I have a few suggestions to improve the user experience, and subsequently member retention, especially among newbies.
The initial frustration is that you feel invisible, which is normal and expected for any social network. Add to it the feeling that your post had a shelf-life of 30 seconds, and it is lost forever thereafter, you can begin to understand why many abandon their accounts.
To solve this, Steemit would benefit by having a column on the side, like Dtube has, which shows related posts. This would extend the shelf-life of articles, and reduce the feeling of invisibility. This would certainly translate into improved member retention.
A new user should not be made to feel like they need to know all sorts of programming, bots, schemes or apps with additional learning curves to operate, in order to make it on the platform. This has a negative psychological effect, and hurts retention as well as content quality.
I am also deeply put off by the presence of the flag, and its consequences. This has a chilling effect when you envision that someone who may have worked years to cultivate their blog could be wiped out in a short amount of time, and all their hard earned income lost by someone with malice in their heart towards them, has a grudge, or holds differing religious or political viewpoints. This is the elephant in the room. I believe that this community can address offenses just fine by use of the written word. LET truth rise to the top. This is my deepest concern for the Steemit platform. It would be a far better platform if the flag was removed completely, and not replaced with anything similar - not even a thumbs down. Let people address problem members by shaming them with the truth of their miscreance. Censorship is always bullying; it is always cowardice of the truth. There is never a justification for censorship. It is a BIG turn off.
Keep it simple.
Thoughts?