What is the true nature of Steemit, as a venue? Steemit Community Roundtable

A Brief Introduction: 

This article was written for several reasons, but was inspired in large part by @sykochica’s post from yesterday: SteemitTalk Special Event: Community Round-table Discussion and the ensuing comment discussion.

Additional inspiration from comments and posts around the Steemit community—thanks to @shadowspub @krnel @kus-knee @stellabelle @jd3y @ebryans and many others too numerous to name, but with whom I have had the privilege of interacting over the basic issue of "what IS Steemit, and where is it going?"

Why this post?

I have only been part of Steemit for about a month, but I really am enjoying this community and this content format. I have "met" some interesting and insightful people here and have reached the point where I feel somewhat invested in seeing this platform grow and thrive. There's a truly great potential here!

At the same time, I am seeing a lot of transition and flux, people concerned about the future, along with squabbles and assertions that things need to change. Some think things are going badly and there's a lot of doom. More factually, the number of active participants in the community seems to be stagnant and that's never a great thing.

Naturally, Steemit is a pretty new platform so “growing pains” are a natural part of the process.

That said, charting a course forward to ensure Steemit’s long term viability and success as a community requires input from the community. I thought it might be wise to “take stock” of what I see here, and what I hope the future will bring—as an exercise in clarity—rather than be drawn into the more “reactionary feedback” I have been observing.

I am using “steemitroundtable” as one of the tags for this post—should anyone else feel inspired to engage in their own explorations, you might consider using that tag as well, as a way to keep these kinds of exploratory posts connected.

My Own Background:

To wrap some perspective around this commentary, I’m a writer, blogger, content provider. I’ve been part of forums and groups online (and even hosted some), since being a “sysop” on an all-text BBS system at the University of Texas in the late 1980’s. I’ve also written content for about 60 “user generated content” sites (like Steemit), many of which were also peer curated (like Steemit) and involved some form of reward or revenue sharing (like Steemit). 

I am NOT a developer, I am also NOT a cryptocurrency/blockchain expert… in the most general sense, I know what Bitcoin is, and now I know what Steem is.

I did work in IT for a few years, mostly in Usability and Human Factors, as well as globalization (which often earned me "most hated" rewards from developers!); I was a technical writer working (mostly) on INTRAnets, I also did time designing computer adaptive skills tests for large companies and the education field. 

I bring up “background” because my interest in Steemit is strongly based in the Human/Community angle, married to the content creation angle. Fifteen years ago, we called this “social blogging." 

More about that later.

How I found my way to Steemit

Irony—a very alternative/anarchist friend posted a link on his Facebook feed to an article about Viva Coin and a discussion of that project’s White Paper. As it happened, the article was written on Steemit.

For no particular reason, but probably related to the pretty active (and INTERactive) discussion in the comments, I decided to poke around the site a bit, because I'd never heard of it. 

And I was reminded of the old “social blogging” platforms, previously mentioned. 

I also thought the site interesting because it was also (keep in mind I don’t know much about this stuff!) the first time I’d seen blockchain technology used to support something everyday people could actually use and understand—content creation. 

Sure, I’d been pitched the virtues and promises of Bitcoin years back, but found it all too technical, too much micro niche for a subset of deeply entrenched developers. “Too much learning curve,” I thought, “no real day-to-day applications I can just pick up and go with, in this moment.”

Steemit was the first blockchain thing I'd encountered that didn't seem like a "black box mystery."

So I created an account and started writing.

What I really LIKE about Steemit

This is a really cool hybrid site, of sorts.

It fills a gap between the Facebook, twitter, Instagram, SnapChat school of “all social” but no significant depth… and the opposite approach of keeping a “serious” blog (or writing articles) on WordPress, Medium and Blogger which can be information rich, but largely lacks the “social” aspect. Throw in a few aspects of tumblr and DeviantArt, and we have the creative/artistic end covered. 

I also really like that I don't get fed a stream of "targeted content" ("censored?") that doesn't necessarily reflect what I want to see... but evidently does serve someone's commercial needs.

I like that there is relatively little "filler and fluff" on Steemit; most contributors here have some kind of interest or passion... whether it's writing or creating cartoons or photography. 

Discussions on posts seems more... intelligent... here than most places I have visited. Sure, there are a few trollish people here and there... but that's just part of life.

Social blogging is an interesting beast. 

If you're not familiar with it, "Social blogging" was the intermediate step between the relatively "primitive" and static early web and the emergence of Facebook/MySpace. 

"Blog rings" were really the first attempts at a “social web” (outside of interest-based forums), doing more than individuals simply having their own pages... Blog rings were groups of blogs organized roughly by topic/interest, with pointers from one individual page to the next. People got to “reading each other” and commenting on their way through the “ring.”

Then someone got the idea of bringing more people into the fold by creating a simple user interface like Steemit and giving everyone their own subdomain (like we have here) under a single umbrella. Inside these host sites, "Communities" formed (basically a more complex use of tags). There were a good number of providers, including Diary-X, Xanga, LiveJournal, TypePad, MyDearDiary and many others. 

This was pre-Facebook. 

Then Tom at MySpace and Zuckerberg with Facebook came along and skimmed off all the "social bits" and made the level of interaction way shallower. 

Although I joined Facebook for its “shiny newness” and still have an account there, it still annoys me that it “fluffified” meaningful and creative content creation. 

Facebook didn't really create a better web, merely a different web.

I’m also growing really tired the “channeled” (aka “censored”) content Facebook and Google delivers. Frankly, it confuses the hell out of the Facebook algorithm that I like to look at both sides of an argument or situation. 

I know I’m not alone. 

Sure, there are lots of people who are happy with pictures of their dinner and 140-character tweets, and some are happy with their “very serious” WordPress blogs… but there’s a middle market that's not being served.

Steem, cryptocurrencies and the Reward

Steemit has something really great going for it—the reward system. Not from a technical “how it is distributed” angle, but from what is distributed.

It’s a beautiful gateway for “ordinary bloggers” to gain soft entry to the world of alt. currencies without needing to know a bunch of tech. 

What’s also really cool isn’t just that we get rewarded, but the way we get rewarded.  There is the allure of SteemPower—a sense that contributors can become stakeholders in the platform through simply letting their Steem and SteemPower ride. So you’re contributing, and through your contributions, you’re also investing in the very platform to which you’re contributing. For me that's not only conducive to "brand loyalty," but to wanting to create "good stuff" to help the community thrive.

Now, I recognize that statement may only sound like a swell deal to the more idealistic among us. But it’s still a great feature… enticing enough that I decided to take my accumulated Steem from my first month and Power Up, a couple of days ago.

So WHO is Steemit going to be attractive to? 

They are probably aged 30-60, have had web access for 15-20+ years so they remember the pre-Facebook web; like me, they are tired of Facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat that may be great for quickie updates but lack any real connection... they are probably creative-- writers, poets, photographers, videographers, artists, anarchists, change agents, activists-- and they are tired of Facebook/Google's attempts to "channel" (censor?) what they get to see and say... because on those sites "commerce" is more important than "content."

And God forbid we offend the advertisers!

Steemit is definitely a niche site, and will NEVER get "half of Facebook" (I know, "never say never"), but we might skim off the most independent and free-thinking 1%. That's still 20 million people, and that wouldn't be too shabby, the "1% Fallacy" notwithstanding.

I want to kick in something important here. I'm sure Steemit might also look good to people who want to "get paid for writing online." But they are a horrible market to try to reach because they tend to focus on short term benefits, not the long term well-being of a venue. More about that further down...

The not-so-good: Community vs. bots and technology

Recently, there seems to have been a good bit of upheaval over the use of bots and flagging and related issues. I haven’t been here long enough to know whether this is an ongoing issue, or something new, so I’ll refrain from offering much opinion.

However, communities are built by humans, "clever technology" is merely the infrastructure. Peer-to-peer doesn’t mean that my bot does lunch with your bot… it means you and I sit down and have an actual meal.

One more time: Communities are built by PEOPLE not by technology.

I'm not against bots/scripts per se, but we have to look at their functionality. 

For example, the @cheetah bot serves a function, ferreting out potential copied content. Other bots have other functions, catching spam or abuse or plagiarism or whatever. BUT... many bots work more like a destructive virus than tools to build connection and community. 

Let's face it, bots are basically-- stupid. Unless someone has the time (and skill) to sit down and actually write a really complex script (I'm talking on the level of Google's search algorithms) a bot can't tell a bad photo of a dead baby from a researched essay on Byzantine history. Bots don't "agree" or "disagree" with an opinion, they don't "feel" anything about a piece of art, they don't recognize a 9-year old's stilted writing from Shakespeare. 

Having a bot go around and upvote everything simply “because it exists” begs the question of whether that REALLY is "getting around the community?" Does that actually reward content of value, and bury keyword spam, nonsense and so on?

Depends on your metric, I suppose. 

Value is subjective.

But let me offer an analogy:

Is getting in your car and driving through the center of town and then coming back home... and announcing "I saw everyone in town today!"... really the same thing as parking in town, getting out and having a conversation with everyone you know, and meeting a few new people at a café? 

Framed like that, most people would say no. 

What I’d like to see Steemit be/become

Seems to me Steemit has the bones to become a thriving content hub for independent thinkers of all persuasions, as well as artists, writers, poets, photographers, activists and others who are a little tired of excessively fluffy and censored "guided" content. 

It could also be a great home for organizations trying not only to create awareness of their causes, but also as a fundraising/support venue where supporters could donate directly to the organizations, using Steem from the content they create.

I believe Steemit could be especially appealing to those interested in alternative economies and currencies... and could easily extend to include an alternative global marketplace... perhaps building on initiatives such as PeerHub. The same way Facebook became a faceless giant, eBay was--once upon a  time-- a really cool marketplace for quirky collectibles and plain "weird" stuff... a peer-to-peer situation, not today's giant commercial machine dominated by corporate sellers (I opened my eBay account in 1998-- it was cool, back then...).

The additional benefit of a thriving community would be its attractiveness to investors. "Investors" being those who might simply buy and hold Steem, without being community participants... simply because Steemit looks "like a good thing." This, in turn, increases the demand for Steem, prices go up, and the community looks more attractive to new content providers, causing more growth and it starts feeding itself.

What are the problems, and what’s missing?

My experience on Steemit so far suggests things still need some tweaking before a major "coming out party" is warranted. There are a few ideas and some fundamentals that might be discussed:

Clarification of bot vs. human value and interaction. Conventional (non-developer) users will immediately question how their content is upvoted 200 times, but only read 20 times. As a content provider, I want my stuff read by humans not pinged by bots. Or, at least, I want human interaction to have more worth than automation.

It would be really nice to have some kind of internal site message system. Nothing fancy, just something basic. Yes, I know Busy.org has that... but that brings up another issue. Most "average" users aren't going to want to run 17 "helper apps" to make Steemit what they want... they'll just say "too much hassle" and head back to Facebook or tumblr. Decentralized apps is a great idea... as long as they can be executed centrally. 

Steemit needs some kind of referral tracking system. When I post an article recommending Steemit in a venue where I "know people" (or I simply recommend it to friends) and they become members, I'd like to know. It's not about me wanting a reward or a cookie for my work, it's about COMMUNITY. It's about me knowing that Fred and Susan made accounts, so I can send them a welcome message (on above message system!) and encourage them to publish their own content... and maybe offer help and support. Shouldn't be super hard to do-- our usernames are already part of every unique URL here. 

Marketing Concerns-- Patience-- and Cautionary Tales!

One final point before I end relates to marketing Steemit externally. All I can advocate is patience and allowing for gradual "organic" growth.

In my opinion, the single biggest mistake we can make is to market Steemit on the "rewards," rather than the "community features." Sure, getting paid is a great attractor, but just who does that approach appeal to?

Let me share a story of the last disaster by a venue who positioned themselves as "get PAID to do social media." An already forgotten startup named Bubblews brought themselves to market about four years ago. They had the plan, they had the big time venture funding, and things were going pretty well. Then the company and management started getting noticed by mainstream media and Wall Street... and the founders started doing interviews and getting press coverage. 

All of a sudden there was a truly spectacular growth spurt as the world flocked to this new site that "pays you to do social media." Something like 1.5 million accounts added in a few months.

But who were all those people?

The "Clicking for Cash" crowd is the absolutely worst user you can ever attract. Sure, they come in stellar numbers if you utter the words "make money online" but they are like an army of locusts whose only ambition is a single minded adherence to "I Make Money Online Clicking Buttons." They do NOTHING for the community except "use" the system to fill their pockets through any and all manual or automated methods that do "the bare minimum" to maximize their returns, and when the cash stops flowing, they exit en-masse, leaving the host site depleted and filled with trash. 

MEANWHILE, 90% of the "serious" users will have exited in disgust... and next thing the company fails. 

"But that can't happen here..." you might be thinking. Sorry. Wrong.

Understand that these are the same people who think getting two cents for transcribing supermarket receipts on Amazon Mechanical Turk constitutes "Making money online" even though they are getting paid 70 cents an hour. Their number is legion... I would guess there are a couple of MILLION of them, worldwide... and their numbers are actually growing rapidly because developing nations have better and better connectivity, which means more and more people are online from regions where not only is $100 a month considered significant income, but "cheating the system" is a somewhat acceptable behavior inherent in the local culture.

I would strongly recommend presenting Steemit as a "censorship free content site" rather than a "money making venture." Let the money follow the content, not let the content be a bi-product of the lure of money.

By the way, Bubblews is not some isolated case of greed causing havoc. In fact, they were small fry. Another great content project-- the brainchild of (among others) web marketing guru Seth Godin-- named Squidoo made it all the way to 43rd most active web site worldwide (according to Quantcast), before crashing and burning at the hands of money-for-nothing-seekers whose pervasive attempts to "game the system" overwhelmed efforts maintain a high quality standard.

Let's NOT follow them... let's be patient!

And let's develop a really strong human-based peer curation system designed to uplift worthy content and bury the crap (which is bound to come, one of these days) in obscurity... and without reward.

Well, if you actually read this far, congratulations and thank you! You're pretty dedicated, and probably care about the future of the community. 

I'll end by saying that I probably don't know what I am talking about... but I thought I'd share, anyway!

(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)