Here here and well said, @techslut. This was an insightful, truthful post. Truth be told, it takes real guts to be honest on this platform. There's always fear of upsetting the 'whales that be' on their mountains high.

For that reason I'm betting this post won't get a high payout relative to your others.

Still, these things need to be said and I'm glad you've chosen to say so. I want to talk a bit about all of the things you've pointed out.

1.) You're totally correct about the barriers toward Steemit adoption. I did some research recently and found that in it's first year both Instagram and Facebook broke a million users. Why is Steemit just over a third of that in its first year? Well, it's because of the issues you pointed out.

2.) Your second point is so obvious that I can't believe I didn't realize it before. You're right, it takes WAY too fucking long for most people. This is the main problem when I finally convince people to sign up for Steemit. It takes so long to sign up, then once they get on they're so confused about what to do next that they wait. I had one person lose their password and have to sign up again. Totally unacceptable for any site that hopes to get wide adoption.

3.) Strangely enough, I feel that this is actually is among the easiest issues to fix. This is a tech problem. The main issue is that the company of Steemit Inc is trying to grow while improving upon experimental tech. Not an easy task, but one that I think will inevitably reach the 'good enough' category.

4.)Ugh. This is a REAL issue on the platform. Engagement is so difficult in part because there's simply so much shit (stuff) on Steemit and discovery of said shit is so hard. @techslut, I currently have two of your posts still open on my phone, waiting for me to read them.... eventually. But here I am commenting on this post, instead. This is a real dilemma on Steemit and, frankly, I'm not sure what the solution is.

5.) This is another excellent point. Also very humorously put. Yeah, this may be amongst the biggest problems on Steemit. It's made worse still by the fact that there's a real fear of passive punishment if it's mentioned. This one is so fucking bad... That I'm not even sure what to do about it. At the end of it, it may be such an unforgivable issue that it kills the platform. However I've chosen to have faith for personal reasons. In fact, this is such a good point that I may have to make my own post dedicated to it.

Again, well said @techslut. You're viewpoint is clear-sighted, lucid, and intelligent. So much so that if I wasn't an incredibly loyal follower before, I am now. Anyway, let's keep this discussion going. If not through this post, then others like it.

But who knows? The upcoming changes to the platform interface may solve some of these things.