RE: What is it about STEEM that its tanking so hard? // An open letter to STEEMIT.INC
I'm happy to see you're all pumped up, full of piss and vinegar.
I personally think it's a terrible idea to dump Steemit. What was Jerry attempting to attract people to? Where did those people come? Why did some stay?
What is Steem Monsters without the constant barrage of Steem Monsters promotions. Where did the Steem Monsters community come from? Some of those producing content for Steem Monsters came from Steemit. A lot of the money from Steemit's content producers found it's way over to Steem Monsters.
Many of us became investors in Steem because of Steemit. Not many who now use other front ends started on those front ends, they started here on Steemit.
This platform is like the gate that allows people to cross the bridge that leads to a massive city of potential. I'm not trying to sound like a cheer leader either, I honestly can't stand that shit, but being realistic combined with my years of experience and observations over that time leads me to believe this token is nothing without this platform. Anything about any other development on this blockchain starts here, on Steemit. The witnesses wouldn't have been able to campaign to be top witnesses without placing words into Steemit and allowing members here to read them.
@Ned likes to talk about how they proved to the world what can be done with a blockchain based app, so why take that proof and flush it down the toilet? If Steemit was a simple faucet, why are there incentives in place to hold the token so one has say in what goes where when it comes to content on this platform? What do all of these people do with their bag full of tokens if they can't be used as a tool anymore? What the hell am I supposed to do with the business I've built here if my business plan depended on the rules of the venue? Every business depends on the rules of the venue. What good is something like 4000 followers if there's no stage to perform on? Sure, I'll use another front end, but does that only mean I'm in the city now, stuck, not able to advance, because they closed the gate and blew up the bridge? Like I said, thinks like Steem Monsters are nothing without this bridge, and that goes the same for anyone else developing on this blockchain. Just because I'm doing art, that doesn't mean I'm not developing a business. I didn't come here to just fuck around and share content. I'm an entrepreneur, risking it all, trying to be a one of the first digital artists fully monetized on that digital currency and no site of a middleman anywhere, which is something literally unheard of in this world until now. Blow up that bridge, I feel like I've wasted two years of my life building a business, and this token loses another investor. So many others already left and took their money with them. How is that approach good for business? Alright I'm just going off here. So many questions. Probably wasting my time.
To be clear on this my proposal was never to "Dump Steemit". It was for Steemit Inc. to (via an orderly sunset process) stop operating an expensive UI and free node service (something no other blockchain developer does to my knowledge). There are numerous other UIs which access the same Steem-based social platform including eSteem, Partiko, steempeak, etc.,etc. Some of these also operate their own nodes and appear to be doing so less expensively than Steemit Inc.
The original steemit.com UI is already only about 50% of the usage and that is dropping (pretty much expected since it isn't being developed and improved and the others are). As far the actual steemit.com domain they can either offer a contract for someone else to take it over (possibly merge it into one of the other apps) or turn it into a lighter-weight, lower cost, and less distracting to operate site with just a wallet and a directory of UIs to access the social blockchain apps (or some combination).
This has no impact on your 4000 followers and in fact might help them grow faster.
Being clear is something everyone needs to be working on, including me.
Several UIs all performing the same functions. Will that be cheaper than one solid UI performing those functions? Probably not. If we're talking saving resources, I'd suggest everyone get on the same page. Too many cooks in the kitchen right now. In the long run it would be cheaper to pool those resources... but that's just how I see it, which is usually the opposite of everyone else. If one of those UIs fails, due to competition from another UI doing nearly the same thing, that's yet another unnecessary blemish. I'd go the other way. Put all of these resources going into several UIs all performing the same function, hand Steemit over to them so they can work together and reach that common goal, while Ned and crew do their thing behind the scenes. Google has Youtube. They don't have Youtube, Themtube, Theirtube, Thosetubes, all showing the same content for a reason.
Anyway. It's hard to work here with so much confusion. My business is almost starting to depend on confused and disorganized folks getting their shit together. It's hard to run a shop in a mall when the mall employees are having problems managing the mall and communicating the issues.
I spoke with Ned, here and left feeling at least somewhat confident again. So much has changed now in three weeks and he gave me a damn good reason to have trust issues after hitting the mute button, but I'm not pouting about that, it just doesn't help things. All I truly want to do is carry on, business as usual, instead of rambling like this.
I don't agree they are doing that. There are significant differences and they are all trying different approaches. Not only in terms of features and UI but also on the question of how to how to optimize and manage costs.
Steemit seems to have no unique advantage whatsoever in this area.
I know it's not all the same. I was oversimplifying. I've been thinking about all this for awhile. Came to the realization there's still far more to look forward to, these bumps in the road are nothing new, some things sink, some swim. The majority wants the best, this loud minority pulling the soap opera drama stuff is nothing new and usually fizzles out; just a distraction for now. Seen it all before.
It is the Schelling point.
Nothing beats that, it's a greater advantage than all the nice functionalities of the others. I write my posts on busy, I look appreciatively at the steempeak functionalities, I use eSteem and partiko on my mobile, I've tried steeve.app as well.
But nothing compares to Steemit.com. It might be just a habit, or there might be something else. Theoreticising doesn't necessarily do much here, but to me (and I'm sure to most non technical people like artists, photographers, most bloggers) there's almost only steemit.com
To outside people too, there's only steemit.com. If you discard that, people won't simply move to the other UIs, they'll simply lose interest and forget about the steem ecosystem wholesale.
Yeeey. Nonames. Honestly, i was about a 110% sure you would drop by. haha..
Its getting late so i wont be able to respond, but ill get to the comment tomorrow.
That's cool. I probably sound like a fearful maniac but that's not the case at all, I'm just so bloody confused now. I spoke to Ned a couple weeks ago, his response then sounded reassuring, and now much of what's going on contradicts the feeling I had when we finished speaking, then I found out he muted me after a peaceful discussion and since I've just been feeling like I'm worthless here, unwelcome, like my voice means nothing after going against all odds and being able to achieve what I've been able to do during this past two years. Come here and feel like a nobody for being successful kinda sucks... See now I'm ranting again. Wtf is my problem...
gave you an upvote to say: "your voice means something"
I see what you mean. I did probably phrase it wrong and didnt represent @smooth words as well as i should have. On his last livestream Ned did say that Steemit accounts for around 40% of the traffic to STEEM.
I talked here a bit about brand recognition and even though STEEMIT is great in the regard you say, what happened is people, looking from the outside, regular users and investors equate STEEMIT.INC with STEEM.
That is the general perception right now and ive seen even users that have been here for a long time not making the distinction between the two.
Now, im not saying dump STEEMIT all together, i mean fade out its importance compared to everything else built on the STEEM blockchain.
You say you want a gateway. And thats understandable and necessary, but why wouldnt Appics be that gate, Partiko, esteem, Busy, dtube, etc.
You say Google doesnt have 50 "xyzTubes" and thats true but STEEM is only 1 blockchain that can have numerous gateways. Numerous options for users to pick from based on personal preferences.
If google had 50 "xyzTubes" the user base would be split, engagement would remain on each of those respective platforms and there would be no contact between users..
Thats not the case with STEEM which is why i do think that STEEMIT can be faded out as to open more time and resources for the STEEMIT.INC development team to focus on other things.
Well, the way I see it, is if the outside world views this platform as STEEM, they're going to come here, so this place should shine at showing the world what STEEM truly is, not make them guess. They've been coming here for months only to be told Steemit isn't STEEM. Well then WTF is STEEM? Then you gotta dig and come across posts like this or worse and the place screws itself up the ass instead of showing the world what STEEM is, since they're here, because they thought STEEMIT was STEEM. One could easily place icons with links leading to all of the other apps that reside under a header that says, "We are STEEM." Right on the front page. Clear as day.
One of the easiest ways to market something is to take what people think and use it to your advantage. Instead, some of these folks want to change how people think, and that doesn't work, ever.
Yes. People need to be shown, the first step they take. I think Smooth for that very reason made the proposal he did.
I think that should be the focus point, how do we explain what Steem is.
I think thats another failure of Steemit.inc.
They are basically in the way of other dapps when they offer their service for free.
Not only did Steemit become Steemit.incs downfall since they cant cover costs but they are constraining the growth and success of other dapps by giving away everything for free.
Where I stand, now. Sorry to say, I don't really care. I'm seeing a lot of this drama unfold and viewing it more as a distraction, not helping anything. The conversation, though it's always good to share ideas, is a waste of my time. Nothing personal, just in general.
:D
It is isnt it.
Between you and me... Even though i try to make valid points in these types of posts... i wouldnt do this for a second if it wasnt fun. ;)
I get it. 100%. There's no business like show business. LOL
No you are not wasting your time, what you write resonates with me and I am sure with many others.