You've Got the Power, Steemit User!
Today, it dawned on me that we, the Steemit users, have more power than we think.
First of all, Steemit is implemented on blockchain. That means its data is open to everyone to be accessed and used, if I'm not mistaken.
I have already come across great projects that make use of the Steemit data and serve it in various ways. Here are some nice examples I came across.
- Steemd.com
- Steemdb.com
- Busy.org
- Steemwhales.com
- Steemreports.com
My Favorite Steemit Tool: Steemd.com
I use steemd.com almost more than use Steemit.com.
I check steemd.com to see how much voting power I have to make sure that my voting power never reaches 100%, because that's a waste of my steem power. Check the post 10 votes a day keep the abuser away for more about that.
Moreover, I use steemd.com to check whether someone followed me or replied to me recently.
The only problem I'm having with steemd.com is that all the actions on the blockchain concerning my account are given in a single view.
I'd prefer I could filter out some activities such as my actions and author rewards, because I'm only interested in other users' actions in relation to my account.
Wake Up! We Are in a New Era!
We are conditioned to see a platform like Steemit as a single entity. For example, when we want a feature from YouTube, we expect it from Google.
However, with the blockchain, we have the ability to build an interface ourselves. Think about Steemit.com as a proof of concept project.
My Top 3 Feature Requests
Developers other than the core Steemit team could develop much better websites and apps on top of the Steemit blockchain.
If someone could come up with the following three features, I'm sure they could overtake Steemit.com in being the most used interface built on the Steemit platform.
- Use machine learning to serve the users the most relevant and high quality content based on their past choices, just like YouTube.
- Provide relevant posts at the end of each post, again just like YouTube.
- Develop useful mobile apps for smartphones as well as tablets, for Android as well as iOS.
My Top 2 Rule Change Requests
Moreover, we can use our power not only to develop new interface, but also to change the rules of the game in a way that would benefit the ecosystem more.
If I'm not mistaken, following rule changes are possible if 51% of the Steem Power holders agree with them.
At the moment, I don't know how that power is concentrated, so maybe, some entity already holds such decision power.
In either way, here are the rule changes that I'd like to see on the Steemit platform.
- Get rid of the 7 days rule. I don't get what's the reason for this rule. Please let me know what the motivation of this rule is. Why can the posts older than seven days not be rewarded or resteemed?
- Get rid of the reward pool for authors and curators and introduce a tipping system to replace it.
How to Make a Positive Change on Steemit?
It comes down to making some noise to discuss these issues. So, if you have any change requests from Steemit, just write a post about it and discuss it.
Maybe some developers might pick your idea and build a system around it, which would benefit all the users.
If you want some rule changes to happen, just discuss it in your posts and comments. If your idea receives enough support, it might be implemented in a hard fork in the future.
Really exciting this blockchain stuff! I'm looking forward for all the changes that will happen in the future on Steemit and other platforms.
Your Turn
Do you know any other useful projects built on the Steemit platform?
Which changes would you like to see on Steemit? What would be your top three? Did you write any posts about them?
Do the requests explained in this post resonate with you? If not, why not?
Comment and let your voice be heard!
I partially agree. I think the curator system is a little pointless as it is. Rather than doing away with it though, I propose giving curator rewards to those who resteem content, rather than simply being the first ones who like it.
After all, the point of it (at least so it seemed to me) was to acknowledge those who have an eye for good material before everyone else does, right? Well, by rewarding those who say "hey, this is good; let me pass it along," the curator system could remain in place but have more relevance.
Just my two cents.
Honestly, I don't see the difference between rewarding the upvoting and resteeming, when it comes to people who are abusing the system. You and I might be careful about what we resteem, but the accounts who are abusing the system don't care about what's being resteemed in their account. They're in it just for a quick buck.
That's true I suppose. It could still be abused by curation reward hunters.
But from the perspective of the writer and the reader (to put perhaps too sharp a point on it, "the ones who are looking at the article and not the price marker), it's a sign of who recognizes quality early on, and who is just following along with what others said was popular.
Alternatively (and this only occurred to me as I was typing this), what if the site could be modified so that the value marker on a post or comment was only visible to the person who posted it?
Think about it. It would enable people who are posting to know how valuable their content is in the eyes of the community, but anyone who is just prowling around hoping to pounce on a quick curation reward would be wandering blind.
Anyway, these ideas may all have flaws. I'm just kind of brainstorming at this point.
I still don't see much difference with the current version, because people who upvote a post with already high number of upvotes don't get much of the curation reward. The system favors early upvoters.
Your proposal would make a difference if every upvote to a post was rewarded the same. That is not the case at the moment.
Very nice article.I hope the core devs would read it.
I have noticed that busy.org gives the same services but with a much nicer presentation. Give it a better look and I am sure you will like it.
I strongly agree. Those features would make the distribution much better on steem.
Unfortunately, it seems distribution is not on the priority list of Steemit, inc.
Yet, as you said, maybe someone else would develop such a smart system.
It is needed as a deadline for paying rewards. Yet, I agree that older posts should not dissappear like this
Thank you for the feedback, sadekj! I appreciate it.
Yes, I realized that yesterday after reading another Stemian's post. You can filter them and so on, cool stuff.
An alternative could be to pay rewards every seven days. I don't think there would be many Steemians who would object that ;)
There are many, many problems with Steemit and I appreciate your work in this area. I looked at steemd.com one time and it seemed like it drained all my nadwidth. Perhaps the bandwidth issue only coincided with my looking at steemd and it didn't cause it. But I've been reticent to go back.
As you have stated before, one major issue with Steemit is how it purports to be decentralized, libertarian and promote content, but in truth it is replicating the plutocracy problem we se with capitalism today. It's an experiment, but it shows how zero to no regulation and allowing masturbatory self upvoting with bots leads invariably to a small robber class gaming the system and the rest of us as fodder, while in reality all the users gives Steem value, without all us minnows it'd dry up ... I expect the whales are going to kill their golden goose .. I mean what is a SMT, why do we need another token apparatus? Just another trick to make real fiat flow to the top?