So I'd heard about LBRY a long time ago, but never looked into it. After this last Youtube crypto purge scare, it was one of the main platforms being recommended and I decided to check it out. The tldr version
- LBRY has a better user experience than Steem in the beginning for a new user. MUCH better.
- If you are an experienced Steemian, Steem has much more functionality.
- As expected engagement isn't that great as there's not that many users.
- You can start earning LBC immediately with bounties for completing tasks, ie following your first person, publishing your first post, getting x amount of followers etc.
- It works on tips. This is a bit frustrating to me because I've LONG been trying to sound the alarm that Steem applications should work a "donations" UX into all frontends and lots of people told me people wouldn't use it. As usual, people don't know what they're talking about, because that's literally ALL you can do there and there are plenty of people that prefer it to Steem.
- Because of the tipping system they don't have to worry about posts "expiring" and all my posts are still earning tips, not just the latest one.
- You can do all types of content, but it seems like the UX is geared towards video content.
- If you're a content creator I 100% think you should get on LBRY. It's only worth pennies now, but it looks like it has a lot of potential. I feel like it might be in it's .07 cent Steem stage right now.
- They have a referral system that's easy and straightforward. Speaking of that...
https://api.lbry.com/user/refer?r=ysxmVexZ72N8F32nFybug8qodnRexGRY
^ If you want to join, use my referral link please!
Alright, so that out of the way, my impression of LBRY is that it feels more like a singular cohesive thing. An end to end product. This is something I've always said is lacking in Steem apps, each app seems like it's being developed under the assumption that the user knows about all the other apps. So they really just focus on solving one, or a selection of problems, and leave the rest to a different application.
On the one hand this is one of the strengths of Steem, but the way we're doing it makes for a TERRIBLE user experience, and if the user experience is terrible, it doesn't matter how good the functionality is, people won't use something that makes them feel frustrated, confused, and like they can't do what they want to do. It's really that important, and I feel like it's just getting skipped over all the time, like it's optional. It's not optional, it's do or die. Crappy UX = Failure. Okay, sorry, I got off track, you know that Steem UX triggers me.
Anyway, making an account was simple and straightforward, the exact UX that most social platforms provide, email, make a password, register your email, DONE.
Then they start you off with some bounties to help you get started.
The idea here is that they teach you about the application as well as giving you a little funds to get you involved.
In two days, I've made four posts and earned a little under 200 LBC which in USD is a little under $4.
Not bad with no following and just posting into the ether.
One light bulb that this turned on for me is that my artwork is now a resource. If there is a new platform, I can start from the beginning and monetize it all over again. It's become more like a songwriter that makes a song and earns royalties for life as long as people still want to hear/use that song. As more social blockchain projects spring up, I'll have a growing library of content that I can use on all of them. So as a creator, you lose nothing, by crossposting which is why I said, every creator should definitely get on there and post as well. There have been other platforms, but they'd have their token not on the market yet, or some other major flaw that made them not useable in terms of earning immediately. LBRY has past that point, so I think now is a good time to get into LBRY. If you want to buy, it's pretty cheap, and earning works, although I don't know where the ceiling is, I assume pretty low.
It's easy to find information on how things work, another area where Steem apps tend to drop the ball, and you can be up and running in literally minutes. No keys in your face, easy sign in, etc. Although, as someone who understands this stuff, I was like "Where's my keys!?" and I still haven't looked up how that works. But I've got a wallet, can send and receive LBC, all that is pretty straight forward.
Content discovery is trash so far. There's no notification system, comments are garbage, its all one feed and you can't directly reply to a comment. It's obviously designed primarily for video, so non video content can feel a bit clunky even though it's allowed.
Anyway, those are my initial impressions. If you're on there, give me a follow
https://open.lbry.com/@midlet:3
I need 9 more followers to get my next bounty of 50 LBC!
Have any of you tried LBRY? If you're on there, let me know so I can follow you. Let's start a gang there, and everyone will be like, those damn Steem people, think they're so cool. Haha.
Followed ya @midlet! Yeah, I'm going to start posting there also... might as well. Everyone likes to earn free crypto :)
https://lbry.tv/@charlesfuchs:b
Thanks man, I followed you when I saw your comment. That's one thing I haven't figured out how to do or it's dumb if you can't do which is see who is following you.
Followed you both
I am at I am at https://open.lbry.com/@azfix:9
The main thing as we saw here on steem is the economics .... what will give their token value?
What are its use cases? You earn lbry, but why you would buy it? Whats the inflation? How its get created :)
To much questions?
Nah, that's all super important stuff. One of the reasons to buy it though it to promote your content. You can promote your posts by staking LBC with your post. I think that's a pretty neat feature and gives the token a use case and demand to buy it. Of course IF they can onboard users and have that be valuable. Don't know the answer to the rest of the stuff, been too busy to dive that far into the weeds, will definitely find out though.
I made a LBRY account when they first started, but I never did anything with it. I spent about 5 minutes looking for some content before I gave up.
I will have to give it another look.
Well on the content side it's still pretty crappy, but as an app, I think it works well.
So it's been aeons since I looked at lbry (as in when I looked I kind of got the idea but there really wasn't a lot to it) and I completely did not get the impression that it was geared to video content at all, but seeing as I know it was that long I could be remembering wrongly (or it's changed in the interim).
I might look more into it when I actually start making videos worth posting.
On the tipping thing, if it requires drawing from your own wallet well I definitely prefer the reward pool thing (otherwise I'd never be able to get started anywhere as I have issues buying crypto). Very much agree there should be perpetual payouts though (even if it's adding on anything new since last payout period if keeping the payout periods works better than immediate adding).
And I'm not even going to touch the ux thing with a barge pole, suffice to say I do understand >_<
Followed you midlet, I have been on LBRY for quite some time and recently started posting content. Nice to see you getting close to that 20 follower reward.
I am at https://open.lbry.com/@azfix:9
Thanks @azfix! I followed you back :)
Thanks, I am thinking of putting a list together so Steemians can find each other better on LBRY. I would like to get a list of at least 20 or so but the more I can find the better.
I plan to extend my content there and is encouraging to have read your review.