Onboarding new users in a manner that is acceptable for them, in social media terms, has been and is still a big hurdle for Steem.
The new solutions using RCs, while an improvement, revolve around the idea of new users paying for their accounts or limited free invites.
That will, in terms of social media, not help much drive adoption.
I know there are costs associated with creating an account on the blockchain, and claiming accounts to create them for free costs a lot of resource credits, so we cannot really call that free either for the claimer.
The idea is most people won't join social media driven platforms if it's not free, simply because they already have the free alternatives, on which they most likely already have accounts and their friends have accounts too.
They need to test the platform and see if they like it more or not. Maybe then, they'll consider jumping over.
Below I present a potential solution that would allow a new user the possibility to test the Steem blockchain as he or she wishes, within some limitations, without paying anything upfront. At the same time, the new user won't have his or her own account until they decide to either pay for it or they are being offered one for free.
An onboard facilitator that would want to use this solution, would need under their control and not used for other purposes a large amount of Steem accounts, let's say 500? Maybe 1000 for larger buffers? It all depends how many people you expect to go through the trial phase simultaneously. Could work with less accounts, obviously.
When a new user signs up for a test account (and not directly for a paid account), you assign him or her one of the 'free' test accounts of the batch under your control.
You also give him or her all the private keys except the owner key/master password. After every user ends the test period, you reset (preferably a script will do that, not you personally) all private keys for that test account.
You make sure they understand the content they create with this test account will not be carried over to their paid account and they will start fresh. You should create the possibility to carry over their test account balance to their full account.
Give them enough time to understand how it all works, to test things out. 30 days too much? 15 days maybe? They should always be able to request the paid account.
The best situation would be if they have tasks to do. Maybe this solution can be coupled or implemented by existing onboarding initiatives. They would have the step-by-step lessons. Actual to-do steps would be even better.
Some restrictions (all should be specifically made known to the new users):
- if the account starts spamming: first a warning, second offense and the test account is taken away
- if it goes inactive, taken away if there is no activity in the first 3 days (or if there is some activity then nothing for 10 days maybe?)
- taken away after a new paid or gifted account is created (within the trial period), but not before balances are transmitted to the full account (preferably automatically by a script)
- taking away means changing the private keys
- what do they have to do to get a gifted account instead of a paid one, if the onboard facilitator wants to include this option
The option to pay for a new account should include a series of upsells. You want to start with a basic usability account, you'll be able to do this (a few examples of combinations in which their RCs can be used).
You want to start with an increased usability account, you start with more SP and can do more of everything and give a raw estimate of how much more.
And so on...
Maybe ask a few preliminary questions first. Are you a blogger? Are you a developer? Are you an investor? Are you new to crypto? etc. and based on the responses, recommend a few options.
One upsell that should always be available is for more delegation (and for different terms).
Do you think this is something that will help the onboarding process pick up?