I really like the potential of Steemit. That is why I contribute so many blogs and do my best at providing worthwhile comments. I even have recruited several of my friends to the platform. Some have stayed, posted a few times and make comments. Others never really saw the “diamond in the rough” that we all see. I have explained it is still beta and many positive changes are happening. Even with this enthusiasm, many have left.
Here are the top reasons, as best as I can understand them:
1. Poor organization of content
Steemit is about content. All other professional sites have search tools, home pages, and means to align interesting content to the induvial user’s tastes. Steemit on the other hand is more of a mud flow. Steady, moving, and you never know what you will see at any given moment. It can be very frustrating to not be able to easily locate content aligned to their interests. So it is frustrating.
2. No value to their curation
A major part of the initial lure was the fact people rank the content. People’s opinion matter. In fact, the claim is that by upvoting and curating, users can get a little payment. Payment is tangible, no matter how small, that proves their opinions matter. It can be quantified. But what they found is that for all new members, who don’t invest, they start out with such little Steem Power that their opinions don’t actually matter. Regardless if they are the first upvote before a pod of whales or if they are just part of a few minnows who indicate they find a post valuable, the new member gets nothing. Whales gain so much of the rewards, nothing is left for the minnows and the minnows by themselves do have enough power to make posts valuable. So in the end, they found the “pay to curate” claim misleading.
3. Not easy to upload content.
This is tough. Many people are not bloggers or natural writers. They haven’t found their own social voice yet, and may never will. But everyday-people do contribute content to social sites. They give a quick update in their profile, post a picture or meme they have seen, or maybe a quick link to a story they read. For the content on topics they follow, they make a quick comment or resend it to their followers/community. Steemit is different. It requires original content that is more than a picture, meme, or link to be noticed. That is beyond many. Even positing reply’s, which are easy enough, if you can readily find content which you are interested in. Which they don’t have the patience for. Compounding the problem is users don’t have profiles or an easy way to build followers in a meaningful way. So putting their original thoughts, ideas, pictures, etc. seems daunting. For them, it simply is not easy to participate.
I don’t fault them for leaving.
From their perspective, Steemit was frustrating, misleading, and difficult for them to participate in ways they are accustomed to. I hope they will return some day, but first impressions carry a lot of weight with people. I think if we want more people to join and remain as valuable consumers and creators of Steemit content, we need to adapt.
I have some ideas, which I posted last week for consideration, that might address these issues: Steemit Proposal for Developer and Community Evaluation
https://steemit.com/steemit/@mrosenquist/steemit-proposal-for-developer-and-community-evaluation