Why Steemians Don't Stick Around - The Problem With User Retention

in #steemit8 years ago (edited)

I promised myself that I would not get into more Steemit criticism or even Steemit related posts and try to focus on my own themes. Nonetheless I feel I have to shoot this post as my last flare. I did try to participate in every single project in the platform even though my rewards were minimal in respect to the hours I have been putting in over the last few months. I never compared myself to others. I thank my dad for this invaluable lesson. I only look over my own plate.

I openly criticized whales, celebrities and every single person that was coming across as a mass bullshiter—and there are plenty in here. I seriously don’t give a shit about what anyone thinks of my posts, whether they are whales or minnows. There are many ways to be politically correct in the platform and make some ass kissing money. I chose not to ride the low wave because of my own principles. I distaste this fear of oh-no-what-if-I-get-flagged-or-unfollowed. Grow some balls people. Be yourselves.

Everything I write is a result of who I am. I would never crawl towards the pathetic level of producing whore-tier content for pimp whales. I would rather sell ass on the street.

Enough with my introductory rant. Here is why people don’t stick around on Steemit as much (beyond the usual reasons such as design from the early 2000's and Steem technicalities and crypto concepts);
 


-1- Sleezy Superficiality

A glance at most posts and you can feel the superficialism flooding like a tropical island. There is no depth, no original thoughts. Almost all posts are recycled, sensationalist ideas. It's *cheesy*. There is no individuality, no originality. New users can sense this and even though they will try their luck with some recycled content, after a while there would be nothing left to write other than random shit-posting in hope for some random whale shit-voting.

-2- WTF Reward System

We know the mantra. “At least on Steemit you make some money”. Well, not so fast. You see, an average user would join Steemit, a new community, and start comparing his efforts to the rest. After a while he will notice that his $10-$20 earnings are unfair in comparison to someone who gets $200-$300. Logic would dictate for the user to stick around since he is still profiting, but logic is not part of the equation.

The user would take an emotional decision to bail out from a platform that has no average distribution of rewards. A user will prefer to stick around in a no-profit social media space where everybody is equal, earning nothing. At least his posts there will be appreciated equally since the value will be zero. On Steemit there is an inevitable comparison because of the massive wealth gap. The only way to allow a somewhat smoother scale with rewards is if whales voted more carefully.

However, whales haven’t been voting carefully in such a delicate period. Many early investors sought and still promote their close friends. The ones who should care about Steemit, don’t. In my opinion the first 1000 active users should be treated like kings, with the power somewhat equally distributed to them (let’s say a range of $10 - $300 tops for every post), for each and every member. That would allow a smooth distribution, one a new user could work towards a goal and even invite more people in order to reach it. This, however, would only work if whales got to work together voting carefully. In a short period of time there would be swarms of dolphins redistributing their power to the new guys, while whales would keep both the eggs and the basket. Why they just want to kill the goose with the golden eggs in order to satisfy specific people is beyond me. (Unless there are other scammy motives).

What we see instead? $900 per post vs $2, even if the person has 100+ likes. How can anyone wait for new users to stick around when there is such a massive difference in rewards distribution? It’s all about the psychology of the given reward perception in respect to the culture one is involved with. As an anthropologist I can guarantee you that this is where Steemit loses most people. Any culture built on the same premise would fail immediately—and as history dictates, they did.

-3- Shady Culture

I understand that celebrities are important but most celebrities that joined Steemit are just milking the cow and the people who brought in are shit-tier. From conspiracy theorists to convicts, surely you can’t expect your average Joe to join such a culture. That’s like asking a nun to join a whore house. I am not saying they shouldn’t join but for fuck's sake, if Steemit is to move beyond the shit-coin culture, these people shouldn’t be promoted more than anyone else. How can we talk about a decentralised blog experience when there is clear favouritism with our usual crypto and libertarian heroes? And seriously. Most of them are shady as fuck.

I am not waiting for this rant to hit any ears, but like everything I write, I felt like doing it at least fot those who choose to follow me. Most minnows like me will understand my concerns and most, if not all, whales will frown upon (most likely because I am not seeing the “big picture”).

Thing is, at the end of the day, there is no “big picture” other than the one people chose to see. Basic human psychology plays a massive role in early adaptation. Steemit is not like every other social media place. People cannot even understand what cryptocurrencies are. Adapting to the user experience, money transfer and all that is already a massive hurdle for them. Imagine having to go through the culture crap as well. Social media is supposed to make people’s lives easier, not a pain in the ass.

If Steemit wants to continue as is, then the founders should reconsider the path the platform should take. Maybe transforming the platform into a crypto-anarcho-celebrity-promo-webpage where the sheeple can feed their shepherds would be a better investment. So far all I am seeing is promoted celebrities from whales and founders, taking their money and running out from the back door. You do realise how pathetic this is, right? People who were making thousands with every post are not even happy making hundreds of dollars anymore—while those who criticized Steemit still stand by your side are earning next to nothing in comparison.

But hey. Fuck it right? We are all here just to make money. Or are we?







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haha that is a true quote. I voted for you for witness, I think it's awesome you donating part of the money you make for your witness to the @t-r-f . Thanks for helping out all those with the desire to go to steemfest.

It is my pleasure!

One of the most brilliant innovations on the Internet is in jeopardy of imploding. Do some of these whales really think that good content creators are going to stick around and post on here for $0.12 / hour while we see sock puppets earning hundreds or thousands of dollars off of plagiarized material?

Steemit is losing all the good content creators 1 by 1. And guess what? Not that many people know enough about crypto to join this platform, create content, and help friends and family members onto this platform.

It is really sad to me because Steemit really is a cool concept, ground breaking, and has an awesome community.

I'm here for the long haul but I have to only treat it like a curious little hobby project on the side. If I took it too seriously, I'd probably be getting frustrated along with a lot of the other people here lately.

I think I'm going to have to take your approach. I spent so much time on here and wasn't getting paid hardly anything for the amount of time I was spending while neglecting my YouTube channels and resell business. I'm changing my approach. Hopefully this platform will make it out of this downturn.

Same thing here. It's a barely side thing. I wonder something. Did the founders think anything structural things through beyond the white paper? It seems that the changes being made for the most part are GUI changes... a button added here, a tweak there. It seems like there should be more developers actually in the company as opposed to dolphins banding together to create guilds.

https://steemit.com/steemit/@radioactivities/rock-the-witness-vote-together-our-voice-matters

We can campaign to vote for the same Witnesses whose efforts will bring benefit to us end-users.

You don't like vague articles about positive thinking? What's WRONG with you?!

I don't know if you were being sarcastic but I happen to think that positive thinking is indeed bullshit.

I agree with some of your concerns, but things like this are popping up all over:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@donkeypong/announcing-steem-guild-a-second-stage-project-to-continue-supporting-good-authors-after-project-curie

They probably will only continue to do so. While I agree with you that things are not the greatest now, I don't quite share your doom and gloom picture of the future.

I don't think you quite grasp the concerns...
Things like project curie, project robbinhood whale, project upvote, etc.. shouldn't be a neccessity for the site.
Sure they are great ideas to "help" the stuggling minnow, but if the distribution was much better there wouldn't be a need for such projects and they wouldn't exist.
The 2nd big issue with these projects - The posting payouts. Project curie makes $500+ a post each day
Robbinhood whale made multiple thousands, and is just powering down...
Your post you just referenced is nearing $700.
Maybe im looking at it backwards, but when you say "help" it seems to me that this "help" is being rewarded quite nicely.

anyways, enough ranting for me. Good post @kyriacos, I would believe the majority of users will agree. Hopefully things change for the better... There needs to be a 2nd wave of new users to keep this ship from sinking.

"Sure they are great ideas to "help" the stuggling minnow, but if the distribution was much better there wouldn't be a need for such projects and they wouldn't exist." exactly!

Just think, newbies are coming online to EARN Steem, not BUY it, so the price continues to fall. It's basic economics here: supply is outstripping demand.

Let's hope the Steem demand picks up before the price craters - there I've said it now! The marketing people at Steemit have many hard marketing miles ahead.

I am a full-hearted supporter of Steem before you start going berserk in the comments section, but we must speak our mind to save our crypto!

@stellabelle - I really wish we'd both been in on this initial project earlier - as senior posters we'd have stayed closer to the minnow heartbeat!

Shouldn't be necessary, but they clearly are... And more of them are coming. That is how the distribution will take place. The earnings you see from Curie and others is used to reward authors and pay the staff that is helping them. The next wave of users that come will have a much better retention rate from these kinds of projects... The site has a much better chance of succeeding now than it did 3 months ago.

Curie has established more and more limits on their reward criteria, while making more and more from each of their posts. Additionally, the whales that have so generously decided to donate so little of their voting power to this project continue to vote (with full power I might add) on shitty posts from authors like @dollarvigilante and @charlieshrem

Instead of complaining about the way things are... why not go about trying to solve the problems as you see them? That is what I am trying to do...

I did for a while. Like a good little Steemian, I contributed to Curie, continued to write quality content for smaller payouts and things continued to get worse. I commend higher-level users like you for trying to right the ship, but at this point I am powerless to do anything and am fed up.

I am also re-evaluating my posting on SteemIt. There is much I like here, but I can't help but feel disappointed when I see the Trending Page.

Not because I am not on it, but... Because of what IS on it.

yes, me too.

Who has time to see the trending page? I'm too busy writing. In fact, I think I'll get back to it right now.

haha, yeah so true. I get distracted every once in a while but im starting to write more and more everyday.

I reached my low point and stay offline a lot but then I find new names and honest articles like this.... my fire starts burning again !

I am there, too. But no content creation here, I am like a frying pan simmering without food in it.

agreed, but it's not gonna keep my from creating more content.

I am not saying they shouldn’t join but for fuck's sake, if Steemit is to move beyond the shit-coin culture, these people shouldn’t be promoted more than anyone else.

I kinda agree with this. But remember that steemit overall is evolving still a lot and fast. Remember in the beginning when posts were only about crypto stuff and blockchain talk? Then it was all about intro posts, and I guess at one point we saw this "gateway" to more users and took it quickly without thinking, then with a decline in price we noticed people not sticking around, the amount of new accounts flowing in not increasing and the "stars" that were supposed to help out with that might maybe not be that reliable. After all its not hard to create a ton of accounts and have them follow yours here, and even easier it is on other sites where you can pay people to create fake accounts to follow you. Instagram for something is a mess lately compared to the amount of fake likes that fly around and fake comments from fake accounts someone is just "leveling up" to sell later.

Then again, this means the userbase is still so very low, and hopefully with time more people will see the potential of the platform, and with a stabilize in price they would also see the investment opportunities and the outreach they can get here on all active users. My hopes are still good that the site will evolve for the better in time, its open-source after all.

Have you looked at the trending page? It is completely filled with posts about SteemIt, Curie and Coin Shit. That is what the voters want. They prove it each time they vote for it.

well, that's what whales want mostly.

I agree that this platform seems to still be evolving. Maybe it's different for someone who's made a certain amount of posts, but I'm pretty impressed by how much attention new users get. Usually they would be ignored altogether for months, but Steemit has a pretty robust community (one that's growing).

Keep in mind that people interested in the new topics don't yet have enough power to have an effect. In theory this will change as time goes on. Though people starting now will never be as powerful as the top echelon, there will be enough with enough power to balance out... or so goes the thinking. Again, I'm woefully ignorant and new, but I infer that to be the plan and don't yet see why it wouldn't be possible given more time.

As to the main point of the article: I'd have to say I agree. It seems short-sighted to go for the constant money grabs, if what is being written is, in fact, so.

but I'm pretty impressed by how much attention new users get.

Many users here are working hard to accomplish that. :)

I kinda agree with this. But remember that steemit overall is evolving still a lot and fast.

I'm so sick of hearing this argument. In the age of internet, this platform is not evolving and "fast" is very generous. This platform has been up for a while, and the currency has gone from being worth $2/STEEM to being worth less than a quarter.

Remember in the beginning when posts were only about crypto stuff and blockchain talk?

I don't know what fantasy land you're in, but take a look at the trending page. It's still all crypto stuff and blockchain talk.

It makes sense to cultivate retention of people who have been around for a couple months. I hope the Steem guild system does work where Curie takes off. as being spread too thin is one of the big problems with retaining users via rewards. it would also be a waste to spend time just trying to get the newest of the new to stay. Like the old addage of businesses not caring about their regular customers as much as they do about getting brand new ones (ie. numbers game); until, of course, those customers leave...and the business finds out who it was supported them most all along!

Well said...
If things don't change gaining new users wont be the issue when all the regulars walk away.

That's a good point you made there, but there is a difference. Businesses are always seeking new customers because that's where their money is generated. Steemit is paying us for good content, not the other way around. It could be said that we are paying them with our attention and writing is work after all, but rewarding someone early will keep them active, just as rewarding the sustained output of loyal contributors will keep them contributing. Steemit needs to care about all their contributors.

yes gotta do both. Its not necessarily possible, but people are happy with getting 20$ for their posts early on

also businesses that optimize trying to make more money off reurn customers usually do better. that is easier than say increasing sales via increasing customers. because a 1%-5% sales increase is good,. When the hype of something is down. For the average business

In a way I can totally understand your point, but I don't think it's as difficult for "minnows" to become "dolphins" if they decide to work hard.

The reason why I say this is because I just joined 4 days ago and I am doing pretty well. I have written 3 articles so far, and the second one got picked up by Project Curie and it really helped to raise my reputation quite a few points.

Now, I'm a firm believer in producing my own original content and injecting my own personality, and maybe that's why I was rewarded on my second post.

And, while it only made around $24, I thought that was pretty good for a second offering. I was a little disheartened at first, however, when I put a lot of work into my first post and it only got 3 votes. My third post didn't do as well as I'd hoped, either, garnering only 17 votes.

I do agree with you 100%, though, on the point you made about people doing the complete "copy & paste" thing and basically plagiarizing. There are a lot of people doing it, and it's actually quite shocking.

If anything, this is what is causing people to jump ship. Another big issue, in my opinion, is the post editor is quite difficult to use. SteemIt needs to do much better when it comes to that. It shouldn't be that difficult to integrate a decent WYSIWYG editor into the site.

Overall, I like your style. You don't pull any punches and I respect that.

"I just joined 4 days ago and I am doing pretty well. I have written 3 articles so far, and the second one got picked up by Project Curie and it really helped to raise my reputation quite a few points."

I wish I could say the same, but I upvoted you anyhow. From my perspective you had plenty of luck. (I post original content too.)

But I digress, I may not have the clarity nor quality in my posts so I may be the one to blame after all. Still learning.

I agree with your points and like you I still support the platform...partly because it's easy to critique when I'm not part of the development and also hindsight is 20/20. However like you I hope moving further into beta and beyond brings a more fair ecosystem. As long as people view it as fair overall it will do well.. otherwise it will fail. Reputation score is part of the answer to that but it is not weighed highly enough IMHO. Thanks for not holding back. Resteemed.

They're shady people everywhere online. No surprise they would be drawn to this platform. There are also great writers everywhere and they're attracted here as well. I guess I'm missing your point.

So what if people who have already built a following on another platform bring their followers here, regardless of what the topic is. That doesn't mean one has to follow them or compare themselves to them. There's room for everyone and all kinds of interests on Steemit.

What interests you? That's what I want to know.

Actually, great writers are repelled by the casino junk atmosphere. They think it's shady and stay away.

I can see what you mean. However, a writer wanting to post anywhere on the internet is going to be exposed to content they don't like. Does that stop them from posting at all? I don't think so. They move on and post their content regardless of the content they find not to their liking. The same could be said about content in magazines or found on library shelves for that matter. Good writers are not going to stop publishing their works just because some day their book could share a bookshelf with another book they don't condone.

The casino junk atmosphere is a serious problem. Far better to write on one's own beautifully designed wordpress blog, grow a following of like-minded readers and writers, and find a way to monetize your writing while building a professional platform.

I've built WordPress sites and had a following of like-minded readers, even found a way to monetize it. This is much more exciting to me, even if I run into casino junk.

But I also see your point. When I have introduced several good writers to Steemit, the first thing they do is a Google search and they find posts of people argueing about whale votes, power imbalances and new users not making any money. It's a real turn off as a first immpression.

The concept is strong and feature will eventually be added to smoothen the UI experience and I'm sure we'll be able to hide posts we don't want to see eventually.

Growing pains of a new platform. The developers must feel like god feels sometimes when the whole world is praying for answers all at once. Until these enhancements are implemented, we'll just have to Steem on.