Steemit is going to be what Reddit is trying to be. Reddit recently has gone through multiple iterations of design changes in an attempt to modernize their UI, the user flow, and how information is displayed to the user. On top of that, they have implemented vast algorithm changes to prevent against vote manipulation, spam, and bots. Most of all they have started sweeping changes to the content they allow. Adopting a more stringent view on the content.

This is signalling a shift away from the previous concept of reddit. The previous concept being a place where news, information, and conversations are aggregated into communities or groups. The entire concept of a "person" or a "user" was so unnecessary and foreign they even created the "karma" points system as a sort of joke. Karma means nothing. The user means nothing. It's all about the content and the masses that vote will self regulate the content. Your username or the fact that you were a user meant virtually nothing. So much so that not many people gave out their reddit usernames. It was not, in any way, a social media platform like we are used to.

With these sweeping changes Reddit is trying very hard to legitimize itself as a social media platform. They have overhauled the user/profile section to create a more personal "wall" type feel similar to other social media apps.

Except I think the boat has sailed. People use Reddit for what it is and what it did extremely well. Not for the social media aspect or for future improvements. The entire concept of Reddit that made it great and attracted people to it was fully implemented years ago. I just don't think they will see much success with trying to take the large amount of users that care very little about the social media aspect of it (and some the reason they were drawn to it) and get them to adopt using Reddit as a social network. Thing is, you can have all of the tools, functionality, look and feel, and integration that rivals the best social media platforms out there. It doesn't mean that you are a social media platform if a majority of your users don't even use the functionality or use it as a social media platform.

With Steemit you have a new concept. Nobody is "used" to it being a certain way. Nobody has been using it in one explicit way for years and then new functionality got released. Every one of us using it is figuring it out for the first time, getting used to it, and learning the capabilities of it. It's easy at this point to then introduce new functionality as many people are still in the mindset that this is a growing product.

In short Reddit trying to become a social media platform would be like McDonald's offering fine dining. Sure, they can call themselves a fine dining restaurant but that doesn't mean really anything if nobody uses the fine dining.