Here's How I Would Like To See The STEEM Upgrades Roll Out
It Seems Like Things Are Ramping Up
If the amount of information which has been flowing from the Steemitblog this year can be considered any indication, we may be seeing the long promised and long awaited upgrades for STEEM and Steemit. That's not to say there hasn't been things happening already, but they've mostly been under the hood, like Rockdb and the newly announced Hivemind 1.0. However, there has also been lots of talk about SMTs, including Oracles, and of course, there's HF 20 still hanging out there, with the most prominent feature being Velocity—a faster way to onboard users.
To my mind, it's possible that any one of those will be game changing. The time it has been taking to get new users approved for the last few months has been long. Velocity is supposed to change that. Hivemind will eventually bring with it Communities. SMTs will allow the rest of the internet to dip their toes into STEEM through the creating of potentially thousands of Smart Media Tokens. All the upside for any of this technology is yet to be seen, but it does bring with it a lot of hope for improved user experience as well as more users and therefore more STEEM demand.
I have no idea just how imminent any of these things are, or what order they may come in. For that matter, I don't know if there's one that needs to come before something else due to code issues, layering, or even best practices. What I do know is how I would roll it out if I had any say, and there were no other code issues to consider.
Start With Hivemind/Communities
Communities have been springing up all over STEEM of their own volition. I'm inclined to call them informal, since they don't really have their own space, like a Facebook group might, where essentially you see what's happening in those groups in addition to what might be coming through your feed.
I would love for this upgrade to come first, because it's bound to bring it's changes in how the UI works, and to some extent, how we interact with one another. It would be awesome for those of us who are here to have at least two months to get used to those changes, while also allowing us the first crack at setting up Communities. Then, we can actually get them up and running, working and potentially troubleshooting issues, since there will always be bugs of some kind. Maybe there will be a feature or two that can be implemented quickly or tweaked.
As a reminder, here's what Hivemind is supposed to be able to bring to the STEEM ecosystem, straight from the Steemitblog update from April 2, 2018:
That's a lot to try to tackle and work with. It would be great if developers of all of the apps on the STEEM ecosystem and then the users had a chance to get used to as much as possible as soon as they're available, and before any other updates happen.
Hard Fork 20.0
With Communities in place, and developers able to integrate all they offer into their existing apps or create others with them, and with existing users up to speed on how to navigate them, the table would be set for the flood gates to open with Velocity. New life would be injected into the STEEM platform, and buzz by all of us here would be generated (providing all goes reasonably well), and because HF 20 came second, we would have the opportunity to help new users, or those returning after an existed absence, to get up to speed. In fact, there could be a help center community that could be among the first places people go so they can get some kind of orientation.
STEEM needs growth, but it also needs ways to retain new and old members. I believe there are many of us who would stand ready to help out in some capacity to do just that with more tools available to us.
SMTs
With a weekly user base of 500,000 to a million rather than roughly 120,000 already divided up into Communities, SMTs start making a whole of sense. There will be people here who are more active and ready to engage in whatever ways these businesses or organizations decide to use their SMTs for. We are the ones on STEEM, we're the ones interested in seeing it grow, and we're the ones who have been learning how to use all the dApps that have already shown up on STEEM. As these other sites start interacting with the STEEM blockchain, we will be the ones who are the best able and willing to go after these new tokens. Steemit and the other apps will be drawing in users directly to the STEEM blockchain, building momentum for the rest of the internet to do the same, until they maybe even tip the scales for bringing on the users.
We don't want people who are just learning about STEEM through other sites getting a bad taste because there's not enough of us able to help out in whatever forums or comment sections or messaging apps that might be available on these sites. I'm sure those of us who want to will be able to help out with the learning curves that will inevitably exist with SMTs.
Communities/HF 20/SMTs
As I said, I have no say whatsoever in how this will all play out, and I don't know if there are code requirements that dictate which come first. I do believe, however, that there is a desire to throw the long ball, ie SMTs, and maybe even HF 20, as the next 100 million accounts are supposed to be more of a priority than the first million were.
Even so, I do have experience as a businessman, and I have an idea of how growth works in building up a customer base and retaining it. The product or service needs to be pretty good, and you need to have sufficient staffing in order to bump up to the next level. Growth doesn't need to be plodding, but it does need to be sustainable, and there's more to that than just scalability. There is the human element to all of this that must be factored in and accounted for, and accounted for well, if all of this is to succeed to any measure.
I'm looking forward to all the changes. I believe they all have the potential to change how we know and regard STEEM to something better. I just hope how the sequence of the rollout of upgrades and changes will maximize not only STEEM's capabilities, but also leverage the collective capacities and abilities of those of us who are already here, who are ready and willing to help STEEM take it to the next level.
These are all very exciting developments, I just hope that when they finally do come it won't be too late for Steem as a platform. I'm sure there will be many other social networks popping up and I just hope that steem can keep its first mover advantage.
SteemIt is still an experiment. Change is good, IMO.
This is the end of things I don't normally think too much on, and I rely on people like you who do. I focus on people day to day, and perhaps I should see the bigger picture? I don't know the answer to that one. I'm not totally naive and incompetent and have no idea what's going on, but it's just not on my radar. I trust you, your research and your opinion; how's that for a compliment and a huge responsibility all wrapped up together? :) I assume changes will occur and when they do, I'll see if they're ones I can live with or not. I guess we all will go from there.
Yeah. Thanks. No pressure. :)
I don't know. It's not anything that most of us will have any say in, but I've had some conversations with folks like @davemccoy and @themanwithnoname about processes and steps that should be taken and so it's kind of front and center in my mind. Having owned a business for quite a long time kind of puts me in that frame of mind still, even if I would prefer not to.
I think it's good that there are people like you focusing in on other aspects of Steemit because if it were left up to people like me only, the day to day people part of it would not be nearly as served as it is.
As long as you're aware, and can form some kind of an opinion based on what you've read, I think that's all that any of us can really expect to do. And then roll with whatever actually shows up. Or not. That's always a choice, too.
haha no pressure at all actually. I'm one who rolls with things, or not. "Real" life has taught me to not put too much pressure/emphasis on this kind of thing. That doesn't mean I don't take it seriously, and try my best etc. It just means it's not life-altering...and I simply roll with it. Or not :)
howdy there @glenalbrethsen...yes sir all of these changes have to make a huge difference, I think someone has very good and strategic planning capabilities and these simply have to improve things for everyone!
How can they not?
Well, I suppose any of a number of things could go wrong, just as some things have gone wrong because of other changes made. Some people here are not happy with the last HF for instance, because it and at least a previous one got rid of some protocols that were supposed to prevent some of the things that are currently controversies on the platform. It was like they had the problems pegged, and then removed the pegs.
So, who knows how the user experience could be weakened. I'd rather not think about that. I'd rather hope that after seeing what's been happening with the changes that were made that the "extra" time they've been spending in baking the upgrades would result in more good than causing more issues.
yes sir but you are bullish overall? I mean with more people coming in the platform will be stronger as well as Steem I'd think.
Well, realizing I'm not an expert in any of this and I know as much as the next STEEM user, I do see a high potential here. If not, I probably would not be here. And yes, STEEM needs more people. But it needs somewhere for those people to better congregate and become more productive. Throwing higher user numbers at the blockchain without having places for those users to go, feel welcomed and appreciated hasn't helped retention at all. People fall through the cracks far too much. But if they can get connected faster with others who they have a common interest with, and can actually be successful in the process, then more people will stay. And I'd rather see that happen first, and increase the army of willing and able users, before just inviting the uninitiated in and expecting what few of us are here to somehow ride herd.
"to somehow ride herd."
but you're so good at it! lol
They do need a more centralized system of help for new users. Heck even for the older users. There is a lot to steemit, and to the blockchain in general that is unknown to many, and will remain unknown until someone thinks to ask a question or someone finds a place to leave the answers in a readily readable area. Where is the help key or button to get those answers.
I think there's a lot of reliance on the good will of others to make things work here, which fits in a volunteer community model, but that means people are giving up of their time and talents for those things, when most people came here to make something from their posts. It's like being told you'd be waiting tables but then find out you need to bus them, wash the dishes and prepare the meals.
I don't know if directing the new user straight to the help desk is possible, but it sure would be nice for such a thing to be somehow front and center. Most of us would probably benefit by it, since most of us are only doing what we've learned to do and feel like we need to know to get that done.
There is a lot more to Steemit, and some of it to it's detriment, that we need to know to make things more of a pleasant experience. Like how rewards are calculated. Transparency is important, but there's a reason why there's a "behind the scenes" in the first place. Stuff that not everyone really needs to know or care about can be done there to enhance the experience they do care about.
They did create an @help, and an @helpdesk account, just never put them into use, so they do have them for when they feel they need to get them operational. So they did think of some future needs. MAybe when they get things really rolling along they will put them to use. Right now I think improved user interface via the hive mind is next, or at least I hope so. A wait and see game.
I didn't even know those two accounts existed, so thank you for cluing me in. It's weird they haven't found a use for them, or even taken user volunteers to run them.
Well, maybe there is a master plan and all will be revealed eventually. We can only hope, right? :)