It’s a Wrap: Thoughts After Steemfest
No, I didn’t go to Bangkok. So I won’t make any claims to know how things actually went for the team of event hosts or the attendees. But I did see the group photo and was sad--though not surprised--to see such a small number of people. Compared to last year, it was a pretty striking difference.
I’m not going to do a side-by-side comparison of those photos here or count faces or anything like that. This post isn’t about statistics. It’s not even about low morale in the Steem community and what I think was a poor choice of venue. Combine those two things, and the number of people who showed up for the event was pretty impressive. I cover those territories in this post, but the bottom line is that I think everything runs in cycles, and there's a good chance for an upswing soon.
Community Perspective
As part of a Steem community leadership team, I endorse our decision to lay low for a while, to “hibernate” on the platform while the new communities and SMTs are being rolled out. We’re not leaving. We’re not struggling. We just don’t want to invest time and resources into transient side projects that to us seem detrimental to the platform over the long run. We’d rather wait for the advent of more decentralized solutions. Our project itself, Steemhouse Publishing, is definitively centralized because it’s a Limited Liability Corporation registered in the U.S. It functions as a traditional publishing house. However, when it comes to the wallets and tokens and blockchains that Steemhouse wishes to be affiliated with--well, as defined by the core principles of Steemhouse, those must be open source and decentralized. There will be no compromise on our part, even if it means waiting until Steemit, Inc. gets the bugs worked out of these new platform features.
Business Perspective
As both an individual account holder and owner of a “real world” business, I have watched the leadership of Steemit, Inc., make a lot of missteps and deals with the devil. As I predicted, none of them were good for the platform and I think the consequences of that are quite clear. Attrition rate remains untenable. The price of Steem is at a sludge-sucking low. Investors are not interested. Major exchanges have stepped away. But am I ready to toss a handful of dirt on the Steem coffin and let it rest in peace? No. The product itself is still breathing and has a discernible heartbeat. The Steem blockchain is solid and some truly good innovation is coming down the pipeline. I’m willing to wait and see what happens, especially now that bidbots have been decimated and some of the old regimes were successfully neutered. Our front end project has a blueprint for success in the mainstream that does not involve Steem post value, trending, upvotes, flagging, or any of the failed “proof of brain” concepts that taint the current ecosystem. We’ll launch it in due time, provided that progress made by Steemit, Inc., continues with its current momentum.
Conference Perspective
As far as SF4, I feel certain it was a measurable success because it was organized by @roelandp, whose attention to detail is second to none. I’m convinced he could host a conference in North Korea and it would turn out okay...not that I would attend anything in North Korea. He’s just good at what he does.
However, I hope that next year’s Steemfest venue will be a bit more agreeable. Some people aren’t bothered by a region’s sketchy reputation--human trafficking, child sex workers, and the dog meat trade don’t register with them as long as they aren’t exposed to it directly...and sometimes even if they are. But for many people, venturing into a city or country that is tolerant of such third-world practices is just not on the bucket list. From a personal standpoint, I actually considered a foray into Mexico City until the latest wave of gang violence against innocents struck the whole country of Mexico off my radar for the foreseeable future. I’m just not going there. Period. Roeland, I hope you have enough discretion to not even consider a nation where the average murder rate is in excess of twenty percent. On the same note, I saw a suggestion in the comments of a recent SF4 post about considering India for SF5. Hello? Do we really want to breathe that air? Some places just should not enter the running to host an event like Steemfest.
I understand the need to find a venue that is affordable and maybe even off the beaten path. But many, many options exist within smaller countries that are truly striving to make the world a better place, and I think choice of location for Steemfest should reflect this. Please, Roeland...keep us out of sketchy third world places from now on. Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Krakow were brilliant choices. Bangkok, not so much. I can’t state for certain that I would have been able to attend SF4 had it been in a better location. Money was really tight this year and Steem worth virtually nothing. However, I would have put a lot more effort into finding a way had the location not been so objectionable to me. So I implore you: please, please, please make environmental footprint, social accountability, and personal safety some of the top priorities when choosing a venue for Steemfest 5.
Personal Perspective
I’ve read many of the SF4 posts that have been circulating, and while I do think people had fun there, the energy from last year is definitely absent. Like I said earlier, morale is low. But while I see this as a gauge of the current climate on Steem, I don’t see it as a definitive forecast for what’s to come. I think we’re in a particular season, where roots are growing and spreading underneath the surface without much visible flora. This is a critical and necessary time. What happens over the next year will determine a great deal about the future viability of this platform. Communities and SMTs are true game-changers. I’m so excited about those developments that I can hardly stand it. Between those new features and the front-end we hope to roll out soon, I believe my pet project Steemhouse will, for the first time, be something I can proudly market in the mainstream without fear of user attrition. So here’s to 2020! And hopefully, to the best Steemfest we’ve seen so far in the history of this platform.
http://www.authordianeryan.com/
https://www.facebook.com/rhonda.kay.79
https://www.facebook.com/authordianeryan/
https://www.steemhousepublishing.com/
I gave you a 100% upvote, which I RARELY give to anyone these days.
Exceptionally well written post, so I have also followed you for more of your quality content :)
If we can just get more people to onboard Steem's blockchain in one way or another we can really gain some traction but as for now the new user retention is virtually zero. Even crypto people that I introduced to Steem don't want to use it because they just don't get it, or they don't believe it is a good investment considering its track record.
I have definitely felt the sting of the crypto journey but have been along for the ride since 2013. There is still so much to come and we have to be patient with things! Steem is only 3 years old but we act like it has been around forever in a space that is already pretty over-saturated (social media platforms). You can only be in one place at a time and people will go where their friends and family are naturally over a new, strange and often times confusing site. They are doing things that have never been done before so we have to give them credit for that at least. There will be massive failures and missteps along the way, we just have to be understanding and prepared for such things.
Excited to see what is to come over the next few years as well... we have to survive through it first though :)
Preach, friend, preach! Yes--you have such a fantastic perspective on this. We have struggled to raise interest in @steemhousepub for a couple of years now, but haven't been discouraged by slow response because...heck, it's hard enough for us to explain, much less for others to understand. The only thing to do is just keeping doing, if that makes sense. The success of Steem is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be ups and certainly more downs. But you are so right: it's all still very new, and the concept will take a while to sink in. And it will only sink in if those of us who are here for the long term demonstrate how it can be used in both crypto circles and in the mainstream. Let's do this! :-)
Hugs! That's the first thing I wanna do if I see you again!
This year the attendees are indeed way lesser than last year. But the involvement from Steemit Inc is far better. Most of them stayed till the end (closing drink).
I am glad I made it to Bangkok. To me, I am happy to be able to meet up with some old friends and some that I met last year but didn't dare to talk to them last year, this year I made it and talked to them... and meet up with some new friends...
❤❤❤
Posted using Partiko Android
Hopefully we'll see each other at SF5! I very much look forward to that. :-)
To be honest in my personal point of view and experience, trying not to be bias since I am from ASEAN countries, actually Bangkok is considerably one of the cleanest in the ASEAN region.
just their public toilets are at par with Singapore's cleanliness
And so far, the capital city even when I was walking around the alleys and going through street food, there was no sign of dog meat around; but PORK everywhere.
As for sex trafficking, yes, that is most unfortunate and undeniable, but perhaps when one truly sits down and talk to the locals and understand their current situation, maybe there is a clearer vision on what is happening on the 3rd world countries that are doing their best to improve, day by day.
As of Steemfest, this is my very first and for the very first time I see practical people, honest to the problem that is at hand, and are still willing to push forward for those who are willing to stick through the mud and rot during this renovation period.
Should they still behaved like what it was that I have heard the last 3 SF from those who went there, I think I would have just walk off and not bleed further.
Despite of your criticism of the country, I am glad that you have found optimism towards what Steemit Inc are trying hard and the new features rolling out under test net and beta testing.
Let's just put aside all the personal differences and hopefully, work as a whole if one's self interest realise that staying around could still really see some good for the steem blockchain in the future.
Nice meeting you.
I was at SF3 last year and I agree--it was not as productive a conference as it should have been. I, too, saw people behaving badly, and Krakow took a bite out of them. Or at least a few of them. Few people attended presentations and there was almost no interaction at all from Steemit, Inc.
My problem with Thailand was somewhat mitigated by the fact that the nation as a whole has outlawed the dog meat trade, which is one of the most brutal and barbaric practices known to the human race. However, black market dog meat trafficking activities still go on every day around the Mekong River, and until Thailand is able to get a proper handle on this, I don't believe ethical and cultural mores will improve much. There's a known and established link between animal abuse and violence against humans, so it's all connected. This my initial complaint about the choice of venue, and I am still very much against supporting any nation or culture that freely engages with or celebrates the sadistic abuse of animals, as I believe it's a direct reflection of the core value system.
You can read more thoughts of mine about this topic in this post: https://steemit.com/steemfest/@rhondak/and-this-is-where-we-re-supposed-to-go-for-steemfest-4 . I applaud any efforts Taiwan has made to put an end to this horrific practice, but there's still a long way to go.
Nice meeting you as well. I'm glad you shared your thoughts.
I like your tone of optimism, and realism. Having been at SF3 with you, I'm also nodding my head over here on a few of the other points. This one especially:
I don't think I would've made it this year, regardless, but I'd love to attend again. Roeland does a phenomenal job at organizing the events. It would be nice to not have to travel as far, or, if it's a long journey, for the destination to feel safe and sanitary (like, somewhere I'm not terrified to eat the food if I don't know it's been washed in purified water). I don't envy trying to make a decision on the venue. Can't be an easy task to gather an international tribe.
I am looking forward to communities and SMTs, and appreciate the long-term vision of the blockchain moving forward. I'm still here, and looking towards the future. There's a lot of potential, and it's okay to take a step back before moving in the right direction again.
Amen, sista!
This was a good post to read for me since I've been away from Steemit for quite some time. I guess everyone migth agree with your points on the venue as they're reasonable, security is surely a must.
I've always believed in Steemit truest potential. This is a great time to be around posting and commenting. Steem has a great upside.
What I've noticed, too. It's the lack of comments on posts, even the popular ones. Lack of interaction shows how low is the moral as you previously stated.
Thanks for posting. Cheers!
Posted using Partiko Android
You nailed it:
Fortunately, I don't think it's an irrecoverable situation. I'm hangin' in here.
Oh, and I'm glad you're back!
What an obnoxious and uneducated snob you are. This is possibly the most offensive and disgusting post I have ever read on Steemit.
They did. That's why they chose Bangkok.
I'm so angry, I'm not even going to waste my time refuting your claims. Seriously, no wonder the world is so fucked up with people like you in it.
PS There is no 'dog' eating in Thailand you ignoramus, it's as rare as it is in any other country. Of course in Europe, horse meat is commonly eaten but I fail to see a great difference.
Hey, don't be rude.
Keyboard warriors belong in their mom's basement, playing WoW, not trolling good Steemians like @rhondak.
Please refrain from being so ungracious in the future.
LOL!
I try to take into account that many people--even those who live in the areas with practices I object to--have zero awareness of what goes on in the underbelly of their culture. For example, I was embedded in Appalachia for more than a decade, and most residents of the county I lived in, including the county supervisor, had no idea that their municipal kill shelter destroyed more than a thousand dogs every year and almost as many cats (county population less than 44,000.) People were unaware that the shelter they paid taxes to fund was one of the highest kill shelters in the state of Virginia overall and in the nation, for its size. It took five years for the term "no-kill" to be accepted in that community even though it was a proper term for modern sheltering (the commonwealth attorney told me to my face I was giving everyone in his office heartburn by using those words--true story.) It took even longer for the county to approve construction of a modern shelter and agree to let shelter employees work with private rescues to place dogs they would have otherwise simply killed. The community was completely unaware of all this and resented me greatly for pointing it out. I'm not unaccustomed to stepping on toes and being on the receiving end of abuse from people who absolutely do not want to hear the truth about where they live. I am writing a series of posts about that now.
Nice edit and good try but I'm not getting into guilt ridden 'I've done more food things than you debate' . My original opinion you based on the content of your post stands .
Lol..my mum doesn't have a basement and expressing opinion isn't trolling . No idea what WoW is but .
Keyboard warrior ? Idiot
Uhhmmm... no. You're dead wrong, my friend. Do your research. I certainly did.
https://steemit.com/steemfest/@rhondak/and-this-is-where-we-re-supposed-to-go-for-steemfest-4
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-trafficking-sexcrimes/in-thai-tourist-spots-a-hidden-world-of-male-sex-slavery-idUSKBN1J91GU
You can ignore the facts from your own gilded cage if that's what you prefer. But I will always, ALWAYS take the side of the vulnerable and the victimized, and for this reason, certain areas of the world are absolute no-fly zones for me because I will not knowingly support, even in a small way, an econonomy that indulges in these types of practices.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_prostitution_in_Thailand
Child prostitution in Thailand
Thailand has an unfortunate reputation for being a centre for child sex tourism and child prostitution. Even though domestic and international authorities work to protect children from sexual abuse, the problem still persists in Thailand and many other Southeast Asian countries. Child prostitution, like other forms of child sexual abuse, not only causes death and high morbidity rates in millions of children but also violates their rights and dignity.
Thank you, little robot, for putting it out there.
Excellent. So obviously it's not me who is living in a gilded cage, it's you but I have no idea where your secret utopian location could possibly be. If you actually supported causes directly instead of just sitting in front of a PC reading wikipedia and casting judgement, you might make a difference in the world.
You really don't bother to do your research at all, do you? You have no clue about my "location" even though I've been publicizing it and writing on the topic of my firsthand experiences for years....
And, for some humor (even though it's not really funny,) here's what happens when you mix Appalatchuns with Thailand. (I have a grievous bone to pick with Appalachia, too, as most people know.)
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/08/asia/thailand-drug-suspects-kentucky-intl-scli-hnk/index.html