RE: A little help for the new people: Welcome to Steem! Here's some hints on how to get started.
Thank you for your guide. I am fairly new to steemit, and I can already notice more mature community than the other social networks can brag about. One thing I still don't fully understand, is steemit centralized as a platform? People tend to agree and disagree on this subject but truth of the matter is that a small group of people do decide who gets upvotes and who doesn't (no matter the quality of the content) Even though most of the upvoted content I found here is really quality and time-consuming for the writer, I find (here and there) invaluable (polite word for trash) articles that keep trending and get upvoted to the sky. To be precise, I fear that this could be the only problem in the future of this social network. Have a nice day and a fruitful year!
Steemit is sorta (de)centralized. Technically the platform is decentralized, but we have a problem of distribution where most of it is in the top 100 accounts. So, that makes it seem like we're pretty centralized. Steemit also has a ton of power... so again while technically the platform is decentralized in theory in practice a lot of it is still heavily concentrated.
Yeah, that makes sense. Concerning the centralization "issue", I have a feeling, that even though concentration of power, majority of whales are actually good and helpful people. The most important thing is socialization and community, so it would be fare to disregard everything else, and enjoy the platform. It is indeed becoming very popular, people are finding their own ways to it, and this community will just grow. Let us hope for the best.
I agree with your philosophy. From what I've been able to observe, there are quite a few whales doing quite a bit of good for others. While I suppose there is some return in it for them, I'm sure they could find easier and less time consuming things with a greater ROI.
But they hang around, and get involved in different projects, it seems to me, because they are among the most passionate about the community, its direction and future, in spite of what they might actually gain, and even if they do come at it from different viewpoints. Healthy discourse and debate is good and we can all take part and contribute our own $.01 to the discussion.
And when I fully understand everything everyone is talking about, it'll be that much better! 😃
Decentralized to an extent but not as much as Bitcoin: hope Steemit can continue to improve and everything. If Steemit can become more decentralized, than bring it on. But for the most part, we are trying our best it seems and I hope for the best and everything.
I am just in hope that the community will stay awesome, as it is for now. Everything else should come by itself.