Hi
I read your post and because I just finished my second month in Steemit I will give you my newbies perspective.
What do they need to know?
They need to know a lot but they need to learn it in small pieces. This is a wonderful platform with really positive goals. But it’s parts are complex and the vocabulary extensive. Newbies need a brief intro into Cryptocurrency and the blockchain 1-2 sentences max. Then a brief explanation of how this platform rewards them for content in relation to how much they have invested in it monetarily and how much their followers and their patrons have invested in it.
Newbies need to understand the rules about posting, plagiarism, photo credits and cheetah.
Newbies need to know about the 75-25 split author and curator and about the 30 minute rule.
They need to know about dust, dustsweeper, Steemit basic income and vote buying. They need to understand these things to make a little money and not run a foul of the bots. Finally it would be helpful for them to know the relative futility of having large numbers of ghost followers versus the value of building your following by personal interactions one on one.
What will help most stay?
I think people need money and recognition to stay. They need to see the proof that this platform pays for their content or proof of brain, and they need to know someone reads their posts, even if they don’t upvote much. I think the second may be more important then the first, but it’s individual.
What is the thing that frustrates new users the most?
That’s complicated and I am sure varies from user to user. But I think it’s learning the essential information as you go along. It would be nice for people to know the core essentials from the start, so they can avoid finding out important things after they are hurt or lose money on things like no curation rewards because they were voting to soon or lost all their rewards because they were dust payments.
What can a community do for them? Can it even do something?
Yes😀 pair newbies with mentors and/or provide them a small list of essential facts with an attached glossary of terms. If the community could mentor newbies I think it would help newbies stay. Also start setting realistic expectations that this is a long term commitment and people who make hundreds of dollars on each post as a newbie are rare. This is about engagement and building relationships over time, not a get rich quick vehicle for most individuals.
How do we level the playing field? Can we even do it?
I don’t think that’s possible and I am not sure that’s what we need or that that’s right or just. The people who benefit from early investment in Steem or a long term commitment to Steem deserve their success, so any solution that removes that is in my mind wrong and unjust. People need to know that we all have an equal chance to learn about the platform and invest time, effort and money into this endeavor to be successful. That’s about as fair as life gets. This platform can’t fix all the worlds problems, but it can help people and communities profit from investing in and engaging with each other.
Those are my thoughts off the top of my head.
@shortsegments