I was having a conversation with the photographer @justinmullet on some of his recent posts about Steem vs the commercial alternatives out there (check out his work if you have not already !). I thought it might be worth putting a summery of the ideas from some of those comments into a post as it seems applicable to a broader audience. Everyone here initially focuses on the direct financial rewards possible with STEEM, which is fine but I think it misses the real benefits. To me the revolution here is the fact that you own your own network. There is no middle man between you and your followers on the blockchain that can take them away from you and decide that "oh by the way now you have to pay to reach them". The network of engagements you build here will last as long as the blockchain is kept alive. This is the real beauty of distributed networks as the connections are 'owned' by the people who make up the network.
Previous to STEEM I spent most of my social media efforts on Instagram. In the past 8 weeks I have had my reach cut on Instagram by 50% (from 15-30K views to 7-12k views). Evey post I now put up they say is 95% better than the last post and recommend I pay to promote it. Instagram has killed my reach to force paid promotion on accounts my size (~50k). They have also removed the option from me to return to a personal account from a business account (despite what they say on their FAQ). I know a few others who this has happened to recently so it seems like a concerted effort to monetize what I would consider the micro influencer market of accounts with aprox 30-80K followers. There is a reason both Instagram founders disgruntledly resigned from Instagram a couple of weeks ago. The current monetization crush is similar to what happened to Facebook about 3-4 years ago and now accounts there with 200k followers on FB are lucky to get a reach of 1k people when they post something if they don't promote it.
As for addressing the content discovery and interface issues we have at the moment on STEEM, all that will come with time. Steemit is a proof of concept interface and will fade away. Other projects like SteemPeak will take over the vanguard of the long form blogging interface and implement alternative content ranking systems. In addition an array of apps like APPICS using SMT's will take on applications like Instagram directly. By this time next year the masses will be able to download DApps like APPICS on their phone, create an account instantly (thanks to HF20), just use their fingerprint scanner on their phone rather than remember or even understand crypto keys, and post away with a similar experience to what they are used to with applications like Instagram. Even @ned has announced his own new interface project.
The prospect of rewards will lure them in, but they will stay because the system works exactly as they are used to without being manipulated by an algorithm. One just has to look at the Vero madness which swept Instagram a couple of months ago to see the latent anger which lies below the surface relating to the manipulative nature of the algorithmic feed on platforms like Instagram. Vero really offered nothing other than a return to a chronological feed (although still controlled by someone else, in this case Saudi royalty rather than Californian shareholders). The Steem blockchain and SMT's offers so much more before you even start to think that people one day will be to pay for a coffee at a cafe directly from their STEEM based apps on their smart phone.
I took this shot of some crystalline patterns in a frozen puddle near Balsta in Sweden. The patterns in ice never seem to amaze me.
If you would like to learn a little bit more about my background in photography you can read the interview @photofeed did with me here
Robert Downie
Love Life, Love Photography
All images in this post were taken by and remain the Copyright of Robert Downie - http://www.robertdowniephotography.com
I have never seen patterns in ice like that!
Has to be fresh to be so translucent.
New technologies do not stand still. Very beautiful photo.
So true. The issues we are working though as a community now are the ones that all competition will have to work though as well. Each step of success brings with it its own challenges.
Fantastic capture! Looks like some kind of double exposition shot. Well done.
About the subject - I totally agree with You. People don't realize that can be pioniers of something new, some future of social media platform! I hope that in next few years more and more people, who was cheated by main social platforms like FB, YT, Insta... will come here becouse this is the future of free media! More of us will stay here, more people will come and join making the same way steem more precious!
Yes. The future of free media.
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Interesting. I watch some high profile European youtubers with large accounts who have been complaining of this IG issue. As a result they are vlogging on youtube more (which is good for me cos I like their videos). But yeah, it seems to be screwing a lot of people over.
Yep. It is the beginning of the end. Youtube halved payouts this past year so its a shrinking circle.
Wow I'm envy now
That's exactly what I try to explain people when they try to convince me to start using Instagram... there's no point, what had to be done on Instagram in terms of content creation is gone... same for YouTube, the golden era is gone.
The Steem has just started, we can consider ourselves very lucky to be here now in the beginning (2 years and something is nothing). Look where YouTube went from 2005 'till today, now we have to imagine Steem in 10 years from now.
Here we are not getting paid by the company to produce content, we are actually holding shares of the idea, wich is amazing.
Yep. We just have to be a bit persistent here and work though some of the issues. But the reality is that the more time I spend here the less time I want to spend in the 'old world' so to speak.
Same feeling here, I find it even strange when my friends talk about facebook and instagram, because I dont have none of them.
Well a beautiful picture !
Thanks
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it seems interesting. great post!
100 percent agree Rob... and I'll add that I think that the most important shift that can happen over the coming years is the movement away from the current model in which aggregators make most of the profits of creative work. Blockchain offers the possibility to empower content creators again. FB, instagram at al. may scramble to offer creators a chance to monetise their content in the future (as we have seen with video over the last few months) but I feel that the damage may already have already been done with many people who are now open to an empowering alternative. Certainly that has been my experience.
Yep thats a good point. I think that is already happening here as 'hubs' like Photofeed resteem your posts rather than re-post them so the rewards go directly to the creators. Then when they do their daily round up they use the steempeak beneficiary feature and split the rewards with the creators of the photos they share.
As for the damage being done I think so. Once the zeitgeist shifts change happens much faster then people realize.
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excelente publicacion.. y una excelente fotografia
Thanks
This is amazing i seen lots of things and read lots of books but i never seen this. You should be on natgeo channel hehe
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Thanks for sharing, man! I couldn't agree more with you when comparing this network, and it's potential, to what Instagram has become. I have a much smaller reach than you, a little over 4k followers, but am barely able to reach any of them. I have friends that will like and comment on photos of mine months after they were posted but only because they are just seeing them. I can't get over 100 likes on a single post without spending money to promote them. I get more followers from running automation software than paying money to get likes. It's kind of crazy.
And in my first two weeks on Steemit I've made better connections and had more success with my posts than I ever have had on Instagram.
So I'm with you. And on a separate note I just want to commend you for what you've been able to do in such little time on Steemit. We created our accounts at the same time. You engaged and I did not. In seeing your success it's driven me to contribute and help build the community. Not only because I see it's potential monetarily but because I really do think crypto and blockchain technology will change the world. You've been a big inspiration, even if I have only been active for a couple weeks. So thank you!
Thanks for taking the time for a detailed reply. Steem will be better off with you here ! I think a lot of us started in Dec 2017 as crypto was going mad and Steem was 8$ !
Absolutely hahaha a time when you could throw your money at any crypto and watch it grow. That was probably a good sign of the coming crash. Still, we solider on!
howdy sir intrepidphotos! I sure hope all the new SMTs and apps will keep steem and steemit around for the long haul. Very encouraging post!