What I Think Of Steemit So Far - My Early Review
I like it.
I guess I should probably say more :p The system works very well for blogging and I can see it being a serious website for article writers and bloggers. Being rewarded based on upvotes helps to self-moderate the quality of the content and posts with a lot of upvotes, from what I am seeing, are going to be paid well. But the system could use the ability to see views. It is difficult to tell if your content needs work, is not the cup of tea to the people reading it or just uploaded at a bad time.
The editor is easy enough to use for typing and formating, but could be a little more user-friendly for sharing images. Pictures need to be uploaed to a seperate site and linked before they show, which is a little cumbersome for people who just want to type, upload and post. But the plus side is that posts stay as drafts until you clear them, a nice feature if you decide to leave the page by choice or by accident.
In terms of content, there is a lot of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency posts, which is to be expected and will only be an assist when the other topics of discussion start to match it in volume. If the site is organized properly, there is space for multiple topics of interest to thrive. More and more topics should open up as the user base continues to grow. And if you are interested in bitcoin or blockchains this is the place for you to post and find articles of interest.
The social media aspect of the site is currently not one of its strengths. There isn't a network of friends or followers. You can follow someone but it only puts their posts in the recommendation list. And without notifications you can't tell if someone you are following posted. But the biggest problem (which is the networks biggest strengths in other areas) is that everything you post is permanently somewhere on the blockchain, which is going to lead to people being hesitant to post. People want to know they can delete things for whatever reason whenever they wish. On the upside, what hinders the social side of the network does help with the article side. Permanent posts means people will be more careful with editing. And not having your network's posts blogging your feed, you are more likely to discover new users and they in turn, are more likely to get votes. I would even go so far to suggest making the posts should be listed as anonymous until after the person votes for them. This will improve quality and give new users a better chance to get their articles seen.
Overall the system itself has a lot of potential and like every other social media or forum website, will all depend on the people who join and the quality they posts. But still being beta, there is lots of time for the system to work out any hitches along the way.
Thank you for your feedback. Many aspects of the system are under development, this is the nature of beta. The key thing is that we have the ability to grow and adapt and those who benefit the most from that growth are those are participate now, when it is hard.