Steemit's long-term objective is to support quality content creation and community building.
In this post I would like to suggest solutions to some 'issues' I have come across.
1. Let us face it, Steem is complicated for an average user.
Steem, Steem Power, Steem Dollars, Public and Private keys - Posting, Active, Owner, Memo (I haven't yet figured out what the last 3 are for) and securing the account, Reward structure, Curation and voting, Payout structure - are not so easy to understand for someone who hasn't been exposed to cryptocurrencies and blockchains for quite some time.
All everyone completely understands is, post -> get votes -> get money which is not all a Steemer needs to know.
Side effects include : getting hacked, ineffective voting, poor reward destribution. This may also make the difference between success and failure of the project.
The solution
Simple. Have a FAQ section. I mean better than this https://steem.io/#faq :P
https://steem.io/documentation/ addresses very few of my questions.
What doesn't have one? The FAQ should have all the basics, what a Steemer needs to know before getting started.
Include questions and answers like, how long will the author continue receiving payout for a post? How to secure my account? How long before Edit is disabled? How much does a parent post get (25% as some posts suggest or 50% of any payout you receive as in Whitepaper and the documentation)?
2. Steem rewards are disproportional. Intentionally.
The very very important issue is that the rewards go a long way from the expected reward or let us say, the value created, comparable to a lottery.
And that is how it is supposed to work. Right from the Steem Whitepaper:
The economic effect of this is similar to a lottery where people over-estimate their probability of getting votes and thus do more work than the expected value of their reward and thereby maximize the total amount of work performed in service of the community.
The fact that everyone “wins something” plays on the same psychology that casinos use to keep people gambling. In other words, small rewards help reinforce the idea that it is possible to earn bigger rewards
This is sad. This is not what I thought I signed up for.
Payout is proportional to votes[x]^2 / sum(votes[0…n]^2). Voting affects visibility and visibility affects voting. A good post that doesn't 'make it' soon will never make it, and becomes 'hidden' and vice-versa. The network effect is just kept too high to expect fair or reasonable rewards.
This (along with the 3.) makes it literally a lottery. You hit it or you miss it. Factors like 'when you post it' become too important. Whales become much more powerful.
The solution
How about fair rewards instead of a lottery? How about rewarding content fairly than luring people with big rewards?
Steemit should be a fair for all, rewarding and awesome platform for content. Not a hit it or miss it luck game.
To start, take off the square part. Payout is proportional to the Steem Power voting for a post. (No squares) Simple, isn't it?
3. Steemit with glasses!
Reward structure is so very short-sighted! After a short period, your post will stop getting rewards. This essentially discourages long term value adding content. Old posts (even if it was popular) is 'hidden' too.
Your post got 10k votes after a month? You get nothing er.. recognition.
The solution
A post should always be able to earn rewards for good content.