Steem rewards predispose certain styles of content (how can we encourage longterm content?)
I have to confess...I AM REALLY EXCITED about Steem. I've called at least five people on the phone this week just to tell them about Steem. It's incredibly exciting. But there's a key thought, that I haven't seen much discussion on yet. That is
The idea that the current system is incentivizing quick, disposable content.
Right now, Steem strongly encourages fast content that is somewhat bite-sized or entertaining, and disappears in a week. I think it's also predisposing the KIND of content that will proliferate across the network.
One of the coolest things about the internet is the amount of USEFUL information out there, in depth tutorials, DIY instructions, well documented experiences...these things tend to take a lot of work to create, but can useful for a long time. Think of StackExchange, there's a community that gets a LOT of google traffic, and helps a LOT of people get detailed solutions to whatever they're looking at. I think it's one of the coolest community systems online. Steem has the possibility of being better...but not without some work.
Stack exchange is a great example of highly targeted reference content, it excels at answering technical questions where a helpful answer actually does exist somewhere. Once somebody takes the time to Document this, that answer is then helpful to thousands and thousands of other people oftentimes over several years, if not longer.
Other great sources of reference, longterm material.
Youtube Tutorials, Wikipedia, A good percentage of the Blogosphere, Most forms of Tutorials, A large percentage of the worlds books.
Right now, Steem as a system that disincentivizes longterm reference or tutorial content. This is a HUGE market, not to mention a hub of really competent, creative, skilled people. Does anyone else feel that this is an important subject?? If nothing else, the amount of search traffic it could bring in is crazy. I do Search Engine Optimization for work, you rarely just happen to rank well for high competition keywords...even for super small keywords, like this week I was optimizing a clients website for '100% natural wool batting'. That is NOT a high traffic competitive keyword, however it still receives some 1200+ searches a month. In order to rank in the top 3 for that, it takes some work. But once you're there...it brings people in over and over and over. And that's just one little keyword in a stupidly large ocean.
I think that finding a way for Steem to support longterm content would be killer. If people have an incentive to build search rankings on their Steem content, we would be giving permission to start a landslide.
Is anyone else thinking about this? You know, ultimately, the rest of the world is going to judge us by our content. Sure, right now things are flush, Steem is flowing hot :P But I truly believe that the experiment will live or die by the value of our community. What can we do? How can we be fertile ground for serious writers, creatives, and explorers to want to build longterm value?
English version below
Je suis tellement d'accord avec toi par rapport à l'immense valeur des contenus de type tutoriels détaillés, projets DIY et expériences personnelles utiles!!! Je suis aussi enthousiasme par rapport à Steemit et je souhaite que cette communauté deviennent une référence pour trouver des réponses et de l'aide sur tous les sujets utiles et possibles dans la vie. Comme j'aimerai aider les gens en partageant mes expériences de vie je me suis demandé comment faire sur steemit pour que mes post puissent avoir une longue vie utile. Merci d'avoir soulevé le sujet. Au plaisir de lire les idées des autres steemians!
I agree so much with you about the immense value of detailed tutorial content, DIY projects and useful personal experiences !!! I am also enthusiastic about Steemit and I wish this community to become a reference for finding answers and help on all useful and possible topics in life. As I would like to help people by sharing my life experiences I wondered how to do it on steemit so that my post can have a long useful life. Thank you for raising the issue. Looking forward to reading the ideas of other steemians!
I feel this! Right now its there and gone and its no longer "valuable" after that 7 days but that's not how the internet works. I still always strive to put out content that's relevant and useful to people no matter how many days after I post they might see it. Longer form content that is important to someone is better in my opinion, I'd rather dive deep on a few subjects than scratch the surface on "hot" issues. Steem chat me, I'd love to talk with you more about this!
You are new so I will tell you this. There is long term content and the way it is done is you write each section and then you publish a table of contents with the links. I and many others have written whole books this way and lengthy articles that require a hundred pages or so.
The list of related articles can also be added to each post for a week. So, if you publish something try to divide it up into weekly segments and then include those weekly segments under a table of contents for the longer periods. We used to have thirty days and so books would often have thirty chapters. I myself like the new system of a week better but you are right, if one does not know how to do it, it might seem like there is no room for longer content.
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Ce que vous partager est vraiment très intéressant et utile. Je me posais justement plusieurs questions à ce sujet dont comment faire pour que les gens qui ont besoin des informations que je veux partager puisse y avoir accès sur le long terme. Merci pour ce partage!
What you share is really very interesting and useful. I was just actually wondering about how to make the people who need the information I want to share have access to it in the long term. Thank you for sharing those great tips!
This is very helpful information for a newbie like me. Thank you. I will follow you as you seem to be very knowledgeable in this regard. Feel free to follow me as well ;)
Thanks Jeff, that is a helpful thought.
Hi @itchykitten, i agree on your point of view, steemit is not perfect but the problem can be solved by steemians, in my opinion good content will prevail. But it is true that a post can only be voted 1 week, it is not positive for long-term quality content.
have a nice day :) (sorry for my english, i'm learning )
Your english is great @speckofdust. Any thoughts on how it could actually work?
Thanks, for example the posts could be voted on for a longer time, but i'm a newbie and i don't know almost nothing about programming and development on steemit :)
It's just gonna take time and people like you to resolve how to do it. Steemit is still young dude, it will happen if the idea is good, and what you're saying is a good idea.
Yeah, I figure it will be a bit, nothing changes over night. I'm definitely just trying to get into the discussion of it, not complaining =)
this has been talked about for a while now (including in several of my posts regarding our YouTube "experiences").
However, I may actually have come up with an idea on how this could be done that I plan to "reveal" soon in an upcoming post... stay tuned! :)
I'll do that Alex
A interesting discussion. I have thought about the very same. Now, the content I create is very good for the one week cycle. But it would be great for people making some greater posts that could be useful long term and reward them for just that, such as toturials. When I first came into steemit (about two weeks Ago) I looked up toturials/topics to help me understand steemit. it didn't seem there was a way to reward these '' older'' yet useful posts..? Unless i missed something. Thanks for sharing your thoughts:)
Yeah, I don't believe there is Holm. It seems tricky, like how would you define posts that should be longterm versus short-term. And what metrics would you use to calculate rewards. You could have somebody select their reward model on post I suppose.
This is so true , but I'm sure over time , a lot of thing will improve.