I agree with you. The ones who build relationships and care a lot about creating something sustainable will be the ones who stick around and who do well. The more engaged one is, the better and stronger the group will be. So, the question is, how do we get non-engaged people to become engaged? Is it perhaps a time issue? Most people have day jobs right? Is that perhaps something that is getting in the way?
You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
It will be fascinating to see how this all plays out.
I think for starters, expectations need to be managed. The reality is, many people will NOT make significant money from their content which is perfectly okay.
I think when we and other Steemit users introduce Steemit to our family and friends we need to share our experience open and honestly..
Instead of "You have to join this site! You can make bank by posting content!," We can experiment with reframing it such as "This site is really cool, it's an awesome place I get to test content and make some awesome friends."
I do think, as you mentioned, making it easier for newcomers to discover content related to "how to" Steemit will help significantly. I also think that the reality of most social networks, for example Reddit, the behavior is to lurk and consume rather produce. That being said, one of the reasons i'm so excited about Steemit is because it may encourage former "lurkers" to dive in and share their story in a way that people can relate.
I think as a community we must do our best to be as welcoming as possible which I feel you've done a great job of doing @stellabelle. I also think we should continue to reward content that is actually good rather than just upvote people in hopes they will notice you.
I'm super excited as you can tell to see the future of Steemit and I'm glad there are many people like you Stella here that will make the Steemit community a better place. :)
I think you're right @aboundlessworld that many people will not make significant money, and that is okay. I also think that once this community becomes diverse and large enough, it's possible that whales will get somewhat smaller, dolphins will become more prevalent, and minnow populations will decrease in size as they have more access to dolphin waters. Minnows like me should have every opportunity to become dolphins with hard work and patience, without the miracle of a helpful whale. That's what competition tends to do - increase the population in the middle and give everyone (willing to work it) access to higher levels. But it will take time. I'm excited to see this environment and how it will be played out a year from now.
the biggest challenge from my standpoint is opportunity. I am not usually a person who creates a topic but will contribute to one. I often spend time looking in chat for something to start that I can respond to because I can't think of something to start. It's a bit of a vicious cycle and I know that but at the same time, I can't force the ideas for conversation. If I do, it creates a likewise conversation.. forced and dead. :)
Then in my view you just have to be the best contributor there is!
Look at my comment above. I made more on that single comment than I have so far on my content. There's incredible opportunity for everyone here, especially when you leave insightful comments like yours. :)
Just invest the time in reading, learning, and jumping in when you have something to add. Don't worry about making mistakes, those are part of the process.
Yeah, I can relate to that. One of the more important reasons why I like steemit, is that I need external motivation to do something cool. Doing high quality writing, photography, music, video or whathave you requires quite a bit of time and effort. Bit I am a bit lazy, and fine as I am to get up and do it. Even if we are talking something more simple, like planning my finances.
I noticed that if I have other people that are interested and I can collaborate with, or who depend on me, I am suddenly much less lazy, more disciplined and better off.
A lot of people here like to talk about selfish but intelligent self interest helping others (which is natural with the amount of anarchists and libertarians we have here), but that is exactly my motivation.
It took me about ten years to go from ignorance, to knowledge about how I best function, to conciously acting on that. Steemit is a platform that is rife with opportunities for such collaboration and help.
I am new to this community, but being part of different communities alowed me to do amazing things in the past. Communities have much more then mere monetary value, it is just something that more new people need to understand, and they'll be better of. Hopefully we as a group can engage more incoming people to stay and do their part.
Currently there quite a few efforts like #usersummary or maybe that FollowFriday tag.
Anyhow this post by @thedashguy is one of such efforts to raise the cohesion between steem users, check it out!