Steemit: A Platform About Content, SP Delegation or Daily Diaries? | Part 1

Let me start by saying hello to the community and anyone who might read this. My intentions in this post are to openly discuss whether Steemit is a platform about content or if it's just an SP delegation show gone bad. As somewhat of a social media/content expert with over 20 years of experience, I thought I'd share my thoughts.

After joining this site a few weeks back, I noticed something almost immediately. The interaction that @httr4life told me about years ago (we are best friends, and he just returned here after six years) that once powered this blockchain has now dwindled considerably to the bare-bones minimum. I'd actually like to see the site stats on how many active accounts post daily and then, out of those active profiles, how many are actually posting and interacting in the comment section. I know you have your exceptions, but after looking around for a few weeks, it's clear to see the site has shifted from one-on-one interaction to community involvement, and I don't necessarily think that's 100% a bad thing, but the process has made the content here a bit stale.

By stale, I mean it's heading down a path that's already been traveled over and over with posts like "My Diary," which show one person's daily routine, activities, etc. I do understand the role those posts play in helping certain individuals grow their profiles, but it's not something that an outside person who is not already a part of Steemit is going to want to invest in (which is what Steemit ultimately is: an investment for the user). This means the content should be ever-evolving in a direction that will take the site/blockchain in the direction we all want, which is up. We all want this platform to grow in numbers, so this is truly a dilemma that should be addressed if possible.

Recently, @o1eh put out an article discussing Steemit Content Analysis. It's a hugely informative post, but towards the bottom of it was this excerpt:

As the mentioned studies have shown, if we apply a more analytical approach to this issue, we see that, in general, the possibility of receiving rewards induces authors to produce higher-quality content. Indeed, when an author posts something on Reddit or Facebook, their goal is to provoke interaction, not to convey a certain point. That is why "normal" social networks are dominated by memes and various mockery. In contrast, on Steemit, people avoid content that may cause negative emotions for fear of losing their earnings.

Here was my response, which he never replied to:

Very interesting data. And I agree with the quoted line here from your post. Thing is, yes, the possibility of receiving the reward DOES induce the author to produce better content, but if the category that the overall group is getting awarded from is low-level content to begin with, they'll just produce more of it. The idea should be to expand the content as you progress as a platform.

Now, before I go any further, I want to stop and make sure we are walking down the same path here...I enjoy seeing the community embrace each other and what we do each and every day in our lives. I believe that, ultimately, that's why topics like the "Diary" posts started here--to give those from other sections of the world not only a topic that was fairly easy to get into and interesting but also to build their accounts, make money off of them, and in the process meet new individuals from all over the world. My issue is that somewhere in the process, it gave individuals the opportunity to get highly rewarded for what is still low-content, repetitive journalism. This leads me to the question: is this platform truly about the content? I know a portion of the chain would like it to be that way, but in the last few weeks, what I've noticed is the bigger accounts are not here to socialize; they're here to seize the opportunity of SP Delegation, which is the real business on this site.

The question has to be asked: Is the current Steemit brand on the brink of growing into a bigger community, or has it already shifted into a harvesting net for whales with tons of SP for rent? This is important for me to know because I have been contemplating investing further in this chain (monetarily), but I'm not impressed with the idea of stale content ruling my timeline while I see great content falling by the wayside. Each day, I see the same posts with $80+ totals in upvotes. Oftentimes, those posts are about complete nonsense, while the good posts that would power a normal website with knowledge get a couple of bucks here and there.

It was maddening at first for me to understand until I figured out the power concept of delegating your power to a larger account for them to then upvote your content. This kills the process of actual journalism because those who want to write real articles here watch as they get .10 a post unless they are part of a network/community of individuals who upvote each other. This means a new user is in a completely empty room, and the only way out is to buy LOTS of Steem to delegate and/or hold out hope that @steemcurator01 or @steemcurator02 takes care of you. I've been here 3-4 weeks and have yet to see any of the other steem curators' accounts...it seems they stay in communities I'm not a part of, which is why I applied to be a curator...don't get me wrong, I honestly don't expect to get picked to be one, but it is what it is. I think some individuals are not being taken care of on this site, and I'm not even talking about myself.

This process has no future in terms of getting new people to join the blockchain. What would someone who is willing to invest, let's say, $500 on this site actually get out of it in terms of usage? The answer is not much unless they are ready, willing, and able to grind that profile each and every day and save every piece of Steem they get. Maybe in a few years, their account could grow to see some numbers, but who has that kind of patience in today's world to wait that long in this 'take care of my needs instantly' society we live in?

The next wave of users on this site should be catering to our aspiring journalists in a world where we now question everything the nightly news tells us. Social media and phones with video cameras have shifted that profession, and those individuals need platforms to get their information out. Sites like Steemit could become a hub for that type of journalist...the individual who maybe does their own reporting but doesn't want to pay WordPress an arm and a leg to keep a blog going. They can invest/grow on this site as they move forward. The process also kills the idea of clickbait because they won't have to over-sensationalize the stories/titles because the overall monetization is completely controlled by them and the blockchain, which is a win-win situation. Other social media sites have recognized this group and started monetization programs, the problem is, of course, their programs are designed for you to get millions of views before you actually earn much of anything; I speak from experience. Also, most of those programs are designed to pay the user less and less over time in hopes the user continues to post/upload content.

To be fair, I do see some action in communities trying to offset some of the problems I've spoken about here, but understand a newcomer to this site won't understand that process immediately and likely won't stick around as long as I have to see what can be. To an outsider, it looks like 'the inmates are running the asylum,' meaning there is no visible leadership direction—no answers coming directly from Steem at all, which also is not good.

Another thing I've noticed is that the American presence is very, very low. This is extremely odd on a social media site, considering Americans are completely smitten with social media and can't get enough of it. This leads me to believe either they don't know about the site, they've powered down and never returned, or they check in from time to time and don't know how to be a part of the community any longer. Either way, that's not a good thing for the Steem blockchain either as Americans are one of the top consumers of goods in the entire world. And Steem, having a price tag, is ultimately a consumer product. Albeit, it is not promoted/handled very well as it's literally impossible to just buy Steem as an American...you must 'jump through a series of hoops' just to get some Steem in your wallet...which means more fees and more headaches that keep new users away. It's a catch-22 situation all the way around.

But at the end of the day, this site does do good things, as I saw yesterday when the WOX-HELPFUND donated 500 STEEM to help someone pay for their chemotherapy. That's real-world help made possible by this chain, which I respect, and so would other prospective users. The thing is, there's a real chance that article/post gets lost in the mix of the other 100s of low-level content items that clog up the "All" category on the home page timeline. On my first day here, I literally saw a post that was nothing but the word "bitcoin," and the post had over $200 in rewards on it. While I won't post the user account name or stats, I'll let you know they had delegated all of their power, and the rewards were all basically coming from one big user. I may be wrong, but that more than likely was not the goal of this site when things started here, but it's what it has evolved into...and it's what will keep serious investors and inspiring journalists away from it unless they want to learn/understand farming SP.

I, for one, am hoping the site can eventually shift to a place where content is king, and in that place, I think we all would enjoy it and get more out of it.

That's all I have for today, but not all I have for this discussion. #ToBeContinued