We probably agree on what we want.
But the problem with presenting this stuff is that it needs to be presented in a way that states how the changes would affect the STEEM price and value.
For instance, it would make sense on surface level that an appealing Steemit would onboard more people into the ecosystem. Of course, these people should also be such that they would buy STEEM and power up. I think there's still work to be done in regards to incentivizing that.
But my point is that merely stating how it'd be cool to have an ideal ecosystem where if you work hard and produce good content, you'll get rewarded probably won't cut it because most of the big shots are only looking at their profits and profits alone.
So, it needs to be sold to them in a way that makes it clear how they would benefit financially.
Not saying it can't be done.
Most people should be expected to be looking after their profits. Steem should work under that assumption or something is broken. To try to make people not look after their profits isn't going to cut it.
This is true. Obviously. But people looking after their profits and figuring out a Steemit that onboards people and the added purhasing of STEEM, aren't mutually exclusive.
Easier said than done, though. And I'm not one to claim I have easy answers. I think whoever does, is wrong.
If Steem doesn't work economically then the whole ship sinks. Everyone knows that much.
You wouldn't get that impression that from reading a lot of these comments. Or at least I often don't see it. Many are simply focused on "their" post rewards, or things like not making people feel bad by getting downvoted*, etc. and don't consider the bigger picture or think it matters.
* I'm not saying that people feeling bad is entirely insignificant, but when the question comes down to one of working vs. not working economically, that matters more, and no matter where you come down on this question the problem is that I often don't even see people willing to ask it.
Yes. But what's the best way to make it work economically? People can't even seem to agree on what Steemit is supposed to be.
There are people like me who would like it to be a content publishing platform where creators and curators get rewarded, instead of the content enriching Facebook and Twitter.
And then there are those who place no value at all on the content and social interaction and want STEEM to be reserved for apps.
I think if we can successfully align good content, even very roughly, with rewards and exposure, we'll likely be one of the most successful platforms out there as we offer a very direct way for creative content to be rewarded, which is lacking elsewhere.
This would also draw non content creators here just by virtue of what we have to offer in terms of content. Hopefully this will all translate into a larger ecosystem and higher steem $.
Whatever the case, having a completely dysfunctional content discovery/rewards system can't be helping our price, even if market behavior is sporadic and random in the short term, I believe it reflects the underlying value and utility of the platform in the long term. A working content discovery and rewards system is more valuable than a failure of one.
More can be improved too. The promoted section for example is being wasted when it could actually do something helpful for the ecosystem. Ads could be built into Steem UI and then people wouldn't have to buy exposure by other means.
I suggested it once that the promoted feature could be changed in a such a way that the SBD used to promote a post would just push a post up to the trending page.
So, let's say I put 50 SBD into a post. That 50 SBD would show as $50 in the post payout. And so on. There are people who put a lot of money into promoting their posts, even though the gained benefit is rather low.
This SBD getting burned wouldn't exactly hurt anyone. And it would give a reason for someone like me, who isn't that big of a fan of handing money to the bot owners who are partially responsible for turning Steemit into the anti-social media, to promote my posts to the trending page more.
Here is my old post about it.