I came to check out steem after reading a lofty and inspiring philosophical essay about it on a blog somewhere. I don't recall where but that's not really central to my point. What I've found thus far has fallen miserably short of my expectations. For one thing, the UX of the site is very lacking. There's no intuitive way to browse the material. This is a problem because from what I've seen, steem has mostly just become another internet repository of mindless drivel. I've come across and read some very interesting ideas on here, but honestly, wading through all the worthless garbage to find them is to much effort.
As a newcomer I agree with what you have to say about the lack of introductory material to help orient new users. I had not heard of the groups which you mentioned. I'll be sure to check those out. Users like yourself are the only reason why I still have any interest in trying to figure steem out at all.
I'll completely agree in the site's UX being an issue. Specifically the ability to easily search has been lacking since I've gotten here myself. Even google can only go so far to find a specific post I've looked for when I didn't remember the author name. The feed did help to a degree (I've kept my follows rather thin to do this..I'm not a fan of follow for follow) but it alone isn't a full enough fix. The best idea I've seen come out (not my own, but don't remember who's) is to be able to search across multiple tags at once. (i.e. filter for articles with guide, steem dollar, AND cashout tags)
I do disagree on the quality of work here, but I'll admit my feed being full of awesome stuff makes a difference. Since I joined the quality of reading, art, and honest soul sharing is has been mind blowing to me. I flat out gave up trying to get much out of FB myself.
Feel free to join our channel at https://steemit.chat/channel/steemprentice or direct others there. There are dozens and dozens in there just to help to get used to the site, answer questions, give feedback/suggestions, etc.
One thing to keep in mind too, is what you see today is nowhere near the final product. The site is still in its initial beta stages, and they are planning to add a lot of new features and updates over the next few years. To give you a preview of the types of things they are thinking of, you can check out The Steemit Wish List.
I would say the main thing to look for right now is the community. Behind the crude website, there are a lot of cool people here interacting with each other. If you like the people and think the site has good potential, then its probably worth sticking around :)
Oh I completely agree! I merely see these things as very low hanging fruit, especially just adding a guide/faq button in the menu. I'm more the willing to be patient for whatever the long term solutions of the devs, but with this being a problem NOW, intermediate solutions are important to get in place.
Not to mean any disrespect to the overwhelming amount of work on the devs plate and pipeline, but often these solutions come to late on their own. Imagine this place the last month or so without curie or RHW.
I'll also admit I wrote this before I saw the latest github issues or ned going on steemspeak.