If STEEM was worth $0, would you still be here?

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)

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Serious question, if STEEM was worth $0.00, would you still be here?

Would you still participate?

I hear people say "well you make more than you made on Facebook". This is very true but does the platform offer much if you remove the rewards?

If you did stay, what would change?

If STEEM is going to survive and grow, the answer to the above question has to be yes for the majority of the users.

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That depends on one thing, at least for me: Will my readers stay?
I've been a writer for a long time, but it's hard to get exposure if you don't have a large publisher backing you. Steem has given me the opportunity to reach people that are reading my stories and science posts and interact with me based on those. Without interaction, I could just quit.

Another thing are the communities, especially steemSTEM. They're wonderful people with whom I interact a lot over the day, not just via Steem. If they all vanished, what keeps me here?

The money is nice, no question. I feels good to earn money by writing what you love. But the community is what I'm here for, the people, the interaction, the feedback.

If STEEM dropped to 0, I'd stay - as long as the rest of my circle did too.

Speaking as a block producer: With the current amount of network utilization it would not make short term economic sense to support the network. But if STEEM's value were 0, the amount of people using it would greatly diminish. Resource requirements would be vastly reduced to the point where much less expensive servers could handle it. If there was a chance of recovering it's value, it would be a very sound economic decision to ride out the storm. STEEM's value fell to about $0.06 USD once and those who didn't quit then have been rewarded well.

As a person, the non-economic qualities of the blockchain are great positives to me: censorship resistance and decentralization of a text/informational database are cool and a useful thing to have on the internet when tyrannical governments are leveraging the internet more and more to maintain control of their citizens victims.

does the platform offer much if you remove the rewards?

It's a valid question that has been asked multiple times. The glaring issue is that Steemit is the most-used front end for the Steem network. It is this way because it was the first, and for a long time the only, usable front-end. So it has that inertia. It also is the place where most people come to get an account, adding even more stickiness.

In April 2016, the Steemit website was functional (barely sometimes :P) but it felt a bit like a placeholder. It was very spartan. Only basic features were implemented. The problem is that 2 years later, though enough features have been implemented to make it just usable enough, it's still like that early placeholder.

Some important features have even been taken away. The original concept of Steem+Steemit was to be a bit of a Reddit-killer. But one day, without too much thought given to it, direct external link posts were removed from the Steemit UI. I think the reason cited was "security." While the stakes are a bit higher than Reddit when it comes to account security, I don't think that argument holds water. Making this change has had an extreme effect on Steem user culture and expectations. It's turned what could have been a Reddit-killer into a blogging site. The culture is still poisoned with an expectation of its users to produce unique content, which is not something everybody actually wants to do. This has limited the scope and horizons of Steem and undoing the damage is a slow process.

Every time someone points out to the people that influence its development that UX for Steemit is important, beyond posting rewards, it seems like it gets shrugged off. Or even worse, excuses are made that Steemit/Condenser (the front-end software's generic name) is only meant to be a bare-bones reference implementation. This ignores the fact that it is the most used front end and has the inertia to continue to be used.

I would probably buy me a few million steem and enjoy being a real whale.

Since I am always calculating with steem being able to stop having any worth at any moment, that would be a sad thing but I would definitely stay.

Yes I would 😊 I just believe that the upvote system will create a better and more valuable content in the long run.
I know steemit can go its way without the nip peeks I offer at @peekbit, but I just like to extend here what I do in ‚real life‘ as a girl: bring joy to the guys around me by not hiding what they really like to see anyway - and it always comes back to me. Do it’s already payed anyway 😊 @peekbit
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that‘s why we love you @peekbit. And for your nice views you offer... really artful... 👍🏼

thank you 😊 @peekbit

Absolutely, sure the money was the thing that got me here, but I don't make that much anyway. Apart from that though, if the money was not here I would stay, it is far better than facebook or twitter, you can engage in conversations, get involved in the many different topics and if there isn't any topic here that doesn't interest you then you must be dead.
You have any topic you can think off, hobbies, pets, animals and more, but more than that, you can really get involved, not like fb & twitter where you're restricted on word count.
Then you have the discord chat, the poker league and much more, I've never seen a social media platform that has so much potential, even if there was no money this place is going to get huge

Probably only on DMania.
Because there are good memes about the media and crypto.

But i guess i wouldn't stay on the site for more.

welp maybe for the nature photos.
These are great.
I see Steemit more as a place where people make money
or they just want to share theyr experiences or theyr skills.

But still i love 9GAG because there are actually good memes that make me laugh.

You raise a really good question that someone needs to pause to ponder on.

I think I still would. But would probably spend less time. There are a lot of great people dishing out great content. It's fantastic , but so was facebook in the early days.

Hopefully, this won't go that route.

To be honest, if steem was worth 0$, i.e, there will be no rewards, this platform would be more like twitter, full of trolls and funny memes.

If I would stay?

Depends on what kind of people will be still here and what kind of content they will post.

that is exactly what i was thinking too

I would say yes and remain in hopes everyone would ditch FB and move here. Regardless.

Anonymity is dead in FB. Not that I am trying to hide my self, but they go way into surveillance mode that I don't need.

Where else will I post all my awesome content?

I also consider Steemit a reservoir of alternative information not offered on any MSM sites like FB or [news].com sites. And find an incredible amount of knowledge on farming, homesteading and the likes from other users here on Steemit.. that I will keep coming back to because growing food ain't quick venture!

Im planted right where Im at on this platform! Holler!

I think at this point, I still would be here! Now that I know about the expansiveness of over a million people with all kinds of ideas , which is alot different then my FB news feed. That being said, the money definately helping my family, and I would hate to lose it. Lets say it is a very very strong cement for putting down roots.