As a millennial, a westerner, and a relatively new person here I want to tell you why I think Steem is incredibly cool. I’ve been here about 3 months. Coming in my philosophy was: keep an open mind, focus on learning not profit, Steem is a hobby so don’t take it too seriously. And I learned a ton over those 3 months.
I’ve been writing online for over 3 years, and never have I received as much feedback as I received from Steemians. Many posts written but seen by zero to few readers, and even then almost no engagement other than a few clicks of the ‘Like’ button. The warmth and generosity of Steemians continues to amaze me.
In the last few weeks I’ve started evangelizing Steem to any of my friends who will listen. This is what I tell them.
Steem has users. 50,000+ daily active ones according to @penguinpablo (before HF20). While this is nothing compared to the user bases of the Big 4, this is awesome! 50,000 potential people around the globe to interact with. Did you know in the beginning Reddit used a bunch of fake accounts to make the platform seem less empty? Not necessary for Steem/Steemit! Because of how Steem works as a backbone, Steem-dApps have less struggles with user adoption. It is so easy for any Steem account to access any dApp, as long as the Steemians know it exists.
Steem is international. English is not the only language spoken here. There are strong Kr, Deutsch, and Espanol communities, and more. Once in a while, try to engage with them even though you don’t speak their language. I have found them to be just as welcoming as the rest of Steemians. The community’s diversity is a strength.
Steem has no ads. At least none of the traditional intrusive sense. You know, the kind that pops up randomly in your twitter feed and fills half of your phones screen? Ad-free experience is beautiful, and a Steem as a sustainable alternative to the ad-based content model is beautiful. As a content creator why should I be forced to sell products/services to my audience as a primary way to receive feedback and rewards?
Steem is software. I understand all the turbulence from HF20, especially for people who have more skin in the game than I have. The beautiful thing is it’s software. It can be quickly patched, reconfigured. At the end of the day code velocity is exciting and worth the temporary pains of equilibration. It’s good because code velocity means problems are being fixed and features are being added.
Steem is a backbone. Steem dApps dont compete for user adoption in the same way of the digital feudalism of the Big 4. When i post a photo via Steepshot, there is no need to check a box to say “Also post to Partiko”. I don’t need 3rd party tools like Buffer/Hootsuite to solve the problem of bridging audiences on different platforms, as long as they all use the Steem backbone. Of course cross-posting is still necessary to pump content to any platform outside the Steem backbone.
For this reason I don’t understand dLive’s decision to leave. The leaders of DLive must not understand the value of being on the Steem backbone, because unplugging from it will hurt greatly. By leaving the Steem dApp family they have detached from the phalanx, and compete more directly with the Big 4, without the benefits/strengths of the awesome diversity of dApps in the Steem network.
You guys gotta read @taskmaster4450, and you gotta try out Steem’s dApps. If you only use Steemit.com you are missing out on so much experience.
@partiko — beautiful mobile experience for reading and engaging Steem content
@steepshot — photo sharing in-browser and mobile app
@actifit - mobile app for sharing physical activity
@dlike - web app for sharing and voting on links
@steemhunt — web app for discovering interesting products
@dpoll — web app for asking questions, surveys
@musing — web app for asking and answering long form questions
@dtube - video sharing
@dsound - music and audio sharing
- more I haven’t yet heard about
Many of these apps have created their own tokens (e.g. HUNT, Actifit, dLike tokens). These tokens will be a natural fit for SMT’s when SMT’s come online around March 2019. What’s really important is that many Steemians use these apps every day. They are becoming part of our daily routines. Our use of these apps gives them, and the Steem backbone, life.
Thanks for reading,
Tor (@torrey.blog)
P.s. vote @fulltimegeek for witness! You won’t regret it.