First Impressions
As far as any cryptocurrency goes this one is a new one. Nothing has ever been done to this extent before in which a community is as involved as it is. The ability to share your thoughts and ideas and get paid essentially by the community is astounding and the fact that it works is even crazier. The fact that it is the current Number 28th coin is even more impressive. (https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/steem/) This being said the coin presents some questions for the future. This is all coming from the perspective of somebody new so please let me know if i'm missing something
Pros
As far as pros go the list is quite long
Community Centered
Creators have designed the platform in a way that allows the best posts to be showcased at the top of the website
Payments/upvotes based on quality (mostly)
Aside from bots regular votes and comments help to produce more and more growth throughout the community
No real favoritism among posts
No real substantial algorithm that helps worse posts get more votes than better posts mostly on merits
Art has just as much of a chance of a blog post etc
Some of the top posts ive seen have been art, videos, blogs, and really anything you can produce
Curation
Still trying to learn more about this whole area
Freedom to post what you want
Cons
Bot driven
Thousands of different posts are happening every couple of minutes and one way that posters appear to stand out is to get upvoted by bots and while supporting people this way is not bad it does leave potential for abuse and devaluing
Somewhat confusing to new members on the intricacies of the platform
Ie: SBD, Steem, Sp, delegations, currations, etc
Final Thoughts
Overall i am really excited for the future of the platform and plan to post more in the future. The innovation on the site really demonstrates the creators design choices and influences a sense of community.
Do you research about bots and how the system "really" works. Welcome!