RE: We are investors, not customers, act like you own it because you do.
Wow, very nice post! I think that your ideas are very valuable and awakening. I knew how it worked but I hadn't rationalised the meaning of owning a tiny portion of the Steem blockchain. Are our shares becoming smaller by the day whenever the reward pool pours some new Steem?
I don't know where Steemit stands. I suppose that since they are the greatest holders of Steem, they profit from broadening the horizons for the blockchain and the social network in itself is secondary. But at the same time, Steemit's face is their website, so if they don't improve it, they are losing out on potential Steem investors who would increase the value of the shares they hold and who would become users of their website.
I've seen some UI improvement suggestions. Many, actually, but they get buried no matter how many people comment on them and resteem the posts. There are many other alternatives to Steemit, such as Busy.org, but the blockchain itself needs to change in order for the UIs to follow.
As a developer myself, I believe that it would be really hard to create many of the functions that are proposed without according changes to the blockchain. Trending, New and Hot are hardcoded into it. This promotes a specific way and every UI that I know grabs from these easily accessible points and doesn't improve on it for multitag, etc.
In fact, the blockchain doesn't have any ability to order posts by number of comments, number of votes, etc., and there is no way to whitelist low rep users, blacklist/block spammers, etc. (not globally at least).
I think that the improvement has to be made on the blockchain first, is what I'm saying. Otherwise the changes are going to be inconsistent across platforms and they will be much harder to accomplish for each developer who wants to integrate unsupported functionalities.
are our shares getting smaller
All SteemPower holders receive a constant tiny supply of inflation-fighting stake. In addition, the price lets us know. If more people want to sell than buy, the price erodes. So, its a difficult question. In a sense, yes.
Those who power up and hold Steem keep the price up. Those who sell, drive the price down. We also need volume and utility, so it is fine that some do sell.
Steemit's face is their website, so if they don't improve it, they are losing out on potential Steem investors who would increase the value of the shares
This is a guess, but I think they would be more worried about getting business investors than end-user of the site. That is why we have to act like a team and help hold the community together.
_, I believe that it would be really hard to create many of the functions that are proposed without according changes to the blockchain. _
I don't know enough to hold any opinion on this! Interesting perspective.
_ fact, the blockchain doesn't have any ability to order posts by number of comments, number of votes, etc., and there is no way to whitelist low rep users, blacklist/block spammers, etc. (not globally at least)._
I don't know for sure, but I think what they plan on for communities may address some of this. Again, not anything I understand well. :)
It is an interesting thing that we have a chance to participate in becoming stakeholders BEFORE the businesses even come. I think many here are so focused on the blogging site they are missing what is coming.
Lol, in fact I didn't remember that there was a communities thing coming! I'm excited for it, just remembered. :P
I want to develop with Hiveminds if it's what I think it is. It looks very promising. I wonder if the problems with the UI will be easily solvable after these changes come. <3