Over the past year that I have been on the Steem platform, like many others on here, have seen many people come and go. There have been ups and down on this platform and that is expected when creating something new that never existed before.
There are the usual complaints you hear about the way the platform is and how lots of users have the crabs in a bucket mentality of "if I can't have it, neither can you".
A lot of people have the wrong expectations when it comes to Steem. They think they can start blogging and instantly start earning on their posts. A rare few do get a good start like those that are either known around social media, a developer, or some kind of celebrity.
Instant Gratification
As I mentioned, a lot of new users and some that try to stick around think they'll start earning like others on the platform right away. After a short while of posting and not seeing the rewards they are expecting, they start complaining or just stop posting.
Just like any other social media platform when you're new and not a celebrity of some sort, you don't just start getting followers and having your posts "liked". It takes time to build a following in an attention-based economy. A lot of people tend to forget to get the attention of an audience and that usually takes creating original content that allows you to stand out from others. When I curate the cryptocurrency category, I mostly see the same things like: "Bitcoin hits all-time high!" or spin article news from sites like Cointelegraph, nothing that really stands out. Quite a few users have put in the money and time into this platform along with their blogs. That is why those individuals earn what they do on their posts. Of course, there are other strategies that aren't well known to new and average users.
Income
There are a few that already have and new users that think they can quit their day jobs to blog for income on this platform. Only a few are able to pull this off because they are doing development for the platform or invested a large amount. I have heard many users say they rely on the rewards they earn as their income and this is another wrong expectation to have.
There is no guarantee you'll continue to get the same support from large stakeholders unless you yourself are one. Even with that, you always have the possibility to be downvoted. I hear users tell others that they are introducing to Steem that "if you blog on Steem, you'll earn money" and show how much they have made. While this is a somewhat good way to onboard new users, it's hard to not have the expectation to earn what someone else is making. It's a possibility but not a guarantee and this kind of word of mouth I have seen has led to many users being disappointed or envious. Become a part of the crabs in a bucket mentality...
A Finished Product
The Steem platform is not a finished product. Every legitimate blockchain is continually being developed on and Steem is no different. Even though blockchain technology has started almost 10 years ago, a lot of features and network security are new development that has been invented.
That goes the same for Steemit.com and other frontends. This platform is coming up on 2 years old in a few months. You can't have the expectation that this is a finished product. I still consider this platform in early development and there is no other blockchain platform that is anywhere near what Steem is doing for public content and social media.
So when something is not working on the frontends properly or the site itself is down, there's usually a lot of criticism that goes on and that is understandable, but at the same time, there has never been an incentivized, blockchain-based, public content platform in the past. We are at the beginning of innovation.
Conclusion
We seen users leave and that's not much of a problem in my eyes. We see users come back when the price of Steem is high and either way, the Steem blockchain will continue on.
With all the things that have been said about user retention, onboarding of users, etc, it's not all about what is wrong with the platform but users just having the wrong expectations. Perhaps we need to change something so users don't have those expectations.