This is a pretty good analysis of curation rewards. My question is whether financial rewards is the crux of Steemit.
I reckon that Steemit is first a social media platform, and our use of social media is proven to be desirable absent emuneration.
When Steemit adds rewards to the platform, it has not become worse than those that do not reward creators and curators. Focusing merely on rewards creates of Steemit something it is not: a job.
Not that it can't be, given time and development. I know of several people that claim to have never invested a satoshi in SP, yet also to have surpasses the 20k SP you note is the threshold for nominal earnings for curation.
So your analysis is appropriate caution to consider Steemit not primarily an income generating proposal, but rather social media, and a way to share posts with folks you like.
How we look at something can dramatically alter what we think it is.
I would absolutely agree with your thoughts. But tell me this, for the average person coming from Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Reddit, what is it that will actually make them switch? Rewards.
I don't see any promotional material going out touting privacy, or decentralization or anything else remotely substantial. And for a mainstream audience they won't care to jump ship from their current social media to Steemit for any of those reasons anyways.
So, the main differentiator here is rewards. It's undeniable that rewards are the truly interesting proposition to 95% of the people it will take to get Steem to 10 million users.
How do they earn rewards? Articles and Curation. And right now both favor those with significant Steem Power invested which doesn't favor those switching platforms. If they don't immediately make some sort of noticeable reward, they will bail within a week. When they do, those users will lose/forget their password and keys and this will be a ghost town of account names and a some really passionate crypto enthusiasts who reward each other.
I would absolutely agree with your thoughts. But tell me this, for the average person coming from Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Reddit, what is it that will actually make them switch? Rewards.
I don't see any promotional material going out touting privacy, or decentralization or anything else remotely substantial. And for a mainstream audience they won't care to jump ship from their current social media to Steemit for any of those reasons anyways.
So, the main differentiator here is rewards. It's undeniable that rewards are the truly interesting proposition to 95% of the people it will take to get Steem to 10 million users.
How do they earn rewards? Articles and Curation. And right now both favor those with significant Steem Power invested which doesn't favor those switching platforms. If they don't immediately make some sort of noticeable reward, they will bail within a week. When they do, those users will lose/forget their password and keys and this will be a ghost town of account names and a some really passionate crypto enthusiasts who reward each other.
Well, there may be folks, like myself that despise the censorship, data harvesting, and forcefed propaganda on Fakebook. This is what I would emphasize in marketing, while retaining mention of rewards.
However, it is the rewards that will prove out Steemit, in time.
It is that time is of the essence that causes folks to bail when their expectations aren't met. It is therefore critical to limit expectations in order to retain active accounts.
@diabolika has recently posted that there is an active recruitment initiative that seeks out good writers, drops a few reward bombs on them early on, and then regards them as hooked.
This works, but creates great frustration, and I reckon still ultimately fails more than it works. Worse, it creates false expectations. People have quit jobs, moved into vans, and tried to make a living on Steemit because of early boosts.
It is writing like yours, and lucidity that I came here for, and I have not been disappointed. I reckon rewards need to be merely the icing on the cake, to preclude backlash.
The real draw of Steemit is free speech, and, presently at least, the lack of propaganda.