Does Steem Suck? Let Me Tell You How I Really Feel...
Yes, Yes Steem does suck in many ways.
- Our Distribution/Decentralization
- Our Inability to Reward Engaging Content without Curation Guilds or Buying Votes
- Our Funky and Confusing Relationship with SteemIt Inc.
- Our User Retention
- Our Young and Immature Applications
- Probably Many Other Things
Yes, there are lots of sucky things about Steem.
Don't worry though, I will tell you why it doesn't matter and why I am still bullish on our Long-Term Outlook.
CRYPTO SUCKS
Bitcoin
Bitcoin was created to give people a fast and free/cheap method to exchange value without 3rd Party Intervention. However, at it's highest points with low consumer adoption, it didn't scale. It was slow and expensive and in order to do nearly anything with it, one will still need a 3rd party.
ETH
I can't stand any ETH projects I hate Gas and it is expensive and confusing to do anything with any ETH projects. A small game with some crypto kitties brought the network to its knees.
It doesn't matter
I could continue to list the sucky crypto projects, but let's just say most of crypto is young and immature and doesn't replace many/any projects at a higher level. Most of them are run by developers who have no idea how to run a business.
I don't mind that Steem seems young and immature with plenty of issues to work out because that is the status of most of Crypto.
Unlike many other tokens, we do have a working model, the blockchain is fast and solid and none of our suckiness is unfixable.
We are ahead. We have easy passwords, a business case, a community and proof that mainstream people can be onboarded and learn to use the site, transfer tokens and exchange them. We now have community developers who have been able to write and contribute code.
We will not compete with Facebook anytime soon, but we stack up just fine against the world of Crypto and that is going to matter more and more as the Market gets flooded with Shit coins.
I encourage you to consider our issues and think about some other projects, we have room for growth and problems to solve but so does the rest of crypto.
So, I acknowledge we suck at many things and I choose not to complain about it much, because it's a bad idea to shit where you eat. (an old corporate saying for "Don't Trash Your Own Project".
Steem Sucks, Steem Anyway.
"Steem Sucks, Steem Anyway" - A Poem
So Crypto seemed Cracked
Cos Bitcoin's Speed Slacked
Ethereum got Attacked
And Steemians Lacked Tact
But Lets Deconstruct:-
So what if Steem sucked
The System is Corrupt
Youtube can be Bucked
Facebook can be Plucked
The Solution we'll Deduct
The People we'll Instruct
The Future we'll Construct
And Fiat will be F---ed! :)
Hehe nailed it!
He did! Nice one.
Some people just have natural talent...
😎👍👍
"Our User Retention" If I could snap my fingers and fix one thing here, that would be it.
I saw someone today who I think was about to quit and I think I may have talked him into sticking around a little longer. That isn't much but I guess it's a start.
While probably many other people really quit Steemit.
I also thought about it, because I I am on Steemit for more than a year (since 2017.05.17) and almost no one (only a few people) cares about my posts and I rarely get comments. Especially real, good, meaningful comments. Most of the comments are spam or spam-like. And most of my posts are only making a few cents, no matter what I do, what I post, what I write about, how much time, work and effort I put into the posts.
So yeah, Steemit is suck. Or at least the community. But not Steem itself. That's just a cryptocurrency. And a very good and fast one, actually (no transaction fees, 3 seconds transaction time).
Yesterday I changed my mind about quitting. At least temporarily. I decided to give more time to Steemit and I also decided to be more consistent/active by trying to write daily blog posts.
How easy would it be to gather readers if you'd setup blog on some more traditional site? Honest question that I'm interested to hear answer to. When everyone tries to be a blogger here, there's just not enough readers and even if there were, not all bloggers will make the cut anyway, it's just the harsh truth.
But we do need to improve our efficiency on finding new and promising bloggers, that's for certain, it just isn't worth it for smaller SP holders as curation rewards are really low for them and bigger ones are too few and they can just choose to sell their votes for bigger return on investment. So if there were one problem I'd fix is the distribution. Too few hold too much and the power within the platform isn't utilized thanks to it and it is very sad to see.
"How easy would it be to gather readers if you'd setup blog on some more traditional site?"
Honestly? It depends on the site, but I wrote a blog about Ubuntu on the Hungarian Ubuntu website and I had readers and people commented on my posts. Nowadays I am not so active on it (I wrote my last blog post on that site on 2018.03.22).
Okay, I didn't earned a single cent with it (directly from it), but I had readers and real good, meaningful comments and since that's a community site, there are several bloggers on the website and they also have community activity on their blogs.
I also wrote a blog on Blogger, where Adsense can be used and I used it.
I was not so active on that blog, but I earned a few cents with it. Most of the readers came from the above mentioned Ubuntu website, because I mentioned my blog there.
There are other sites, where you can write a blog and get readers relatively easily.
For example HUP (Hungarian Unix Portal) or WSPRnet.
These are just two examples and the statement about the community are also true for these sites. You just have to find the proper websites.
I'd guess it would be a lot easier to find audience, when you're writing about certain topic, on a website where people interested about it gather around
Steem ecosystem is small, certain tags do better, but it requires either connections or truly interesting content for wide audience to garner good traction just like in any other place.
Somebody could build or link websites with specific interest to Steem reward system, then it will make it easier for writers from that group to gain readers and meaningful interaction but now it's hard when everyone is competing with everyone else for attention.
It is extremely difficult and usually takes financial investment.
I think that is the most anyone can do. I know that I don't have any real influence here. We can't really effect the price on our own but we can control what content we produce. If we all try to make good content and help each other when we can, we might give some more people a reason to keep coming back.
That being said, I am no expert and I could just be thinking these things because I want them to be true lol.
It is extremely difficult and usually takes financial investment.
Well i'll read your posts and you can read mine and together we who feel stranded as lonely islands can at least send smoke signals between!
Ideally
After Hardfork 20, we will be able to sign more people up. While I still think we will lose a lot of them, every round of new users we get, we get a few that see the long term and they stay.
Ideally
Well done. People are looking for a return on their investment. In this case the investment is time. The whole thing about Steemit is being paid for the best content you can produce. But with less people using the platform, there are less upvotes and less return on investment for your time which leads to less people. @ned can promise what he likes, but he needs to deliver much more.
In the short term I am creating as much quality content that I can.
"In the short term I am creating as much quality content that I can."
Same.
I think we may also want to think about how we define returns. Payouts are not great and and the total number of upvotes going around is lower but the people who are here now are the ones who want to be here and right now it is easy to identify and meet each other. We can't spend that but those relationships often pay off for everyone involved down the road.
But what do I know? I'm a total noob who writes about drugs and the crazy nonsense that drifts through my mind so I could be way off base lol.
Ned runs the blockchain. He doesn't run the applications. He isn't going to fix the problems you are talking about.
The user Retention issue seems to be caused by all the other points @whatsup listed. For new users it is an uphill struggle to be noticed and unless they are willing to buy votes to get to trending they will rarely be noticed. Hopefully we can fix these other things and user retention will take care of itself.
Haha well of course but I was talking in terms of if I could make things better over night.
I know how it is out there. I won't complain because I have been growing despite the lower engagment but I don't buy votes and I don't get a ton of attention all the time so I feel the pain there for sure. Idk what the real answer is or if there even is one but I think it is still worth it to hang around and post. Plus, I can rest assured that even when payouts are low they are more than I would be getting anywhere else for my content.
Yes I know what you mean and I'm glad you are growing as am I (slowly but surely). With the price of steem at the moment it is hard to make people understand that the 10 cent they earn on a post may one day be worth alot more. I am using these times to find my voice and learn how to write while not too caught up in the steem I earn. This time on steem is a great training ground. I'm sure for many new users seeing the trending page can see unfair, until of course they find out it is all bought votes. I do hope the whole network can turn around and do what it set out to do. For me, I am still enjoying the ride.
"With the price of steem at the moment it is hard to make people understand that the 10 cent they earn on a post may one day be worth alot more."
Truth. I first heard about bitcoin when the price was less than a dollar and I said "that's stupid and it will never be worth anything." I have decided that I won't make that mistake again lol. I had just got my student loan then and had $20,000 in the bank. If I had known then what I know now, I would have spent it all and I would be writing this from my privet island lol.
I think distribution causes all the other problems. If we had more stakeholder who actually have Steem, more people would get engagement and votes.
In addition I think unrealistic expectations is our second biggest problem.
I seems like alot of the steempower in under utilised or tied up in bots and delegation. Hopefully stake holders will curate more to share the rewards based on quality. I've been here over a year and even though my growth has been slow, it has been steady and for that I'm happy enough especially coming from other social media networks.
It's going to get a whole lot worse when the new HF comes. Newbies votes will have no value at all. Like others I can't for the life of me phantom why the number one problem to fix they plan on making worse.
You are such a little Eeyore, why do you stick around and complain?
I don't mind, I even like you... Just so sad and negative. :) Cheer up buddy, maybe the next round of new users will actually be successful people who have some money instead of waiting for the money to rain down on them.
Complain or tell the truth? People on a up hill struggle are good business for the one's who hold the money who get all their attention, now they'll literally being starving to get that attention. I don't see you calling others who I consistently see writing, or how you want to put it, complaining about the way the bottom struggles a eeyore. You constantly bring the subject up in some fashion or another so how do you think some will respond. In my opinion, or one of many, the system was set up the way it was in hopes people would get tired of struggling and invest actual money into the platform to stabilize or drive the price of steem up. While I am busy being a Eeyore I might as well say that if anyone actually believes you took a forty thousand dollar hit for "the community" you can tell them I have some swamp land in Florida to sell them. No one would sit and lose forty thousand dollars unless they had another account with much more money in it somewhere on the platform. You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time. It's pretty common knowledge and practice that those in the upper tier don't have all their eggs in one basket.
Where did I say I took a 40k hit? I don't know what you are talking about.
Are you asking if I am a sock puppet of a large account? Sigh, I wish and I have a big enough ego I would tell you.
I have 2 sock puppets of my own though. So, you are right, I don't have all my eggs in one basket.
I try to encourage via engagement, but I also think this isn't for everyone. It takes time and effort and sadly the ability to earn now and not touch it. For those who can't do that, I don't see this being a positive experience.
Truth is we'd love it like a daughter no matter how it drives us crazy
Lot of other crypto projects suck FAR worse than Steem/Steemit.
There are lots of apps being developed (and already running) on the Steem blockchain. And it's running at about 1% capacity. Sure, "they" just announced that SMTs won't be a reality till Q1 of 2019... but at least they announced something.
With the current market shakeups, I think a lot of true "shitcoins" are never going to some back... at least Steem has some authentic infrastructure and economic applications.
I agree completely... We suck, we don't suck as bad as others. Over time that will begin to show.
Well let us know how the steempeak.com interface can help to make things less "sucky" haha
It's my opinion that helping to make things more intuitive for new users and perhaps a bit of education about how steem works is a good step.
Hi Jarvie, I just revisited steempeak and I have to tell you, it is really very nice! I love the look, the tools and the site.
I'm so used to SteemIt, I tend to gravitate back here, but this week I am figuring out how to get used to SteemPeak.
Have you hit Ned up for delegation? Your front end is the best I have seen! Are you considering adding an SMT?
I am very impressed with the site and would like to know how to support you in getting exposure.
I'm banking on this.
and #1 on my suck-list is:
this is a community for people not bots.
Nah, it is a community for both. They will not go away, but I do think their power will diminish.
well, it should diminish because they're messing things up in some way . too much dependance on them. I would prefer having real engagement, and not bots upvoting me all time. I dunno, the few times I used bots to upvote my post I felt like I was cheating.
Yes engagement would be nicer. I agree.
Voting power is a bi-product of Steem Power, to exchange it isn't a bad thing, it is just that we need more than that happening.
sorry, more in what aspect? please explain.
We need other interesting things happening on Steem. I take no issue with people buying and selling Voting Power. However, we do also need curation and engagement. It's young project, not well rounded yet. Many will not yet see the value without having a crypto mentality. It isn't that it is all about the money, it is that crypto is a young sector and still has a lot of challenges. Those who don't get it likely will not stay. They should head back to Facebook or if it is truly about an excellent platform with engagement maybe Medium.
When it comes to sucking Steemit couldn't even begin to compete with fakebook. I saw it last year and it redefined suck.
haha. I enjoy engaging with friends and family on Facebook. :) But I wouldn't try to create content.
Fakebook doesn't have content!
Lol steem does suck and so does ETH and BTC but so did the internet when it started but we didn’t let 56k dial up modems get us down we continued to internet and look at us now intenetting wirelessly and all! Keep streeming and keep on crypto’ing we will fumble around and knock our heads for the next few years but eventually we will get there and be happier for it, all about the Journey so enjoy the ride 😋 well that’s what I keep telling myself every time I continue to lose money
Posted using Partiko iOS
^ this is the exact thing. Yes, the internet sucked and not many could access it, many didn't know how to use it.
Word!
@whatsup,
Steem sucks until Steem gets into the real business model! Next year, the date announced, then we can take the lead ahead of Eth, sometimes can lead Eos! Till that, Steem sucks!
Cheers~