A few months ago, SteemMag interviewed @mindhunter when he crossed the 10,000 comment mark. @mindhunter is currently on a break and his absence, @thecryptofiend took over. I'm sure you've seen him everywhere leaving insightful comments. And oh, he follows a ton of Steemians! He's truly a nice guy.
SteemMag:
1. You recently surpassed the 10,000 comment mark becoming the highest ranked steemian in terms of comment...What's your secret?
@thecryptofiend
I'm not sure there is any secret really. It helps that I am not working right now and so have more time. In many ways Steemit has helped to protect my sanity. Those who follow my blog know I have had problems with depression and alcoholism. Steemit has helped keep me going and off the alcohol. I'm two years clean now and looking to rebuild my career. Without Steemit that would have been a lot harder. Most of the comments are just me saying thank you to people who take the trouble to comment on my post. I appreciate that they have taken the time:)
SM:
2. You spend a lot of hours daily on Steemit.... In what ways do you think we can make Steemit more sticky to new and existing users?
@thecryptofiend:
I think the new user retention problem is a big one. One of the hurdles for keeping new users and making Steemit more "sticky" as you put it is to create ways of educating them about how the whole Steemit site and Steem system works. For those of us who are already in cryptocurrencies or are technically minded it may seem fairly straightforward but we need to work on making it easier for those who are not.
With that in mind I have been trying to create some interim solutions for this including the Steemithelp.net website. It is all still a work in progress though. I don't think there are easy answers to these questions. I remember when I first saw Facebook a decade ago I had no idea what to do with it. Now it seems really intuitive. Steemit is ahead of it's time in many respects and it may also be a question of general culture catching up with it.
SM:
3. You must have come across quite alot of posts and comments. Who are your favorite authors? And your best post?
@thecryptofiend:
My favourite authors? That is a tough one because there is so much great material here. One of my early favourite authors was @stellabelle particularly for her "Secret Writer" project. I think those posts were just a brilliant idea - everyone has secrets, it is human nature, the way she presented those issues and helped to created a debate round them was very much what encouraged me to get involved in the early days.
I like posts that make me think and look at situations that I might not personally have been in. One of the most powerful human abilities is that of empathy and those posts were all about empathising with the author. It also helped that @stellabelle formatted and presented those posts so well. In many ways those posts also taught me a lot about presentation.
The other writer I would like to mention is @lordvader - it is rare to find parody written so well and is consistently so funny. I would put it on the level of Simpson's episodes during the early to mid-90s peaks. That is how good it is. I almost believe it is Darth Vader actually writing those!
Another writer that I really like is @kyriacos - I don't always agree with him but he is always very intelligent and generally can hit topics that we are programmed as a society to shy away from. When I say hit them, I mean he gets them right "bang" on the nose, as it were. He is always worth reading.
As for best post that is another tough question. I try to put my maximum effort into all of them. I suppose the one I am most proud of is this : @thecryptofiend/sometimes-it-takes-a-crisis-to-reveal-the-truth
This was a different style of post for me. It was a lot more personal and I tried to use a more poetic style (though it is not a poem). I was wary of posting it because I was not sure how people would react. They were very positive and supportive though and I think that is a testament to the strength of the Steemit community!
SM:
4. Where do you see Steemit at the end of the year?
@thecryptofiend:
Another great question and again it is hard to say for sure. We will be getting the road-map soon so we may get more of an idea then. I think it is quite probable we will see a lot more users by the end of 2017. As Ned has said 2017 is going to be the big year for Steemit.
The Open Beta of "Busy" will be with us shortly and I think that will give people a new and possibly more culturally familiar way of interacting with the Steem blockchain. I think that will potentially pull a lot of new users in. It will also come with a built in form of instant messaging. I suspect that Busy will not only bring in new people, but will also create momentum for other Steem based apps.
We may well see an explosion in interest in the Steem app ecosystem in a similar way to what we have seen with other platforms like ethereum. I know people like bold predictions with numbers so at risk of looking like a fool (I'm used to it LOL) I will say this: I predict 1 million accounts with at least 20% of them (50K) being active users by the end of the year. Price wise I would guess that 1 Steem will be 1 dollar.
Thanks so much for having a chat with SteemMag. You’re doing a lot of good for the community with your participation
Steemians Talk – Bheind The Username
@countrygirl
I chose it because I like the country....big skies, nature, rain, small towns
@scaredycatguide
Its basically a brand name I'm trying to build that lends to the mindset of risk adverse people. I was always a very risk adverse investor and scared to pull the trigger, so want to teach people how to be more confident with their finance and not be a "scaredycat"
~$0.15 and $0.18 were the lowest and highest value traded this week for a unit of Steem respectively.
It's nice getting another issue out there. I'm currently getting more exciting features ready for you guys. Thanks. And do have a great week ahead. Steem On.