Daily Discussion No. 4: How Important is Engagement and Community for the Future of Steemit?

Welcome to another edition of "Daily Discussion," a community engagement initiative designed to stimulate more interaction on Steemit!

To learn more about the Daily Discussion initiative, please visit the Introductory Post for a full description and participation guidelines. 

Steemit, Engagement and the Upvote-Bot Controversy

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, I'm sure you're aware this is a hot topic, these days... Are upvote bots destroying the Steemit social content platform? Are people in it "just for the money?" Why doesn't a lot of true quality content get seen? Is the system broken? Should bots be banned? Does the Steemit social site even matter?

A number of Steemians have written at length about upvote-bots, engagement, quality content, SMTs and the future of Steemit.

Does anyone have a conclusive answer? Not sure they do... but a lot of ideas are being aired.

Sorting Apples from Oranges

One of the first things to consider is that there's some ambiguity in terminology floating around.

Biggest of these-- at least to my mind-- is the way "Steemit" and "Steem" get mixed together and are used interchangeably... but they are not really the same thing.

For the purposes of this post, I am mainly concerned with the future of Steemit, the social content front end of the Steem blockchain. With all the apps being developed, the proposed SMTs and other initiatives, I'm sure the blockchain and the Steem currency will be fine.

But what's going on with our Social Content ecosystem? Have we become "orphaned" because everyone is more interested in developing SMTs? Will there still be a place for content creators here, a couple of years down the road?

Do We All Want What's Best for Steemit?

For a few weeks, I've been doing a lot of reading... trying to gather perspectives. 

In one of his posts, @lukestokes advised people to examine their expectations for what Steemit IS. That has been ringing in my head ever since I read it... I came here as a blogger/content creator, and I recognize that I have held expectations that the powers that be would want to maximize the attractiveness of the Steemit social content platform-- quality content, community, engagement.

But those are my expectations. 

They are not everyone's expectations.

Many see this merely as part of a bigger picture to help them develop apps and initiatives for the Steem blockchain.

An even larger group of people-- maybe even the majority of Steemit's users-- see this as little more than a fancy "coin dispenser" where the objective of being here is to use whatever means necessary to get as many rewards as possible in the shortest possible time.

Hence the proliferation of upvote-bots, guilds, groups, re-steem services, Steem Power delegations and more.

To one group of people, it's "seizing an opportunity," to another it's "reward pool rape."

If the Front End Sucks, Will the Back End Survive?

Every time I try to understand the complex issue of Steemit and how we can best all get our expectations met (if we CAN?), I keep coming back to the same place:

If we all consider ourselves "invested" in Steemit to some degree-- as developers, as content creators, as social interactors, as reward seekers-- isn't the ultimate objective we ALL have in common that we want this place to not only survive, but also thrive?

Which makes me ponder whether it is simply short sighted to not pay attention to developing a thriving front end Steemit community... because that is ultimately the "growth engine" that can onboard and introduce thousands and millions of people to Steem and Steemit? As a result of which your app and your investments will be more valuable... I worry that short-sightedness is creating a situation where we're killing the goose that's laying golden eggs...

That's why I believe the social content platform and developing thriving connection and engagement is really important for the future objectives of everyone.

Isn't our (ultimate) common goal that we would love to:

Experience a time when the Steem token is worth $10 or more?
Have a place where we can be part of a great social content site?
Have a great core venue around which we can develop new apps?
Be part of a "movement" towards an alternative decentralized economy?
Have a place where we can earn rewards, 2, 5 and 10 years from now?

These are not mutually exclusive... in fact, they all work hand in hand. 

What IF the imbalance is caused by us looking at each of those as "separate" objectives? 

Before we get to the Q&A part... I would also invite you to read @stellabelle's recent post concerning a solution to the vote selling problem. It's important, in the sense that it represents a "toe in the water" moment where there's an invitation to meaningful cooperation between different "philosophies" on Steemit. Well worth a read.

Let's Discuss!

Lots of questions to consider here!

What IS Steemit, to you? A social content platform, a place to develop apps, a place to develop apps for the blockchain, a place to earn rewards, something to invest in? When you engage in whatever it is you do here... do you ever consider the part of "will this still BE here, 5 years from now?" What is your time horizon? Is there too much short term thinking here? Do you even THINK about a time horizon? If not, why not? Is it even important to you for Steemit to survive and thrive? Whether you are very interactive or not, do you think "engagement and community" is important for the overall well-being of Steemit, simply from the perspective that an attractive social community attracts new users? Instead of the current "us vs. them" atmosphere or bot developers and content creators... would we be better off working together? 

Have at it! I want to hear from you-- and others want to hear from you, as well!  Share your thoughts and experiences below! 

And remember... the purpose of the Daily Discussion initiative is to interact, and however little or large your contribution might be, it does matter! 

If you write an entire post as a response, remember to use the tag #dailydiscussion and include "Daily Discussion No. 4" as part of your title, then share a link to your post in the comment section! 

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 171129 14:36 PDT