Blockchain blogging and social media. You know what it is because you're here.
And if you're logged in to Steemit with a verified account, you know how great it is and how far it has to go before it's going to be ubiquitous.
The idea of blockchain dAPPs and other useful things one can do that's linked to public ledger backed by consensus and unbiased technology, is a noble ambition that may help humanity supplant its Private and Public posting penchant in places currently ruling the social media roost.
However, when apps such as Steemit automatically put a limit at a ridiculously low number of posts and comments on new users, what happens is that people will and do leave, opting for places where they feel more welcome, whether or not they are actually more free and more in control of their content on those other platforms.
If anything, Steemit should make it extremely easy to join and post and comment, without any limits.
The problem is that Steemit, as 'smart' as it is, is not really decentralized at all.
After all, the website is not on the public ledger. it's on the world wide web.
Naturally, Steemit claims that it needs to impose these limits in order to limit their server costs, etc.
But if that's the case, then why do people need to feed money to the beast? And if people do feed money into their Steemit account, then why is there any limit at all?
The answer is: False demand. Steemit is pumping hard for false flags as much as possible. They are creating fake demand by aggravating people who then want to post more, even if they mostly want to post more out of anger, than out of creativity.
Remember, there is no shortage of user generated content platforms that have tried to do something similar by charging and limiting new users. And if you know any of their names, it's because you have a good memory, as most of them are dead or dying. And the ones that are not, were smarter than most about how to do it. They let users ease into the payment process and they did not put ridiculously low limits on the users' ability to contribute to the community.
Steemit is truly shooting itself in the foot with these nonsensical and historically proven bad decisions, imposing costs on new users, or any users for that matter.
Therefore, if Steemit wants to truly create a wonderful blockchain blog and social network user experience, they should do away with these artificial restrictions on users, and false cost claims which are disproven by the fact that people put their own money into Steemit.
Or, they should do away with all the user moneys they wish to collect, and simply run ads, as other networks do. And just run ads that are not all about exploiting people's data.
But what makes you think Steemit is not collecting your data and exploiting it?
Well of course they are! Read the ToS you signed up with you joined! Steemit has basically the ability to do whatever they want. After all, it's a centrally owned platform, just like FB or Instagram or G+ any other social media platform online today.
If you want real blockchain blogging and social media applications, then the model should be:
- Decentralize the platform by having it run on multiple host nodes in every possible country and around the world.
- Allow users full, free and unfettered access to use the platforms without fees or restrictions on posting volume.
- Derive the revenues to maintain the site from sponsorships (easy to get from free speech advocacy organizations and eccentric philanthropists), non-invasive ads and Optional user contributions
- Set the users as full owners of their own account and content and allow them to create and fairly share revenue streams with the dAPP, at rates that they choose, rather than being set by the platform.
Remember, blockchain tech is much bigger than just a form of digital money. It's a form of keeping accounts and making transactions that much more secure. This has potentially enormous implications on the human experience of interacting with this new form of tech.
Just imagine how much more limited use and development of the WWW would have been had it cost you money to read a web page.
That's exactly why Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the code for the World Wide Web, made the code open source and refused to take a penny for his labors. He knew that to have a truly positively disruptive impact on the world, his technology innovation would have to be free and open and readily available to anyone willing to try it.
What do you think? Should Steemit open its doors to the world and let people post for free? If so, can they do it with the current model? If not, do you think it would be better for Steemit to change its model as I suggested or in some other way? Or do you think it would be better to just make a whole new social media and blogging platform that's built with better and nobler values, including the suggestions I have written in this post? Please let me know with your replies and votes. That is, if you're not already too restricted by Steemit to do so!
Thank you for reading this post, and if you like it, please follow me and stay tuned for more mindful writings and other content.