I've been doing some light research into interesting STEEM projects, just to get to know what exists and what doesn't. I've made a small list of social DApps attached to Steemit below. They are all projects that seem to be adding to the overall value of the Steemit ecosystem and allow you to post in whatever format you enjoy...nearly.
The combination of those platforms pushed my eyebrows further up my head than I anticipated.
What's of particular interest is that if Steemit is able to truly scale, being on this ecosystem would allow you to maintain your followers across every content platform type.
What does that mean?
Well, Imagine if your Medium, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Twitch, Instagram and Pinterest followers were all the same and could consume your content in their preferred medium at their preferred time with just a single follow. We get that out of the box with Steemit, sort of...
Forget for a moment whales, minnows, bots, author awards, curator awards etc... in a more fleshed out ubiquitous state, just being able to maintain a constant cross content platform following could be wildly interesting.
Over the coming weeks, I'll be testing some cross posting tests and sharing results in my feed. I think using this list of platforms more strategically could be exciting.
However, I also wonder if, for the interim, are they're just unnecessary abstractions making Steemit less useful?
That's where my big fat question comes in. I'd be curious to hear what more established seasoned Steemians think.
Big Fat Question
Do these abstractions add value to Steemit or do they muddy it and send people fleeing?
Think about it. Jane Doe arrives at Steemit with the intent of creating quality content and likely has the expectation of a Medium meets Crypto type environment. Jane signs up and—assuming she doesn't pay—waits 1-3 weeks to get on. She finally arrives and then is immediately hit with what on the surface appears to be really poor quality content. A barrage of images and videos with only a single sentence or hashtag. Jane has no idea that those posts were made in the context of DLike, Zappl, SteepShot etc... In those contexts, those sort of posts are exactly what they're supposed to be but outside of those contexts, they look cheap and messy.
A lot of Johns and Janes who have every intention of creating top quality content are going to instantly bail thinking... NOPE!
I'm not saying that filtering for people who will investigate more is a bad thing for now but if one is strictly thinking about mass adoption, it's a problem. A problem that could largely be solved with better on-boarding.
Question asked. Statement made. Now on to the exciting juicy bits.
If you're reading this, then you're already on Steemit so why not go try out one of these platforms and be one of the first to be there. DLive, for example, has about 13,000 users...imagine if you could've been on Twitch when there were only 13,000 users. Here's your chance:
D.tube
On the surface—and in name—it's just a decentralized Youtube clone. Decentralized, however, should be the key word there. It's built on the "STEEM Blockchain and the IPFS peer-to-peer network" which, means that it can't be censored and there isn't a gamed algorithm behind it selecting one piece of content over another. The platform is monetized by taking a rather sizable portion of author and curator rewards but they seem to have a fair explanation here. They do have an option to delegate to them which can be found in the same update.
DLive.io
DLive seems to the the decentralized Twitch. Surface appearances aren't everything but DLive does seem to be better organized than some of the others on this list and have already implemented some basic features one would expect of a company with its act together. When you're welcomed, they state that the important things to know are:
- "No fees on rewards earned"
- "A decentralized platform where the community decides what is valued"
- "Rewards are paid in STEEM tokens"
You can jump here to read their "getting started" which answers quite a few questions that may be lingering.
DSound.audio
I can't find much information on DSound, which seems to be modeled off of SoundCloud. Signing up is simple with your private posting key which they assure you isn't stored on their server. The project was created by 
Zappl.com
Zappl is Steemit's Twitter. As with some of the other projects, it's difficult to find detailed information, which may be because they've been furiously building rather than writing. Or, it could be something more ominous. Regardless of which option you lean to, you can use or refuse them on the web or via their app. Here's their intro video:
DLike
Steem-terest? Yeah, that was pathetic...I know. DLike is the ecosystem's Pinterest. Again, not much in regards to roadmaps, about pages or detailed information but hey...you've just found decentralized Pinterest! Do we really need a massive About Page before we dive in and give it a go? Probably not.
SteepShot
And we finish off with SteepShot who I give "thanks" to for just having a straight forward FAQ page. They monetize by taking a 15% cut of Author awards which seems to be slightly nicer than some of the others in this list. They have a pretty impressive mobile and web app for being in Alpha. Here's they're promo video:
Conclusion?
I don't think we need one. This list is exciting and regardless of the ultimate success of Steemit, any of these DApps or this article...sign up, smash some buttons and maybe get creative in how you use the whole ecosystem to cross promote and make beautiful content.
Oh and one more thing...they're not a Social App, nor do they have anything to do with this post but if you've made it to here...ummm...WOW!...Thanks...why not go play with some monsters while you're creating amazing things.