151 Followers, 5 weeks, A few Tokens - Is SteemIt Ready For the MainStreem?
Fellow Steemians,
I have been here for about 5 weeks. My account has been growing very slowly. I am following the advice of successful Dolphins. I came here for the block chain and freedom and soon realized, since I signed in with my Facebook account it really wasn't anonymous. This has been a recent discussion, so I won't get into it other than to say, I wanted a place I could speak out on some issues with out hurting my real-life reputation, impact my business, etc.
I am posting daily, reading articles, voting (too much) and making some friends. My most successful posts have been about photography and art, and a few regarding SteemIt. I have participated in some of the negative conversations. Not from a point of view of scam, but the question can real people come here and blog and make some money? When I say real people, I mean people who don't know any of the whales, who don't have a semi-famous blog, and who aren't aspiring Authors or Programmers.
At the time of this writing I have invited two people to this site, one has a semi-famous blog, and the other my sister. Both had trouble signing up, and I haven't been able to find them much help.
My feeling is that SteemIt isn't ready for the average mainstreem (meant the misspelling) users - yet.
Why Not?
Not enough diversity in topics yet. (We are working on it) Just go look at the Trending Page if you think I am wrong.
No, support or help desk. (This is something I am willing to take on if I had some help, I currently have the time)
User platform - Ability to easily upload pictures and videos, and more formatting options for those who are not users of HTML.
Whales, Bots and Auto-Voting - Although I agree it is a free platform and thus will have bots, etc. I don't think a lot of mainstreem users will understand and appreciate how that is a part of what SteemIt will be about.
Here is how the site has worked out for me so far. I do want to acknowledge, with the help of my fellow minnows there is an upward trend on my account, and also I have made some mistakes.
Performance Indicators:
Followers - 151
Reputation - 55
Posts - 859
SP - 280.8
Account Value - $128.36 (according to my wallet)
*Favorite Whale - @Smooth
*Favorite Minnow - @runridefly
*mistakes - getting involved in some tough conversations. (I would probably do it again) Wasted money on Promotion. (shouldn't have done it)
**@smooth is my favorite whale because he/she is always out there talking with the users. He is direct and blunt, although I don't always agree with him I think he tells the truth as he sees it. He helped me to see how he views blockchain and the Steem economy. Although his view maybe clouded by his whaleness, he is honest and blunt.
*My favorite Minnow - @runridefly This minnow works hard on SteemIt, posts original drawings, is friendly, supportive and on track to become a big fish.
Follow - Or Not - It's a Free, errr - Decentralized block chain.
Once a video platform happens I think a lot of people that are about to leave youtube will show up. the youtube heros thing is going to kill youtube. hopefully the flagging system here wont kill us. xD
It will be interesting to see how that progresses. I do think youtube is in trouble.
yeah, when the new crap happened last month with taking revenue away from posts it pissed a lot of content creators off. if you tube was you main income then all of a sudden they start taking away your money because they don't like what you talk about people start looking for new sites. the only reason a lot of youtube people are still on youtube is because their is no other option that can reach so many people as of right now. giving the sjw's the ability to mass flag and even give them incentive to do it is not going to go well.
The youtube heros video they keep changing without re uploading thinking they are sneaky but they are not and it has something like a 98% thumbs down even with all the changes they are making. twitter just went up for sale a ouple days ago because of censorship and will be dead in a year or 2. youtube should be watching and trying to avoid the same thing but instead they are pushing the same idea.
If everyone came here their would still be the problem with the flagging system, so idk. fix the flagging and make a video platform and it would be competing with yutube easy if not taking it over imo.
Very good points! Interesting.
Post included in: Steemprentice Spotlight for September 26th
sweet! Again, thank you.
You're welcome :)
You have raised pertinent points. I have been around longer here and have seen the devs try to improve the platform continuously. Between the attempts at gaming and the chorus of feature requests, they have been coping up very well and have been tweaking the system. But payout distribution still has a lot to improve.
Of the 50+ members I have got onto steemit, a few are doing well but a majority have become in-active and this concerns me! I do not claim to be a writer and am happy with what I make, or have made, so far. But a friend, and a professional writer at that, whom I had introduced here has been inactive in the last 2 weeks.
Maybe we raise expectations about steemit too much, or maybe the system of payouts is to be tweaked further, but whatever it is it will have to be solved if we are concerned about retention of users.
Also, I agree that the diversity in topics is not what I would like to see. Right from the beginning everybody has been talking of the quality of content and the diversity, but we seem to be stuck as the circlejerks are still around! Some radical ideas are needed if we are to improve on this and hold onto real users, unlike the profusion of bots we seem to have.
Yes, I think managing the expectations is a huge part of the issue, but the whole circle jerk element is part of what is making people sour.
I get it, it doesn't bother me that much.. But I also am gambling on hoping Steem becomes valuable at some point in the future.