Hi there, Ajay @jaedea here. This time I would just like to speak out to the community of what I think about STEEM and Steemit . I have been using Steemit more than any other social networking site since after I got approved on the platform 2 days ago. I haven’t contributed anything to the Community rather than my introduction post which is rather brief and you can find it here -“ https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@jaedea/introducing-myself-ajay-from-the-gods-own-country-5-days-of-patience-and-waiting “.

I thought I would make some content for you. I would like to express my thoughts and opinions on STEEM and Steemit here in this post. It would be wonderful if atleast some of you guys would indulge in this discussion with me.

I think that Steemit is something with a wonderful concept. I am a strong believer in Steemit and I do think that it has the power to overthrow FaceBook. Steemit is just in its infancy, let it time to grow, I definitely see a bright future ahead for Steemit.
I just love the Blockchain technology. I know that its gonna be the future. When Bitcoin started around in 2009, nobody gave a damn about it and look at it now! Likewise I do believe what Bitcoin did to the Banks could be done to the social media too, it is something that cannot be ruled out.

What is the necessity for an Open Sourced Social Media? Why not stick with the traditional social networking sites like Facebook and twitter?I have to admit it, Facebook is truly great and amazing. It introduced us to the true nature of social networking. But now it’s just not what it used to be. Ever thought how facebook makes money?- “like billions of dollars worth money”. THEY SELL OUR DATA. Facebook makes money by selling our data to other corporations and the government. This results in people’s opinion being influenced by such governments and corporations.

We people provided facebook with immense power, we helped it become this giant social media king. Most of us might not even notice how dangerous facebook has become today. This is not good. As Australia, Belgium, Italy like countries who separated the state from church, we as a community has to take this power back from Facebook and give it back to the people, but the support for Facebook is very massive. Most of the Facebook users don’t realize what is going on the back-end of that flashy facebook homepage. Most of them are addicted to the platform and many are lazy to switch to another network.

I think the perfect alternative to Facebook is Steemit. Here since the system is decentralized, there is no one to capitalize on your data, your data belongs to you and just you. Remember guys, Steemit launched just over 2 years, whereas Facebook had been here for way longer. Since Steemit is still in its early days, it is pretty clear that they might be having flaws, who wouldn’t agree that Facebook during its early days weren’t glitchy?
I would like to point out some pros and cons about Steemit. These are my opinions, I would be happy if more of the community would interact with this post as I am eager to hear about your views on the same topic and to know whether I have missed out something about Steemit.

Pros:

• As per Wikipedia, Steemit community has about 500K members.This is an exponential growth from having about 10K+ members in Q3 2016
• Who doesn’t like the idea of getting paid for your works?, and getting paid from an online community in the community currency which has real world value is just amazing. Paying members in STEEM DOLLARS is an excellent idea.
• Fed up with online ads? I know I am. Steemit doesn’t irritate us with those annoying ads, we have privacy and control over our data. Just awesome!
• Anybody can view the codes as it is entirely Open Sourced,
• And what else is more important than “ DECENTRALISATION ” and being backed by a crypocurrency (STEEM), which is here to stay.

As I mentioned, Steemit is relatively new and still need time to grow. These are just minute problems that Steemit has, which could be easily fixed in the near coming future.

Cons :

• Steemit misses a lot of features. It lacks a chat facility, groups, etc. But I know that as the community grows, Steemit will improve itself, and these features will be provided.
• The user interface is not as much expected. It could definitely be improved later on.
• A lot of people come for money, which isn’t good for a community. If the rewards gets decreasing, the people will lose interest. Steemit has to improve to keep the users here for the Community and not solely on the rewards.

These are some things that I think could be done to increase the flexibility of the platform for the users

1. The User interface has to be improved. A more familiar layout could be made by referring layouts like as that of twitter, facebook or some other popular networks, so that the users wont feel uncomfortable migrating to Steemit.
2. An easy migration tool that would help transfer our data from facebook to Steemit would be of high value to the Steemit users and for those who are going to join the platform.
3. Some kind of a restriction on STEEM trading would help maintain a constant value for STEEM. The community should try to keep traders ( who buy and sell STEEM) away, so that they wont be also to cause a 0 or negative market to the currency and community.
4. If Steemit would reward members for helping their friends switch to Steemit, its sure that more people will hear about the platform and the community will get a lot bigger. So it would be pretty decent if this kind of a system is introduced.
5. More marketing has to be done inorder to help Steemit reach the millions who have been missing the opportunity with Steemit.
6. And finally,building a true community. Community is way more powerful than a $500 billion corporate. We have to uphold the value of Steemit and believe in it and be a part of it as I truly believe it has the potential.

So guys, that is some of the things that I wanted to let out. Did I miss something? Or did I get something wrong?. It would be great if you guys let me know your thoughts on the topic.