User Categories on the Steem Blockchain
Lately I've been thinking a lot about the different types of users on the Steem blockchain, and the role they play in the success of Steem and its many different applications. Without any of these groups of people, the blockchain would come to a complete halt and be rendered useless. So it's important to acknowledge everyone who plays a part in our digital ecosystem.
Today I'll break down the four main categories that most people fall into and share the importance of these users on the blockchain. I'd love to hear what role you feel you play here. Let us know in the comments what categories you fall into and if you're considering branching off into others!
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I'm a content creator. I also want to be a curator but have little knowledge about it.
Hey @etoo, thanks for sharing. And if you're already upvoting content on Steemit then you're a curator :)
Hey @etoo curation and commenting on others stuff is an excellent way to grow your rep, following, and income. Your comments on some whales post is gonna probably give you more exposure than your own post, at least in the beginning.
I recommend posting daily content but spending a good amount of time reading and commenting on other bigger steemians blogs.
How do you know who is a whale ? How do you find the whale posts?
Easy way to find whales is to see reputation, higher reputations usually indicate they've been around for a while and probably has some indication of their wealth, not always, but often they are positively correlated.
Second thing you can do is click on the person's name, and go into their "wallet", and then you will see what they have.
But always, focus on finding people with quality content first, things that you are actually interested in commenting on, and then comment in a meaningful way. But it helps if that content creator is a whale because those comments can be rewarded significantly even with a minor upvote from a whale.
But again its got to start with a genuine, sincere interest in the topic, then your comment will carry weight, and provoke conversation and followers.
These are some great pointers. I still comment on other people's channels and I can say it has helped my rep and wallet quite a bit. Definitely a good recommendation!
I couldn't agree more to these comments of huge value. A very big thank you to you all
You're today's comment winner!! 😎🥂
Each day I pick a random comment on my post to upvote and today was your lucky day 🙌🏻
Thank you!!!!!!
What else is affecting the price of Steem? In my mind, Steem is bigger than just Steemit. What I love is the development going on, as you mention.
You put a lot of emphasis on the rewards pool, investor 'protection', coin value etc. But I'm not sure that should be anything to directly worry about. I think bots are more positive than anything negative. I think they're an interesting addition at present.
But I think, let's keep the focus on the platform, usability, encouraging curation and practical use (+beyond Steemit) that will help the coin really grow. For once 'quality' or engaging content is being rewarded directly, by others. That's the main reason for its continued success. Competitors, however, may become more of a threat, if Steemit fails to keep developing and expanding what is now possible with this new, exciting art of sharing crypto.
Really thanks funny. I do! Thanks anyway
I think it should ultimately be a balance between all participants. However, investors and content creators should be rewarded adequately to promote the platform. I hope to ultimately work on all of the aspects as I continue to engage with the community.
That's a great point. And I too would like to ultimately get into developing for the blockchain. I've got a few ideas that would be really cool, but I'll need to become more knowledgeable about coding and integrating with the Steem blockchain.
I am all three. I think all of us who stick with steemit become all three after a time, even if it is only time one has contributed. I have contributed time and money. I personally do not use bid bots. I tried twice and lost money both times, even when one bid bot guaranteed I wouldn't.
That said ... steemit is much more democratic about feed space than any other major social media platform I am aware of. I choose my personal feed and I see everyone who posts in my feed ... if this is not true than please enlighten me. With other social media platforms, you have to pay to even get in a significant portion of your followers feeds. I have almost three thousand followers on my FB like page and not even hundred people see a post and more often a lot less than that. Even with bid bots dominating the trending page, we can still get seen a lot easier on steemit than any other platform and we get paid for providing content, even if it is nominally. Steemit is by yards a better functioning social media platform for the everyday user than any I have come across. All those other platforms are certainly pay for play, full of trolls, and a fake followers. At least on steemit, things are a great deal more transparent, or becoming so.
I would like to see more transparency where bots are concerned and I would like it to be possible to make the trending page without paying for it or bot voting yourself. But I agree banning bid bots would not be a wise economical choice. I think the bots need regulating though and done by a watchdog with some teeth. Like with a publicly traded corporation, there needs to be someone watching out for the smaller investors. It is all about balance.
By the by ... I'd give you my witness vote:):):)
This is true. Even if you're unable to invest with money, can can invest with your time and energy. Or you can invest with everything you've got! :) That's a great point.
And you're right; I've also got a FB business page and in order for any of my following to see my posts I need to promote (pay for) that post in order for it to gain any traction. I find that to be soo backwards. And with Steemit you can build your following and know that they'll see you're post (as long as they log in from time to time). Luckily, our algorithm doesn't censor our content in that way. And.. luckily the platform was built to reward users instead of the creators.
And as far as upvote bots go, I use them pretty regularly, but not for profit. If I get a profit then that's great. But my ultimate goal with using bots is to gain recognition (or viewership) and possibly gain a few followers. It's worked very well for me. But there are people who try to use them just for instant profit motives. To each their own I suppose.
And thank you!! If I do decide to setup a witness server I'll definitely let everybody know. It's not completely off the table.. but I'm just not sure yet. :)
I am a curator, content creator, and an investor. I pride myself on trying to #growsteemit, through quality content creation, curation and inviting people to this platform.
I'd say thats one category you missed, "spokesperson". We need spokespeople to brag about this awesome platform. :)
Thanks for the feedback, @infidel1258. And you're absolutely right, we need people to promote/market the platform. Ultimately I think this typically falls on the part of content creators.. but not always. Some creators are only sharing their content here, which I feel is not enough.. especially here in the early days of Steem. I share my content on YouTube, Twitter, and occasionally Facebook so that we can reach the masses.
I'm glad to hear you're doing (more than) your part here. It's up to us to get the word out! :)
Great video Brandon! I am mostly a curator and content creator. I haven't bought any steem yet with fiat and converted it into steem power. Although everything I have made so far I have converted into steep power instead of cashing it out, so in a way I am an investor as well. :)
Thanks @mrchef111, and I think that makes you an investor as well!
You are welcome Brandon! haha :)
i am also just a content creator but love your bot service and i use it daily to promote my content and the reason i use your bot is solely you man and once day i want to do big things like you are doing steemit it awesome platform and will kill facebook once day #deletefacebook :)
That's awesome, I'm glad to hear that @ychaudrys. I'm with you on the #deletefacebook campaign! :)
This was one of the more important posts you made man...Heck I even resteemed it lol And I resteem like one blog post a month lol
Seriously though, it's a fantastic overview of how we need all 4...I'm the first 3 for sure and who knows where my future takes me. All I know is that I love this blockchain and what makes it's so special is that it needs all four!
STEEM is special because of that simple fact! It's not perfect, but heck...I am loving the journey and it's changed my life in less than 6 months LOL
Lol, thanks for the resteeem @jongolson! Much appreciated man!!
I've been thinking a lot lately about the different roles we all have here on the Steem blockchain and how important each one is. It became very clear to me that we need all four of these roles in order for the blockchain to be a success. And you're right. It sets us apart from all other blockchains out there.
I hope to try all of the above eventually. So happy to have found steem. So much more going on than the normal social media platforms.
Absolutely! Steem/Steemit are setting a new standard for social media in the blockchain era. I'm glad we got in early!
Thank you for a great explanation of the 4 roles in the Steem Ecosystem. At this point in time I am a curator & content creator. The more I learn about the Steem blockchain the more interesting I want to learn. :) This is great way to build an audience... Still getting my head around the Payout information of SBD & SP. One area of interest for me is how to build your audience... just starting out makes it a little challenge in build an audience interested in my content. :)
You're very welcome. And thanks for sharing your experience with us. I'm the same way, the more I learn the more I want to learn lol. I've said this before, but I know more about the Steem blockchain than any other blockchain out there... including Bitcoin.
One great way to build your following is by doing what you're doing here - commenting on other people's posts. It puts you in the eyes of more people. In fact, that's probably the best way to build here on Steemit... aside from creating great content and promoting it to the masses. But I'll try to make some more videos in the near future about building your channel here.
Thank you for the response @brandonfrye! It is how we all learn... following those who have done it already! :)
https://www.useloom.com/share/e138d1074f4c488fa6e2bf5b5617abed
Ahh okay I see what you mean. So in order to adjust your voting power you'll need to either have 500 SP in your account... or use www.busy.org which is another Steem interface (like Steemit) which has some added features, including a vote slider. So when you vote on a post there it will let you adjust how much of an upvote you would like to give.
How do I determine how much voting power that I want to give? I see that busy reports the amount of SP, but will it be the same as on Steemit?
That's totally up to you. You can upvote at whatever amount that you like. And yes, Busy and Steemit are both connected via the blockchain. So whatever you do on one happens on the other.
I played the role of content creator and a curator in our ecosystem for now. How I wish I could join your weekly contest but my account is more that 4 weeks old now. How I wish I found something like @minnowfund before but okay I'll just continue my life and continue to grow. Keep up the good initiative and work @brandonfrye
Struggling a little to keep up with your vids just at the moment but glad I caught this. Always appreciate the clear explanations and lack of um-ing and ah-ing and general waffle, and the fact you always look at everything from our (the user / viewer) pov. Interested in knowing a bit more about the witnesses, not because I'd ever have ambitions in that direction but because as I understand it we can get to vote for them and if they have a important role it would be good to exercise that vote well. (Plenty of places to get that info, I know - just haven't got to it yet and not a priority.)
Interesting too have your take on the whole upvotebot / voting-for- yourself-but-no-one-else thing. I think we have some idea who you might have been talking about there. Must admit I'd not really seen it from quite that point of view until this, although I have read others who share your view: sort of "OK it may not be quite in the spirit of the platform but these people are investors, prepared to leave their money in, and so essential to the whole system because without them all these other people would have no platform to upload their good stuff to". The danger is if it's scaring off some who just see Steemit as an unlevel playing field (which of course it is) or, worse than that, a place where scammers run free like weeds, and so run away. Being upfront about the other side (the advantages), and telling it like it is, like you do here, has got to be a healthy thing, whichever side of the fence people are on.
For myself I intend to be all the first three things, the third modestly at first but hopefully growing. In the meantime I'm just the first, but very much working behind the scenes on the second.
Hey @gussiefinknottle, great to hear from you. I replied to you in today's video which will be up shortly but here's a link to a video I did a while back about Steem Witnesses. Should help out a lot. https://steemit.com/steem/@brandonfrye/what-are-steem-witnesses-and-why-should-you-care
That's great @brandonfrye, I'll look out for it - and thanks for the link, which I'll follow. I have so much crypto stuff hitting my inbox these days it's tough to keep up: maybe I should just watch your videos and ignore the rest. Btw I just tagged you in another reply. Does this mean you'll see it - see how little I know? It's not that you need to, not at all - just wondering what actually happens when you include someone's handle in a post or comment.
Whenever you decide to vie for witness I got your back! #BrandonForWitness hashtags are ready and waiting for the GREEN LIGHT