Steemit Road Map 2018: My Contributions

In response to a post done by @steemitblog on the road map for 2018, I seek to bring in my contributions based on my experience so far on the platform.

First my Appreciation

I must start by saying you guys have done great jobs so far, ranging from securing the platform from attacks, bringing new look to the site, successful hosting of steemfest 2(which has created more publicity for steem), improving sign up process by lowering the waiting period, among others. Thank you for making Steemit an exciting place to explore.

Now my contributions

Remove Waiting Period For Approval Of New Sign Ups
One of the first attraction of Steemit to every new person is the social aspect and the free sign up. Now, the social aspect connotes freedom to come in and interact with new friends and gain new knowledge. If there's a delay in joining, it kills the excitement first created by the discovery of the site. I might not know the reason for a period of waiting, but I know it can be removed and Steemit will still be secured and run soundly. I brought this up because, as a promoter of Steemit and steem, one of the things that discouraged people is waiting for approval. Some people don't bother checking their mails for it after a day. I joined Steemit when approval was within two hours, and that was so exciting for me. We can open up the site for everyone without any restrictions.
HOW WILL THAT BENEFIT US?
Apart from increasing number of users, we will be seen as a social world indeed. Besides, we will increase the number of active members. Not everyone that signed up are active, but by opening up for everyone to come in without restrictions, chances are that out of 100% sign up, 35% might remain active and we'll wax stronger. I envision a larger Steemit community in 2018 and if this issue is addressed, we stand a better chance.

Set Up A Mechanism To Encourage The Spread Of Steemit
The importance of promoting Steemit can't be overemphasized. We have various promoters creating awareness on Steemit around the world. It's important we have a reward system to encourage this noble act. This will bring in more users and investors, shooting up the price of steem to the skies. As promoters bring in more investors through awareness campaigns, we will have Steemit become a strong force that will destabilize the unjust centralization of wealth by governments of the world. That's a win-win for all.

Check The Number Of Bots On The Platform

The bots are becoming too plenty! And when a thing becomes too common, it leads to abuse. I'm pretty sure bots can't socialize like humans. Bots can't give human thoughts about an author's ideas. Bots can't say how they feel. In fact a bot can't give the contributions you are reading now. Thus, if we don't check the excessive influx of bots on the platform, we may soon lose the excitement that comes by interacting with fellow humans. I said that to mean that if we don't act fast, bots will take over the platform and we will have bots media instead of social media. Please let's encourage more real human interactions by reducing the number of bots allowed in the steem ecosystem.

Put A Check On Formation Of Upvote Groups

It's common to find groups of people upvoting posts by their group members only. That act is equivalent to the centralized attitudes of our governments. If we keep allowing that here, it becomes too frustrating for new comers to get their posts seen or even curated. Supposed everyone has a group, it means if you don't belong to a group you can't stand a chance. It's a pity that some newbies have gotten discouraged on their first few days here because nobody seem to notice them, as everyone is busy engaging in posts done only by their group members. This shouldn't be the case if we are hoping to get bigger in 2018.

Make Everyone's Post Visible To Everyone, Not Just Their Followers

The idea of making a member's post visible to only his/her followers is frustrating for authors who have few followers but have great content. If you can open it up that everyone get to see everything at a glance, it will make more sense.

These are my few contributions and I stand to be corrected.
Once again, thanks for doing a great job putting things to order on #Steemit.

Source

@greatness96.