It is really a hard time for Steem... they lead developer team seems to lack the strategic perspective to find out where is the true value of their blockchain (its users).
Inmho, you should take the decision that gives you the lower risk. That depends on the things that you value more, and on their relative weight. No one should be able to complain if you are sincere enough to communicate your concerns in the way you have done.
As for the Whaleshares platform, I think that you totally should get more on it basically for two reasons. The first one is that since the platform is giving its first baby steps its development team is fully engaged with the users (at least for the moment), yours will be a very valuable opinion due to your already proven positive leadership. The second is that since the vast majority of Whaleshares users already had a Steem account, and since you can cross-post it will not be a time-consuming task.
It is true that in due time Whaleshares may start to have the same issues that Steem currently has. But if it is so, then there is more reason to go there and to build a solid alliance with sensible and good leaders who can readily build their stake since the inflation rate will be above 50% the first two years. Thus, thanks to the experience gained and the easiness to acquire/buy a significant stake we can drive Whaleshare through a better path.
Then Steemit community will be faced with an interesting dilemma. They may face a competitor that makes them change for the better or just risk to be outpaced by Whaleshares.
Thanks for sharing your concerns and I offer apologies for daring to write about your project for which I am not an active participant. On Whaleshares I am under the same username.
Kindest regards.
I think this is a problem so common they don't even see it. Usually the people who care about finding and retaining new users are not the same people who care about code. @tcpolymath is a rare exception who understands both. I get the impression Steemit is 100% composed of people who care about code.
It is not a bad situation to have so many tech-savvy users. On one hand, healthy open source projects can be readily leveraged. On the other hand, an educational platform similar to Coursera can be also created with this interesting user base... There is just a lot of potential within the Steem community, artist, musicians, writers, that inmho it is obvious that being able to incentivize such users to gather here is the real value of this blockchain.
Absolutely!
I did not mean the users, I meant the business. I get the impression that Steemit, inc is made up of a small team of developers. I am guessing, I could be wrong. It's not uncommon for a startup, but it's a mistake. Developing the product is just part of what a business needs. It also needs to develop a relationship with its customers. Generally, the same person does not do both of these things well. Even if they have skills, it's better to focus on one or the other and work as a team.
As far as I can tell, there is no person or team focused on the user experience here. Communications exists as an extension of or a liaison between users and developers. If my impression is correct, that's not a functional way to structure a business (even a decentralized one).
I totally agree with you... from what I understand they think that it is the decentralized governance model that would create a group from within the community who will lead the customer caring policies...