Hi Elizabeth and co.
I really hope things improve from here on in and if there is anything I can do to help, please feel free to send me message.
There are two big challenges that I can see need addressing before we can thrive - I believe addressing these will be critical to rallying.
Long term, loyal Steemians have lost trust - since the the team committed to a SMT release date and didn't make it. In many people's minds its a bit of a Yoda moment, either do or do not. The price of Steem was dropping at the time @ned gave a committed date, many people trusted and held on, ignoring the power down by Steem inc an @ned promised SMT and committed to a date. What steps are being taken to repair the damage of a promise not kept. An apology from @ned and a new commitment date, would go a very long way I think. For those who follow the politics its pretty clear some powerful steem holders have also acted...unfairly. However for most of us we don't care much about whales, we just want Steem to work and so we look to Steem inc to respond.
Most Steemians who did the right things, supported the platform, brought friends and family onboard and powered up - are now facing a situation where a platform designed to reward content actually only rewards people who cash out as soon as they get it!
Many of my posts which paid up to $100, I powered up...now to only be worth a few $. I don't have the huge reserves to sell off that Steem inc does and I'm needing some incentive to keep working so hard (as selfish as that sounds). In many ways all the content creators who ever powered up are also like employee's - Can Steem inc please deploy some short term/immediate relief to the extended Steem family (those content creators who have put in effort and no have little to show), now the immediate threat employee situation has been taken care of, how can you restore the faith of the greatest, long term supporters.
I have some ideas, should you seek thoughts
All the best to all of us and a more successful future Steem blockchain.