State of Steem: What Remains, When You Remove All the _______?

Without a doubt, the Steem Ecosystem has changed a lot since I first became part of it, in January of 2017.

Back then, I got off to an enthusiastic start because I felt like I was becoming part of a new incarnation of the old "Social Blogging" venues I was part of, back in 1999-2006... and which I — quite frankly — missed quite a lot.

In many ways, it seemed like the original Steem vision of @dan suggested that this would be a somewhat "mixed use" social content site, but with a considerable emphasis on content creation. I even remember some phrase about Steemit (as it was referred to, at the time) becoming a sort of "permanent repository of information" on the blockchain.

As such, it all felt like something I could "get behind," and two-years-and-change later, I feel pretty good about having stayed true to my original intent.

Purple heather in close-up

A Look Around the April 2019 Landscape

This morning, I spent a little time doing something I haven't done in a very long time: I looked at the "New" feed for a while; refreshing the page about every two minutes or so.

What I see today — aside from the current "reputation glitch — is definitely not the Steemit site I became part of.

Now, I'm not going to cast this in a "bad" or "good" light, it simply is what it is.

But as I looked at the unrolling feed — some 5-10 new items coming online every minute — I started wondering what would actually be left over if you removed all the largely "automatic" posts.

• Remove all the DrugWars battle posts.
• Remove all the ActiFit updates.
• Remove all the SteemHunt links.
• Remove all the "naked" Appics shares.
• Remove the various Dlike links.
• Remove all the SteemMonsters posts.

There are probably others, but no mind... my question is "What do we end up with, with all those gone?"

Not a whole lot.

Sure, there's still a lot of "worthy" content, but it's only a fraction of what it was, a couple of years back. Certainly, the total number of posts is significantly higher than March 2017, but what sorts of posts are they?

A daisy in the sun...

Towards "General" Social Media

From where I am sitting — and just a reminder, I'm not saying this is BAD, just pointing out that it EXISTS — what we're looking at here is the general "Facebook-ification" of our community. Rather than a "content driven" venue, we have ended up with something that's basically about people posting whatever they feel like, whenever they feel like it and nobody really cares what sort of impression it leaves, whether within the community, or on those on the outside looking in.

However, the difference is that on Facebook I can filter out the eternal CandyCrush, Angry Birds and FarmVille posts from my feed.

I can also sort my "friends" into groups, and just view filtered feeds according to metrics I set. I don't get to do that, here.

Now some might pipe in and say "Yeah, but you can just use SteemPeak, Partiko, Busy.... "

Problem number two — and I am mostly speaking to this from the perspective of "how this looks to others who might consider joining our community" — is that over on Farcebook, or LinkedIn or somewhere else you DON'T have to go use some third-party app to make the primary venue usable!

I think this is perhaps where we went astray when Ned decided that Steem really wasn't about "being a social venue," but about "building apps on the blockchain."

Nice idea... but who do you think is USING those apps? They don't "use themselves." And apps are pretty meaningless if they don't have users!

Tiny flower on the lawn...

Encouraged by Recent Initiatives

I do find myself feeling somewhat encouraged by recent initiatives that seem more oriented towards building community.

From the "Bigger Middle Class" idea to the "10,000 Minnows" project, it feels like there's a growing number of voices from within who are taking it upon themselves to focus on content and connections again.

And that makes me feel like I have not entirely wasted the past two years, pumping something I hope is of some value into an ecosystem that's purely a giant pity of automatic posts.

Hopefully, you're feeling something similar...

Have a great day, and thanks for reading!

What direction do YOU think this place is taking? Are recent initiatives at community building "too little, too late?" Or will they change things, gradually? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190416 14:03 PST
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