It's a bit of a rant. I'm having big concerns about Steem's public image. I just thought I needed to speak up.
In a comment under @stan's post about Cryptonomex, I expressed my concerns about there being very few people on the dev team and the lack of public announcements about plans to expand the team:
I'm a bit worried that there are so few people behind such a big project. I guess potential investors also would like to know what your plans are regarding human resources.
And this is how @summon replied (and he got a lot of upvotes for his response):
I get your arguments here, well, if you right with your fear that a few people are getting such a "big project" started - just imagine what happens if these "a few" are getting help from more devs entering this game :)
Anyway i can say - this small group of really experienced and talented devs are pulling this out of the ground in less time - then other mutli-million dollar dev teams are not able to get out of ground within years.. just watch the game here and i will notice :)
Did i mention before - i really don't like the expression "human resources"
(For those who don't know: @summon is a big fish here, one of the initial investors)
Seriously, guys, is this the way you are going to manage public relations?
What if I were a bigger investor considering my options? Is this a reply that would make me invest? Apart from being a bit arrogant, it just boils down to this: everything will turn out just fine, "just watch the game here and you will notice".
Did i mention before - i really don't like the expression "human resources"
Sir, yes, sir! I'm sure you did mention it before but I was just not paying attention. I deeply regret using this phrase. I just did not know it annoys you so much. I promise - I'll never do it again. Please forgive me. And I hope you'll still upvote my posts.
On a more serious note: I agree that Dan and his small team has done a tremendous job with very little resources (damn, I'm using the forbidden phrase again). And this is great news when market cap is 12 or 16M. But now the project's valuation is 10 times more and we are competing with giants like Bitcoin, Ripple and Ethereum. So I think it's time to act in a more professional way regarding managing Steem's public image.
Perception matters. Public image matters.
Put yourself in the shoes of a potential investor - what can they conclude by looking at the official Steem website?
Who are the developers? No information. How many of them are there? What's their background? Who is doing what? No information.
Is there a roadmap? Yes, there is one, if you manage to find a tiny footnote at the bottom of the page. And what will you see? Actually, it looks quite funny. And it hasn't been updated since the launch back in April.
Any updates from the devs? No information. Look how much care other projects show - e.g. compare our case with the regular and detailed updates made by the MaidSafe team.
The introductory video? It's not state-of-the-art but it was OK for the very initial phase. But if we consider how much money is being distributed by Steem on a daily basis, for me, it looks quite strange that we cannot afford to have better a one at this stage. All that's needed is @ned announcing a competition (we have so many creative people here) and then choosing a winner and putting it on the website. It's not that hard, is it?
Are there any testimonials from reputable people? Yeah, exactly three of them and they are the same people we had back in April. We pay thousands of dollars to famous people who join Steem yet we can't be bothered to tell about it on the official website. That's pretty wasteful, isn't it?
Is there an explanation which makes the distinction between Steem and Steemit clear? More and more people confuse these two and use the name Steemit when they actually mean Steem. As a result, the outside world starts perceiving Steem as just a website managed by a private company.
Our concern for public image is almost completely non-existent.
Please understand my motivations correctly. I'm in love with Steem and I don't need any convincing. However, there are things that can be done by the community but also there are areas that require Steem business leaders and main shareholders to step up and take some initiative. Or at least encourage others to step up. Or at least watch out when valid concerns are raised and not dismiss them with everything-will-be-just-fine statements.
BitShares has always suffered from bad public image (to this day there is not a single screenshot of the product on the BitShares webpage) and I feel we start making the same mistake with Steem.
Put yourself in the shoes of people from outside this community and ask yourself this: would you invest in Steem after spending a few minutes of your precious time on the official website?
EDIT: I really don't want to distract the Steemit team from what they are currently doing. I think we can improve the website on our own. We just need to coordinate our efforts with @ned & @dan (maybe they already have plans in this area?) and only use their help to kick-start the process.
I was thinking of doing it this way:
- First, let's hear some kind of acknowledgement from the biggest shareholders that the steem.io website is not satisfactory, does not match the current status of Steem and a significant improvement is needed. We just need the whales to acknowledge the need for action, nothing else. Otherwise it's hard to start doing anything when you're not sure, if there is any real demand for it.
- Open up a competition to design and then maintain the website. This could also include redoing the introductory video. We already have all the resources needed: the funding & voting mechanism plus lots of creative people. We we just need someone like @ned or @dan or any other big shareholder to trigger this process (by announcing it) and then the process will take care of itself.
- Create a new Steem tag (e.g. "steem-website-competition") and set a date when all proposals should be revealed under this special tag. When the date arrives, we have a vote, choose a winner and let her/him take over the task of redoing and then maintaining the website. Runners-up might choose to build their websites anyway, but the winner will have the privilege of being the official Steem website.