70% STINC Layoff: Ned Accidently Fired Himself!

in #steemit6 years ago

So, how's my clickbait people? Well, if you clicked this article then I have some bad news for you... the little boy who could (play manager), didn't fire himself.

However, he fired about 70% of the Staff... how many?

Nobody knows...

I told you I was going to post about the current state of Steemit and how Ned is and was handling everything since I got here 1 year ago.

Throughout this post you can read my thoughts... and the community's thoughts, as I give you guys my point of view as well as my analysis on what the community says.

So without further ado, let's turn on the fan and hope that what's coming straight to it is only chocolate fudge (hint: it isn't).

A Light Approach: Be a Bit Humorous Guys!

So, this guy @boyanpro has a point... I don't know him, but he does mention some valid points, like the fact that Ned seems to be very interesting in music lately.

Perhaps to distract him from the fact his company is in trouble... but the real reason, according to me, is that he simply needs to fill his free time...

...because Lord knows he isn't doing it by working.

On a more serious note, @isarmoewe is right, he had plenty of time to work on what needed to be done, and I'll use something to let you know how neglected the platform always was.

During the great climb crypto made during that epic year, Steem was reaching levels of over $10... and people couldn't sign-up because sign-ups were manual during the whole time.

Yes, the mass adoption didn't happen because STINC had someone routinely get sign ups sorted rather than working out a system to do it automatically.

Ned Trusts His Own Product!

Did you guys ever notice that the person who should be the biggest STEEM steward never uses decentralized apps built on the blockchain, opting to use the mainstream alternatives.

What's a better way to tell your users you care than by shitting in the concept of your products and adopt the products you're supposedly competing against?

Seems like another great management class given to the community.

...and about @boyanpro 's comment, I bet they're still dumping it as we speak, but nobody will ever know... because #transparency (more on that later.)

We Call This Chord the E-FALL Flat Major!

Managers, CEOs, Business Professionals, Enthusiasts, Steempreneurs and business owners can chill and be casual.

There's no harm done by acting like a child at times or having fun... the problem is taking responsibility for your actions.

Realizing you failed is something only a grown-up can do, and unfortunately I'm seeing no regret on Ned.

His strategy was profiting from speculation and letting speculation pay the company's bills.

He made no effort in designing a functioning business model, and I don't think he did it out of lazyness at all.

I honestly think he just didn't know why.

You see, he got to the throne as CEO with no Business or Marketing skills... and of course things were going great during the bull market, because DUH (saw those growth rates on the market?).

The problem is that Bears, like real world recessions, will always show who are the true businessmen and those who can adapt, improvise and overcome.

The layoff for 70% of the STINC crew should have included the CEO position as well. When football teams are doing poorly, they fire the coach for way less.

Anyways, do any of you know how many were fired? No concrete numbers, only percentage dials?

Crowdfunding:

Holy Moly.

@daan , I'm sure you're coming from the right place with this, but actions like that only come through if:

  • A) the Funders get a good deal (maybe the delegations you were talking about, but that would have to be thought about);
  • B) The Community had trust in the management so they knew the funds were going to be used correctly.

Steem Monsters was represented by people with a huge pull on the community, like my friend @yabapmatt... or even @aggroed. (I think it was aggroed I don't pay attention to Steem Monsters and I keep confusing the other guy with someone else as I don't personally know him).

Regardless, people believed in them, so sure it succeeded... If Matt had asked me for support, I would have supported them.

If Ned asked me for support on a crowdfunding campaign right now? Well, shave my legs and call me grandpa, I wouldn't help...

...and lots of the reasons on why I wouldn't help can be seen below.

DaveMCCoy: "You're a Poor Leader"

My friend and one of the "newbies" (you'll always be a newbie for me Dave hehe) on this blockchain called Ned a poor leader somewhere.

I don't remember where I saw the comment, but basically he was telling Ned he had zero skills in detecting who the community leaders were and pointed out a fellow Steward of mine @abh12345 as proof of someone being neglected somewhere. (my apologies, I lost the post).

The thing is, Dave is right.

But that isn't the core of what makes him a bad leader.

You see, a leader leads by example.

During the golden Days of the Crypto Empire (which is still active throughout the blockchain, but with many inactive members now due to the crisis), I was leading the crew by being what I wanted the community to be - I was commenting 24/7 constantly beating daily records, I was posting twice every day... I was helping initiatives.

I built bridges between communities and did what I thought would bring value for everything.

Now, my leadership had its gaps, but I tried.

Ned knows perfectly well what his community believes in (or if he doesn't he should read comments on his posts more often), but he fails to be the leader they deserve or want.

You see, using centralized competitor sites to post rather than posting in the Steem blockchain is just one single evidence that Ned doesn't give a crap about what his users believe.

I may not be a good leader, or I may be a good leader... but regardless of the outcome - I TRIED!

You just had to try Ned, people wouldn't be "pitchforking" on your back if you tried...

...instead, people know you don't care, and that's what it pisses me the most.

Of Course He Wasn't!

@ats-david... I made a card for him once, so I know he is a savage thanks to the research I've done.

What I also know is that he tells it like it is, and that "certainly was not in favor of sharing any ad revenue with users"...

...well, I chuckled...

That's Neddy Boy alright!

It's Explained: What We Thought Confirmed:

So, remember me saying that his strategy was to rely on speculation to pay the bills as opposed to creating a stable model...

...@ats-david confirms that fact, whether he agrees with me on the second point I made about Ned not creating a business model because he has no clue how to do that or if he thinks it was due to lazyness, that remains to be seen.

Perhaps a combination of both?

  1. Primary Funding Plan was critical, and this being it shows how it was "all rigged from the start".
  2. Self-Explanatory.
  3. Again, I think it wasn't due to neglect on this one, but lack of knowledge.... those concepts are simply too alien for people who aren't business people... and we know our CEO certainly isn't.

You know what? Let me tell you something else.

I am a Marketing Teacher and Digital Marketing guy and I offered my help to Steemit Inc. in the past.

I didn't get an answer.

Why did I offer it? Because I knew even a simple 4 man team could do better properly guided than what was being done in terms of marketing...

... pretty much nothing.

@ats-david continues:

Did You Really Think a Game of Greater Fool Was Going to Pay the Bills Forever?

Yes, @markkujantunen , he really did. That was the primary funding strategy.

I Feel Your Pain!

@dana-edwards , I feel your pain. However, being economically sustainable is not easy as any business owner can tell you - myself included.

It takes time and resources put apart for the endeavor.

The problem here is that the work should have been done or at least prepared BEFORE the crisis happened.

Companies should also have a stockpile of money to prepare for the stuff that needs to be done to achieve economic sustainability and for unforeseen circumstances.

With the Ninja Mined stake Stinc has and the fact the Steem price was so high at a point in time leads me to believe there was ample room to stockpile a few coppers...

Again, the lack of vision from the management was what got us here, not @bashadow 's blog.

I know we're angry, but let's direct it to where it matters.

BernieSanders Vs. That Guy With the Graphs:

@solar speaks of something interesting here when he goes over view count since it definitely shows one of the major problems I ALWAYS pointed out.

Steem has a lot of content producers and not enough content consumers.

Marketing should have had a bigger focus on getting content consumers, not on all the "Money Talks", "Get Rich Blogging" end that only got us more content producers and even bad ones at that since the good ones got convinced it was all a Pyramid scheme.

But again, if they relied on speculation to pay the bills, I guess that was their plan.

But I digress, my ol'pal @berniesanders here has a point too... Ned produced a lot of hot air, really expensive hot air.

Sure he did some things, but the problem lays with the hot air stuff, which was a big part of his job.

Last week, when I saw the trending page and all the crap that was showing the blockchain in Crisis, I missed the days in which the Trending Page was made out of Asian Graphs and a @berniesanders screaming "no soup for you", with a casual sweetssj or whatever was her name eating somewhere.

Aaaaah those were the days.

Bring Back Wooden Clubs: Who Needs a Rifle Anyways?

During my time in the blockchain, I've agreed with @lyndsaybowes lots of times, this isn't one of them though.

There is nothing that justifies the archaic way of creating accounts we have here, and @idikuci is right on this one.

Imagine if we had automatic sign-ups during the bull market, holy moly this place would have grown.

Still have a friend that signed up in 2017 and didn't get the email yet.

Plus, I'm a hugely determined guy, but if I could only comment 3 times per week I would have given up as well.

Cognitive Dissonance: Say What?

So Steem is laying off 70% of its staff next week, but here's how things look like this week:

Steem is growing fast and looking to hire more.

Sigh... did you post this after dinner or after someone told you that you are the MAN?

Don't tell yourself you're great in front of the mirror on an empty stomach... that may also be it.

@ATS-DAVID: Again With This Guy?

@ats-david with the truth bombs again... remember me telling you I knew he was a savage?

Now you know as well?

I think the loyalist faction on Steem just shrug and close their eyes so they can't be harmed by reading his words of... reason!

Glad it isn't just me thinking the 70% should have included the guy playing the CEO in this theater.

Seriously guys, read that comment again, stop and think of the implications.

Blame The Witnesses: They should Have Worked Harder!

The most expensive website costs per visitor from th... Whoa, I'm glad you worked so hard in tackling that structural weakness last yearohh... wait.

Hashtag Transparency:

Uff, glad we have transparency.

Knowing how many staffers were fired, knowing what are the prospects on SMTs and dates, knowing how much of the Ninja Mined Stake still exists, knowing how much you guys are planning on dumping, knowing ....

.... oh crap, we don't know any of those things.

Nobody Saw the Crypto Crash Coming:

Nobody is a bit generous... BTC was at 20,000...

...everyone and their mothers suspected it of going down - Only Haejin and his followers thought SBD was hitting $34 from $10 in 2 weeks time (remember that prediction?)

The magic that started this place... part of the magic was because people were dreaming on what it would become with work.

What happened was only the community worked, the developers slacked... now again, I admit that they may have done their best, but lacked proper guidance and vision... as well as business sense.

@Kafkanarchy84 is Right Here:

@kafkanarchy84 is right here.

The development was stalled, we got stuck in the Beta forever and the UI comes from 2000.

The thing is hideous and even the first launch of busy.org blew the whole thing into the dirt in terms of GUI.

Community members were always doing the bulk of the work.

@joeparys agrees with me on the need to keep USD set aside, so I guess Im not the only guy with such radical thoughts :P

Again, We Are Available:

Afer all of this, @surfermarly and @paulag prove once again that the Community is always available to help.

In fact, that is a constant in this blockchain, the community not only is available to help, but WANTS to help.

WE are the blockchain.

If Ned took advantage of the help he is constantly offered he would have had much more success in this endeavor.

I offered my services as well as many other people over the years, and I've just recently saw a steemian doing the same with a video down in one of the posts comment section.

I forgot his name.

The point is, we are always available.

Ned For President:

I won't lie, I'm in Politics too, and when I got in my mentor told me:

  • You know, the secret to speeches is to talk a lot without saying a thing.

Well, where did the money go?

Where is it going now?

Fair question.

Matt Clarke is Good With Jokes:

Hooo ho ho ho, stop it @mattclarke, you're killing me....

... Stinc sending their funds to be burnt, now THAT is something we will NEVER EVER EVER SEE..

And this is why your closing statement is so dire... the price is going to get ugly really quick.

The blockchain itslef would be in danger... the nodes and whatnot, all would collapse with no price to back the expenses of seeting them up and etc...

Really bad.

Tech Giant Analogy:

Marketing, one of STINCs biggest failings. Seriously, when the "face" of the product is a GUI from 2000 and the communication is made like if it was a Ponzi Scheme you know something's up.

Apple had Marketing... Steemit has... @jerrybanfield ?

:D

Just Putting This Here:

Funny how the community seems to be converging to a point...

Meanwhile Meme:


My Take on This Exchange of Words:

So, Ned and my friend @paulag had an argument here that I want to approach.

Here's what Ned is right about:

  • Steem is not Steemit;
  • Steemit, Inc is a Private Company;
  • As a Private Company, they can deny @paulag this request.

But here's the thing...

You can't hide your Ninja Mined stake, your dump amounts and all of the info requested, as well as the number of staff layouts, and ALL the info we spoke about earlier in the post and still claim transparency is key in your modus operandi.

But it continues with @smooth replying

Collaboration and Transparency:

So, following the thought process from the previous paragraph, you can't say these things and then think you are doing a good work on establishing communication, transparency and a collaborative environment.

But @smooth 's closing statement is where it's at. The blow from a dump of such a stake would probably kill the whole ecosystem.

Before you claim it would continue, know that most Dapps couldn't endure paying for the expenses in order to run in that scenario.

So in effect, if this scenario would happen, and it may happen (we don't know since the info isn't covered by Ned's transparency policy), the blow would pretty much be fatal indeed.

Again, There's the Right to Deny... but...

So, @paulag and Ned continued to talk about this, and I do say Ned has the right to deny this request, but that does indeed show he clearly sees the community and Stinc to be separated in their entirety.

This is a good way to tell the community - Mind your own business.

But... when the community works to improve Steemit, Inc's products... things change...

and Ned starts talking about "We" again, rather than the INC VS. Community Dicotomy.

I Get It...

Ned, we get it, you aren't going to disclose and want us, the community, to understand we are totally not related to your company whatsoever and that we should mind our own business...

...but don't sell us a cat claiming it's a rabbit man!

That's 100% Alienating and you know it.

Besides, here we can see another expert Marketing Technique - Showing your company's Macro-Environment that you don't friggin care about them at all, and that they should just quiet down.

@sircork then pops up to tell everyone what I was thinking with those two lines.

Because a company never ends well when it tells the equivalent to its customers that it doesn't care about them.

This Is What Happened:

You know what? People are lazy...

We hear about it in Marketing tons of times as it is the key for success in many things we do.

@enforcer48 got to the point here.

If you have 50M+ SP, why worry? Why not just site on top of it, dump it as needed and just rely on the community - which is TOTALLY not related to your business - do the hard work.

Read the coment and think about it, and then tell me if it wasn't this exactly what happened to some extent...

Even the Newbies See It:

Here's a newbie... rep 59 @lefactuoscope with a comment upvoted for $0.78 giving Ned a 101 on company management.

"You can't rely on Speculation"

... speculation on Steem should have not been the primary funding strategy.

... speculation on SMTs should not become your plan B.

You need to increase cash flow...

How?

I could tell you bring in incentives to buy Steem for use, market steem in a way that attracts content consumers, stop marketing it like a Ponzi Scheme and more...

... but you know what would be cool? Hire someone who understands Marketing... and put the guy as CEO since you're at it.

Because... here it is, in conclusion:

Here's The Closing Statement:

@stelabelle is the author of this step by step guide which I've read and approved as I can't fault her line of thought.

Step One: Face your Shortcomings.

Step Two: Flag yourself for Self-Aggrandizement.

Step Three: Consider your Community More, Play Guitar Less.

Step Four: Find a CEO... you know... a real one.

Do us all a favor.

Cheers!

Join the Crypto Empire Community

Sort:  

I predict that @ned will sell his stake, his company, and whatever else isn't nailed down when the time comes. It may have already been sold, and in fact there's some evidence large parts have been but off the exchanges. The show isn't over yet.

that would be better than stagnating the network and then suiciding it... I hope they have some new year's resolutions, maybe deliver one thing at a time, rather than remapping the roadmap to deliver more. They've sounded semi reasonable, I suppose I should start reading the code and learn to develop if I'm to have a sound sight of the true state of the network, the economy sure isn't looking great, politics neither.

It's fun to look at, it would be a shame if this was the plan all along. I do think we are bickering about the little things too much rather than doing something productive, I mean I just spent 2 hours plebing on a post.

Sadly that kind of drove me out of here.

Thanks for the resteem
Cheers!

That could be potentially a very good news @personz

Actually the first time I suspected that Steemit inc might already be silently sold to some new owner was at the time when Dan has left.

When he powered down 50% of his Steem Power several months ago, I saw it as a vote of no confidence in the platform.

When I first started here with Steem I was warned to never power down.

So it really isn't beyond him to sell Steemit in what would have to be classed as a 'fire sale'.

Posted using Partiko Android

stinc is not and never was an actual business. Ned said it himself when he said it doesn't have any customers.

That's the actual definition of a business, providing goods or services to customers (and hopefully creating profit as a byproduct).

Speculating on currency development is just speculating. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't.

What I don't understand is why the people who have the technical skills and interest in the platform have not done more with the open-source code that is available to everyone. I know there are a lot of them from the number of dapps and other projects that use STEEM.

As long as people are waiting for development and guidance from stinc, the tail will be wagging the dog.

What I don't understand is why the people who have the technical skills and interest in the platform have not done more with the open-source code that is available to everyone.

Well, somebody went out and built Whaleshares, somebody went out and built Scorum, somebody went out and built Smoke, etc. There's been a lot of work done with the code. It's just not coming back into the Steem repository.

Yes, exactly.

The talent and skills are clearly there, but those developers seem to be limiting themselves. To a coding layman like me, it seems as if there is an assumption that stinc is in charge of STEEM when that is clearly not the case.

In a very literal sense they are. @vandeberg has final authority on all code changes, I suppose unless the top witnesses want to collectively fork the codebase and start working on their own.

If the Steem github were run by someone who interacted, it would probably help a lot.

Ah, I wasn't aware of that. I thought anybody could contribute code and the witnesses could vote on it.

Oh I was dead wrong in that comment of mine, no way that I would think crowdfunding STINC is a good idea at the moment.

I've come to think it's better to just largely ignore what Steemit Inc. is doing and focus on the surrounding Steem community. They're working on Mira now, right? Great... Let me know when it's 100% finished.

Great article of you, really interesting to read!

Posted using Partiko Android

Baha that was about 10 days ago right daan!? You changed since then by buying a dolphin lease! Woot!! That’s our boi ❤️

Well, I didn't get a lease, I just straight up bought some more actual Steem Power :D Waiting on a good deal for an additional lease though, don't want to go over 16% APR ;)

Yeah, my opinion has changed quite a bit during the last couple of weeks. In the end it's the community that matters most to me, putting my focus there end up bringing me a bit more positivity. (With a couple of exceptions, as you know all too well)

Posted using Partiko Android

Odd. I saw this ...4BBE9804-AA4E-42E8-A62B-CC183092D07B.png

Baha. Just say dolphin and lease ... this was right after your goodbye steem forever post so thought a lease made more sense then you going all out. Too funny!! Good on you Dood!!

Ps. Glad you aren’t a drama infested d*k no more LOL 😛 aka DID

Yup didn't manage to actually get those leases I mentioned in that post. Have just straight up bought more SP, getting close to 6k now.

I had the bids up on Minnowbooster & delegationhub, but they expired. Still trying though...

Hehe, life isn't too fun being a DID :D

Posted using Partiko Android

Thanks Daan!
Nice to meet you too, I don't believe we've met before. ;)

Yeap, community is working, as always!
Great that you took value from the post.
Cheers!

We've interacted a bit on other posts perhaps, just a long time ago :P

Yeah the community is what keeps everybody here, despite what Stinc does!

Posted using Partiko Android

Question. And don't shoot me for asking as I'm generously curious...

What happens if the theoretical new owners are... In mild terms... Bad actors.

Can the Steem community revolt and fork Steemit to something like Steem Classic?

How easy would this be to do?

That's one heck of a post.

I do believe that it's important to not become offensive or disrespectful against Steemit Inc. & Ned. (Calling him a little boy is completely off-topic and unrespectful) But besides that, there is still a lot of truth in the screenshot, quotes and text you've shared.

I would love for ned to have a conversation with leaders of our community on eye level. But until this happens (or if it happens at all), we as a community have 2 decisions:

1.) Adapt & Learn
2.) Leave Steem

For now, the 2nd choice is not an option for me, so I'm trying the best of my ability to take responsibility of our blockchain. 2019 will be an interesting and important year for all of us, who consciously decide to focus on Steem.

As you said, leaders are measured how they perform in tough markets & situations, so I'm not going anywhere.

Indeed I think everyone of value here is going for that 1st Option...

I'm not offending, although I do have to say respect is earned, won and lost.

It would be a good thing if Ned could find it in him to stop alienating the community and to start considering the community leaders allies instead of tools.

But I don't think he is capable of it.

Cheers

A few things I noticed as well TRW, glad you said it.

He's The WOLF He Solves Problems.........

Loading...

The fact he's back, that he made this long post,the content or all three? ;)

It was way too long sames baha

The clickbait worked, newb here that's been wanting for weeks to know who freedom is the "anonymous" investor that is the central figure of the decentralized myth. Their witness voting weight and strategic placement of the top 20 witnesses spits in the face of all users and has secured my opinion that this experimental ecosystem isn't just a, pseudo democracy but more of an Illuminati..

Anarcho capitalism is well, utopian, and when witness evangelist that are the only ones profiting from the lies and hype admit they're only here out of desperation due to being so heavily invested and beholden to secretive investors it's not exactly supporting their perpetually positive messages..

The sky is falling, most of what's left here is lowest common denominators.

Bernie is also right when he astutely points out 99,9% of the content isn't anything anyone would pay for.

Yet, we got heroes playing nice like Mr. Wolf in sheep's clothing posting obvious mundane garbage like don't gamble steem power it up getting heavily rewarded mostly through circle jerk pacts. I'm not stupid, but I'm also not that smart, it's been painfully obvious to see the writing on the walls here since I arrived just over 8 weeks ago.

Oh BTW I'm not intentionally trolling the above mentioned witness it's just that he is the only one I've called out that made any effort to reply to Lil old me. I wasn't impressed by his input so I'm still going to speak my mind.

Like you I don't think it's malevolent behaviour it's just a bunch of geeks with no business skills, and definitely the social skills go out the window if not discussing things that interest them. News flash, mass adopters, new investors, content creators, and basically everyone but devs are not in demand here, and the Devs have to play politrix to stay in the controlling top 1% which is again entirely propped up by "freedom" the Lord of the Chain..

Good to not see some regurgitation of everything will be OK, we are the community, I mean you're kind of saying that but also eluding to the facts that nothing is happening here except pep talks.

Posted using Partiko Android

I read the post and I heard many of these arguments before.
I find myself asking a lot of questions and responses should be easy to come.
Solutions are what we need but ninja tokens are stepping in front of us.
Sadly self interest may undermine the fact that we all need to work together.
I hope always hope there is enough time left to correct this amalgam.
2019 will mean something.
Keep on postin

Posted using Partiko iOS

Great documentary. Ned and steemit.inc seem to be a hindrance rather than a help to steem at this point. A thought came to me.. would it be possible to get the hardfork outta here and start anew without them.
Maybe a simplistic view but it seems that now everything is on the table. Having such a large stake holder that acts so irrationally can't be good for the chain especially if the community does rise up and make it a success. This success will still be at the whims of @ned.
Ps. I hope I don't regret posting this

Posted using Partiko Android

@ned is a joke. It all boils down to one thing, the guy is screwing us. And we as community should see what we can do to stop and prevent this. What is Steemit and Stinc role and how we can replace those two to the point where they aren't needed by the community. I'm sure there are lots of smart people in the community and enough means to pullof this. Crowd funding and rewards for infrastructure, bounty hunting and rewards for devs, whatever.

We just need several smart heads to step in as leaders. Others will follow.

Also maybe some people from the US should check with IRS or some other federal institutions is it possible to do inspections on Steem Inc. and @ned. I'm sure he will be transparent to Uncle Sam.

BTW @spiritualmax thanks for quoting me!

And we as community should see what we can do to stop and prevent this

Im not sure if we can do anything at all at current stage :(