Steemit: How to compete with YouTube long-term
I am relatively new to Steemit and am fully aware that this platform is still in its infancy. I want to discuss what I've noticed thus far. I'm going to be critical of a few things because I want this platform to succeed and ultimately dethrone YouTube! I know some of what I'm about to address is already in the works in some way but here it comes:
- Content Discovery
We must make it easier to discover the content we like. Searching for content, tags, and keywords must be greatly enhanced and the ways we can sort and filter those results must be greatly enhanced as well. No matter how old, obscure, or under-viewed a post...it must be easy to find and view. Too many good posts disappear into the abyss.
Why care about posts that have received their payouts/rewards and are months/years old? That brings me to the next point...
- Rewards Must Continue
I see this is essential to the success of Steemit. Like with YouTube, posts MUST BE REWARDED IN PERPETUITY. So yes, we must be able to discover old posts and upvoting them must yield some type of reward. If the reward is not SBD or Steem power we must come up with something else. Perhaps a users total number of upvotes can be tracked and used in some way to promote that user's content? You get the idea. Continued monetary rewards would be ideal but if that doesn't work the post-payout rewards must lead to more monetary rewards for that user in the future.
In summary:
Creators need to know that good content will be discovered and viewed forever. They also need to know that good content will be rewarded forever. This will lead to better and more meaningful content, more enthusiasm, and more growth and awareness. Do you agree? Let me know!
--Big Lou
Follow me on Twitch and catch my next stream:
1, Absolutely. This is the biggest weakness of steemit.com in my eyes right now. As the Blockchain is immutable and uncensorable, it is the perfect place for content also of timeless value, so having ways to dig up great pieces would be great. Now, with the way data is stored on the blockchain, this is already made possible, it is just about making a front end that makes it easier.
This is expected to be improved with the upcoming Communities addition to the platform which is greatly anticipated.
2, Not sure. The STEEM and SBDs posters earn are obtained from the inflation of the STEEM token and stakeholders have 7 days to decide what new contributions they see as valuable to the blockchain. I think this model is universally applicable to many thinkable new applications that could run on STEEM. To change it, one would have to propose a fork where a certain percentage of the new tokens generated are distributed also to old content. But based on what?
I think the solution is that people will have to add their own advertisements, links to their own webshops (or to sites that will give them something in return for making referrals), etc. Steemit.com could, of course, give users the option of including ads on their posts where they get a percentage in return, also over time.
My point is that I don't see a solution for this on the blockchain level. It would have to be the App providers like steemit, dtube, etc, who provide it similar to the way that YouTube, Twitch and others do it already.
But yes, I agree that for great creators to thrive on the platform, solutions for this will be needed. I know suggestions like this have been made in the past, and the people making them are working on it. To my knowledge, they are hoping that changes will be made so that alterations can be made to posts to include ads after the 7 days have passed. Thus, steemit can continue to provide an ad-free user experience for people browsing current content, whilst people coming across an article or post at a later stage will have ads on the page.
Absolutely, especially when you first come to Steemit. I found it super hard to LOOK FOR content as opposed to stumbling upon In.
Also, do we think that the monetary award will stop eventually? Or is that just speculation?
Busy.org (another interface to browse STEEM blockchain, like Steemit) has some discovery potential to it. For example, there's always a 'Recommended Posts' tab on the right side of every post, usually from the same user but sometimes from other users as well. And next to your browsing fees there is a 'Interesting People' which gives a suggestions of users that might interest you.
Of course more could be done but even those small things (among some other features) have steered me towards using Busy.org mainly over Steemit.
Thanks for the tip! I have used Busy.org a few times but not enough to really have noticed it’s perks...
I’ll have to give it another chance...
Thanks @celestal!
I totally agree with the points you make, very good ideas and forward thinking too. I can't wait to see steemit's development over time, so much potential :)
Yes, onwards and upwards
actually, this is exactly why I had created my "Vote Past Payout" script:
Link: Ultimate STEEMIT: Minnow Post Vote Slider and Past Payout Monetizer Script... and next, here comes SteemTUBE!!! 😲
Link (scripts update): STEEMIT Scripts available to "Hide/Show ReSTEEMS", enable your "Post Vote Slider", and to "Vote Past Payout"!
Totally agree. I think the platforms that succeed in the long term (whether that's Steemit, DTube, or something else) will do so off their ability to effectively scrape and curate all the data and posts on the blockchain. But the firehose approach will suffer the same fate steemit does now, which is to encourage bots and abuse. For me, though this is likely an unpopular opinion, having algorithms that better inform human curation (a mix of both really) is the only way to sort the content for effective long-term viability. So we'll see if some other UI on top of Steem is able to bring a new approach to this market.
Agreed. We need the best minds on this and they nee the right motivation. We will find a way to deal with the wealth distribution and bot abuse.
I think your concerns on these two issues are right on, meaning they correctly identify the challenges Steemit and Dtube face currently. But, it's also important to keep in mind that there are other projects being built on top of the Steem Platform to address exactly these very issues.
Regarding content Discovery.-
We currently have: dmania, steepshot, zappl as well as running ICO built on SMT's (smart media token). Being these, let's say beta initiatives a sign of things to come, it's obvious, or at least it is to me, that eventually this will lead to the definition of niches and communities.
If we add this this the fact that one of the upcoming forks has the intention of building communities within Steemit, I don't see this being much a problem for too much longer.
Regarding the Continuation of Rewards.- I guess this makes sense if we think of the "money" we make on Steemit, with the same mental framework with use when we are talking about Fiat Money.
I'll be specific... If I make an amazing video on Dtube, that gets I don't know a $1000 payout. Let's say for the sake of making an argument that at the time I made the post I collected from it 400 Steem tokens, and each token was worth $1 USD.
If, I simply keep the Stake on my wallet, meaning I only cashed out the SBDs from the post and keep the STEEM, a year later my 400 Steem tokens could be worth 20, 30 USD. So, my video has made me 8000 USD in a year, or more. On top of that it also gave me influence in the platform allowing me to interact with other users and earn more rewards in different ways, so the number that that 400 Steem Investment has paid me out is very much underestimated by my calculations.
One the flip side of things, I believe that it can also mean that users stay engaged in the community and don't simply post one homerun and run. Granted it seems like more work, but I thing it's a net positive. A content creator is highly incentivized to never stop putting out content, thus also adding value to the blockchain at all times.
This is all to say that depending on the type of content it may or may not have an expiration date, a video about how a whale gives birth to its young, does not necessarily expire, but something political might.
I'm not blind to the notion that these are not "perfect" solutions, but I will be inclined to say that they are currently (note the word currently) better than youtube, and more importantly level the playing field a little more for smaller accounts.
It's close to impossible for a brand new youtuber to succeed on youtube in a short period of time, it's not entirely impossible for a new content creator to make enough to pay some bill on steem within the month.
Very good points. Yes the coming developments will be crucial...I'm sure it's all uphill from here! You are right that a new user can hit a grand slam right off the bat. That is extremely difficult on YouTube.
I do believe that increase the duration on the voting time, or finding new solutions for rewarding people after voting hours could lead to the better for the STEEM based platforms them self, but that could also have a big influence on the value of currency it self.
One day, all the STEEM will have been mined, unless they enhance the max supply... But the quicker we reach the maximum STEEM coins available the faster STEEM might see it's success as a high cost currency, as crypto prices are always determined by the market cap of available coins, coins that exist, and the activity around the coin.
With this, I think that creating another way to pay authors after voting hours is done, is an better ida than increasing voting time.
This might be all wrong, but this is just some reflections I had on this case.
Ultimately right or wrong, everything must be considered
Yes indeed!
Great ideas here. Need some time to come up with my own thoughts on the future of this platform, but frankly, I haven't been on steemit long enough to be familiar with all its issues. Navigation is the biggest issue I'm experiencing and finding content isn't as intuitive as it should be. As I become more familiar with how the website and community interact with each other, hopefully I can add more to this discussion.
Access to older posts could maybe made easier with the ability to highlight different posts with colour tags and you can find them easier in your comments or replies tab.
Your theory fails in there is low community reward and a high reward for whales. And an increasing difficulty for lower levels to gain a voice.
Such a system would bring the most viewed to the top of your search. and open the doors to further abuse by bots and a whale with greed posting anything and his loyal followers will upvote, and then returning and doing the same with every older post they have placed, a continuous income growing with each follower they get upvoting on every post they have made previous and to the future, will quickly devalue the currency.
Solution needs a lot of thought and a community consensus on what a max value a post can have, with a limited amount of post been permitted per day Possibly the second post only gains 50% of the value. Any proceeds over this amount would go back to the community?
Yes the current wealth distribution is an issue but a separate one...yes perhaps max post value is an option.
Nice ideas! :)
What you get absolutely correct is that a perpetual reward system will be what wins in the long run, as we can all get paid for YouTube videos produced years ago. SteemIt differs, so this is a major concern for anyone who wants to use this platform. A great post after a period of time can't receive rewards - The End. This is where I would apply the promotions, not on a separate tag. Advertisers could swap their SBD tokens for promotions on popular posts, which would give the SBD tokens spent to the poster. So, as an example, if you wrote a great post about health and an advertiser wanted to sell a product related to your post, the advertiser would send SBD tokens to promote on your post and you would receive the SBD tokens for that post. This way content could still earn tokens provided that people want to advertise on those posts. If we think about it, this is fundamentally what's happening on YouTube and other social media platforms - someone is selling products on old content.
Also, because I think this is a good topic and am glad you highlighted it, I wrote One Possible Solution To SteemIt's Promotion Problem related to this and the promotion problem.
A Fix For This Now
Every post should have links to outside content, or else you are relying on this platform too much (and there's risk of its non-existence, like with YouTube or other social media).
Yes someone else proposed something similar. It is definitely a great option.