The time between Christmas and New Year's is traditionally a great time to reflect upon the past year while looking forward to the new one. Many take this time to set up goals for the upcoming year.
As I scour the posts on Steem, I realize there is one area that Steemians need to band together to focus upon. In my view, this is an imperaitve. We are going to need a ton of posts about it, even until we are sick of hearing it. That is how important this message is.
This morning, I read 
Here is the article.
This really drove the point home.
Steemit is not Steem!!!
This is the message that we need to keep repeating. I feel one of the things holding this ecosystem back is the fact that people confuse the two.
In my travels around the blockchain, I see the same thing. You would think this is simply an error only a new person makes. That would be incorrect. There are a number of posts on here that are made by people who are long time Steemians who still use the term "steemit" when they really mean "steem".
This tells me that we, as a community, failed to teach people the difference. There is one way to drive the message home and that is repetition. It is up to us to make sure everyone we encounter understands they are not the same.
Steemit is a private company. They are the ones who develop the blockchain. There is also an interface called Steemit.com. This was the first application on the blockchain but not the only on.
Saying Steemit is Steem is akin to saying that the IPhone is technology.
Steem is the blockchain that the apps we are using are tied to. Many, including myself, call it an ecosystem. It contains all that is a part of Steem. Calling it Steemit omits all the other apps like busy.org, steemmonsters, and steemhunt.
Steem is much bigger than Steemit.
Steemit has a few dozen employees (if that many). Steem has ten of thousands of users. There are thousands of people who are tied to dozens of different businesses on here and it is growing each week. There are dozens of apps in working order, all backed by teams of people who have a vested interest in their success.
Does anyone believe Block One is EOS?
This is going to require a dedicated effort. It sounds like a boring undertaken that will grow old very quickly. I agree on both points. However, being misidentified in the marketplace can be death. The fact that many people do not understand the difference is an albatross around the neck of this ecosystem.
We saw how this plays out when word spread about Steemit Inc having to lay off 70% of the workforce. Much of the industry jumped to the conclusion that Steem is dead. While that is a logical presumption, it does show how we are one in the minds of most people. This can only be laid at the feet of those who are on here.
Quite simply, we did not do a good enough job in stopping this.
Do we post a comment in posts telling people Steemit is not Steem? Are we willing to take this action in an effort to correct people? If we are not willing to straighten this out, what do we think the general public will conclude?
Steemit is not Steem.
I do not believe we can say this too many times. It is something that needs repeating until everyone is blue in the face.
We have a great foundation here. Recent events make us realize how exposed we are to Steem. There are actions being taken to move us, as a community, away from that. It will take some time but I am optimistic for 2019 that we will see massive progress.
That said, the rest of us, especially non-technical people, can put our skills to work. It is up to us to spread the message. It starts with our own house. The 40K or so on here daily all need to know that Steemit is not Steem. We need to take the corrective action when it presents itself.
Steemit is not Steem; Steem is much bigger than Steemit.
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