Today I'm very happy to hear that the witnesses are frustrated with the development pace of Steemits user interface. They should be and it means that they may now start to look for solutions to the problem.
(I would of course also like to take this moment to in a friendly manner advice a very small number of our witnesses not to engage in shouting, cursing and blaming others for your own mistakes however)
Can I get a reaction? (Unless you're joking, don't behave like this)
To be perfectly clear, it is not anyones suffering that pleases me, nor am I blaming witnesses for the slow development. But they/you are as a group a tremendous force in this community, that must be expected to have some influence on both the general public and the developers of this site. - Neither am I of course blaming all or any particular developer.
Still, it remains painstakingly obvious that the entire network would do a whole lot better if we could just have a site that looked a tiny bit flashier and had a little more engaging features aside from the money making itself.
Same goes for Bitshares
The technology is there, but it doesn't exactly look sexy or work as seamlessly as the average BTC exchange.
Now, a lot of people are likely to respond to such "accusations" by pointing out that "It's NOT your average social media or exchange" and that's fine. I will agree with you that it isn't. I've also always been very patient with development and countless times repeated to others that this still is a project only in its beta phaze.
But if we intend to be the best, then why should we continue to lower the standards we use for meassuring what's great and what isn't? Instead ask yourself why so many power users gravitate towards using other platforms as soon as the Steem price starts getting a little bearish? This is the time to ask; before it becomes an issue again.
Now that we're all terribly upset, we can all - each in our own way - start to look for this sign
Some tough love and questions to ponder
I love the Steem project and what some innovative people have done to radically improve on this ecosystem, but Steemit clearly is lagging way behind. We don't need to know the exact details of what kind of work they've been doing behind the scene as of late in order to conclude this.
If this site looked and worked better, then we would have much faster user growth - even now that it has picked up a lot as of late, not thanks to the state of the site - and Steemit very likely would have had more resources to work with as well. But what happened around here (Steemit) as of late?
No PR campaign can fix this
I really don't like to nag and complain much about this site. In the long run, it shouldn't even be the center of the network. But right now, Steemit inc obviously has a huge influence. A new round of marketing, while better marketing is much needed, is not what's going to solve these issues.
So I wonder, how many employes Steemit currently has coding a fresher looking website right now? Something more estheticaly pleasing, something that draws you in and keeps you engaged no matter if you make money or not. Where are those simple little features that will enable this site to compete with Synereo or a similar competitor in the not so distant future?
I would actually much rather leave you with this open question to chew on, than answer it and let the conversation be over. No matter if you write back or not, just think about it.
Alternative solutions
Everyone can do something to make things better. First, you may of course speak up. But if you can think of absolutely no way of influencing Steemit to move in a better direction, then at least make a conscious effort to support other user interfaces.
I would think that currently Steemit gains very little if anything directly from you simply using their site, but if you help beta test other user interfaces you will at least be supporting the Steem ecosystem and you might even help put some extra pressure on Steemit to shape up.
Find a source of light you must, even when a flashlight is lost
At no point in writing this post was there any anger in my mind, I just wanted to express a different perspective than some might have as of right now and stimulate some thinking on behalf of the community.
This recent comment of mine was the source material. I just rewrote some parts to make it all a better fit for the post.
- What do you as a user think about the current colors, layout and implementation of the most basic features on this site?
- If we could find a way to make this site the way you always wanted it, what would you change esthetically?
- What could we do about about it?
Remember: If you answer through the eSteem app or chainBB you will likely recieve some money in the form of upvotes from users that are trying to support these two apps!
Have a great day everyone, including Steemit inc, independent developers, whales. Hope you found something of value to you!
