Hello Steemians,
Activity on the steem platform has markedly reduced. I know you are going to say its because of the steem prices. But I don't think that's the only factor affecting us.
There are a multitude of debilitating factors militating against growth on this social media. For what its worth, this platform began as a social media and it must cater to the social media needs of not just today but also the future. The question is; are we really ready to change the world yet? Well not until we fix these...
1- Shabby UI:
Not everyone here is a cryptocurrency or blockchain enthusiast. Infact the majority do not know (or care to know) what these are. They just wanna use social media or blog.
This site is still too technical. Its messy and shabby. Not clean and pretty like the competitors. We have to wake up to the fact that we have competitors. We have to start thinking for not just ourselves but for the people we invite.
Apart from the UI, the difficulty level here is 100. It neats to be much more simpler. Fine. Busy.org is trying to make a simpler UI but we still love our original steemit.com. I dunno about you though, but I still love my first love.
Steemit represents the steem blockchain better. I understand that Steemit Inc is busy with SMTs & Communities (which we have waited for like forever). But they shouldn't lose sight of the greater original vision. Steemit is the major gateway to this blockchain as far as I'm concerned.
2- Poor Onboarding Process:
I think we are neglecting alot of people who really matter here. We are neglecting our newbies and minnows alot. We are treating them like they have nothing to offer. But without all of us, there's no blockchain.
If only the whales are here then there's no steemit. The value of the blockchain will plummet, prices will drop and the kingdom will fall apart. We don't want that, do we?
There has to be a SYSTEM put in place to make everyone feel a sense of belonging here. Like what I suggested yesterday in my post here (you need to read those comments btw), a way to make everyone feel a sense of belonging here is to equate everyone's upvote value.
The largest whales as well as the smallest minnows should all matter. This is meant to change the world but the system is too capitalist. Capitalism always unbalances the equation. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. So bad.
An alternative will be to also upgrade people's upvote value. A minnow's vote should be worth something. I have come to observe that we are running another rat race here while trying to escape the rat race of the entire world. In this steemiverse, the gap between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' is widening further.
This is the reason why the activity is dropping like flies on a daily basis. This is the same reason why people who registered with so much enthusiasm end up dropping out. This system is too hard. It could be so much easier than this.
3- Spam, Hacks & Phishing:
We better solve the spam issue or face being swarmed by a zombie-brained spam apocalypse. It sounds funny that you will rack your brain for hours unend to produce an untouchable content only for your first commenter to write
"Nice post. Upvote me plz. Follow me I follow you."
You may flag these people to oblivion but that still doesn't solve all the issues. They just head right on and create another frigging account and continue the damage.
Multiple accounts is killing us. Steem ought to stop this via user verification. This is not some private blockchain. This is open-source as much as it can be. Let everyone verify their identities and let the identity be tied to a particular account. If you have more than 1 account then it better be indicated.
There should be a ✓ sign beside any verified account. So that people will know who they are dealing with whether a trusted account or a potential scammer.
Damn! This site could be made less hacker friendly. Eg links to possible phishing sites could be made automatically hidden. Similarly steemians can be warned before they click.
In as much as the security of anyone's account depends on the individual, the platform should also take measures to protect her steemitizens (in @Sircork's voice).
Check @Scipio's User Authority method for fighting spam and fake accounts. It really adds a lot of perspective to what we are talking about.
4- Bots:
Yeah! Its on purpose. I actually saved the best for last.
BOTS are killing us here. They are destroying our humanity. See there are some good bots here eg @GINABOT by @neander-squirrel is a bot many of us have fallen in love with. It solves a problem - Notifications. There are so many superbots which we use to automate many steem tasks eg steemauto and steemvoter.
There are also some good bots like the one being built by @Promo-steem community for @Steem-Ambassadors to use and carry out their duties. Another good one could be the one used by @Dsound that automatically scans sounds uploaded for quality and upvotes accordingly.
We have many bad bots however. Spam bots, vote bots, phishing bots etcx (I'm sure I missed many categories). Sometimes its seems there are more bots than humans here.
We are said to have 880k members right now. I think only about 10% or less may actually be active. Of these 10%, more than 3% may actually be all kinds of bots. So we are left with 7% of the entire steemiverse as humans. If you have data, please supply us in the comment section. We know we are on the right track.
Read my post to see all the points I have raised about Votebots.. Help in the survival of the steemiverse. Help yourself by lending your voice to this.
A happy steemian is an asset. A happy steemian is gonna invite more new users, invest in steem, produce quality content, engage other steemians in meaningful convos and hodl.
On the other hand, an unhappy steemian is more likely to never invite anyone here, power down, make shit posts, spam the comment section & communities and of course sell every steem or sbd they have ever made.
Why? Because they don't believe in this platform's survival for the longterm. I and many well-meaning steemians do love steem so dearly. We want her to survive. We want her to stand the test of time. We want her to be great.
Only if greed will allow us to be great...
THINK LONG-TERM. Before you carry out any action on this blockchain, ask yourself;
Does the action I'm about to take help this platform in the longterm or just myself?
I deserve better. You deserve better. We deserve better.
This is what I wanna see. A perfect steemiverse!