You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Quick Update Regarding User Retention
I disagree. While the number of account doubles, the number of post has decreased in the absolute term. Therefore, we should admit at least one of the followings: 1) Users are leaving and/or 2) Users are less participating.
Here are my suggestions:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@clayop/make-people-happier-and-let-steemit-succeed
@clayop
I disagree.
When I first found Steemit I was aimlessly posting as much as I could just to be noticed, because I didn't know what the site wanted or needed. Then after reading some articles by much smarter people, I began to only worry about the quality of my work.
Yes, the amount of content I post has dramatically decreased, but I am much more engaged now than I was back then and I fell very successful.
I imagine my story is not uncommon here, because I am also witnessing a lot more high quality content, by people who used to post anything and everything in an attempt to find their place.
That totally makes sense. I was posting a lot of old content to see what stuck in the beginning, then the newest FAQ came out insinuating that only 4 posts a day could get maximum payout, so, I dialed it back to and started putting up 2 to 3 posts a day and adjusting to follow some patterns from successful users regarding the type of content. My results were that I have ended up in the top 25 in payouts and I've only been here two weeks. I agree with your assessment.
@markrmorrisjr
You are doing very well.
I just noticed your The Anarchist's Almanac series last night, so I followed you, although I haven't had a chance to read it yet. At first glance I noticed that you have a very different writing style than me and I find that really fascinating.
I grew up writing for the stage. Anarchist's Almanac is probably my most traditionally crafted piece, of what I've shared on here. From 8th grade on I was also home schooled, so, I developed my "style" if I have one, from reading classics and then bringing it into a more modern setting. I've been writing professionally full time for about 8 years now, but this is my first chance to actually focus on my fiction instead of constantly worrying about freelance client deadlines. You should check out the Hunting Bigfoot story, which I will be expanding soon, it's pretty different.
@markrmorrisjr
I was the complete opposite, I received a terrible education and I still have trouble reading, but I wrote for a creative piece for a newspaper for about a year. I continued to write screenplays, but Steemit is a different beast altogether. This is my first time writing in such fast paced in environment, where instant feedback is freely given. It affords me the opportunity to experiment and learn different techniques.
I will definitely check out your Hunting Bigfoot series. What type of freelance stuff were you working on before?
There was significant posting spam too, which has declined for various reasons (and Dan addressed this specifically in his post!). I've pointed out before that I believe the most abuse-resistant metrics we have are edits and deletes, because there is little incentive for spammers to ever do those things, and little reason for actual user behavior regarding those to change systematically. If you look at those metrics you see limited growth but no real decline (ignoring one-time bump in July after the mega-payout).
In fact those metrics probably understate growth by a small degree because of a change that was made that disallowed edits after the first (usually 24 hours) payout. Previously that was allowed. So this would tend to reduce the number of edits over time relative to usage.
Downvoted to remove/reduce platform updates from reward pool payouts. Please implement an alternative method of visibility for these.
I also think there was a surge of users who came on expecting instant riches in the wake of the massive price rise of STEEM these people had unrealistic expectations and I think they may well have left. They should not be counted as serious users either.
The whole point is trying to get quality content and I would have to agree that although posts seem to be decreasing the spam content has reduced and the poorly thought out posts also seem to be less.
We shouldn't get complacent but I don't think there is a reason to panic either.
Well said.
I think that also a lot of users left or stopped posting, becasue they were not actually appreciated for their quality content. Thet spend all day writing a great article to get 100 votes and $0.1, while some superpowerful user posts photos of his cat and gets $1000 from whales just for being a whale.
Agreed. The overall quality - IMHO - is up. I have even stopped making blog posts until I have what I feel to be something really good.
Edits were 2,300 art 8/2 and 2,294 yesterday. Actually it is a slight decline. However, in terms of edits per account, it is neaely halved. If we assume 90% of newly created accounts are fake ones, it still decreased by 10%.
We don't know the number of fake accounts but it may very well be >90%. Please reread Dan's post and consider all the different reasons that accounts may be created that don't correspond to an actual person (including something he didn't mention -- actual people who do sign up but do so multiple times).
Furthermore some portion of users dropping off is normal and expected, especially in the time immediately after signup. It isn't ever going to be for everyone; some will try it and not find that it is their thing. It is impossible to ever achieve success with every single user.
The problem is not enough real users signing up. If we use your number of 90% fake, that gives us about 150-200 "real" users per day signing up. That is nowhere near enough to get us anywhere at all. And by "problem" here, I mean just low growth right now. If in the future enhancements to the platform and greater exposure increases that 150-200 (or whatever the number), then it won't be a problem that the growth rate was low early.
What I'm witnessing through my friends and family who are reading my blog and my parents blog and trying to sign up, is that the very first steps to registration are not user friendly.
A few weeks ago I wrote about this problem and proposed a solution to this but there another issue not mentioned in that post which is the Facebook sign up. While most people I know couldn't get passed the password to register, some simply don't like logging in through Facebook.
All the optimistic interpretations require a decrease of real users, which is not desirable.
@clayop
I completely agree. I do not find the current level of growth encouraging, though apparently Dan has some data that paints a different picture. I asked him for more detail, and it will be interesting to see what that is if he provides it.
My only disagreement (or perhaps questioning is a better word) with your interpretation is whether the issue is less growth in real users (bad) or a decline in user participation (also bad). In reality it is probably some of both, but I do feel you have been painting too harsh a picture on the latter, especially when you presented the chart from Dan's post without accounting to any meaningful degree for the issues both he and I have identified with it (fake accounts, antispam system changes, etc.)
I find users might be leaving because they hear they can make all this money on here, only to have no votes and their post go unnoticed or not understand how they have more votes then others that made money and theirs reads 0.00$ Only to see stupid shit make more money then someone's hard work, can make one go back to what worked for them i.e Facbook/twitter/Reddit
There is going to be a certain amount of attrition as people show up, throw crap at the wall to see if it sticks, find no one likes their poorly conceived drool here any better than the last place, they don't get rich and they leave. Those who are adding substantive content are either here for payout, or building an audience, or ideally, both. Those are the ones we want to keep. They will make the platform stronger and recruit new users.