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RE: Steemit and the Web of Trust: A Potential Love Story
That was very elaborate and very agreeable. I think the site needs things like this to lock users in for a longer average duration per day, just like FB does.
I'm not sure it's best to think of it as locking people in. We don't want a lot of people in. When you lot people in they struggle to get out. That's the perversity of man.
We need to not just phrase it but to think of it as giving people a reason to stay. We want to motivate people to engage with one another and we want them to be comfortable with doing that here.
The first way of thinking of it is top-down authoritarian control, the second way of thinking of it is bottom-up invitation. People will always feel better about the second than the first.
Well "locking in" is just a phrase, I think that motivating them to stay on is the same thing. Facebook shows you only the content you actually enjoy and if you get hooked on watching viral videos and drunk people falling on tables then that's what they show and they retain users hard with it. Ultimately leading to more likes, comments and engagement.
But I agree an invitation style is going to be the way
The hardest thing in the world for people with a technocratic bent – and let's be fair, most of the people involved here definitely lean toward technocracy – is to accept that other people like things they don't. There's a lot of assumptive judgment about what things "should" be valued and what things "should" be floating to the top, and what things people "should" be doing here.
Ultimately that is going to be a pretty toxic mindset to developing a platform and a system which people want to engage with their way. And "having it your way" has a long and storied history of being what people want.
In that context I am generally extremely careful about what phrases I use to think about and approach problems where I know I have a non-helpful prejudgment.
Would I prefer that people didn't preferentially vote up pictures of cats? Absolutely. They do nothing for me. They bring me no value, and as such I don't think they should be rewarded. But does that translate automatically into believing that no one else should want to vote up pictures of cats? Or links to news articles that they find compelling? Or a cool meme that they found? Or a long, rambling article on web of trust? Or a serialized novel, one page at a time? Or…?
You see the problem.
So let's avoid "locking in" and pivot to "giving people a reason to stay." If nothing else it will keep us honest with ourselves.
Well worded, respect. I hope the idea can develop for sure