I decided to check out my Followed list, something I do every few months to keep track of certain people I've followed and curate that I may have missed, or simply update the list and weed out the occasional member of the Steem blockchain that has fallen into unending inactivity.
This time was different, though. This time it felt far more real and depressing, and for an unexpected reason: many of those accounts that I had realised I had not seen in some time were once incredibly active members. Some of the best content I'd seen related to my interests. I attempted to support them in the ways I could, but it seems it was never enough.
Some of these people were there in supporting my content from the earliest of my days here on Steem. Some would always be there to throw in a comment and curate, as the platform was designed for. Some would allow comment sections to dive deep into discussions displaying a wide range of unique thoughts and opinions on subjects. To know that those people are gone now feels like a catastrophic loss for the platform of Steem. The platform now misses out on some incredibly diverse content, as well as discussions.
I noticed that for many of these accounts, the decision to simply give up came at least eight months ago. Looking back at the charts, that's when Steem began to show some really negative signs in the market. Bitcoin had reached $3000 all the way from its $20,000 high, and Steem, while twice the price it is now, was still crumbling and showing signs of weakness.
I have no reason to believe that I'll leave the Steem platform myself in the future. I'll continue posting for as long as my fingers allow me to do so. For as long as Steem's blockchain itself continues to create new blocks. But I can't help but look back at the people that have made such on impact on my own decision to continue posting here that have slowly given up, and I genuinely cannot blame them for doing so. It's very easy to complain about the management of Steem itself: an incredible resource that has been mishandled by a centralised authority that seem almost unprepared to handle what's within their hands. A bear market is troubling times for many, but to have a huge amount of Steem dumped constantly with existing market weakness only makes things harder.
For some, giving up seems like the best option. To exit the market with whatever you've managed to make, or perhaps maintain in terms of fiat value, and move on. While for others clearly that's out of the question, they're in too deep and want to see things turn around. To have the issues addressed in a professional manner and change implemented at the soonest available time. To have discussions raised and answers given. Conclusions arrived at. It seems almost too utopian on Steem, where we're feeling as if we're mostly just yelling at the sky in hopes that someone hears and flicks the switch of change.
I get that this post sounds overly negative, and I guess it is. I've witnessed the harsh reality in which people I've connected with have been slowly pushed out of something they truly believed in and supported. And while many of us are asking the right questions, why aren't they actually addressed?
The crypto industry is now heavily centralised with services and platforms managing to raise teams that run their currencies and creations. These companies are constantly raising capital and having to ensure they're meeting specific demands of investors. One could argue that that nature itself enforces positive change and results, but one could also argue that being void of such challenges should enforce more natural growth as a centralised authority could listen to what the users are saying directly and adjust accordingly.
Given we have a centralised authority running this show, it's disappointing that we don't have some type of meaningful method of direct contact with them. Your best option is to post and hope it's seen. We could flourish if we had the resources to vote on changes we want, straight in front of the eyes of those who could make it happen. To encourage discussion on those changes and ensure they're seen by the community. Wishful thinking, I guess.
It's been a while since I've let my thoughts out here on Steem. So this turned out to be pretty long, if you made it this far, sorry! If you did, though, what do you think? How are you feeling about the market and Steemit's performance? What would you want changed and improved?
I've seen quite an increase in activity around steem over the last months or so; I think people relized that it doesn't make sense to wait for steem.inc, and got active themselves. So here we have tribes, tokens and great interfaces like @steempeak.
But: I am also worried that the market seems to ignore this.
But 2: I think this huge potential MUST turn out positive in the long run.
ps: I am always torn between judging steem for its value as a currency or judging it for it's value as a social media platform. Unfortunately both values are rather down in the moment :(
One thing I really enjoy is the fact that more people dare to use flags, putting an effort into self-governing this platform.
And yes, I would love if steem.inc stopped selling their stake; at least for a while...
The market is ignoring it all for good reason: it doesn't necessarily mean anything. It doesn't add any value to Steem, if anything, it only damages it more. Yeah, you can earn more tokens from posting, but how many of those are going to be held? How many of those tokens are going to be listed on Binance, Bittrex, Poloniex, etc. etc.
People may be earning more with these tribes and extra tokens, but ultimately they're just going back into Steem which is then sold for something else. Even if that does bring in more people, it doesn't address any actual issues.
What's needed is features that burn Steem in a manner that doesn't just combat the selling pressure, but adds value to the platform. Just a random idea while writing this: 5% of monthly earnings become locked upon redemption, regardless of those earnings, they count as just 1 vote on a poll that requests most wanted features. Each user's vote of Steem is then burned.
That means useful features are highlighted to Steemit Inc, Steem is burned, and people each get 1 vote regardless of rep, stake, or earnings.
So I guess the ratio between enthusiast developers and actual users is not right. And without enough users all the developement doesn't really add to the value of steem and its social media platforms.
I'm not sure if Steemit Inc. is listening much. I'd find it perfect if they only took care of the 'infrastructure' and others did the developements. The workers proposal system might be a step in that direction; there one could implement your idea of burn/1 vote. It would be quite a step if this vote's value would not be in relation to rep or stake, but I guess this is a step too far; a lot of people on top rather like that hirarchy :(
There's a common misconception in crypto in which people believe it's truly decentralised. As much as we wish that were the case, I can't name a single cryptocurrency that has survived entirely through community alone. True decentralisation.
Each is at least governed by some central authority, even bitcoin. The difference is, is that these central authorities have steady roadmaps that they stick to, as well as encouraging users to vote on changes they see beneficial to the platform in a decentralised manner. Steem does not do this. Steem has witnesses, but let's be real: most don't really do anything. The real users have zero say in anything, despite raising their voices constantly.
There's the DAO working proposal coming on the upcoming Hard Fork where users can vote for worker proposals.
The news about it was actually on Condesk's front page for a while
https://www.coindesk.com/steemit-to-automate-development-funding-with-new-dao
Well, you need Steem to have Resource Credits. And when RC delegations are ready, dapps will need Steem to delegate RCs to new users to transact on the chain. With the RC delegations, onboarding becomes easier, because it is no longer a requirement for the user to by Steem. To ease onboarding even further, there's going to be light accounts where the dapp is having the control over the account, but the full ownership of which can be given to the user at will. This is the model that 3Speak is already using.
I don't even know if we can really call the small payment of Steem to create an account an issue at this point. I made a post literally at the same time you started replying, it mentions how we had massive growth here in terms of users, just nothing was done to hold them in. Creating an account was considerably more expensive then than it was now.
I think it's a blessing in disguise that they're actually selling it because it will progress decentralization of stake on long term.
Well that's an interesting take, and maybe it will prove right. It could be a form of "capitulation" and what that typically means is that If things work out well, the people who stay will be part of something that really hums in due time. If it works out well.
I'm willing to find out :)
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Thinking about it I realize that there are people I used to see a lot of posts from that I don't anymore. I haven't gone through my followed list to see how many fit that.
What's shocked me the most isn't necessarily how many have stopped posting, it's the ones that I remember being incredibly active and producing some really unique content to the platform. Minnows are always quite easily discouraged at first, so it isn't that unusual, but those with some decent earnings and good amounts of SP have just abandoned the platform.
Well, Steemit is on their way with SMTs now for real and they have increased their communication lately (with the progress reports for example). There's also @steem.marketing with some Steem engineers giving interviews.
Well, @andrarchy is reading at least some comments and answering them on the Steemit's posts on @steemitblog. I'd say that is a good place if you're having something in your mind.
Also, developer activity on Steem is top 10 across the crypto projects which is quite encouraging, because they are the ones that make the magic happen.
Overall, I'm feeling pretty good about Steem. Now I'm just considering when I should buy and if I should wait, because the chart looks a bit like a falling knife in dollar value at least. The most solid strategy would be to just buy in regular intervals, because the crypto markets are hard to time anyway.
I guess I'm just too sceptical of actual change and improvements. The DAO proposal to me seems like yet another method in which selling pressure is added to the market. And votes being stake weighted just doesn't seem right at all.
I've seen some of the interviews and I honestly cannot see the actual value in them. It seems like they're missing the mark from what I've seen. Interviews on features of the blockchain that most users are fully aware about, or how they work, all highlighted at the top of your feed, which as an existing user means nothing to you.
I have to make it clear that I believe in Steem, I just do not believe in Steemit Inc. Your comment about them selling as it reduces their stake is true, but given their history of incompetence we might not even make it that far if they continue burning their money for nothing. Understandably that's where the worker proposal comes in, but again, more selling pressure, stake weighted votes. Eh. I'd have to see the improvements and be proven wrong.
I'd like that proposal to at least offer a UI change in which these issues and potential changes are directly in front of your eyes for all to see and ensure people's votes are used, rather than the Featured posts we're getting now.
Slow improvements would be fine if we weren't in such a negative spot in terms of market price and user exhaustion.
I'm a long-term steemian as you (I joined on March 19). I feel the steem market is giving us a great opportunity to grow. Low prices are very attractive to get some SteemPower.
I think so, the prices will be going lower because Steemit Inc is selling millions of steems. The money coming from advertisements into the platform are not enough to pay expenses of servers and blockchain developers salaries at Steemit inc.
From time to time I also clean my follower list, I like to curate good content of science mainly from my friends and followers.
For Steemit, a good improvement would be to remove self-voting. What do you think about?
Another idea is to get a whitelisted content creators and give a percentage of the rewards pool. It would motivate users to create better content to be in the list.
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While I agree that low prices are more of an incentive to buy for obvious reasons, I can also see why many are not bothering to do so due to the fact that there aren't particularly many signs of bullishness. It is simply smarter and more rewarding to invest that money almost all of the time lately. If something is already very weak and the developer of the blockchain is adding to that weakness, why invest?
Advertisements, in my opinion, are one of the dumbest ideas that Steemit Inc has had. Whether it produces a tiny bit of money or not, it fundamentally insults everything they claim to be solving with the existence of this blockchain itself. There are other ways they can go about raising capital.
If you joined this March, I'd say you've been fortunate. You would have missed a lot of downfall beforehand. I joined Steem in May 2017, and I've seen the cycles it's had, but nothing this bad.
we are waiting more active account, and new steemian, steemit will long life, beautiful 🌺
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We had both of those, but they all disappeared once the value of bitcoin fell and steem tumbled with it.
yup
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As someone who is everyday curating on Steemit for almost two years, I noticed a lot of old accounts reactivating in last two months. When real bull run starts the price of steem will follow other (depends on what %) currencies and a lot of people will return to their accounts.
Oh really? Bears are slowly waking for the bullrun? Unfortunately the bears are wasting their time sleeping when they should be active on downtrend, because there's generally less people sharing the reward pool :)