My first week in this community has passed.
This might be one of the very few "serious" posts that I will ever write here...
I found out about Steemit a month or two ago. I was interested in the blockchain based social media platform. Decentralized platform. My journey started from DTube. I had been searching for a video sharing platform alternative to Youtube. DTube seemed to have everything I was looking for: easy to use, nice UI, relatively active user base and so on. A week ago I created an account.
So, I decided to buy myself in to avoid the waiting period in account creation. I posted a couple of videos that I had uploaded to Youtube before. I searched for people with the similar interests. I wrote a couple of comments, upvoted posts, posted again and so on. I decided to invest some of my bitcoin to Steem power. Around 80 euros worth of bitcoin to be precise. Just to give me some resources to post, comment and interact in the platform. I have a relatively large amount of cryptocurrency so the risk was not too big for me. I started with transfering tiny amouts, later one a bit larger investment. With the investment of 80 euros my vote is currently worth about 0.004. And yesterday I earned my first payout, 0.13 USD in author rewards.
I should be clear about this: I did not and I do not expect to earn anything. I was and am very sceptical in this area. I have a job, and at least for now I personally treat Steemit as an experiment more than anything. Although proving my thoughts wrong wouldn't be a bad thing...
So, now to the impressions (after one single week). Here are the good things:
Mostly user friendly. Yes, every single related site (steemit, dtube...) I visited was quite user friendly. Posting was easy, uploading a video was easy and quick. Very quick in fact, we are still talking about blockchain so that was a very pleasant surprise. I had a few problems when I tried to upload my first few posts. Problem relating to RC, which was fixed by powering up. I figured that out although the error messages were not really helpfull...
Those people I have interacted with (through commenting) have been extremely nice and supportive. There are only a few of you, but this is a real compliment from me. Especially I wan't to thank
,
,
and
for commenting. The last two users mentioned I share atleast one common interest with :)
The idea of decentralization. Note that I purposely used the word idea.
Being an alternative to Google owned platforms etc. The censorship is real in big social media platforms. That might just be the main reason why many are searching for alternatives.
Now the things I am uncertain about:
For an outsider and a newcomer such as myself, this platform and what it is supposed to be is a mystery. I see a lot of vlogs, some of them are good, some of them are not. Also I see a lot of things related to Steem and steemit itself. Let me get this straight: I completely understand why lot of the content here is either about or related to steem currency and platform. It's only natural. Many new users might find content relating to platform itself really helpful. I did find a few good posts myself, being new. If Youtube was new, would it have videos about youtube constantly on the first page? I don't know, but I would guess that maybe. But think about the perspective of someone who is searching for an alternative to Youtube and finds DTube and Steemit. First impression might be that the sites only consist of that type of content. I also see a lot of discussion about how DTube should not be a youtube clone, which is fair enough. But what if it would be another Youtube without the problems that Youtube currently has. Think how much attention that would drive in as Youtube seems to be constantly digging its own grave...
Searching. You are apparently supposed to find content using tags on the side of the page. Those would then direct you to the content you're looking for. Well, I can't find what I am really looking for. Search bar in DTube shows 10 results. If you search the word skyrim in dtube there's only 10 results. Almost half of those results are my videos. Why is that? I get that search in steemit uses (google?) based search. What about DTube? The search isn't fair to all users.
Short life span of content. So as I understood, there are active posts which turn inactive after 7 days (after receiving the payment from 7 days, if there's any). After a while the content simply disappears, right? I get that the platform does not have an infinite storage space for the content. But I am wondering how the short payout time will affect the quality of the content... Is this going to be like a news feed? I'm refering that the content is meant to be procuded and consumed in a short period of time?
Upvote bots and trending. I see quite a lot of shit in the trending page. Upvote bots are not a secret in this community. I mean they may be frowned upon but still... Is it essential to buy yourself votes to succeed here? Those who can invest most real money into this get the most attention (from bots and real people)?
Interacting here is not free. Based on blockchain this is quite understandable. I am talking about the resource credits which you absolutely need in order to do anything in here. Technically creating account, posting, liking and such is free. But without the steem power you don't have enough RC. Yes, I suppose you could earn enough steem power by using that tiny initial amount and posting something that will go viral. But how likely would that be?
The selected few who control everything. Majority of the Steem is in the hands of those few who we others can refer as whales. Money equals power both in real world and in this platform. But can we really talk about decentralization? If there are a few people who can decide what is good, what gets the attention and what doesn't get. Someones reputation here can be ruined if literally one really powerful person does not like you. I mean, all the power is in the hands of few? That is the literal description of centralization.
Note: Everything I wrote is based on my own experience.
Here we are. First week and my own honest thoughts about it. I will probably write second similar post after 1 month, third after 6 months and so on.
Until next time!