ah good ol' Jerry.....
I have worked on other platforms where Jerry got banned (as mentioned by @themarkymark below) and was there at the time of his banning. It was instructors like me that worked hard to ensure Udemy/skillshare were platforms that both instructors and students would benefit and spoke openly about Jerrys ways at the time. People power works. And I applaud what you are doing here @pharesim
I myself need to do a good clean up on the witnesses I voted for. although I don't think too many will miss my vote cos I am still only a minnow. Its very hard to find a good balance on who to vote for and why.
I am fully aware of vote swapping between the top witnesses and it seems to me the the devs are all clapping each other on their backs, giving each other golden handshakes. Some awesome tools have been created by these guys and apps and they do deserve recognition. But fundamentals remain....
People are not sticking with steemit, retention rates are so so low. Did you know there is <8% retention for those on steemit 12 months? There are other problems in the 'model' or lack of 'model' too. Problems that need to be addressed from the ground up. And if they are not addresses then these witnesses and devs wont have anyone to use their awesome apps and tools.
Then we have witnesses like myself and @abh12345 running @steemcommunity witness server, working on the ground with people on the platform, trying to address the issues we can from the ground up. Tools are awesome, but interaction, engagement, education, help, advice, support and growth of Steemains that join is what will make steemit a world class platform.
Unfortunately how the top witnesses behave is not inline with a long term sustainable steemit. It is antisocial & centralized and narrow focused.
Shifting the mindset takes time, understanding the reasons and need for change should be simple...long term viability of STEEM and steemit. Although we have some awesome devs, we lack awesome business people with strategic vision. But I believe this can and will change. Just like Jerry was removed from other platforms...
I'll like to be involved in what @steemcommunity is doing, and maybe help, do you have a discord server or steem chat? thank you...
That was great.
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Tools are awesome, but interaction, engagement, education, help, advice, support and growth of Steemains that join is what will make steemit a world class platform.
Unfortunately how the top witnesses behave is not inline with a long term sustainable steemit. It is antisocial & centralized and narrow focused.
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Yes. Let's light this quote up a little louder.
Well said, Paula.
Well said.
I don't see retention as the main pressing issue at the moment. As long as they don't lose their keys everything is fine. And if they do they'll need a new account eventually.
Steem is not a Facebook with a need for strategies to addict users so they see as many ads as possible. With enough use cases around user engagement will naturally rise - not on steemit.com, but all over the web.
You are right, Steemit is not Facebook. at least Facebook managed to hold out and not monetize for years. Steemit on the other hand has a bunch of witnesses running bidbots and have monetized way to early. It is not about strategies to addict users, but strategies to ensure the wealth stays with a few hungry boys. Do you not think investors have long term strategies? Steemit needs a continuous flow of investors, not speculator. So far the crypto market is full of speculators and steems strength is based on that. But the market is going to change. I hope its not to late to change the mindset of steem witnesses then.
Anything that needs a continuous flow of investors is pretty much a ponzi scheme. And you're right, market conditions unrelated to how things are going here are pushing the prices up on the open markets. I cannot fault anyone who tries to profit off of this scheme under current market conditions. It's not a guarantee that STEEM and SBD will remain this high, and if the prices are high through no one on this website's actions then it only makes sense to exploit the limited time window that is presumably available to them.
I understand what you're saying in that big changes to how things operate around here are needed for steemit to remain relevant when prices crater. Sadly I don't think anyone who is profiting massively from this all right now is, even if they are aware of better ways to go about things in the future, going to cut their own legs from under them in the present, because it may well be the better option to shore up capital while you can and worry about how you can revive genuine interest in the platform later, especially if there aren't many real repercussions to doing so.
The main damage was done in creating a blockchain where stake determines everything, and then doling that stake out to a handful of people you know will back the same opinions. Everything else is just fallout from that initial shockwave of bad decision-making.
Seems like a pretty short sighted view, throwing together all those different groups in the last two posts. The top witnesses represent a small fraction of the top stakeholders, and not all do even belong to both groups.
As it's impossible to draw a sharp line between investing and speculation. Those are moral terms, not factual.
And there's quite a lot of devs working on community projects...
I guess i'm frustrated with both sides. To be a top witness you need votes from the top whales (of the ones that vote)
while I agree with almost everything you say, almost all the time, I'm wary of creating blanket statements...
As one of the top witnesses who knows fully we aren't covered by this particular brush stroke, I find myself doing more DMing back and forth these days with voters who say, "well, but I was told the top twenty are bad and they don't need my vote but I like you and now I'm confused."
We are a part of the change that many want to see happening who also need votes and who need support like many others, and we balance community with dev work with service and with charitable action and with any number of facets here. I suppose an addendum to your on-point statement is that the tools and the community work should also strive to teach critical thinking and communication so that we don't have a school suddenly flashing in a new direction without actually understanding why.