A lower-mid-level Steemian's reflections on Hardfork 20.

I would think I'm pretty representative of the average Steemian in terms of longevity, reputation score, Steem Power, etc., so I can sympathize both up and down the "power chain" here.

Like many Steemians, I was totally blindsided by what happened a couple mornings ago. Sure, the whales and longtimers who know all the crooks and crannies of the various information sources involving the platform, both on and off it, might have known what might be coming, but from what I am reading and hearing, even many of them were surprised by some things. That red banner should have been there two weeks ago, detailing (or linking to details) about all the possibilities and what people might expect to happen.

Now, I understand there are some very noble witnesses (and others in positions to impact our code) who truly do want the site: 1) to be more equitable in terms of rewards, and 2) to be more more immune to the influence of all things phony (i.e. spam, bots, etc.) That's good. That's VERY good.

It's obviously early still, but I think, at this point we can probably say that we may have accomplished that second goal while inadvertently also hurting low-SP users and newbies (i.e. the site's future) to the point that we may have just thrown the baby out with the dirty bath water. I also think we can say we know nothing, yet, (and maybe there's nothing TO know) about what has happened v.v that first goal. We seemed to have concentrated totally on server costs with HF20, and seemingly have done nothing substantive to make the rewards system more equitable and enticing to the newbies that are our future success or failure.

Brand new users will have enough "loaned" SP (15) under HF20 to either make a couple blog entries or replies, OR to vote a few times, and then their RC (resource credits) will be gone. They will then have to wait...what?...a week or more?... before being able to engage with the platform again. That is NOT ENOUGH maneuverability for a newbie to be inspired to even come back for that second time. Now, I understand that the goal is to encourage people to purchase SP, but most newbies have been coming from poorer areas of the world, and can not afford to do that, and people with money in more developed countries are going to be less and less likely to invest based on the outages of the past two weeks.

Can we get past all that? I don't believe so, not as things stand currently.

I believe we need to figure out a way to increase the loaned SP to newbies so that they remain hooked. ...OR...we need to reduce the RC-related cost per action. If the system can not afford one or the other of those things, than I believe the platform is in serious trouble, long-term.

I also want to comment on the rumors that one of the founders is talking about not being able to move forward with other concepts. THAT IS OKAY. We need to, IMHO, get everything we have NOW working well-- with balance for all in terms of rewards-- or those other projects (extravagances) will never even come into play.

Also, the adjustment to RC totals that each member gets (i.e. all SP reduced) while in "power down" mode is extremely problematic. Sure, we want people not to "take the money and run," but we also want PRODUCTIVE, LOYAL, AND TRULY ENGAGED USERS to be able to make decisions, and that includes the decision to get cash if they need cash. This needs to be rectified so that only the pending (next week's) power down portion is reduced from the total SP used to calculate RC power, NOT all 13 weeks, up front.

Those are just a few thoughts.

If you are a newbie reading this, you need to visit: steemd/@username in order to look carefully at all your new statistics to understand where you are at, and how much things now "cost" in terms of resource credits, etc.

I desperately want us all to succeed...from the biggest whale to the smallest minnow... but we are not going to succeed if reform stops at the current version of HF 20.