RE: Self-votes and Self-Service vs. Spreading the Love - Analyzing Vote Diversity in Steem
I'm just going to echo some of the sentiments already left here.
The education has to continue. People need to be presented with the facts about what they're doing when they use bid bots, self-upvote, delegate indiscriminately, etc. Then, they can make choices.
The question is, how to best do this. There are greeters guilds and other community initiatives for newbies, but then there also has to be a way to reach those who have been here for a while who could benefit from another perspective. The problem is the sheer magnitude of the task, and it's only going to get bigger.
I personally found the Steemit FAQ and etiquette pages very useful when I signed on here. If I remember right, it seems like I was taken there first upon signing in for the first time. I know we're not into controlling user experience from the UI side (thought there are plenty who do it from the user side), but it would be nice if people had to spend a few minutes perusing those pages before they could actually get started. Then, it wouldn't be a matter of not knowing. Not understanding might still be a problem, but then a disclaimer to ask for help from someone would be useful, too.
I've pieced together my knowledge and thus my stance on all these issues through reading other people's opinions as well as posts on how things work. I doubt very many people do that, or else there would be more people coming to the same conclusion—while beneficial to a degree in the short term, frequent and prolonged use may produce side effects. I'm pretty sure nausea is one of them. :)
I agree with your arguments. Especially about reaching out to those who are already around for a while. I think the learning curve to get started is pretty steep. Steem is so much more than a traditional social network, and I can't even blame new users for not knowing how things work. I remember that it took me days or even weeks to understand even the basics and learning about new (but meanwhile much more sophisticated) aspects of Steem never stopped.
I hold out hope (perhaps against hope) that one day, that there won't be such a steep learning curve, that it will be more intuitive, that it won't require at least a partially decentralized and probably incomplete operation's manual that you have to first know exists, then locate, then piece together, then read, and then search around or inquire to fill in the blanks. Then understand. Then start over when it changes. :)
I agree, though, STEEM is so much more than anything out there. It is at least Social Media 3.0. That said, the interfaces need to live up to its potential, or at least move into the teens of the 21st century. Cutting edge, groundbreaking, built for the future would be better, though. Then, as a blogging/social media platform, it would be truly ahead of the game.