This seems to be the new catch all phrase for those who don't like the way something is going on Steem.
It is Unsustainable due to (Insert your pet peeve here)
You might be correct, but you are correct for the wrong reasons.
Of course it is unsustainable here are some other reasons
- We are totally over paying nearly all content here.
- The only proven market for Internet content is advertising.
- There are no plans to sustain what we currently have
Other Models that were unsustainable in the beginning
- Yahoo and Google
- Amazon
The good news is there are no plans to sustain what we currently have in place.
SteemIt Inc's plan to make it more sustainable is SMTs and Communities. Others have other views although I am unclear on their plan.
For the most part Steem is rising and falling with the entire crypto market.
While I have your attention, let's talk about retention also.
There are a lot of reason that users would come and go and not continue to use the site. The payouts is the most common reason I see attached to this, but I beg to differ. I am not saying that none of it is related to payouts, but there are many other factors in play.
- They only signed up for the wallet, to buy, sell or trade Steem with zero intention to be a content creator.
- They signed up a network of scamming accounts and find it is unprofitable now
- Interest in the entire crypto market has gone down since last year
- They didn't really know what they were signing up for
- They got tired of listening to the community fight and complain
- They were unhappy with bots, rewards or other factors on SteemIt.
I'm not even sure we should consider or worry about retention at all. I do like to pay attention to the traffic, which to me seems on par with the crypto space in general.
I don't know of anywhere else you can post your content and earn what many are earning here, if it doesn't meet your requirements I will be sorry to see you go.
On a personal note, I am feeling kind of overwhelmed by all the negativity. Bear with me, I will sort myself out.
To the newer end-users, please don't confuse the loudest for the majority, some of us recognize there are challenges with paying people for content. Many sites have tried it, just not with crypto we are doing just fine!
Nasim Najafi Aghdam was unhappy with the payout structure at you-tube too and then she found her life unsustainable. Please don't go you-tube shooter on us. Of course, I'm making crude use of someone's real-life tragedy to create a joke so I won't go much farther with that.
On a more positive note, I look at steemit from a more altruistic view too. I have found that having a goal of finding and creating content or adding to that of others makes me more conscious and aware in my daily life. I look around more as I travel, I stop and explore and photograph more, I search out more things of personal interest to me, I look for news and events worthy of sharing and I think about how and what I say might have an impact from someone else's perspective. I think Steemit makes me a more engaged better person. Was that too over the top?
Structurally as a social media platform, Steemit may have its flaws but give thanks it isn't a monster like "facebook"....yet.
Just remember it's early days and you're doing just fine.
OO good point! I also look around more as I travel and I always view things through the lense of " I wonder if that would be interesting enough to share on steemit. Would people like to see/learn about that?"
Same thoughts here. I also improve my English.
Thank you oldtimer. BTW, your English seems awesome to me.
Well first of all let me say that Steemit totally is sustainable for a couple of reasons. The most important being that our user base enjoys being here and there are way too many of us that spend every waking moment checking every aspect of Steemit for it to simply up and fail. You could say that we are all being overpaid, but you have to look at some of the other coins in place to make a comparison.
If you have enough Bitbean you get sprouted which creates more Bitbean. Do you think that Bitbean is as relevant as Steemit? I don't. I like it..... but it's not in the same ballpark.
There are definitely a few kinks that need to be worked out but as far as I can see they are being worked on. When SMT's come out we should see a complete rise up. However, I think the main factor keeping us down is simply Bitcoin's difficulty rising backup against the bearish market. Once the market rises up I think Steemit itself is going to explode.
Just look at Steem Monsters. It's already taking off and they don't even have the actual game in place yet. People are so excited to have something based on Steem. I'm excited about it too.... and why shouldn't I be?
This ride is barely getting started, it may not last forever, but we've still got a long journey ahead of us.
I totally agree. I was just responding to the dooms dayers.
It might be unsustainable as is, but it isn't staying that way!
"We are totally over paying nearly all content here."
Maybe, maybe not. Some content is way overpaid but I think some is underpaid.
"The only proven market for Internet writing is advertising."
We could probably use some more retention to help with advertising but our bid bots are a pretty nice model for advertisers to come in and use.
"There are no plans to sustain what we currently have"
I think we mainly need investors to realize the potential. Better users might also help. I think I might stop trying to help most newbies because most don't even seem to care or appreciate when I try and help them. Sometimes it even ends up costing me money to try and help them.
Overall I do think the Steem blockchain is currently sustainable.
Other businesses that were unsustainable for years.
Google
Amazon
Facebook
The model is under development.
When I said Authors are overpaid, I meant by any known sustainable standard.
To the users that are unhappy: Want to quit because someone earns more than you, even though you are out earning 99% of people that do what you do...
Seems dumb but go ahead.
"When I said Authors are overpaid, I meant by any know sustainable standard."
This is the point I think so many people are missing. 99.999999% of the content on Steemit, including mine, is NOT something that could be monetize anywhere else except Steemit. I've posted artwork from jobs so of course I was paid to do the art, but I can't make money just posting my previously done artwork. I also can't just do a random doodle of my own making, not selling anyone's product and make money.
I think the real issue here is people see person x made this much, and THEY happen to think person y is better so he DESERVES at least that much. I think this is setting yourself up for disappointment, and I also think it's 1000% unavoidable on a system like this where all these humans are interacting. Humans gonna human.
Exactly my point. And when people want to point out sustainability they jump right past that point.
We should all be singing SteemIt's praises, but some can overcome the ability to see what IS working, due to their focus on what isn't.
Steeminc might be unsustainable but the blockchain seems fine to me.
I think the current model is fine. I'm not convinced we even need SMT's. I have absolutely no plans to trade in my Steem for any SMT tokens.
We might be able to create a new standard.
We might have more of a user problem than anything. You really need to try and learn and make a lot of adjustments on here. I know I have made some mistakes but overall I think I have done well.
I think it is a game of numbers. I think eventually when we get up to 10 million accounts we will have 1 million active accounts and it will be game time. Steem might be at $100 or even $1000 at that point.
Take a look at a few obvious"top" youtuber's and you could say the exact same thing, but I bet they don't feel comfortable telling them that they shouldn't earn what they earn because the mindset is different but its not people have to work just as hard here to get a following that pays so the hypocrisy of that mindset is unreal to me
I think one of the biggest factors that will play into Steem's viability in the "public marketplace" is whether or not we start to grow our library of truly quality, original content. To a new user, or someone just scoping out the platform, this place looks pretty greasy. The quality of the trending page is largely deplorable, namely because we are in the "development and gold-rush" phase.
The developers are trying to figure out how to make it work, and the masses are trying to grab a bunch of quick cyber-cash for nothing. If we can get past this phase, and if we can retain the right people for long enough to get a base of valuable content built, I think this platform has the potential to become something special.
The voice of reason, again.
You looking under the hood for all of us. Some will see but most won't and that's fine with me.
yeah fine with me too @oldtimer. I guess that's the whole survival of the fittest thing. Lots of people panic sell their crypto, too. Sucks for them, but hey lower prices for me to buy when everyone panics at the same time, so go ahead!
Late to the party... but two years ago I said the same... not sustainable..... and then I walked away only to find two years later that.... hey, I don't live in regret, but damn arghhhh and poop ya know?
Thanks for your posts sir!
Well, when something is so early in construction it isn't meant to be sustainable.
When you are on the "Inside" of a new company you know all the problems. What we don't see is that all of the rest of the crypto projects have their own personalities and also legitimate issues.
I'm glad you've come back!
Me as well. Being more laid back about it this time and trying to view what is good versus what is good for me lol
I cannot for the Life of me find anywhere else as well. So it definitely meets my requirements :) Iam making chump change, but having a blast at doing it and making new friends and alliances. And seeing that we are at the beginning of all this....well is reason to be very excited, imho . I'm ALL in :)
Steemit is far from perfect, but it's the cryptocurrency-based content rewarding platform with least faults so far
not to mention the highest rated blockchain of them all!
haha, highest rated by whom?
https://steemit.com/steem/@clayop/steem-has-achieved-the-first-b-grade-on-weiss-cryptocurrency-rating
Great article when it was announced by @clayop
Although we recently got downgraded to a B- but still higher than the other top 54 currencies that got a C lol, the rating doesn’t exactly mean much much but the data that Weiss studies is wide ranging and generally a good tell tell to the modern investor about a projects true value so although symbolic in a sense - still bloody good mate
ok, that's pretty cool
Love this post. I try to stay away from the negativity and drama, but it's there, and some of it makes me think about things that need thinking about. I sure don't need to hear it all the time though. So I try to tune it out.
Even if this is just a grand experiment, one that is far from perfect, I still find it fun. I'm not making much, but it's more than I made blogging before. More than I made trying to sell books, trying to find an audience elsewhere. And I don't have to sell anything here, I just be me, and blog about whatever. And the friendships made here have been different than any other online venue. I love it!
You have some good points on user retention. I'm curious to see how Steem grows. It's still so new, and though the price of cryptocurrencies might be lower right now, blockchain technology isn't slowing down. It keeps innovating. I'm glad to be a small part of that evolution. ;)
Do you want more positivity so you're less overwhelmed?! I'm excited about steemit, regardless of problems. It's still in Beta!! The beauty of having problems is that it provides someone an opportunity to come up with the solution.
I just got a dress made with the steem symbol on it, so I guess I'm officially committed now.
Even I think if I only got $1 per post, it would still be exciting because that's just going to grow later! I think the value of steem is going to be a lot higher than it is now.
But even all of that aside, I really do like the community here. I like what you said about not confusing the loudest for the majority, great reminder! It's easy to forget because the loud stuff is typically what's in your face the most.
Maybe the ones who think we aren't okay are also not the majority, maybe they are just the loudest as well. Just a thought.
Before complaining we have to ask one question to ourselves as, Are we perfect?, when one individual is not perfect then a platform which is driven by million people how can be perfect, so first of all there is no platform which will give so easy access to earn and not only through your blog which is your actual content but you can earn from upvoting and comments too, so we never had this kind of Platform before we had just complaints for other platforms where we were wasting our energy but here we can put our energy to earn and if Steemit have few complaints or disadvantage then we can disgust it because the weight of advantages are more than the disadvantages. Thanks for sharing this post with us and wishing you an great day. Stay blessed. 🙂
As much as I hate to admit it, I’m starting to be okay with Steemit, Inc. not seeming to care much about Steemit.com and focusing instead on SMT’s and businesses that can run on the Steem blockchain. Short-term, it sucks, but long-term it has a chance to make early adopters very well off.
The idea is to allow communities (like a sub Reddit) to create their own rules and eco-system. I know that SMTs will allow account based voting. Maybe a combination of these two systems - Account based and Stake weighted hybrids. I do know if we have communities and SMTs out now it would help a lot with retention.
Luke Stokes had a post that captured why things are like this and why Steemitc Inc does not market or retain people.
One thing for sure the way we are promoting Steem with unrealisitic expectations is adding to that churn rate.
After reading it I have somewhat calmed down a bit and stopped wanting to lynch Steemit Inc and go with what is happening and the drive for Hivemind, communities and SMT makes sense.
Still don't like Sneak though lol.
I tend to think long term. In the short term, I am getting paid for doing what I normally do elsewhere. Videos and Instagram posts I would make for very little return, I am doing here for greater return.
Long term, my focus is on a community of local users and building them up. Making connections to new friends and hopefully making the world a better place.
You have a point. Although I think we can test with different blockchain settings, all those coming here for the money, will not be satisfied; not in Europe, not in the poorest country we have on earth. When Steemit grows to eg 10m active users, each posting 1 post per day, each user will in average earn about 0,005 Steem which is about 0,01 to 0,015 US$ct. And since any system will always have large out performers, the rest get easily 5 to 10 times less.
Yeah, this is an opportunity not a job. It isn't meant to be sustainable.
I recently started using busy.org instead of steemit and its much better feel. It feels like a social network side rather than a content selling site. Even $ amounts are in light gray color and not highlighted. It has a like and a unlike button and a notification which only talks about when your content is reblogged and commented on instead of when its up-voted.
Always see the positive side of a revolutionary technology. The people who are negative, always react by jealousy, envy or other kinds of motives!
Steem/Steemit may not be sustainable in it's current form, but should there be a true impetus for change (like a large investor coming in or something like that), it would be fairly trivial to fix nearly all of the major issues with the platform.
People ignore the most important things that this platform has going for it - a large and active user base that creates a ton of content. We just need a way to filter and present content in more easily accessible ways, remove the barriers to new user signup (i.e. waiting a week to get an account), build more effective ways to deal with spammers and abusers & tweak the rewards system so that whales and bid bots aren't the only way that new users can prosper.
We already have a more viable model than 99% of the blockchain tech that's out there now, and I see huge potential once advertisers are able to promote content and ads.
You are right @whatsup but we can not do anything against it.
We are really far from perfect but good.Steemit is not giving me anything yet but I am loosing my hope.
Well you are talking to someone who posted the first year for pennies. I made 95 posts that didn't earn a thing. I'm still here. If you get discouraged, tell yourself to keep trying
I bought 50K steempower and my upvote was worth 1 cent. Now people can give 1 cent after the first week being active and feel bad and start complaining.
wow, I really like hearing about the changes that have happened since I wasn't around back then!
Thats a whole lot of time invested. 95 post without earning. I love that spirit of never giving up. I started this year, still finding my way around
I'll not give I am trying to become a good user.And I am trying to posting Quality Content.I hope One day I'll get the success.....
I agree on many things, I did not come to be a content creator precisely, what attracted me was the concept of curation and crypto but I see that a lot of attention is focused on creating, writing or whatever and it can lead to content just for content creators, something like music for musicians, wich may not be fatal, some sites are getting closer to that but I don't now if that's the objective of the platform if there's a particular one, frustration and abandonment may be due to a problem of expectations, advertisement or the system itself. Personally it has given me enough (not financially tho) to keep up for a while around and see how the story goes.
So many people should realize this but ... maybe is too much to ask for. Happens in "real life" too, people tend to get confused about it all the time.
Wow...I got downvoted almost to death for saying much of this same stuff. Glad there are some with big enough wallets to fight off the malicious few.
Kudos.
I am actually Happy and unhappy both. This is place, where i can meet new people and write about whatever i like with some benefit. That's the happy part for me. There are also reasons to be unhappy too. But I am not bothering about these. Because, nothing is perfect in the world. There never will be.
The hashtag 'calmdown'pretty much sums my response. We all need to take a chill pill and stop the hullabaloo. I am not sorry to see some users go, I think we need more loyal users who are ready to 'ride or die'
So many things wrong with steemit. As speculated, the launching of SMT will see the Beta 2.0 which will come with correction. Steemit is the first of it kind who is paying content curators with crypto. Lets hope Steem Inc. will keep up
I don't see that much wrong with steem. I see a lot of flaws in people's expectations.
Something is better than the nothing other social media give us! Stay Steem Strong!
this is very good, I want to be able to realize my intelligence in making a favorable imacination for others, best regards from @ marlisa, I am a beginner in steemit, I want to have a success that can make my heart happy, success.
i am totally agree with you.
Well with the points I do agree that few are just getting what they want via many accounts and making this place really a mess.Well i do really hope the content creators do get the value they deserves and the SMT's do make the change that it needs out in here.
-Excellent post thanks for sharing..........sir
I came across this post in a resteem by someone else. Sorry so late to respond, but just read it. I can say that being somewhat newer (4 months) I was somewhat discouraged to find out it wasn't what the videos claimed on Youtube. I actually made the mistake of putting up some content I could monetize elsewhere, as well as a little I had monetized for years (self publishing). Now I was grossly underpaid and that type of content will not be making its way back on here from my fingers.
I was going to give up, then saw some of the success stories. And not all of them the get rich type. People lifting others up, helping others in need financially. The longer I am here, I am amazed at what Dan and Ned built here. The ability to help others by simply clicking that upvote button. The more stake you are willing to put in here, the more you can help others. And in helping others, water rises to its own level and others of like mind draw to you and upvote your sharing. I keep hearing of future communities, but they are already here for those who care to join them.
I am curious what the SMT dynamic will have on Steem. Hopefully I will be able to accumulate much more of it before it shoots to the moon.
If I had but one suggestion for the platform it would be to allow us to pin a post on our blog page. I have read so many how to grow on Steemit posts on here that are more accurate than the Youtube videos, but they quickly disappear into the sea of posts. It might help more users stay if they could get that accurate picture before they began investing time/money into the platform.
Glad to see yet another post aimed at the positives. It grows tiring of the doom and gloom, and I suspect some of it is on purpose to lead others to the soon to be here EOS platform. I predict within a few months people will realize people will be greedy there too and start looking for their next grass is greener situation while everyone here is rewarded by continuing to put in the effort.