Last night after posting my parable, I still couldn't sleep. I had a lot on my mind and much of it Steem related. I normally have a quiet confidence in Steem. Not because we are perfect, but because many are so focused on our weaknesses instead of our strengths. As I have stated, I know we have short comings, plenty of them. All young projects do and crypto is loaded with projects that so far are nothing more than ideas. We have a product, as imperfect as it is. We have a core community of engaged users. We have developers creating all kinds of projects. Our blockchain moves forward every 3 seconds. We have hundreds of Witnesses fighting for those top 20 positions. Goodness how they whine, moan and complain to make things better for 130ish people who are running witnesses instead of focusing on the community.
In the restless hours, breathing the smoke from wildfires, my mind went full on "FUD". It was the stuff that some of you spew every day. I started to wonder if I have put too much time and energy into Steem, or maybe even into Crypto, I mean can this group really take anything and make it grow? Many of our investors are immature and focused on personal gains instead of building Steem. While I stand by their right to do that, I roll my eyes every time I hear one of the idiots say, "I can't earn cleaning up the site so I don't". Investors from my world get involved in a project and they put money, connections and time IN during the first couple of years to establish a long term revenue stream. They don't line their own pockets as hard as they can.
While I still say Steem will flow with the markets, while the price is down and activity is down, we have our active core community engaged we might want to try to turn this around. I will spare you the details of all the complaints my restless brain brought to my attention and skip right to my conclusion.
This is what I've decided to do:
Double down on my efforts to rally the Team. I'm going to work harder for the next six months. I am going to flag harder, post more often, engage more, encourage more, point out our strengths. I might flag those who complain without action. Mock Investors who whine about their personal gains. Mute and ignore witnesses and community leaders who complain about Steem and SteemIt Inc. without offering specific steps for improvements. By the way, platitudes about how you wish things worked... (Reward Curves, and Curation improvements) doesn't equal action it equals talk. How will you get it done? Who will code it? What can you do to influence it?
Here is what I think we need to do:
- Plug the holes
Using our votes AND flags reduce the amount of Steem that goes out to those who are low effort players and who aren't building the community.
- Identify the strong players who are ACTUALLY investing time or money in growing the platform
Who is still here regularly, powering up or at least HODLING? If they are creating content, and building products and project for the future of Steem and we need to engage and reward them.
- We need to build a middle class and work on Distribution.
It's going too slow and nearly all the problems we have can be traced back to too few hands holding all the Steem.
What will you do to add to the community? What will you do to grow your investment? Will you step up your game?
Beware when they stop fighting... Rage quits mean passion, people wandering away, equals a lack of caring.