Insights of Steemit Members Who Left
I really like the potential of Steemit. That is why I contribute so many blogs and do my best at providing worthwhile comments. I even have recruited several of my friends to the platform. Some have stayed, posted a few times and make comments. Others never really saw the “diamond in the rough” that we all see. I have explained it is still beta and many positive changes are happening. Even with this enthusiasm, many have left.
Here are the top reasons, as best as I can understand them:
1. Poor organization of content
Steemit is about content. All other professional sites have search tools, home pages, and means to align interesting content to the induvial user’s tastes. Steemit on the other hand is more of a mud flow. Steady, moving, and you never know what you will see at any given moment. It can be very frustrating to not be able to easily locate content aligned to their interests. So it is frustrating.
2. No value to their curation
A major part of the initial lure was the fact people rank the content. People’s opinion matter. In fact, the claim is that by upvoting and curating, users can get a little payment. Payment is tangible, no matter how small, that proves their opinions matter. It can be quantified. But what they found is that for all new members, who don’t invest, they start out with such little Steem Power that their opinions don’t actually matter. Regardless if they are the first upvote before a pod of whales or if they are just part of a few minnows who indicate they find a post valuable, the new member gets nothing. Whales gain so much of the rewards, nothing is left for the minnows and the minnows by themselves do have enough power to make posts valuable. So in the end, they found the “pay to curate” claim misleading.
3. Not easy to upload content.
This is tough. Many people are not bloggers or natural writers. They haven’t found their own social voice yet, and may never will. But everyday-people do contribute content to social sites. They give a quick update in their profile, post a picture or meme they have seen, or maybe a quick link to a story they read. For the content on topics they follow, they make a quick comment or resend it to their followers/community. Steemit is different. It requires original content that is more than a picture, meme, or link to be noticed. That is beyond many. Even positing reply’s, which are easy enough, if you can readily find content which you are interested in. Which they don’t have the patience for. Compounding the problem is users don’t have profiles or an easy way to build followers in a meaningful way. So putting their original thoughts, ideas, pictures, etc. seems daunting. For them, it simply is not easy to participate.
I don’t fault them for leaving.
From their perspective, Steemit was frustrating, misleading, and difficult for them to participate in ways they are accustomed to. I hope they will return some day, but first impressions carry a lot of weight with people. I think if we want more people to join and remain as valuable consumers and creators of Steemit content, we need to adapt.
I have some ideas, which I posted last week for consideration, that might address these issues: Steemit Proposal for Developer and Community Evaluation
https://steemit.com/steemit/@mrosenquist/steemit-proposal-for-developer-and-community-evaluation
I leave steemit every day for around 23 hours sometimes more, but i always come back. As a professional leaver I suspect that those who announce their leaving just want attention (since leaving steemit is logically impossible) (also they are plebs) unless they are a dev.
I am a pro at leaving as well. Today I made a huge comeback on Steemit though. This comment is a testament to my resilience. May your next leave not be your last!
lol
Funny! Glad you always come back.
As these are my friends I watch for their activity. They don't announce they have left, sadly they just don't participate anymore.
people get frustrated because they see how worthless and stupid posts are gaining a huge pile of money. A truly creative posts remain unnoticed.
The problem is some incorrect assessment posts. The rich and famous are getting richer, while the poor and popular unnoticed and beggars.
We need to change the system of estimates.
i have to say that i begin to worry too !! There does seem to be an in crowd here that are networking with great success and i don,t mean necessarily the whales. I see many great posts which I do upvote but they never seem to get the traction they need to be noticed. I really dont like making this comment as i do wish for this great system to succeed, but there are strange things going on, but then i guess that is the human factor, sadly.
It may take time for the community and tool to find a good equilibrium. Steemit is still very new and with a growth of users, it is bound to make balancing difficult.
I think number 2 is the biggest problem, but I also think another reward-related problem is also a big driver:
In my opinion, the posting rewards aren't configured optimally either... My suggestion would be to to adjust the way rewards works so that they are slightly more evenly spread...
Clearly, we will still need the big value posts which are such an eye-grabber and do attract people to the site, but spending time on and publishing quality content which gets a significant amount of upvotes, but only earns 2 cents (because only minnows upvoted it) is, I believe, putting people off returning to post more content at the moment.
One way to do this would be I suggest that there be a minimum reward guarantee... if your post gets 30 upvotes, you'd get a minimum 50 cents. 50 votes and you get a dollar.
Obviously that's just a suggestion, and I'm sure others will have their own ideas about the level of minimum reward which makes sense. There are probably significant flaws in my idea (one obvious one is that it might be too easy to game the system with Bots), but something clearly needs to change
I too think there needs to be a balancing tweak. I am okay with the ratio of power remaining the same, i.e. Steem Power, but I think each upvote should count for something. As it stands, new minnows have zero influence.
I personally see complexity of the STEEM-to-USD conversion as one of the biggest obstacles for newcomers. All those transfers, exchanges notorious for insecurity, KYC verification, UGH! Enough to scare most people with no prior crypto experience.
This is hopefully going to change with the launch of Marketplace and other tools making STEEM immediately useful
Good point. With 3 different currencies (Steem, Steem Power, and Steem Dollars) it can be more confusing to users than most. Simplified tools could ease this burden.
I don't see number 1 as a problem and it's part of the Steemit experience if you will. It's also a way to be exposed to different things and ideas and not only what you like and follow. The rest is completely spot on especially the curation rewards, which in my opinion is a complete corrupted system.
I suppose it is a difference in expectations. I don't open my junk mail, I choose to filter (electronic email) or throw it out (physical mail). If however, my mailbox was 95% filled with junk, then I would have an issue with it. Even something as simple as a language filter. Why can't the posts written in a language you don't understand be filtered? Unless you have all day to look at the feed, you will likely miss a lot of content you are interested in. So that becomes a huge problem. The content you want is obscured by the vast amount you don't.
Yes I agree it shouldn't really need to be so all over the place. I'm not sure if they are thinking about implementing communities or sub sections in the near future though.
That would be awesome. Anything to help organize the flood of content would be appreciated. Might resolve some anxiety and the feelings of being overwhelmed! (especially as more people joining and adding content will make it an absolute mad house)
Well put. I agree in all three points.
Thanks fydel. The question is, what will or should be done? Any thoughts?