STEEMIT needs to entertain, excite, capture imaginations and it also needs to keep on doing it! We've written a couple of steem-centric pieces over the last few days and we thought we would keep the trend happening for this post. As one thing that was generated by the discussion/comments on those posts was the issue regarding the retention of people on Steemit.
This is a crucial topic and I think it needs to be talked about a little more. It is one thing about capturing the imagination of people and feeding their want to be rewarded for posting on a social platform. Awesome stuff conceptually. But, that in itself would appear, from general consensus not enough to keep people coming back.
How can we stop the stars from fading?
There are a few things that can be done. First, continual and consistent updates to the front end of the platform. Yes, yes I know we are in BETA still. But people are using the platform so there is little time to rest on that...people make their judgements by whats happening, not what will happen 2 months down the track.
So constantly modifying, updating and improving the platform and how the users interact with the platform will keep people coming back to see how it's progressing. But, that progression I believe needs to happen a little quicker. It can be small things, but small things add up.
We can then start to look at different ways in which Steem can be earned outside writing posts or curating content. As unless you are heavily invested in the platform, curating content is not really going to be a viable option to make this a "thing" for most.
Games, tournaments, competitions, writing competitions - these are the first things that pop into mind. Put up bounties for people to fulfil and be rewarded.
There are just so many things that can be done like this. Or how about ideas that are super left field ideas like....
Captcha
For those of you who don't know what the story is behind Captcha, it is simply this. You are being put to work every time you log in to decipher words, you've seen street signs on some right? So you spelling it out is basically using you as a resource to state what it is. That was the methodology behind it, putting people to work without them even knowing.
Why do I bring this up?
Because it's a clever use of human resources to achieve a goal to decipher words/signs whatever it maybe.
This is the kind of thinking Steemit needs.
We need to find those things that people can work on, that are helpful and they can be rewarded for their efforts.
Beyond Keeping People Here..
It's not just enough to keep people here. We need to also be working out how to get people wanting to buy in. It was agreed amongst the comments from yesterday. That without people needing and wanting to buy Steem, there is a fundamental issue.
So what are the things that can be created on this platform that would make people want to purchase Steem not just sell it.
That is the holy grail. Whoever can crack that. Well, I will give you a fictional medal.
I noticed a small change today, when entering the page of a comment (through steemd.com).
Normally when i found myself on a comments page instead of the post, I struggle to edit the url so that I can get back to the root post and read the whole thread. Today there was a small change there. Now when I find myself on a comments page there is a button to take me back to the post on which the comment was made.
We don't always notice the changes, but little things are happening every day 😊
I saw the captcha and was ready to cry "no"! I thought it was going to be another request for requiring captcha on comments.
Thanks for the surprise afterward. I think that there are certain groups that could "help" each other out and get rewarded at the same time. There are dozens of sites that I look up code snippets and such trying to find what they do or if they are malicious. I'm not a coder. I also see platforms where users help each other "fix" coding errors.
No, I don't want to see this become another stackoverflow.com but there are some things that can be taken from that experience and applied outside of development.
Some have already done it with cooking & recipes, gardening, and photography. Oh, and crypto! There have to be more categories than that where users can share their professional or amateur experience in a topic generate more discussion and interest.
I'd really like to see a larger variety of tags that are popular and unrelated. Too many like steem/steemit, writing/fiction, etc. are related.