At a Crossroads?

Disclaimer: I do not profess to be a subject matter expert on any of the items discussed in this post, rather I wish to convey my thoughts on recent events and some factors I believe led up to the situation we (regular communities members) find ourselves in now.

As I'm sure most participants on the Steem blockchain are aware, Steemit Inc. now has a new owner and with that fact has emerged a significant degree of controversy and uncertainty. Some people welcome acquisition and anticipate a synergy that will create a `win win '' for all. On the other hand, some view the move with disappointment and suspicion. So where do I find myself on this spectrum? Honestly said, it is difficult to say at this time, Although I would like to be cautiously optimistic, I think that the jury is still out on this one. And with the recent "reversible soft fork" initiated by a super majority of witnesses, one cannot ignore that a rift has manifested itself. The question is whether this will eventually lead to open revolt and a split away from the original blockchain? We'll find out one way or the other.

So how did we arrive at this point? In 2017 I joined the Steam community and, like many others, was attracted by the promise of decentralization, truless transactions, complete ownership of my content, the possibility of generating value by providing quality content and participating on a platform that was different and had the potential of being better than anything else in the market. So aligning my expectations with my observations has led me to that a number of major shortfalls have occurred that have been detrimental to the Steemit/Steem ecosystem and the confidence of the userbase. The missteps include the business environment, leadership, communication, community engagement and involvement.

The business environment. What I observed several years back was there lots of buzz about how people were making money by posting and upvoting the posts of others. This led to the arrival of speculators who pumped and dumped for profits and like the fabled loccus, flew off after ravaging the fields. Then there was the plague of bid bots and spam/scammers and plethora of schemes to bulk members of their Steem. And the, still as of yet unsolved, circular voting among whales and dolphins that all but ensures that their content makes to the "trending" and `hot" rankings.

Leadership. Since joining the community, there has always been a persistent question I've had about why @dan would decide to walk away from Steemit/Steem, one of his brainchilds, and leave @ned purely at the helm? In my opinion, Dan seemed to be the real visionary and had the technical wherewithal to bring the technology to the masses. Since his departure, there seemed to be too many promises made and too little delivered and with plans announced that were oft times poorly executed, i.e. hard fork missteps, etc. So at the point that Steemit was at the brink, Dan decided to relinquish the role of CEO and appoint @elipowell as Managing Director. Unfortunately, the iimpression one is left with is that she did not seem to possess the skills set nor have the command of resources in order to course correct the company's previous shortfalls and get it headed towards sustainable growth. In the end, idealism cannot be the surrogate for vision, innovation and true business savvy.

Communication. How has Steemit leadership gone about communication, internally, to the community, and to the world at-large? As far as internal communication is concerned, I cannot say much about that as I have no knowledge of the internal interaction of the Steemit team. However, it would seem to me that both the managing director and the official spokesman were taken by surprise about the sale of Steemit to Tron. Chatter within the community had confirmed the sell well before Steemit itself released any official statement. This would seem to illustrate a lack of trust and transparency among the top leadership, a sad state of affairs. Although Ned and Jason live streamed a conversation about the "partnership" with Tron, many viewers were left with a sense of being sold out and feared for the future of their Steem token and the Steem blockchain.

Community engagement and involvement. In light of existential treats that Steemit faced it is commendable the steps taken to cut costs and generate revenue through advertising. However, unless there are people to advertise to, advertisers would have little to no incentive to place ads. Onboarding new members and retaining existing ones has been a persistent choke point in this process. But I would also argue that there existed a good number of volunteers with a myriad of skill sets that could be tapped into to see Steemit through rough times. As a example, look at some of the most successful open source projects (largely volunteer based contributions) that have gone on to power much of industry and benefit society as a whole. I believe that if Steemit had clearly communicated to the community that it vitally needed help to save the company and and the attendant benefits to be had, enough people would have taken on the challenge and perhaps we would have been in a much more desirable place, i.e., a flourishing and independent Steemit Inc.

To conclude, we have certainly entered uncharted warters and those who have invested a significant amount of time and effort on the platform should be clear about why they are here and what they expect to achieve. This should also be supported by one's own due dilligence of course.