Lack of communication clouds everything

Ideally, it's what should happen in a community!

What Is Communication

Doing a quick Google search,

com·mu·ni·ca·tion
kəˌmyo͞onəˈkāSH(ə)n/
noun
1
the imparting or exchanging of information or news.
"direct communication between the two countries will produce greater understanding"
synonyms: transmission, conveyance, divulgence, disclosure; More
2
means of connection between people or places, in particular.

Communication involves imparting or exchanging of information or news.

This is the only way people other than yourself can understand what your actions truly mean. No matter how noble your intentions might be, there's always the possibility of someone misinterpreting your ideas or actions.

When you communicate, you impart information or news. You tell the people what you intend to do, how you intend to go about it and why you're doing it.

This is even more important when these people are thousands of miles away/apart. You can't expect everyone to correctly see reason or understand your actions.

The other part to this first definition is Exchanging Ideas.

The essence of communication is not just to tell people what you plan to do.

People will ask questions, they'll have areas they don't understand or need further explanation. It's your duty to take time out to exchange ideas, information or news. This way, everybody has their fears addressed and when this happens, no one will be in doubt or show the symptoms caused by uncertainty.

I was going through the Trending section and saw this post imploring me to sign a petition to make Steem fully Open Source. Ideally, this will be a great thing so I went ahead to read the post and as I read on, some type of feeling began to brew in me. I was seeing the world through the lens of @demotruk and at that point, everything he said was valid to me. I was going to sign the petition, I just needed to know how.

So what changed my mind?

I got to the comments and found something I never expected. There was @sneak trying his best to explain things and answer questions.

The issue here is not whether you agree with the explanations or not. The issue is that these people ( @demotruk and others ) weren't ignored!

There was/is communication on going and that was/is very important.

So after reading what both sides had to say (at the time), I held off on signing (because I realized there were still many things I was in the dark about)

Without communication, this wouldn't have been possible and @sneak, I really appreciate it.

There are many more, some with threats to leave the platform. It's super evident that some communication channel needs to be opened up real soon.

The other definition states communication as a means of connection between people or places, in particular.

Communication brings connection

Without any form of communication, there will always be a disconnect between the members of a community.

It's never funny to wake up one day and see flags everywhere without any prior information on this.

When there's no communication, people feel neglected and when this happens, their actions can become irrational.

like deciding to sell all their steem

Nobody loves to be kept in the dark concerning any matter.

Nobody likes to be made to feel/look like a fool.

But these are what happens when actions are taken in a community without proper communication.

Imagine if we knew when this whole "experiment" was going to end.

Imagine if Steemit Inc communicated more with everyone.

Imagine there are regular updates on what's going on with the blockchain and Steemit.

Imagine if we all had new things to look forward to every week.

I, personally, will feel like i'm indeed helping to build something great!

Even employees need/get constant communication to keep them on track and informed, how much more those regarded as co-owners?

There's no time communication is needed more than this Beta period. It's supposed to be a period where there's constant feedback and when these feedbacks are being implemented.

Five years down the line, I should be able to boldly say "this part of Steem was my idea/contribution" but currently, that's not possible.

And it seems like communication in Steemit is broken from the very top. So broken that it wasn't even implemented in the Steemit UI.

If this is a social media site, then what's a social media site without a way to send messages?
You mean I can't slide into your dm?

Maybe it's purely a blogging platform but blogging platforms have ways for me to communicate with my subscribers/followers.
You know this!

So what's the excuse?

I think communication needs to be fixed from the very top and this should be done ASAP!