Time To Make STEEM A Huge Success By Dropping The Focus On "Quality"
"Do you want massive STEEM success or do you want quality?"
"I want both of course."
Sorry. You cannot have both. It is a statistical impossibility. If you want massive STEEM success, then it is time to stop espousing the idea that STEEM is a place ONLY for "quality" posts.
Essentially, this is a cancer that is running through STEEM that needs to be cut out.
To start, STEEM Is NOT a blogging platform. While it started out that way, things evolve and change. Most of the successful DApps on here will have nothing to do with blogging. While that might upset a few people, that is wonderful news. Blogging is a minor part of the whole. It is not the market to solicit.
Wordpress is by far the largest website/blogging platform out there. The last stats I saw was there are roughly 75M sites. That is a lot of people. Of course, not all of those sites are "quality". Some post very good stuff while others absolute garbage. But they all post stuff.
Most of us would not put posting links as "quality". However, the link posting site, Reddit, has 250M monthly active users with over 500M accounts. That means 250M people are posting, commenting, and upvoting on a monthly basis. This ignores how many people use the site just to read and find content.
So which is more valuable? 75M people or 250M people?
Do you want STEEM at $100? $500? Even $1000?
Then you are not getting it focusing upon "quality".
YouTube has over 1B users. How much of the stuff on there is "quality"? Sure there are plenty of videos that are well done by serious Vloggers. Yet there are also a ton of things that are complete lunacy. How many cat videos exist on YouTube?
Back in 2014, there were over 2M cat videos on YouTube which were viewed 25B times.
http://tubularinsights.com/2-million-cat-videos-youtube/
Can you imagine if the STEEM blockchain had 2M cat videos on it? Not if you are focused upon "quality". Most of those cat posts won't pass the "quality" test.
Of course, I would love 2M cat videos on STEEM getting 25B views...the bandwidth for that alone would make STEEM worth $50.
Do you know what else does not pass the "quality" test? Selfies. Did you ever ponder how many of them are taken?
According to this Google, 24B were uploaded in 2015 on Google servers alone. How many do you guess were uploaded on Facebook during that same time period?
The "quality" mantra is arrogant and exclusive. We have a problem with people going inactive. While I attribute most of it to the deathly slow sign up/approval process, part of it could be because people come on here and they are pounded with the idea of "quality". Either it is post "quality" content or "my content is quality" and nobody is upvoting it. Both these ideas will de-motivate the average user.
Here is the deal: The masses do not post "quality" so it is inane to even focus upon that if we want STEEM to appeal to them.
Do you know what people post? They post what INTERESTS them. That is the difference.
For some, their interest lies in cat videos; others selfies. Some want to post goofy conversations with their friends. Still others want to film a butt at the gym and post it. Whatever interests people, that is what they post. They could care less about quality.
This is the Internet after all. It is a total cross section of people around the world.
Does this mean serious bloggers/vloggers should drop their standards? Of course not. Nor does it mean that people who are looking for serious content on particular subject should abandon those who are posting content that meets their standards.
What it does mean is that people are free to post what they want and they are under no obligation to adhere to the standards of anyone else. In fact, while I maintain a quality about the posts I put up, I detest the idea of anyone on here trying to determine what is quality or not. The reason I do this is because I am into inclusion, not exclusion. People who espouse the idea of "quality" are simply exclusive. It is impossible to be any other way.
Some will say we have the ability to determine quality with the individual upvote. That is partially true. One can determine that. However, one does not have to use that standard. People often upvote something simply because they like it. That are many reasons to like a comment or post, most of which have nothing to do with the idea of quality.
My main goal is to make STEEM as successful as possible. For that reason, I would love to see 500M or 1B people on this blockchain. This will not happen if everyone is focusing upon making sure only "quality" content is published. I see many who call posts on here crap. Please tell me the names of the Steemians who are on the crap committee and make such decisions.
STEEM is changing and the ones who want this to be a blogging platform are going to be disappointed. We are seeing a host of DApps that extend well beyond the scope of that. In fact, the posting is only for verification. And wait until an app like APPICS comes fully online. Then you will really see the "quality" idea wounded. It will be selfie galore.
By the way, Instagram has 95M pics and videos uploaded PER DAY. Do you think all of them meet the quality test?
Does this one?
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/04/20/instagram-statistics
If APPICS can do 1% of of what Instagram does, we will have a $10 token on our hands.
Yesterday I posted about doing another Minnow Uprising. Some take exception to my suggestion that people post 3-4 times a day because of the "quality" of content being so bad. Personally, I disagree with this viewpoint since I do not believe that smaller accounts (or any for that matter) should be held to some type of journalistic standard of what is good enough to post. People should be encouraged to post whatever they want.
So I ask again, do you want STEEM to be a raging success appealing to the masses and getting hundreds of millions of users on here? If the answer is yes, it is impossible to do that while holding onto the "quality" idea like a life jacket.
Here is what could happen if we continue down that path.
From 40K authors down to 15K. Certainly there were other factors that caused the decline but the point is when you take an excluding stance, people are driven away.
It isn't surprising to see the posting and commenting following the same path.
https://steemit.com/statistics/@arcange/steemit-statistics-20180908-en
The days of talking about STEEM like it is a blogging platform are over. STEEM is now a full-blown social media center that is creating applications that will appeal to the masses. With the masses comes all the quirky likes and dislikes. We are going to see just about everything posted on this blockchain if all goes well.
When this happens, I will be the first one applauding this. My goal is for STEEM to be as successful as possible. As the numbers in this article show, the blogging world is minor compared to the rest of the social media space. STEEM needed to decide what the target market is and the developers of the applications concluded it was not in blogging. Mass appeal is what STEEM needs.
And every account that has SP in it will be very happy with that decision. All those users are going to require bandwidth and that is still bought with STEEM.
If you found this article informative, please give it an upvote and resteem.
Images from the articles linked just below them.
Exactly!
That's why @surpassinggoogle's @ulogs initiative is so important!
totally agree, with ulog you just need to be you,
with ulog plagiarism and spam are discouraged
In return, encourages to contribute to the web
ulog includes all talent levels
with #ulog you will always have a subject to post
ulog is for everyone.
This comment was made from https://ulogs.org
I think there are two separate conversations here, the ideals and realities.
In terms of ideals, we can debate what is best for the platform in terms of which kinds of content creators should do best here and want to stay. In that regard my vote is for multiple platforms, including one for the more Medium-like posts I enjoy reading. Right now that’s only the “ everything” steemit app, which needs to change.
But then there is also the convo about what actually is doing best on the blockchain, and that is people who have either been here long enough to have lots of steem or friends with lots of steem, or have enough money to pay hundreds to bidbots and self-vote their way to the Trending page. My take on that is to do away with the trending page and have the ui not only separate video, long form writing, photos, etc but also order it by something like ua score of the poster then recency.
That way even before you’ve built a follow list you personally enjoy, you can focus in on the kind of content you enjoy AND have it be by posters most interactive on the platform.
It costs millions to billions of dollars to run social networks, like Facebook, and THE LESS you allow, encourage, reward, Steem investors, shareholders, builders, helpers, sponsors, AKA witnesses, users, then THE MORE it hurts the growth, strength, of the infrastructure of Steem. Facebook has bid bots, too, AKA ads. Many websites have ads. They are also paid for by trillionaires, and not just by billionaires. I love trending. I love the bots.
I love the Steem blockchain, as a foundation, a root. On top of that platform is Steemit.com, Busy.org, Dtube, Dlive, Steepshot, and other apps. So, I like your ideas for Steem, like a video filter and others. So, maybe there will be more apps coming out that can do those things for us. We the people can continue to demand what kind of apps we want built on top of the Steem foundation.
Totally agree. I also think that we should not mass up ALL the content in one messy feed. It's just too much variation: articles, videos, selfies, memes, discussions, blogs you name it. Its better for various dApps to concentrate on various content,and STEEM as a back end be invisivble, connected underlying database of all this dApps specialized feeds.
STEEM will be great when averege user will not even know he using STEEM. He uses dTube or Actifit or whathever
Steem Cars?
Yeah, that is the I'm Spartacus Steem Secret (SSS), like different car companies all using the same Steem wheels. Busy, Steemit, Dlive, Dtube, Ulogs, Steepshot, and other apps, are built on the Steem blockchain, and Steem is like the foundation, the wheels, the structure, like a main frame for a computer, like an empty fridge...
Different flavors of ice-cream...
And we can go out spreading different versions, flavors, of Steem, similar to how there are different flavors of that Linux operating system (OS), that is Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, etc, and they are all basically Ubuntu but just a little different and that is good.
What are you babbling about? Quality posts haven’t been the focus for at least a year, almost two.
The only focus is who you know. That’s it. No one even reads the posts.
While your posts suck, this comment does not. You're so right.
You dont like his posts, but i do.
That is the whole point.
Also, there is always the flags...
Wasn't expecting to explain the irony of my comment, but the pun was intended.
Damn, i suck at detecting written sarcasm...
No worries, we all suck!
I disagree.
As mankind, we are on a journey to discover who we are. Social Media are just like a psychadelic drug that opens the minds of us childs to the vastness of a universe. A universe, we will never fully understand.
Some people under the influence of steemit, like you @schattenjaeger, will focus on networks and conections as the common thread, others actually look for ideas, like @steemonsters e.g., which I find fascinating.
As a recent joiner, I will likely never meet the most of you in person. But I wonder what's going on in your worlds and most networks like twitter+FB don't allow peaking through the own filter bubble.
I agree, with @taksmaster4450 that it is becoming less attractive to post stuff, but I think it`s because the competition is getting harder. I disagree with @taksmaster4450 in that people aren't allowed to post what they want. They actually post a heap of crap (which btw Mark Zuckerberg's filtering out for us automatically... most of the time...)
Anyhow, I will soon start posting some quality content for you to see what I love about my funny little universe that might enrich your lifes. I am anxiously preparing for weeks now, because the air atop the trending list gets thiner and thiner... cross fingers!
I can see your Facebook posts if your posts are marked public for the whole world. I've always made posts public online. That is kind of the point for me. I want people to see it. But yeah, Twitter can be more public than Twitter and YouTube even more. Beyond that, Steem is even more public than all of them. I love how Steem competes with Minds, Gab, Bitchute, http://1776Free.com is new, Real Video, etc. I prefer Dlive over Dtube.
I read posts. I certainly as hell don't typically listen to things. I read faster than people can talk.
Readers are leaders. Better to read faster than to be left behind. Revenge of the nerds time.
I wouldn't say I'm nerdy, just deaf so reading is kinda my shtick xD
What is the difference between a nerd and a geek? I might be more of a geek maybe.
Depends on the time of the terminology. Geek is more someone that consumes media like Star Wars, Star Trek, anime, etc while a nerd is generally someone who is very technologically savvy.
20 years ago a geek is someone that eats live small animals.
Yeah, terms do change. I'm all about Star Wars, Trek, and everything.
Now that's geeky.
Steemit is a social news community and not just like any other social media platform.
Please follow and read articles posted in @steemitblog to know more developments to the platform. It's good to have these apps built on steem but there should be guidelines in using these apps. @steemitblog is raising awareness to this matter and how the public can identify contents made in Steemit and contents made from DApps.
Steemit was envisioned to be a platform for authors. If the above mentioned will come to happen, we're only bringing in many users and not much published quality content for a social news community like Steemit.
While we can bring in many users for DApps, which more likely works like a social media app, contents posted on these apps should be identifiable from contents made in Steemit.
In that sense, steem may be great in value and Steemit won't be referred as broken.
Yeah, Steem is many things, and that is why I love #InformationWar
That's a little unfair.
1% read something of what other people write.
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Wow and one percent of 7 billion people could be a lot, generally.
Blimey... now that's optimism!
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I am not sure what floats this boat for any of you but I personally like the community aspect I am finding here in only a months time that took a year on Twitter and Facebook was already built into it. As soon as I joined I had 200+ friends because they were ahead of me. And that was almost 20 Years ago. I haven't been down voted.... Yet. I see I have a few following me that are following 10,000 people. And there number rank is 3. What is that about?
Oh well I'm going to shut up and read some more.
I grew up in a church service. Literally. And the best sermons were the short ones. But just today I downloaded a sermon from 1750. I love history!
Most people won't read this either. But I get points on partiko that I can redeem for upvotes.😎
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You downloaded the text from a 1750 sermon or like an audio reproduction of it? I love history and yeah, some try to follow a lot of people. I am following over 10K on Gab and like 30K on Minds but only like 7 or more on Steem. Yeah, some have a smaller reputation, like Bernie Sanders had a negative -13 score or something and some like 3 or 7 or something. I love the community aspect too. I'm oatmeal.
I will have to get the story to you and the link. It's got a lot of history .. I think you will like it. Oatmeal?!
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Yeah, people call me oatmeal because I love to eat oatmeal and you are what you eat and I'm Joey or Oatmeal and history can repeat itself and it is good to know it to know what we should and should not do, what works and what does not work and everything in between.
I like the posts myself. But it's the comments that I love. Loved you in Terminator btw.
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I like the posts I find at #InformationWar
Upvoted. Resteemed. Unread.
I fully get what you are saying and 99% agree with you. There are many many people here on steemit that do not produce awesome content but work their asses off with engagement or volunteering time on discord. And these people are not getting the so called supports because their content does not rock. I think this is wrong. We need people that are active engagers and community workers doing what they do for content, awesome or not, to succeed. Its my opinion that the people that work their asses of engaging are part of the backbone of steem. Inclusion over quality is very often necessary.
If you get it maybe you can explain it to me because there is nothing actionable in the post as far as I can tell.
You imply though that it is to vote for posts which would not be deemed "quality", in favor of "inclusion". Is this a call to get people thinking about their voting strategy? Maybe it's directed particularly to whales? It can't be for content creation.
It's about the culture of the site as a whole.
There is some big users claiming for "quality" of the publish content, and complain/flag when people post things like memes, and about what they ate at lunch.
(Dont get me wrong, flags are needed, but that is another story)
So if you could make proscriptive recommendations what would they be?
the thing with the block is that everyone has and is entitled to their own opinion on how it should work, what they would like to see happen and even have ideas on how it should happen. So the way I 'get it' could be the complete opposite to what you get.
There is only a small portion of the global population that produces awesome blogging content. we you want restrictions on the quality then you gotta take a hit with the qty, thats the message I took from the post.
My person feelings are that steem is only a baby, its needs time to grow, and it can not grow if there is no one to engage with content. Right now there is feck all inventive to engage. So its one thing supporting the authors, but if the full circle is not supported then the circle will break and well that does not hold up well for the long term future of steem.
we all bring different qualities and talents to the platform, why restrict benefits to just awesome content creators and developers?
Right now, steem is in a rather good place. Prices and activity is low, its easier to find those that are committed to the long term success of steem and find those committed to ensuring authors have an engaged audience. Now is the time to be building a core of dolphins so when the next wave comes, via apps or even just a rise in crypto, we as a collective steem community will be better able to manage the influx.
Thanks kinda how I see it. how do you see it?
I think I got the same message but it's just that it appears to me to be complaining. I'm not sure what is being called for to happen. This is a bit of a subtle perspective so it's best summed up by asking, what action do you feel inspired (or even instructed) to take having read this post?
Maybe I'm being too much of an engineer, but I keep seeing these dangling phrases everywhere and no one is seeming to take notice. For instance you say
Can I ask, who is restricting benefits? Are you talking about the free choice that stakeholders make when they decide who to reward by voting on posts? If so are you saying to those stakeholders that they should reconsider their voting habits?
Do you see what I'm getting at here? Each of these kinds of statements implies at the very least an encouragement to do something, or more likely a wish or even order to do something. I'm trying to make that clear as no one else seems to be.
You're right, there is a huge diversity of opinion, far more than any other platform I've been involved with and it's something I love. I respect your work and I say all this (as always - really always) in the spirit of free thought and debate.
I guess I am talking about the free choice that stakeholders make when they decide who to reward by voting on posts and yes I do think stakeholders should reconsider their voting habbits.
I also think steemit inc has a part to play by delegating to apps and not 'enabling' others that are focused on keeping the block active with the same power.
The thing is, as your rightly put it, its all free choice. However decisions can be influenced by offering alternatives, of which there we none really put in this post.
Inclusion for the win!
Did taskmaster ever respond to comments? I'm sure he used to and now he's stopped.
Given the content of this post and the bot use, I guess you can at least say he's consistent!
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Yeah, it is good to engage, and it does pay off in the long-run in more ways than we may see right away.
You make this and a few other assumptions about users/visitors and prices. I’m wondering how you arrive at these numbers, without it being based on something completely unscientific, such as “Facebook is worth X,” or “If we had as many accounts as Reddit...”
It appears that your criteria for “success” is the price of the STEEM token. So how do you think we can achieve higher prices by simply acquiring more users who can then earn and sell the blockchain’s tokens? There is no revenue and distribution model to monetize all of the added eyeballs on the interfaces, so using traditional social media valuations for the Steem blockchain doesn’t exactly work.
Is it? I mean, it could be helpful if you think more users = higher STEEM prices. But adding tens of millions of active users could lead to bloat and stress on the network which then leads to decreased performance...and user frustration.
In this article, you didn’t mention the unique aspect of Steem where resources are limited and coded into the blockchain (and about to change with HF20) and where there is a shared pool of rewards that only have any monetary value because of speculative investment. The entire “quality” argument is premised on what “we” want, but the price assumptions seem to disregard what speculators/investors may actually care about.
One last thing I’d like to add is - I think too many of us get the “quality” assumptions wrong. Contributing “quality” content isn’t about our subjective opinions on particular content that we like. Quality has more to do with whether or not the content offered is new/original or copied (or plagiarized) and whether or not the content offered is of a popular subject (having the ability to “go viral”) or highly-sought information.
Anyone can post whatever they want, so long as they have the necessary minimum resources allocated by protocol to do so. But that doesn’t mean that their contributions of content ought to be rewarded and nobody should be expecting rewards.
The biggest problem we have with user retention is a wild expectation of becoming rich, then massive disappointment when that doesn’t happen for most users (which is no different than other social media). These expectations need to be better managed and we should do a better job of explaining all of this to new users. But the thing is...our interfaces really don’t have much to offer users other than the hope of making some money, which is why user activity appears to be tied to STEEM prices.
Long story short...we need a better culture and something actually appealing to offer to social media users. Without the latter, we can’t even get to the former...and without the former, the latter isn’t very appealing. If we fail at both, then worrying about the masses and what kind of content they want to share is moot. They won’t care about the Steem blockchain - but it can be argued that a successful (a term you used in this post) platform wouldn’t even need them to.
That really should be the goal for any social platform: whether it has mass appeal without the allure of getting paid to use it.
YOU ARE RIGHT..!!!!
Great insight! To bad these charts above don't show the total page-views trends (up or down)...
When I tell people about Steemit, the thing I say that’s the beauty of this site is that it’s pretty well anything goes, and you can post whatever you want. You don’t have to worry about getting canned off the site the way you are over YouTube, Twitter, or many other social media sites for having the wrong opinion these days. That’s the beauty of Steemit to me!
I agree no censorship.
absolutely NO CENSORSHIP !
Agreed, Steem is more like the Wild Wild West.