Interesting piece of analysis @paulag; Steemit's high churn rate is sad but not entirely surprising.
Now that "it" has been established, perhaps we should look at the reasons "why."
I would submit that the vast majority of Steemit's churn problem can be attributed to "misguided" marketing. If the primary angle of approach-- when anyone from STINC to individuals talk about the site — is "come to Steemnit and make money" you're going to have an ENORMOUS number of disappointed people.
ESPECIALLY if the statement "Come to Steemit and make money" is paired with someone pointing to Jeff Berwick or Jerry Banfield as "examples" of what that means.
It become about the "fantasies" and "magical thinking" people create in their own minds... "Oh, I can go write a few blog posts and post memes and make HUNDREDS of dollars a week!"
No. No you can't. At least not unless you're importing your existing 800,000 followers from YouTube or Facebook. And even then there's a burn in period.
I think it's time a LOT of people took a long hard look in the mirror! You can't go around being all distressed that most people seem to be here just to "milk the system for money" if you keep telling the world "come to Steemit to make money!" Think about it...
"But people wouldn't come if we didn't promise them money!"
Are you sure? Or would it just be the "get rich quick crowd" that would no longer come? And do we really want them, anyway, given the current issues we are dealing with?
But that's a whole different story, for a different post.
=^..^=
But without that promise Steemit is just another free speech blogging side like Minds or GAB. But both Minds and GAB offer more engagement in form of comments and upvotes.
Not even then because you would have 800,000 follower with 15 Steem Power / 30000 VEST. Do you know how many upvotes form a 30000 VEST account your need to get above the dust level?
I don't either but it's more then 7.
Steemit might already have to many of those as is already doomed.
I fully agree on a personal view point - however having experienced jerry on other platforms before steemit existed, he does not exactly bring quality traffic or users, but at an early growth stage for steemit, it helps with rankings and visibility to more mainstream people. but yes, a different story for a different post. Ping me if you write one, would love to chime in