Steemit is not nor will it ever be Facebook, and we need to stop telling prospective Steemians that it is.
I’ve just read a post in which the writer has declared that Steemit is garbage before going on to explain why he thinks this is the case. Whilst we are all entitled to our own opinions I strongly disagree with his conclusion, but I totally understand how and why he made it.
You don’t have to be on Steemit long before you start to read posts or comments where the writer is enthusiastically making the case for how Steemit will replace Facebook. Whilst I commend their enthusiasm, comparing Steemit to Facebook is like comparing apples and pears. At best you can make a dotted line comparison between Steemit and Reedit, but Facebook is too much of a stretch.
Steemit is a blogging platform, I like to think of it as a medium blog with earning potential. Even the Steemit UI supports my case, for instance we create stories over posts, the Steemit UI and community encourages and prioritises long form over short form content. Just think how many people have been criticised or down voted for sharing a photo with a caption or link. When in actual fact these use cases are common place on Facebook, to the point of where they are actively encouraged.
By miss selling Steemit we are inadvertently raising expectations of new Steemians on the platform, they arrive armed with Facebook muscle memory assuming Steemit will be the same until they are hit with reality.
Some people will see the value in the platform and find a way to make it work, whilst others will and are becoming disillusioned with the platform and rightly so. It makes no sense to boast about the growth in Steemit accounts if we then turn them into zombie and dormant users.
I think we can all agree that Steemit is a work in progress and I’m sure the platform will deal with some of these concerns in the passage of time. Maybe some of us would like to see the platform move more in the direction of Facebook, and move away from the blogging use case. But we just aren’t there yet, so we must be honest with ourselves and others when we talk up Steemit to the outside community. We want to see the platform attract new users, but we also want them to be active and take part over the coming months and years.
Rant over 😁😁
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