BLOCKCHAIN VS. BLOGCHAIN - Who are you, steemit?
This post is inspired by other steemit users and recent conversations with them, especially @beanz (great comment on Dan´s latest post about Steem Sports!). Thank you for that!
Please excuse eventual grammatical errors, I am not a native speaker.
Who are you and who would you like to be?
The very first step when creating a new brand is defining its 'personality' by corresponding brand values. An important step is not only defining the already existing values but also the future values (to be developed).
We all do know this question from job interviews: where do you see yourself in 5 years?
The only way to be able to reply to that question is having any idea where you will end up.
Does steemit wanna be a blog based on blockchain or a blockchain based on bloggers?
One thing we need to know is that the desired masses won´t join a platform which they cannot understand. I studied Computer Science in Media but even for me it´s hard to follow the concept sometimes. Furthermore, from my (very subjective) point of view the ones who don´t have any idea from Computer Science are 'treated' accordingly. Newbies sometimes must feel like a small fish in a pool full of sharks. Introduction posts are heavily voted, celebrating a warm welcome but then 'good luck'. One very helpful item easy to implement could be e.g. a FAQ for new users.
Wasn´t this meant to be a CONTENT PLATFORM using blockchain technology where people are rewarded with crypto currency?
Most of the big projects running right now are focussed on curation and vote allocation. But what if there was no quality content where you could allocate these perfectly trailed vote-accumulations? What if user stop producing content because they just don´t know why they should publish it on steemit and not on another platform? Does a new user (without any higher level IT background) even understand how all these complex voting systems work? Who the hell is a bot? According to the questions in the chat a lot of users would be almost happy if they understood how to manually vote on an article (being far away from using bots or any other tools to improve their return).
The 1 million dollar questions is: Who are you, steemit?
Are you an open-minded community celebrating steemfest, being the very first social media network able to do a transfer from virtuality to reality? Are you a bloggers´ paradise where finally all these writing talents get rewarded for their valuable content? Are you a revolutionary anarchistic system trying to be an alternative solution to the already existing financial system? Are you a crypty currency experts island? Who are you, steemit?
It seems like every Steemian has his/her own definition of what steemit is.
In a certain way this is brilliant, because it totally reflects the 'freedom of speech' (opinion) a de-centralized system should have. This is working for the already existing users - these more or less 3,000 active users who are still here.
But when it comes to acquire new users and particularly keep them, you need a face!
There was a nice challenge in the Christmas calendar on the 1st of December (an excellent sweet little project, thanks for that @good-karma): "How would you describe Steem(it) to your friends with just one sentence?"
Most of the answers pointed out the blogging experience, community and reward on content. The social aspects in combination with reward were clearly outstanding. There were only a few comments, so it´s not really representative, but I guess that in a big survey the results would be the same.
Management rule no. 1: all or nothing
Whatever the image of steemit is and in which direction the platform is meant to proceed, it has to be clearly defined. All or nothing!
You cannot be a World champion in tennis and soccer at the same time.
You cannot care about your weaknesses when you wanna be strong. You cannot be a mass medium and a blockchain experts forum at the same time.
I would be happy to get your comments on that.
Cheers,
Marly -
Picture source Sherlock: http://ci.memecdn.com
Picture source quote: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com
Picture source Wanted: https://i2.wp.com/oakdome.com/
Resteemed and Upvoted. Excellent post! Thanks!
0.01 Steem was sent to you.
Oh wow, thank you!!! That´s too kind. I feel very honored!
How many of the people who post on Facebook understand Paxos or Raft, the distributed consensus algorithms that power their distributed databases?
I don't agree with this claim.
I think we can be a lot of different things to a lot of different people, just as social media sites are today.
Thanks for your comment, @sneak! It´s much appreciated!
Maybe I was misunderstood. I meant that the platform should be 'understandable' in a sense of usability. Obviously, a front end user doesn´t have to know anything about the back end.
I also agree on your second statement. We can become a lot of things. But from a marketing point of view we can have only one message / face. I just explained that in a new article, published a few minutes ago if you are interested in reading it.
Steem on!
Well put. Good stuff.
Thanks for your nice comment @franks!
The world needs a decentralized form of expression in this current culture of Facebook/Twitter identification. IP addresses are being put on lists. People are put on lists just for searching something. This is headed towards 1984 territory and we are only a step or two away from free expression of thought and complete surveillance by "Big Brother." The world needs STEEMIT more than ever and we are the ones pushing it so let us be the whales we damnsure deserve it after typing that God damn encryption key two or three times hahaha
Amen!
Yesss, great argument.
Upvoted and followed. Will digest, reread and perhaps comment later.
Cool, that´s much appreciated :)
Upvoted and followed
Thank you, I am happy to hear that!
This is such a good post! Loved it
Oh gracias my friend!!! :)
The lack of definition is a strength, and intentional. @ned and @dantheman intended that we users would shape it. Busy.org is an example of users making a new viewer with added features. PeVO also. There will be more. Discussions about Steem's development path and crypto in general makes perfect sense in here, and is valued highly by users. I think all that is required is new viewers that help users drill down better and narrow the focus.
Thank you very much for your comment 10k1!!
I don´t think that the lack of a path is a strength in the long term. But I totally agree on the fact that we are called on to help in shaping it. Thing is that there won´t be any considerable investments without a clearly defined profile. So as long as we don´t know who we are, we won´t be able to sell it to others. Will be quite exciting to 'narrow the focus' as you called it in any case!
Thanks for your reblog @steemitfaucet @ramblinmind, that's much appreciated!
So here is part 2 of the story :-)
https://steemit.com/steemit/@surfermarly/if-steemit-was-a-softdrink-a-marketing-approach-and-proposal-for-user-acquisition