Stickiness on Steemit by Intermittent Reinforcement [The Casino Effect]
What is intermittent reinforcement?
Intermittent reinforcement works on the concept of schedules of rewards which reinforce behaviors. In the case of Steemit the behavior the platform desires is high quality posts from a diverse group of entities and high quality curation.
How does intermittent reinforcement work?
Intermittent reinforcement is the secret behind stickiness. Slot machines work on a variable ratio schedule and this is why it's considered fun. To the people who play the slot machine there is no way for them to know how big of a reward they will get. The uncertainty of a slot machine is due to the fact that the payout comes after an average number of pulls but there isn't any way for the player to know when that will be or how big the payout will be.
The slot machine player is gambling with their money while on Steemit the content producer is gambling with their time. Because it's not possible for anyone to know what everyone else will think of their content in advance, there is always natural uncertainty involved for any blogger which can either be perceived as fun if at least some of the time they get a big payout, or not so fun if they feel they are always on the losing side.
The Casino Effect vs The Salary Effect
Fixed interval schedules represent the salary effect. Most people who go to a job, work for eight hours, to earn a predictable and fixed wage, are in a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement. The fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement would limited as well.
The casino effect comes from the variable ratio of reinforcement. The casino effect is the secret behind the success of Facebook, Twitter, and other technologies. Because these technologies use "likes" which are "psychic credits" instead of dollars, there isn't much anger if a post on Twitter or Facebook profile goes viral. This doesn't mean that the people posting are just posting, because they want to get likes, to go viral, to be famous, because it has some psychological reward.
The casino effect is much stronger psychologically than the effect of the salary. People who like working for a salary would choose to write and be rewarded a fixed rate per 1000 words. In fact, most writers on the Internet are either working for salary or freelance where they are paid a fixed rate per a fixed amount of words and many are happy with this.
The problem for Steemit is that if Steemit adopts something like this then it will no longer have any edge over salary work and professional writers might decide to write their own book, or Youtubers might decide to stay on Youtube, because at least on there they can be sure that if they do go viral there is no limit or cap on how much they can get paid.
Salary workers may find the appeal of the consistent and long term payouts. Most professional Youtubers are not salary workers and are used to an all or nothing mentality. To attract the most talented people from the creative or Youtuber mentality it is important in my opinion to keep the platform exciting, unpredictable, and sticky.
Steemit vs Devtome
Steemit is actually not the first attempt in crypto-space to provide a low barrier to entry on-ramp for creatives. Devtome provided a platform for creatives which had a slightly different economic model in that you didn't have "Blogging is the New Mining" but instead you have the perfect meritocracy that many on Steemit are currently asking for.
Devtome would work by allowing anyone to write about anything as long as it didn't plagiarize. Devtome paid everyone the same rate per 1000 words which could range anywhere between 7 or even as high as 200 dollars. In my opinion it's the casino effect which separates Steemit from every other "dollar per word" writing or blogging platform. Steemit provides a casino effect on both sides, both for curators who have no way to predict which blog posts will win big, and for the posters who also have no way to know which of their posts will win big.
Steemit has something which almost resembles a prediction market for curators. The curators are also using a similar model to what was originally designed for Peertracks. There is no reward cap on curators and no way for the bloggers to decide that curators are making too much, and in my opinion curators should not focus on how much the payouts will be in Steem Dollars but more on the quality of the post. If the post is of great quality then in my opinion there should be no cap on the reward because not having a cap on the reward is precisely what makes Steemit have the fun and sticky qualities which guarantee that people will always post.
The key is to reward quality posts. When there is no cap on the reward for quality posts then intermittent reinforcement studies show that this variable amount in the reward will keep posters engaged with Steemit as a platform. In my opinion this is a key to success of the platform and can help distinguish it into a niche which no other platform has. The only time when this environment existed before was when early Bitcoin miners could mine with CPUs and GPUs. If we want to recreate that environment for regular people then there should be no reward cap, and just as a Bitcoin could be worth anything long term, and just as a miner had no way to know if they'd get 50 Bitcoins or none, it's something people mined because it was considered fun.
Why Steemit could be the most sticky social media platform ever invented
Facebook uses intermittent reinforcement to capture the attention of it's users. Users are rewarded with praise (psychic credits) in the form of "likes". Facebook is one of the most sticky sites ever invented and Steemit can easily surpass this site based on the fact that Steemit likes are both praise (psychic credits) and instantly monetized as Steem Dollars. This allows participants on Steemit to survive off praise for the first time and has the potential to change how we think of work. In order for Steemit to compete with Facebook on stickiness it is required that it at least duplicate the same psychological mechanics of Facebook. Intermittent reinforcement is behind the success of Facebook and will be behind the success of Steemit if Steemit gets it right.
There is no guarantee that Steemit will adopt the necessary focus on building it's mechanics to be optimized for stickiness. In fact, because there is an amount of money payout for each post, it leads some people to look only at the amount of payouts and think posts are being over paid and from here a scarcity mindset can set in. In my opinion this scarcity mindset has to be resisted and this is only possible if we understand what Steemit is now, what it can be in the future, and have an honest discussion on how to keep Steemit fun (because some people don't want it to feel like a day job) while also figuring out how to let Steem Power distribute itself enough that even the small rewards from the swarm of minnows is enough for a sufficient payout for most participants.
What features can increase the stickiness of Steemit?
One of the missing components could be a timeline. This would be a UI feature but it might increase stickiness of Steemit. The data on how long a person is engaged on the Steemit site has already been revealed by another but perhaps a goal should be to try to build on that? Other features could be continuous alerts similar to Facebook which are under development now as plugins, and gamification of Steemit which has not yet been developed but which may have a dramatic impact on the funness and as a result the stickiness.
Does anyone have ideas for features which could increase the stickiness of Steemit?
References
Delin, C. R., & Baumeister, R. F. (1994). Praise: More than just social reinforcement. Journal for the theory of social behaviour, 24(3), 219-241.
Grimes, M. (2011). Operant Conditioning in MMORPGs. Retrieved July, 2016, from http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/975/operant_conditioning_in_.php
Thorens, G., Wullschleger, A., Khan, R., Achab, S., & Zullino, D. F. (2012). What is Addictive in Internet?. Open Addiction Journal, 5(1), 14-19.
The Psychology Easel. (2012, April 22). Retrieved Summer, 2016, from https://taradeliberto.blogspot.com/2012/04/keep-them-coming-back-for-more_22.html
You're right. I've been experiencing this exactly and I've been aware of the fact. That's why I don't worry too much about a single post (or several) not gaining traction... because there's a large degree of luck involved and I know that if I keep playing (posting) then I'll trigger the payout, big or small, from time to time.
Just hope that the whales are aware of this (I suspect they are) and keep getting around to good posts upvoting them, to spread those payouts around.
Stickiness in my opinion is the key to the success of Steemit, any social media, or any game. The point is to keep people engaged and keep it fun. And you're right, it's the same for me as well. I don't do well on every post and this post might not do well, but I know there is always the chance that I could do well so I keep posting more and higher quality content with that understanding.
Also it's fun. If we were talking about WoW then you never know what will be dropped. If every player knew that exactly what would be dropped, and that they have to clock in a specific amount of hours to get it, then it wouldn't be fun anymore. It would become another daily grind. I think keeping Steemit fun is very important and if people start leaving Steemit then it should be tweaked so that it is more fun not less.
I understand being a minnow is not fun but every player in WoW starts out new. Every member of Bitcointalk used to have to sit in the newbie section for a while. If you post consistently and build a reputation then eventually you're not new anymore and your audience will vote for you. If you post something very insightful, creative, beautiful, or just grab the attention in a unique way, then you can win big, and this is what makes it fun in my opinion.
Being a minnow IS fun! I may become a dolphin/otter/tuna/ whatever. THEY have no chance to become a minnow. Poor souls they're missing out.
Lol great point! Once you go up the food chain, it's hard to back down!
Yeah. I was saying on another thread that Steemit is actually gambling + gamification of online social activity that looks like a social network. It's literally a big game, as you point out.
Right, it's a gamification of the social network in a rewarding way similar only to early Bitcoin mining. The fact that there is nothing else like it online or anywhere is why it could be as big of a success or bigger than WoW, or Facebook, but only if it's as sticky.
Yet another amazing post by @dana-edwards
While Dana's post is mostly focused on user stickiness due to the casino effect. A huge player in that casino effect is the possibility of your comment going top tier. This is post stickiness and it's the hardest thing to get right here because the sheer volume of content being created every minute is just overwhelming.
@dana-edwards I think the future here may actually be to create steemit darknets. Closely knit social groups who visit and promote one another's content with tit for tat reciprocation, thereby lifting eachother up. Take the term darknet to mean that it's something closed to the outside. A network of people who are primarily focused on their own network and not the outside world. Not the nefarious more modern meaning.
One other thing to remember is that blog stickyness is a function of reciprocation. Going through as the topic creator and upvoting any relevant comments, increases the length of time you stay in the "active" section of the site. The longer you stay in "active" the more time you have for people to see you and thus the probability of a whale or two dropping by with a visit from the money fairy.
Timing helps a lot too. @blueorgy just released a tool today to help you time your posts a little better for maximum chance of a whale sighting... http://catchawhale.com/
Additionally I have a guide here that is helpful if you want to get your post trending as quickly as possible. https://steemit.com/steemit/@williambanks/how-to-make-your-blog-the-next-trending-topic
Again, @dana-edwards thanks for the enlightening post.
I have no idea what the future holds for Steemit or Steemit technology. What I do hope is that the platform remains fun. I recognize that some people will find the casino effect fun while other people don't. But when we look at social media, my hypothesis is that perhaps the reason people don't consider social media a "job" and think it's "fun" is because it uses intermittent reinforcement where they don't know how their posts or content will be received. People like being liked, and people like being rewarded, and if anything I would seek to expand the reward mechanisms so as to amplify the effect rather than to dampen it.
The catching a whale stuff might be fun and all but I think that is very short term. Some limits on Steemit is the fact that Chinese people and others can't sign up. Some legitimate concerns about Steemit is the fact that it's too English centric and too focused on writing. People in other parts of the world who don't speak English might want to join Steemit and it is only when they join that people will understand that it's not about chasing whales but about finding a niche and catering to an audience. Steem Power will be distributed over time and someday we will see trending posts which aren't even in English.
No to argue with you @dana-edwards but we do have a strong and growing multi-lingual community. In fact just last night I saw a fascinating post in persian. Would have been nice to understand persian, but the point is the international community is growing rapidly.
I love a comment that shares other good comments on steemit. That's a good sign of a community that has an abundance mentality vs a scarcity mentality.
You closed-network example strikes me as very nefarious indeed, where's the value in those dark echo rooms?
I don't know. I have no clue what's next either but I do hope for some things that for now, seem fantasy...
I also wrote here why acting like ahab is not great regarding your catchawhale and the rest: https://steemit.com/steemit/@razvanelulmarin/you-are-not-ahab-stop-chasing-whales-write-some-good-stuff-instead-maybe
Thank you for reading
That was an amazing read @dana-edwards ! I know that I am not alone in this when I say that's I've lost sleep and sometime woke up just to watch my payout or the content on the trending page. Right now Steemit has 14:04 minute average time spent on site and Facebook 19:17 - Once the UI develops and if careful thought is put into the stickiness of it, we could see this number jump dramatically.
@crptoctopus We have lots of work needed to be done on the UI. I really hope that Steemit team can open their github allows people to contribute to it to speed that the process. Tools like being built by 3rd party devs in this community are extremely valuable and can be easily integrated make steemit and fun place to hang out ( thus higher user stickiness). @jesta his steemstats.com has the notification popup which I really love to see it being implemented.
Second all of this
Coincidentally enough I have worked with one of my clients in the Gaming world. Their casinos are very big and a lot of the budget it geared and thought to be because of what you are saying here in this great post of yours.
Strategy wise I Posted a few predictions in my intro post that I think apply to what you are asking about stickiness:
The following predictions are based on what I think would move the market and provide value to us using #steemit and those directly involved. At worst these will work as few suggestions for dev’s. :)
1- Website overhaul with fast and efficient mobile friendly posting and voting capabilities
2- Talented Developers like @jesta will continue to appear and find that Steemit may pay better than most other projects
3-Some sort of status update or monitoring features, more addon's or new features
4-Real advanced search filters
5-Continuous security improvements and better spam bot protection
6-A more useful account management interface and a better wallet and transnational possibilities with internal Market growth as more and more transactions flock in
7-Additional or alternative ways or benefits for our post's to be heard
8-Forums and Chat rooms start to explode
9-Official app is released
10- Easier ways for crypto newbies for depositing and withdrawing Steem or Steem Dollars to USD or other currencies.
Intro post here if you want to read it all: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@thedailyhobbyist/damn-it-feels-good-to-be-a-gangster-my-steemit-predictions-and-office-space-inspired-introduceyourself-post-for-you-guys
Your content is really valuable and I look forward to keep reading your posts.
Thank you for this info!
> Devtome would work by allowing anyone to write about anything as long as it didn't plagiarize. Devtome paid everyone the same rate per 1000 words which could range anywhere between 70 or even as high as 200 dollars.
Doesn't this reward quantity over quality, and by the same token encourage automatic content generation by bots?
Right it does reward quantity over quality but there is a minimum quality standard. You have to format your writing in a certain way, you can't plagiarize or just throw up gibberish because someone might check it for some minimum quality standard. At the same time it's not Subjective Proof of Work like with Steemit, so every 1000 words which meets the minimum standard gets the exact same payout.
So it's the salary model. When people work a salary they are expected to provide some minimum quantity of hours, and to work at some standard or minimum quality standard. If they do that then they can look forward to a guaranteed income called a wage. This is in deep contrast to self employed individuals or freelancers or artists do where there is no salary or wages, there is no supervisor standing over them measuring quality, there is just supply and demand. The Youtuber or artist gets rewarded directly by the market with no filter and for people who make money in this way, it's very much like Steemit.
Youtubers already are used to getting paid in the casino style where they post content daily until something goes viral which makes all of their months of work worth it. They get paid by views, they have no boss, they have no salary, and I doubt most vloggers would want a salary. So there is a cultural difference between the two and different expectations.
I think what we are seeing where some people are posting and posting and not getting consistent payments, is something like a cultural difference. If someone is coming from a salary job culture where they are accustomed to frequent consistent rewards based on how many hours they put in then this person might have a different attitude from someone who is used to making money without any consistency in terms of the size of the reward.
A Youtube video could make a lot or a little depending on how many views it gets. A post on Steemit can make a lot or a little depending on how many votes it gets. The difference is you don't have Youtube the company taking a cut when you post on Steemit and you can make much more money on Steemit at least for now.
I think some people also have the dream of enjoying their job and when you have intermittent reinforcement with variable ratio schedule like with the slot machines, it creates an excitement which makes it fun for the players. If Steemit really is a Social Media Game then making it fun and keeping it fun ought to be a priority in my opinion and I don't see what we gain by limiting the fun by capping the rewards. I also think it's just like with Bitcoin where when people saw the ludicrous price rises it actually attracted people to Bitcoin to want to find out what it is and it's the same with the very large payouts on Steemit.
An African who looks at the very large payouts might think Steemit is the opportunity of a lifetime and become much more motivated than if they saw Steemit as just another writing gig.
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Thanks Jeeves. I know you are a bot but I appreciate your upvote enough to upvote you. This kind of bot if it had enough voting power is adding value. It advertises other good posts and pays for that with it's upvote.
The problem of upvoting the bot is that it moves its post up in the list at the expense of more relevant posts.
Great article very insightful. What i think would increase Steemit stickiness and make it more a social network is the adoption of common features of Social media sites,
Like the ability to build an audience,that is having a public feed for all post and a personal feed that just shows you posts from people and categories you are interested in. A private messaging system to send messages to friends, and the ability to form groups. I think that this will dramatically increase the visibility of posts that get lost in the feed, and that faces greater competition everyday as our user base grows.
Interesting...
While I am not a big fan of your posts/blog, as they tend to be no totally truthful... Here are some inspirations from it:
My more ground to earth help tips
and proposed controversial improvements to the steemit system
AND that's why I can't put down my phone
Wait till there is a smartphone app... Enjoy real life while you still have one :)
Needed. Very difficult to write a good post on a phone currently. I mean if the app was out now I'd be rich and famous.
@dana-edwards So umm how long do you think it will be until the steemitisnotacasino crowd comes by? I'd be curious to know what their threshold is for flagging.
I'd also like to call their moms and tell 'em just how well behaved their kids are being and that they really should ground them or something.
A prediction market can be used to allow people to collectively bet on what is considered an excessive payout for a specific category of post but then it's a lot of effort for minimal gain in my opinion.