I don't mean for this post to come across as anti-crypto at all. I just am posting some opinions that I have observed since I joined this social platform. Don't get me wrong I know it's based on the blockchain so it will always be about crypto in that regard, but there has to be a lot more here for steem to grow.
Cryptocurrency related posts are interesting but a lot goes over my head because Steemit and Steem are my first foray into this world. On that topic I can't contribute very much however I can make some general observations about the platform as a whole. I see art, food, and photography starting to take shape in the new post section of steemit and a few others lagging such as humor, family, business, and history. Humor stands out to me because I love to laugh and make others laugh with me so I hope to see this community grow along with many others.
I've heard rumors in the next hard fork something will be shaping about community tokens and that is definitely a step in the right direction because if this platform is only focused on bitcoin / cryptocurrency it'll be a hard place to grow and diversify. Maybe a category tab on the homepage could give users faster and easier access to a wide range of topics without having to use the google search option on steemit.
If you agree or disagree with my random thought post let me know because I sure hope all these communities thrive at the same time.
What you are seeing is called the founder's effect. Most of the people that are drawn to a service initially have a subset of shared interests. In the case of steem, it happens to be Crypto because that is what is running everything behind the scenes.
With other websites, the same thing happened, Reddit's early crowd was mostly programmers, and 4chan's early crowd was mainly anime fans.
As websites mature and the demographics get wider, the conversations will open up to cover a wider array of topics and opinions. This will eventually happen over time.
But will the inherit foreign nature of crypto deter the wider demographics?
When posting or enjoying Reddit, 4Chan, Slashdot and the all the other social bulletin boards throughout the decades, no one had to then learn about STEEM, Steem Power, Steem Dollars, Reputation, Followers, Whales/Minnows, etc.
And as SteemIt community tries to grow in breadth, there already appear to be dozens of new side projects like chainBB that involve RocketChat, Discord, and a level of attention well beyond what Slashdot and Reddit ask.
The current crypto-myopia seems dangerous.
Lopsided areas definitely could cause new users to pause perhaps. Learning something new never pushed me away but maybe for others it does.
Yea, I think learning something new is a part of it, but there is also the fact that SteemIt really likes to talk about itself.
So, if you aren't coming for news on crypto or want to hear the latest wondrous developments of SteemIt, you are in an awkward spot.
Yes, that is one problem that I think the steem team will have to deal with, but eventually those ideas I believe will be abstracted away, and knowing how to navigate those things will become easy.
Remember that for a majority of the users of a site like reddit, content creation isn't something that they do often, a majority of the users come in, comment, and upvote what they like, there is no reason why the average steem user of the future wouldn't do the same.
I see and I hope you are correct @laingsoft Thanks for commenting.
I definitely agree with you @natevegas, there is an over abundance of topics about crypto that hit the trending / hot pages. A quick glance shows that at least 30-40% of topics on the trending page right now are crypto related.
I have my own theories on this (whales upvote whales and whales are crypto) but for Steem to hit a larger growth trajectory it needs to find a way to compartmentalize topics better and make the community more user friendly for a typical social media user. Curation in my opinion is broken.
I would love a subtract option. Trending - (Crypto+Streemit) :D
THAT would be great
Yes it seems to be populated like that. I don't know if it was worse 10 months ago or not as I wasn't here.
As all things in this world, every growing platform/community/page and etc. is always evolving to keep up with demands of its users. That's why I believe that new features will come and new features will always come together with the development of the community.
I think that the category tab that you mention is going to be a good addition.
I also believe that a lot of member in here have good ideas for updates and I am wondering if there is a place that we can discuss update ideas and ways to make this community experience better.
Yes growing pains I suppose and I like your idea of everyone coming to one place to discuss new features.
Yeah, I know that there is the chat for freely discussion but to be honest I didn't make a research to see if there is something available out there. I still don't know enough info for the whole steemit infrastructure and who is responsible for the development.
When i make the extent research that i have in mind i hope to be in a place to help more.
( hey steemit developers that you are watching, that last sentence was for you! junior wanabe software developer here that wants to help =p )
I agree it can be complexed. Still learning too.
Understood on that one @suziescorner and learning can be fun as well.
I am fairly new too and still learning. There is a lot going on and I'm am interested to see how this grows as a platform and how everything else falls into place.
Yes it'll be interesting to watch what happens next. I think steem will continue to rise and gain traction.