Steemit, the blockchain-based social media platform that pays users for sharing good content, is a great community. But like most great things, it could be improved. Here are five ways to make Steemit even better.
We're not saying Steemit is flawed or broken -- not by any means. Steemit is an innovative platform in an age when we're deluged with low-quality posts on traditional social media networks. The Steemit community has built some great software and processes so far.
However, certain aspects of the Steemit interface and platform could be even better.
1. The Editing Workspace
The Steemit editing workspace is pretty basic. Actually, you might even call it "primitive" by the standards of today 's Web.
To create content in the Steemit editor, you have to use markdown. There's no WYSIWYG functionality.
Nor is there an easy way to import photos, insert links into text, and so on.
We're not saying Steemit has to build the most advanced Web editor on the planet, but it would be nice to see it catch up to the likes of LinkedIn, Medium, and other sites that have user-friendly, intuitive editing interfaces.
2. Rewards
The Steemit rewards system is a bit convoluted.
There are multiple types of rewards, and there are no instructions that explain how to redeem rewards. You have to know how to use the rewards system before you can use it -- which makes it tough for new users.
There are also arguably too many categories in the Steemit wallet for users to learn. You have Steem, Steem Dollars, and Steem Power, in addition to a "Savings" category.
We understand the reasoning behind this system. Each type of token fulfills a specific purpose. However, we think that having so many categories and a complicated process for redeeming awards creates more complexity than it is worth.
The rewards system should be designed according to the Don't Make Me Think principle. Yes, the system makes sense if you think about it long enough. But that's the point. You should not have to have been using Steemit for months before you understand rewards. This hampers platform adoption.
3. Platform and Tokens
On that note, simplifying the overall Steemit platform would do much to make the rewards system and many other parts of the platform more user-friendly.
We think Steem should be the only token on the platform. The roles played by other tokens could be integrated into Steem tokens. For example, rather than requiring Steem Power tokens to determine how much voting power a user has, influence level could be based simply on how many Steem tokens the user holds.
Again, we understand why the platform was designed with so many different tokens, but we think that Steem would grow faster and provide a better user experience if it prioritized simplicity over a complex token system.
4. Steem Dollar Value
If Steem is going to retain its multiple token model, we'd at least like to see a simplification of the Steem Dollar token.
In theory, Steem Dollars are price-stable tokens whose value remains consistent with the U.S. dollar.
In practice, this is not true at all. The value of Steem Dollars relative to U.S. dollars fluctuates constantly. One Steem Dollar currently trades for around 3 U.S. dollars.
Put simply, Steem Dollars fail to live up to their promise. This volatility erodes users' confidence in the Steem platform. It also creates additional confusion.
We think Steem would be more user-friendly if Steem Dollars were redesigned so that they were actually pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar on a consistent basis.
Alternatively, Steemit could display Steem Dollar values as U.S. dollars within the Steemit interface. This would not be ideal because the values would fluctuate, but it would be an easier change to implement, and it would reduce some of the confusion surrounding Steem Dollars.
5. Post Promotion
One of the founding principles of the Steemit platform is that the Steemit community gets to decide, via upvotes, which content is most valuable. Content producers are then rewarded accordingly.
The problem with this system, at least at present, is that the content that the Steemit community deems to be of the highest value does not usually align with what Google (or other search engines) rank most highly.
We know that Google is not the sole arbiter of truth. Maybe there are cases where content that Google values highly is not actually as good as Google thinks. Steemit's decentralized, community-based system for evaluating the quality of content has potential advantages over Google's algorithmic approach.
Still, the misalignment between Google-valued content and Steemit-valued content can confuse users and lead to questions about the accuracy and reliability of Steemit's voting system. (It's also not great from an SEO perspective, for what that's worth.)
Conclusion
There you have it, five ways to make Steemit even better. Some of these changes would be easy to implement. Others, such as enhancing the editor, would require more work. But if Steemit is to keep growing, the pain is worth it.
What do you say, Steemians? Are you with us on this? Let us know. While you're at it, take a moment to sign up for the Bitcoin Market Journal investor newsletter too!