I had a rare visit to the #introduceyourself tag some seven days ago. I rarely visit outside my feed (maybe because I follow so many people already) so it was an opportunity to have a feel of just how well the Steem blockchain is actually faring post Hardfork.
What I noticed is a trend I consider somewhat unnerving. people making the rounds with the hashtag appear to be somewhat older members of the platform. Most of the users had reputations above 40. Of course this is purely speculative but it feels like the level of new users onboarded has slowed down drastically.
While it will not be entirely surprising after the fallout from the Hardfork, it will be troubling to imagine that onbording and growth has all but ceased. Someone made a profound statement on his "Why I left Steemit Post" on medium, where he stated that steemit has reached its peak from the December 2017 boom and will probably not reach that level of growth or interest again.
I strongly disagree with him by the way, but the numbers do call for some concern. Growth is slow and unfriendly. Some people even reported that numbers fell as much as 2/3rd of users engaging after the hardfork to about 16,000. Whether or not the previous numbers were bots, 16000 is an abysmally low number for such a revolutionary project.
How in the World does a great idea like this struggle so much? Perhaps it has nothing to do with the idea but the execution, or perhaps it is the timing. The rally to get us listed on Netcoin was a great insight or expose into where we are right now as a platform.
I am glad the witnesses and Steemit Inc are not sleeping though, and keep trying to improve the platform. Hopefully the Resource credit delegation and the Launch of SMTs will be a springboard for growth.
I really reallly really want this place to succeed.