Blockchains, bitcoin, steem, money out of thin air... I'm not sure any of you know how truly mistifying and convoluted this all is.
Why isn't it all set up with an easy UI?
Is this on purpose, to keep the common folks at bay?
Let me tell you, it's working.
Those who do understand it, understand it so much that they dont realize their explainer videos and articles are impossible to follow and make no sense to an outsider. We're quickly lost when you start referring to things you assume we already know.
Steemit claims to reward users for genuine interaction, yet the most successful users all utilize Steemit apps to automate the posting and interaction process.
And if these apps are necessary for success on Steemit, why aren't they natively integrated?
Why are we left to hunt and find different pieces of the puzzle instead of just being able to dive in and enjoy the community?
I wasn't told that posting too often hurts your Steem reputation.
Luckily, I heard this somewhere in the middle of an hour long YouTube video.
And to see our rep score, we need a separate app - why?
Why is there a separate app for every useful function of the site?
I revert back to my theory of this all being designed to keep out the normies.
Well, I must say, bravo.
I'm fairly tech savvy, but this, I guess I will never understand.
You're absolutely right!
You bring up a whole lot of subjects where you are right on all of them.
You can do crypto easy, keep some coins in a easy to use app. Exodus is such an app. It does not hold steem, but it is better held in your account as steem power (again bringing up the difficulty level). Download it at exodus.io and see if it suits you. It is intimidating but cleverly guiding you through the security measures. For some it is too much, to me it was an eye opener.
The difficult part comes next. How to fill it up. And here comes a wide range of choices that spans from buying them, mining them or trading them after your taste. All this is intimidating and the traps many. Yes, even scams are out there.
Back to steemit. It is actually a very good and complete offering. It has steem, the influence and more speculative asset that gives you influence when locked up in sp. and steem dollars that are meant to be price stable. Since I believe in growth of steem, it is natural to spend sbd. I spend it on steem, other currencies which involves exchanges and transferring... ugh intimidating. So the internal exchange, where you can convert sbd to steem an vice versa is a solid first step.
Try. Start moving some sbd to steem. Power up. Do it again. Try out some software on your desktop and see how other currencies could compliment. And when you come to a conclusion if you want to spend time on it or not, you have at least learned how to get pretty much out of your steemit. For some, that's enough. For the rest of us, moving around, trading, mining is just something we do. It's fun. Exciting. And for some a job.
But it is still way too complicated. And I emphasize still. A few years and it will be much more accessible.
I remember the internet in 1997.. It was slow, ugly and hard to nagivate.
Some of us were really excited about its potential.
Others dismissed it as entertainment for geeks.
Jump 20 years in the Future,
Internet is everywhere. Navigation is easy and intuitive.
The people that believed made millions.
Others are still struggling to work with their Iphones.
all very true, i struggle with my samsung with every new model. ;-)
I was 10 in 1996 when I started using the internet. AOL. I love the internet. Me and my sis had 2 hours each at a time, in rotation. We'd fight over it. I use to get grounded from it. I know it well but missed the bus on cryptocurrency day.
The sad part is I would say my technological skill is 'moderate'. Im slightly above a 'normal' person. Lots of research and motivation to be a part of the crypto future got me here. As for steemit apps auto posting, etc.. im as lost as you.
"I wasn't told that posting too often hurts your Steem reputation."
I put together a bunch of different subjects and then once i go through it all I post like a mad man.
I have plenty of original content to post. But if you post more than 4 times a day, and/or sooner than 20 minutes between posts, you start losing steem (from what I understand)
Yeah ! this is somewhat complex but the longer I hang with it the more it comes together only this subject looks like a life long study.
I've wondered something similar. When I first visited before I signed up, and read the messages about authors getting paid, and saw comments getting sizable payouts too, the site looked so simple to understand. Then once I actually signed up, and saw cryptocurrency, blockchains and a whole strange system/culture were involved, and you were better off here if you were a computer expert, I also questioned how the system worked. Answers weren't easy to come by, either. After familiarizing myself with the basic concepts, I put together a guide for new users out of the information I found. I've gotten many positive replies of gratitude because simple "getting started on Steemit" information isn't that easy to come by. Then being successful here beyond getting started is also a subject in itself, too.
I'm not sure about the answers to all your questions. But for the time being, I'm proceeding on the thought that this is something new that could really change many things, everything from the currency system to how the internet is used, and to put more of it in the users' hands. I believe those would be good things. My first general opinion of Steemit once I came to understand it a little more is that it's a bit like Linux (which may be why so many things are off-site) and we're all helping develop it. It's just getting started. And maybe even it will be bigger than Linux. It has a new money part, a computer software part, and the content part to develop - and the content part is huge. It could be part Facebook, part Reddit, part Blogspot, and even more. No system is perfect, though. I think it may remain to be seen what Steemit is all about. I just happened to look back on some old posts from about 8-10 months ago of a few people who have been here a long time, and those posts made around 0-10 cents. Now these people appear to be dolphins and whales. So there are a lot of elements to finding success here, time being another one of them. Overall, then, I see this as a work in progress - and quite early in it too. But the actual users are largely developing it, and not having all the decisions made by corporations. The actual users also can make at least some money off of what would be their normal internet use.
That makes sense and adds a bit to the charm of this site. Part of me wishes they'd sell out and make the whole process easier/commercialized but I doubt that's what the community who developed it wants, which I respect.
I'll check out your guide, thanks for the link.
For now I'll try to be consistent, and if anything comes of it I'll worry about how turn the magic internet dollars into USD when the time comes.
You're welcome. Being consistent is the way to do it, from what I've seen. Sooner or later what you're doing will start to click. I was so discouraged at first from actually spending quite a bit of time on some content and then getting 0-1 cents that I had to leave for a couple of weeks. But then I came back started to pick up a few things. I've seen that many new comers have done a lot better than I have in a short period, but also that most don't but keeping moving along and keep moving up steadily. There are little tricks to everything, like in where to post, how to comment and upvote, who to follow, using your feed well, etc., and nothing works quite the same for everyone.
On my FAQ, I have two links that were helpful to me at first. The first one is the Steemit tags page. It tells you how different tags are doing in terms of number of posts, comments and their payouts. If I'm not mistaken it used to be on the main page but I don't think it is anymore since they put a drop-down box on the side instead:
https://steemit.com/tags
From that page, I made up one that has most of the most popular/highest paying tags, and will try to use one of them as my initial tag, though I also post much in #christian-trail and I know #pizzagate does well too and both have little communities. I would say it's good to pick some tags and get to know the communities that are there, and let them get to know you.
Now about turning those magic internet dollars into USD, and I haven't had that problem quite yet, either. I'm hoping to soon, though. I know it involves getting a wallet, and I believe in my FAQ somewhere there's an article I included about how it's better to take an intermediate currency exchange step because steem itself is worth I think $2 or something, maybe $3 now. I'll have to try to find that information and see if it applies in my situation.
I understand about it being frustrating that this place isn't more user-friendly in some ways. I've certainly experienced that and some other negative things, but I believe the ways in which it is good and user-friendly can really off-set that. This site really breaks the mold on what the internet has been, I think, allowing the actual users to be part of the whole process from beginning to end - the tech part, the user interface, content, and social media parts, and the financial part. And it's much better for free speech. You see much more dialogue here. So overall it's something I'm glad to be involved in. I think if you stay consistent, as you said, that you should do well pretty quickly, given that you have already have an audience outside Steemit.