This post is primarily directed at Steemit developers/programmers but the Steemit community can read it and comment too.
I know the title of this blog post is a pretty bold statement. And it will probably hit some of you in the face, especially since its written right here on Steemit. But I honestly couldn't think of a better way to get peoples attention. Nor to get my point across.
I think that Steemit is seriously flawed. And this is why I don't even care to use my Steemit account anymore, unless some of these things are changed.
My problems with steemit are:
Content on Steemit can't be edited/deleted or archived
I know some of you will shout, "we can edit!", well yes, you can, but only for a certain amount of time. After a few days the edit link magically disappears.
But what if there was a typo? Or perhaps some blog post that you regret? Or that article you wish you had never posted? (I don't know about you guys but I'm quite meticulous when it comes to my blogs/content.) If Steemit won't let us delete it, fine -- but AT LEAST give us the ability to hide it out of sight, so people can only see it if they choose to go into our archive.
If you Steemit developers are really concerned about the quality of content on Steemit, I think we should be able to edit articles indefinitely in to the future. I don't know why Steemit needs to have articles carved in stone.
Because of this, my silly little rant here will probably also exist on the internet until the end of this world as we know it.
Email address associated with your account can't be changed
To me this is the stupidest thing. If you can change your username, your website URL, and your profile image -- WHY can't we change our email address?! Email addresses come and go, and if you wait long enough people sometimes forget their email password or lose access to old email accounts.
Even if you never send us email anyway, we MAY need to change our password at some point in the future.
The wiki editor just flat out sucks
I mean seriously! We can't add anchored hyperlinks to make the reader jump to sections in the page or return to the top. We can't even open external links in a new tab either! How god awful is that guys? WordPress has a FAR better text/code editor than Steemit has, and that CMS is chock-full of security holes.
And these emoji's: 😆 😛 🌺 🍄 🍒 etc. etc. etc.
https://steemit.com/emojis/@blueorgy/steemit-emojis-master-list
...They all seem to work. But WHY are they not anywhere on the content editor?! There is no click+add button for them anywhere. Is this an oversight? Pure laziness? Because I don't buy the "software limitation" excuse in this case.
In all fairness I recognize the word "beta" slapped under the Steemit logo, but this is stuff which any talented UX designer would not hesitate to pass up. I imagine you guys have plenty of programmers and blockchain devs, but its definitely high time to spruce up Steemit with a better UI and a UX which isn't painful to use.
The payout system is all wrong and unbalanced
I understand how it all works. We're rewarded steem dollars and steem power and we can convert it to the STEEM token if we want to, or we can keep STEEM powered up which gives us more voting power, and it powers down super slow. Those who are "rich" give higher payouts on upvotes, and those with many followers will most likely reap bigger rewards. Well thats fine. (but its too damn complicated for a beginner with no clear explanation)
And what about the beginner who has less than 20 followers and who spends 3 hours writing a lengthy detailed article and adds his own photos but only makes $0.10 cents from it? Whereas another steemit blogger who has 900 followers just posts a stupid youtube video of himself petting his cat (with no written content) in under 5 minutes and he makes $1,500.00. This is totally unbalanced and unfair.
You would think that the system would be smart enough to recognize an article that took far more work to do. Based upon the number of pictures, and the number of characters in the post. Not JUST the number of upvotes.
Final thoughts
With all these "limitations" in place, (yes, that's what they are) I don't feel compelled to continue putting great content on Steemit using this account, even though they pay me for it.
Steemit makes me feel boxed in. And I need more freedom. If I could, I would delete this account right away and start over with a new account, posting "cookie cutter" content like a "daily photo" type content because its easy/fast and seems to reward better than doing anything that takes effort and thinking.
But please don't misunderstand - I'm not writing all this for any amount of payout. Nor do I want to start a war. I don't want the developers to feel discouraged. And I'm not saying that I will NEVER post on Steemit again, on the contrary, I think Steemit is an amazing project with huge potential, but it still has a long ways to go.....
If Steemit wants millions of people to come here, and use this website, then the website needs to be usable for millions of people.
Thanks for reading.
