RE: Perception matters. Public image matters. Proposal for a competition to improve the official website.
I agree with some of your points (marketing, PR, team details on the website) but i think your interpretation of what was said by @summon is a bit off, my view of his comment is that he is just pointing out that the dev team we have is doing an amazing job.. he even agreed with you in the first statement and suggested that if the small team can produce such a big project imagine what a larger team could pull off.
In relation to the statement about human resources, it does lack context; but i tend to agree, it sounds so mechanical, like when you have a work force, you have human resources... A dev team in my mind is more relaxed more like a loosely coupled group of individuals/team-mates striving towards the same goal. Anyway just my thoughts.
Nice suggestions i think there is some real value in the feedback you have given. When i am assessing a project i like to find the right mix of professionalism, transparency and ability to translate the vision to me without having to trawling through the whitepaper; i like to see the team, the goals or 'edge', the road map and latest news or releases.
I had this thought as well. I am a software development manager, and I know a lot about what it takes to have a successful project. A team of 3-5 dedicated talented individuals can often do a way better job, and be 10 times more productive than a 20-30 person team.
I've been really impressed with the Steemit dev team so far in the amount of new features they have been churning out, and their dedication to making the site better. It is also worth noting how they are not breaking things in the process. Pretty much every new feature I've seen them launch, I've seen no negative side effects, and they are adding new things to the site quite often.
OK, I agree with that. This might be the case that a bigger team in not needed at this stage. But what we lack is proper communication is this respect. Investors don't know these nuisances so it has to be properly explained: "we deliberately have a small team and here is their background".
Otherwise they perceive projects like Ethereum as solid and prosperous, whereas Steem can fall into the category of some-brave-guys-working-in-a-garage type of company. Perception matters, even if it's groundless.
I know, I'm not a big fan of this expression either. But what struck me, was that it was clear what I meant and giving people lectures in this context is just arrogant. You never know who is behind a Steem name and such behavior might backfire badly. Public image is being built by all those small events.
EDIT: I can see that @summon has upvoted this post - I really appreciate this. It was never about me being offended but about us being careful in this anonymous space.