me a little, is that in the music fields, some really amazing talent is being missed whilst other less good content is being hugely rewarded. I start to think that Steemit is not about quality, but more about networking.
Yes, I agree that it is more about networking. Even if we are part of the network, it becomes difficult to reward someone who is really good unless we are a whale. But most of the whales are not even active. Their SP is earning them passive income by delegating it to bod bots. Anyways thanks for the comments @bengy
To the question in your title, my Magic 8-Ball says:
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