Looks like you are getting back on track. I'll be interested to see if/how you market this. Steem/Steemit is not getting much media attention right now. I can't find any stories about Steemfest that are not on Steem, which is a bit sad. Especially when crypto is crashing like this we need to show investors that Steem has a thriving community of users and developers, unlike many coins that rank higher.
Steem is a hard sell until it gets more User Friendly.
Like a LOT MORE user friendly.
Not sure we need SBD, and many features I think history will show, are very difficult to support long term, with unregulated market forces. SBD has almost never worked as intended, and is more of a problem (very difficult to explain to mere mortals, constantly broken, huge liability, not really needed initially until tethering is much better understood).
The development going into it now on the front end clients is very encouraging, they will need some time to get marketing working; which Steemit never attempted to do seriously (daily email digest, news releases, music festivals).
There are limits on how user friendly it can be unless people surrender some trust to a third party. You have to look after your own keys, but we're seeing attempts to make that easier, e.g. Steem Keychain. We need apps like eSteem as that's what is expected these days. It's getting there, slowly, but other platforms could creep up and grab the public attention
I share this sentiment as well. The fact that the broader crypto market in general pays very little attention to Steem which has arguably the most interesting ecosystem is very confusing to me.
I know Ned and others present at crypto events, but I think we should target other areas. Get a stand at music festivals or comic conventions. If creators and their fans join up then they have a new source of income. Word will spread in those communities.
Is Steemit Inc holding back on mass marketing for now? Do we need to wait for SMTs and/or the site to come out of beta?
Most of the growth so far has been organic but reaching outside of the crypto space is a great idea.