WHY WE NEED TO BE HONEST ABOUT WHAT STEEMIT IS!
Steemit is not nor will it ever be Facebook, and we need to stop telling prospective Steemians that it is.
I’ve just read a post in which the writer has declared that Steemit is garbage before going on to explain why he thinks this is the case. Whilst we are all entitled to our own opinions I strongly disagree with his conclusion, but I totally understand how and why he made it.
You don’t have to be on Steemit long before you start to read posts or comments where the writer is enthusiastically making the case for how Steemit will replace Facebook. Whilst I commend their enthusiasm, comparing Steemit to Facebook is like comparing apples and pears. At best you can make a dotted line comparison between Steemit and Reedit, but Facebook is too much of a stretch.
Steemit is a blogging platform, I like to think of it as a medium blog with earning potential. Even the Steemit UI supports my case, for instance we create stories over posts, the Steemit UI and community encourages and prioritises long form over short form content. Just think how many people have been criticised or down voted for sharing a photo with a caption or link. When in actual fact these use cases are common place on Facebook, to the point of where they are actively encouraged.
By miss selling Steemit we are inadvertently raising expectations of new Steemians on the platform, they arrive armed with Facebook muscle memory assuming Steemit will be the same until they are hit with reality.
Some people will see the value in the platform and find a way to make it work, whilst others will and are becoming disillusioned with the platform and rightly so. It makes no sense to boast about the growth in Steemit accounts if we then turn them into zombie and dormant users.
I think we can all agree that Steemit is a work in progress and I’m sure the platform will deal with some of these concerns in the passage of time. Maybe some of us would like to see the platform move more in the direction of Facebook, and move away from the blogging use case. But we just aren’t there yet, so we must be honest with ourselves and others when we talk up Steemit to the outside community. We want to see the platform attract new users, but we also want them to be active and take part over the coming months and years.
Rant over 😁😁
Thanks for reading fellow Steemians! As always if you have received some value from this post please hit the upvote button or drop comment. If you’d like to see more hit the follow button. ✌✌
Yes I think so, too. And the other way it can backfire is if the person can't stand Facebook the way I can't! I actually made the mistake initially on joining Steemit of telling my friend who mines Ether that he should join Steemit and describing it as "Facebook without ads and with much more interesting and intelligent people." This was inaccurate and also reacted against it because he can't stand Facebook either. So I switched the way I am describing.
Yeah I hadn't thought about it from that point of view. If you don't like Facebook why would you go and join a similar type of social network. It's just really unhelpful misrepresenting what steemit actually is.
Yes, though you have to admit Steemit is a bit hard to describe!
I don't really think it is. Right now Steemit is a blogging platform, strictly speaking I wouldn't even call it social media.
True it's a blogging platform, but it's also very interactive. WordPress is also a blogging platform, but I've never socialized with other bloggers on there or shared questions/posts/contests across WordPress. And then there's the whole cryptocurrency angle...
I wouldn't compare it with Wordpress although strictly speaking deep down wordpress is a Content Management System. But if you look at the likes of Medium or Redit the similiarties are clearer than that of Facebook.
Yes Reddit seems like a pretty clear parallel. I haven't checked out Medium before, but I will.
I agree. When I first heard about Steemit they pitched it as more Facebook which I actually hate so I didn't get involved. A few months later I seen more on it and started diving into it and saw that is was more a blogging platform which appealed to me a lot more. It's hard to say where it will be in a year or two though. Will it be more just quick photo/video post?
Id like to see it own the fact that it is a blogging platform, and aim to be the best platform for blogs. For both individuals and businesses.
I do not think Steemit is Facebook , it is not Facebook and it will never be, it is better than Facebook and has the potential to be big and better than Facebook , steemit is in its early stage and years to come will tell , it has great team behind it and trust me as soon as the true potential of steemit is seen by all i don't think there will be any social medial platform that will rival it and we should not be surprise if sometime in the near future there is an upgrade to the design and steemit to make it look more like Facebook or so much more better
I personally don't like or use Facebook but we can't honestly say it's better than Facebook. It doesn't have the user base, it doesn't have the variety of content, it can't host it's own videos. I think its kind of lofty to think it's better than Facebook or Youtube and I actually think were not pushing the platform forward if we say it is.
I do agree it has the potential to be better than Facebook or Youtube but it will be different and it will be it's own thing and it has a long way to go to get there.
Yup on "the long ways to go "...the interface needs a much better search and .... but it does say BETA ....
and you cant get much more censored than facebook or youtube ..lets hope it stays clear of that ....
Agreed!!
I would love to see this platform stay censorship free. That said I don't think Youtube is nearly as bad as many people make it out to be. Youtube doesn't censor so much as they just don't let people monetize certain types of content. If someone isn't willing to put in the effort without the bonus of monetization that's on that individual not Youtube. Not saying Youtube is completely free and open but many of these big Youtubers crying censorship is more so them being mad they can't monetize all types of content.
I find youtube has really blocked a lot of my comments from the comment section ...I get in a good conversation with someone and it just dies.. I log out and my comments are gone log back in and only I can see them... They kill the conversations in the comment sections quite regularly ....
Not disputing what you said as I don't put it past Youtube to censor stuff but I will say I notice Youtube comments can be kind of glitchy ie sometimes it shows my comments other times it doesn't, sometimes I may need to hit refresh for my comments to show, etc. Are you sure its being censored and not just glitchy?
oh ya ...my kid will log in from his place and no comment to be seen ... yet it is there as long as I am logged in .... log out and look for it and its gone ...log back in and it reappears so you think your comment is there but only you see it... Its happened many many times ... but I post a lot of political comments ... COMER vs the bank of Canada was one that got killed a lot during our last election ... could not get that post out for anything ....
I couldn't agree with you more, once we face up to what it actually is. We can all make it the best version of itself.
Agreed it isn't Facebook, so I don't think it should try to look like it either.
Steemit should stand alone and brand itself as the only blogging platform you will ever need not a replacement for Facebook, because we do and will use them for totally different things.
Probably the comparison is that they are both social media oriented platforms where you post content that people either upvote or downvote..
Interesting rant tho. Once steemit leaves beta, which apparently might be soonish. I think it'll be branded appropriately.
I was thinking the same thing, probably just thinking too quickly and grabbed Facebook for example of a Social Media platform
Agreed, they will probably have to get better at marketing
Well, I mean in the past, I've definitely said:
Now I usually say something closer to:
Yeah lets hope so, because it will do the platform little good to continue calling itself a social network like facebook
Steemit is definitely way more interesting to me than facebook now a days. I barely go on there. Just to post about my upcoming gigs and keep up with some friends and fam.
Yeah, it's super weird that people keep comparing SteemIt to Facebook. It's its own thing, for one, and of the different social media platforms it's far more like Reddit. Even then, Reddit doesn't have much in the way of proper blogging. People hate Facebook though, so it will continue to be a valid marketing ploy.
You're completely right, I just think it's dangerous using it as a marketing ploy people don't really respond well to the bait and switch so instead of telling their friends to jump on they're telling them to stay away.
Precisely. The world is paved with good intentions, but these short-sighted lies tend to cause more harm than good.
And do we really want facebook-level quality posts here?
I think of Steemit much like Reddit but I wonder how much of that is just the interface versus what it's actually like. I think its kind of like a cross between Reddit and Medium/Blogger. I wonder if it should be more like a Vbulletin with questions and discussions or if it should be more like blog content with comments and a bit of a centered interface to find new stuff.
It will be interesting to see how things shake out
The design is basically a less fleshed-out Reddit (communities aren't quite as well organized) The culture seems more like a mix of Blogger and Reddit. Communities still pop up around topics, rather than bloggers, but the bulk of the content is done in a blogging style.
I personally treat this a bit more like Reddit, posting my videos and pictures in a less formal way while occasionally doing a more formal blog post. I'd personally like to see more community building aspects to it, but then it might cross over into Reddit too much.
A very smart designer once told me never to make a product that directly competes with another. At the time he was referring to the direct competition between the Sony Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. It applies in all industries though: Keep your model at least somewhat unique to draw in a new crowd. That's what Nintendo did, and the Wii was a huge success despite it's shortcomings.
In other words stay in your lane lol!
I think it is because the "STEEMit will replace xyz social network!" posts get a lot of upvotes. And, it would seem, so do the posts on how STEEM works.
Could this be a short coming in how STEEM works? Older posts disappear because after 7 days they aren't worth upvoting, so someone else make a post similar to older ones, whether they knew about the post or not.
Yeah I just touched on that in a reply to someone else, we need to work on the discoverability of content. Just because its older doesn't mean that its lost all its value.
Good post buddy. I think all of us are trying to figure out what Steemit is and I think Steemit itself as a platform is figuring out what it is.
I question should Steemit be like a Reddit or a VBulletin where we post questions and discuss topics or should it be like Blogger where we each have our own platform and own thing going on or should it be a hybrid between the two?
One thing I don't want to see Steemit turn into is a big game where everyone is just on here running around liking and commenting on as much stuff as possible in the hopes of getting recurring upvotes comments and resteems. If it were to desolve to that point there's really nothing here but playing the game and new users won't come over here. I don't see it that way but that is something that could happen down the line.
I think what's kind of cool is we all play a part in shaping what it is and the more active we are the more of a vote we have in that.
Id like to see it embrace the blogging side. Become a WordPress and medium killer. A blogging platform centred around a community. It's doable we need to do some more work around curation and discoverability of content but the future is bright for Steemit providing we are able to accurately communicate to the outside world what it is and how to use it.
totally agree improved search function and maybe improve categories a bit.
I tottaly agree with you! Steemit is not like Facebook and this is why I'm here and this is why I spend more time here than I spend in Facebook!
I have to say i find myself spending more time on here myself.
Good points on Steemit itself. However, STEEM seems that it could be a Facebook competitor if the right front-end was built. The great thing to me about STEEM is that it is a blockchain and can be used with any front-end. A forum interface has been built with chainBB and busy.org is closer to a Facebook type interface. There is work on a Twitter like platform too. All consuming the same blockchain.
I honestly think it will happen but currently it does not have that feel or experience.
It's not just UX or UI though. The community has been built up by rewarding long form content over short form. With a Facebook lookalike the community will have to accept more selfies and naked links to outside content. Im not sure thats what people really want. In reality steemit will cease to be relevant really quickly if it tries to be a close facsimile to Facebook. Besides if it becomes a real competitor Facebook will simply copy 'the best bits' of steemit to kill it off. Look what its doing with instagram against snapchat.
well said!
Thanks!!