Hey there Steemit,
So I'm a long time user of Reddit.
If you haven't heard of Reddit you've probably been living in a hut without internet access for the last 10+ years.
Probably that hut. ^
I've been a Redditor for around 9 years. I started using Reddit when Digg did their huge interface change way back in the day. I've had at least 4 accounts and have seen Reddit go through many changes as well.
Ever since I learned about Crypto Currency I wanted there to be a Social Network that allowed you to get currency just from contributing.
Most of the Decentralized Social Networks I found didn't have any currency tied to them. I've seen a few of them where they require you to download a program on instead of using a browser and those don't seem all that popular. (I really liked you Twister)
I missed the release of Steemit in 2016 which makes me a little sad but I am here now and that's all that counts.
I've been having a problem acclimating to the Steemit platform, however.
You see Reddit's whole ecosystem is based on Subreddits. Subreddits if you don't know about them are like user moderated groups.
If you still don't get it let me explain it in Steemit terms. Imagine if each tag was able to have users create rules and moderate each post in that tags group. That is pretty much what a "Subreddit" is.
Now I'm not so much interested in having people govern over tags here but there's at least something to be learned from Subreddits.
In only 2 social network platforms have I ever felt a sense of community surrounding a subject. Reddit and Youtube.
When people gather around and are able to come together as a group around a specific subject something special happens. You create a community, even if it is a small one.
I can give you a few examples from Reddit.
On Reddit, I often visit the same types of Subreddits over and over again. The subreddit /r/MMORPG for example is full of people who love MMORPG's, however, there are personality traits associated with the majority of the people who visit /r/MMORPG. Often people on that subreddit are jaded and guarded about new MMO's. They are often older users who have been there and done that. Even outside of that subreddit say if you go to /r/Gaming and when the subject of /r/MMORPG comes up most people seem to know how jaded people are in the other subreddit.
Another example is the /r/AndroidGaming subreddit. Similar to the /r/MMORPG subreddit people in /r/AndroidGaming are often angry at developers in the Android ecosystem for putting out so many Pay to Win Free to Play games. Most people I've talked to there want games like in just about any other platform. A Full Featured game with an upfront price. Even when games charge an upfront free often they will still have Ad's in the game and this further frustrates people.
You will often see the same people over and over in these subreddits and it really does make it feel like you're a part of a community.
I honestly have never felt this way in Social Networks like Twitter where you follow people rather than subjects. In twitters defense, only being able to post a small block of text is probably why it doesn't feel like a community to me.
In Steemit I see potential. With a few small changes, I think we can better congregate around subjects and people at the same time.
One example is the ability to add a tag and its content directly to your feed. In Reddit this is exactly how it works, you simply add more and more subreddits to your feed (front page) and you see the most popular or "Trending" post's from all of the subreddits selected.
Another way to make Steemit more group-oriented would be to change the Left Sidebar from All Tag's to a "Favorite tag's" area. That way we would be able to explore the tags you like the most rather than what looks like just a bunch of random tag's. You don't need to get rid of the "all tags" section, you could add an "Explore Tag's" link where people go to discover more tag's to add to their favorites.
Honestly, with those two changes, I think Reddit users would feel right at home here.
If you've gotten this far you've won the prize of my thanks.
I hope you are having a great day everyone.
Cat Tax!
Be Excellent to Eachother.