We default to the notion that content is king, it might be because it sounds good, it might be because it's true in many instances, but in the case of Steem, I think that might be only half of the equation. User experience is probably the king, and maybe content is the queen? I'm not sure yet... let's get some tea...
We need both, the bread and the jelly
If we become a platform for only content creators, then... Who will consume said content? My point is that if we are too focused on simply creating a system that reward creators disproportionately from the consumers of such content then... Why would consumers stick around?
I remember a conversation that @clayboyn had with @aggroed regarding the idea of "Fixing Curation" it was, lets say, not a popular subject at the time, I thought his points were very valid, and in many ways had a lot more foresight, and maybe time will show he was right.
I guess the biggest challenge here is to find a balance way we can promote content discovery, and make this task, or this focus lucrative for anyone who decides to partake of it. As it stands now, if you decide you are going to curate with your small stake you don't stand to make maybe more than one cent a day.
Singing happy birthday before the cake shows up
I think in this particular aspect @aggroed is pretty much dead on, and I mean this in the sense of what is more profitable to do, and nothing else.
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"Minnows should comment, Dolphins should Create, Whales should Curate"
Granted this is an oversimplification of the roadmap to Steemian success, but as it stands now, it's possibly the only strategy that works if not all the time, darn close to it. Is this ideal? Does this give us good feels? Do I personally like it? Do I understand why it can frustrate the crap out of some people?
And you know if you No No No Yes, in one sentence, then something must be wrong. I actually had someone I invited tell me just a couple of days ago. "Well... I don't like the idea of complimenting people left and right to get an upvote, it feels beggy" Point taken, it does, which is why I never did.
I guess the hard question to answer is, how do we interact effectively with others, while remaining true to our nature? Meaning, if I'm not a happy go lucky guy, I need to able to be me online too, and not emulate the "correct" person I need to be.
The WolfPack Experiment
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It might be an aggressive analogy, but I happen to find Wolves amazing. The reason why they are so effective in nature has more to do with their cooperation than anything else, so I find it appropriate to make my point. It's been more than two months now since we started this little experiment, the idea of bringing a group of friends in, lets say, a chunk (ugly word, but accurate) to the platform.
And so it was that @pechichemena @luisferchav @vera.carla @piterman @ale.tripoli and I found ourselves on a google hangout sessions talking about how Steemit, or more accurately how Steem could be their new home for their creative projects. If you are part of the #openmic family I'm sure you've seen these amazing musicians make their rounds and waves.
So far this approach to jumping on Steemit has been very effective, being a lonely minnow on this platform can get quite depressing, specially when all your posts are collecting dust.
How does this fix Curation?
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Ok, gig is up... I lost the argument... or did I? What I'm really trying to convey is that the problem with the user experience when you are a little minnow has to do with curation of course, and also content discovery, but maybe just maybe, it can be offset by these, lets call them "on-boarding groups" or Wolfpacks(I like my name better). So that, these incoming minnows can produce content without feeling they are singing for a bored bar tender, so that they can comment genuinely without feeling they are being odd, or fake, so that they can curate for the sake of symbolical support really, because it feels good to support your fellow wolf. I don't know, experiment is not over, but so far I think it's doing great.
Conclush...
It might easy to outline shortcomings of this platform, but it's probably time well spent to think about ways we can compensate for them, If there is really nothing we can do to change them, at least for now that is. But hey, before you click away and go downvote some spammers, let me ask you.... Do you think your minnow experience would have been or could be better if you belonged to your own WolfPack? or do you think the idea gets negative ninja points?
Tell me in the internet box down below... We are still collecting data...
Much love
Thanks for considering that things may not be all that great for those on the bottom. I can certainly see why beginners can get easily frustrated after trying to figure this all out for a few months and not seeing much progress, while others seem to get away with seemingly unthoughtout posts and can Upvote themselves to the stratosphere while the relative newbies are struggling for pennies, literally.
It seems that there is a growing amount of self voting, and those examples tell newbies that must be what you do here to try to get ahead.
I have to admit, although I don't like it I have found that the best way for me to get votes is vote for myself like I am seeing more others do.
I don't like begging or whining, but also am not very tech savvy and trying to learn what philosophy to actually follow on Steemit turns out to be quite a challenge. (sounds too much like whining so I's better wrap it up).
Looking at the curation piece is well worth a shot I would think in my uninformed opinion. But maybe the whole self upvoting should be reconsidered as well?
Thanks for the info.
I totally get your point, it's a hard sale to pitch however... In the sense that if someone buys their SteemPower, telling that investor that he/she can't self vote probably would not fly. But all your frustrations were once my own @ohicklin and it was not that long ago.
That being said, I'm glad you are actively looking for answers, and appreciate your thoughtful comment... so this one is on me...
Cheers
I love all the creativity I see here, but can also see why some would get frustrated and walk away before figuring out how to work the system.
I am definitely enjoying it, maybe too much, despite those WTF moments.
Thanks for the support!
I have never had a problem with people upvoting their posts. If it was not allowed on steemit, the option would not be available. As a small minnow, just starting out, upvoting your own comments might get you another 1 thenth of a cent. I'm not sure where the "upvoting your own comments" goes from self help to "raping the reward pool". It's an arbitrary decision, depending on who you ask. I haven't upvoted one of my own comments in a while, but I did when I was first starting. Sometimes it was about the only rewards that I got from the post.
I don't mean to link spam you but I just wrote a post about an idea that would make self-voting abuse much less of a problem. I would love your thoughts on it. https://steemit.com/abuse/@littlejoeward/stopping-self-vote-abuse-another-proposal-voting-power-per-user
Although I do not like this it does seem to follow what I have seen in my first month. Not that minnows can't create content. Is just that generally regardless of quality it's very hard to get found. What's more interesting is that even if you are one of the lucky ones that does get curated by one of the minnow support programs, which is awesome I'm am not complaining but it generally doesn't translate into engagement and future follows/upvotes.
Commenting as a Minnow seems to get more interaction and with consistency follows and with some luck a wolf pack of your own. Would it be easier to bring your own pack. Hell yes but unfortunately not all humans are open to the platform and you have to know a pack willing to join with you.
This brings me too another thought, maybe we already have a pack of known friends on the platform but don't know they are on here, it's not like you can search Joe Bloggs and find him as he could be called @xyznobility for all I know. We do talk about Steem to everyone we come into contact with but since joining steemit that has been less than normal. Haha why go out when you can #steemit.
I will work on my wolf pack as I want to continue to create great content. Lucky for me I have been a blogger for the last year and am used to hard work for very little return. So the only way is up. To POWER UP of course. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
You get a good upvote for that great comment... I mirror your thoughts on the possibility of not knowing that @billybobbuddy might be a great high school friend and no one would be the wiser, that being said I think we are partly to blame.. but just a little bit..
What do I mean by that? Well a lot of Steemians act outside of Steemit like secret agents, they don't tell people about the website, some do, but most don't. Why? I had a friend (who I invited) tell me... well, if it gets too popular then It will be to late for me, I gotta grow my holdings first... In his case, I felt almost obligated to have one of those come to jesus conversations, and I think he got it... I think.
But honestly, if we believe in the potential of this platform, why not share? why not invite a good friend, or two, or three? It's work... but I think bringing your own wolf pack puts you leaps ahead of the game.
Why thank you. You can have my not so big but just as awesome upvote too 😁 I think you are correct that it is like a bit of a secret society. The more we reduce that the better our communities can grow and we can help each other.
The answer, as many good UX designer might tell you, is that 'it depends'. I don't doubt that many people have found their steemit journey much easier and more enjoyable after spending more time on Discord in the various teams/groups, but some people don't interact in that way and therefore shouldn't be excluded(or disadvantaged) from the experience of content creation or curation simply because they prefer to go at it alone.
At the end of the day, it is important to define the problem you want to solve in order that an optimal solution can be proposed. Whales curating assumes that people with most voting influence knows quality content from profitable ones (sound like a senior manager at a company?), dolphins creating assumes that people who have been around a bit continues to create valuable content and have incentives to do so, and minnows commenting assumes that people new to the platform contribute best by learning rather than doing. Some of these assumptions may be true and some not... it just depends on what you see and what you think the problems are.
So where does that leave us? I guess that depends on if this makes any sense to you :p
You are right on with your analysis, experience good or bad is completely dependent on what you need/want out of the platform of course. I guess, if we were to analyze these issues and possible solutions and come up with a bell curve type result, we might find that the approach proposed works most of the
time.
I'm not saying that a fork might not address these issues down the road, it might, with that being said, what can we do today, meaning you and me... what can we do, if we want to help our friends jump on here and succeed. I guess that's the idea behind these thoughts today... as well as reporting on the little wolfpack experiment we have been running.
thank you for your comment.. ;)
I think a few of us are thinking about doing something as well, and it just takes a critical mass for something to start moving. I have had conversations with @davemccoy, and I really like what @mudcat36 is doing by getting out there and meeting people. @son-of-satire has also mentioned about doing something too. I have only been posting ideas but I think it will take more action and less talk to make it happen. Either way, it is definitely better having more people trying to make these necessary changes rather than individuals doing it alone - steemit allows us to leverage each other's skills and knowledge and make direct impact, so we should make use of it.
Our team in Buenos Aires keeps growing ! I must mention that @matiasmenarguez @matiasfumagalli @anakoven @bueno3kk and @valeacevedo also joined :). All musicians!
And it will keep on growing, as it was meant to! :)
I just broke @meno’s law and upvoted this post!
But really this is right. Even though my pride tells me otherwise! Haha
hahahha
I would argue that it's working beautifully ;)
of course you would hhhahaha
I am honest... I was read all and it is good what you think... but...but ..but...
But I like this first picture...:))) I would also like to try how to use toes do drink a tea :)))
I like your honesty brother, what can I say! hahaha
:)))))))
No idea @meno. But your post was thought provoking. And I love dogs and their wolf-like pack mentality. My best dog ever was a snarling beast who acted like a puppy towards me and had huge beautiful wolf-like teeth. Thanks for your post.
thank you for reading Bill!! all the best ;)
I completely agree! Steemit needs to be about content discovery first and then the creators will benefit. I have been testing an idea that makes content discovery much better by showing you posts that have been voted on by people who vote similar to you. I just need a better coder than myself that can streamline it so that everyone can start using it so if you know anyone, let me know! I explain it in more detail in this post. https://steemit.com/curation/@littlejoeward/a-new-feed-using-upvotes-from-the-people-you-follow-improving-content-discovery
I don't know, I don't have any answers for any of the questions. I just keep plugging along and hoping for the best. I will say that my post rewards have improved somewhat since I started interacting with people on PALnet.
I did do a lot of commenting on other people's posts when I was getting started and I think it helped me to get followers, at least those who had shared interests.