Hello @theoretical, it's been a while, it's wonderful to have you back. I eagerly await whatever you are cooking up, and will be following, supporting and offering my thoughts along the way.

I have observed Steem closely since 2016, and have some thoughts on what Steem did well, what can be improved, and what needs to be dropped.

1. Steemit Inc. has spent years chasing scalability despite the tiny, tiny audience for Steem, it's been a constant rabbit hole that has got in the way of actually improving the social features. My first thought is blockchain social should be built on a Layer 2 solution. All data need not be clog up a blockchain, that is just not a sensible or feasible approach for something that may scale into the hundreds of millions. Instead, build a Layer 2 solution on an established chain like ethereum or EOS. There's some great tech available for ethereum like ZK/Optimistic rollups. The main motivation is actually to leverage the formidable network effects of these established chains, perhaps even make it cross-chain. I know you're building a brand new blockchain, and that's fine, just sharing my thoughts. Regarding fees - see below. Governance can be achieved by community leaders (more on this later, will tie into a community-centric approach).

2. Privacy. Whilst the open and public social network has some appeal, for most of the world, privacy is a very important and fundemantal right. It's essential for all parts of the social network to offer privacy controls.

3. Ditch the inflation-funding rewards. This one's crucial. I believe inflation funding on a common rewards pool is a major contributor to Steem's failure. Firstly, the economics are broken, the tokens are regularly dumped, leading to Steem being a strong degenerator type asset which is in perpetual decline save for the few euphoric altcoin pumps-and-dumps. The other, more insiduous drawback is people view the reward pool as a public property that is waiting to be abused for selfish gain, in various ways. In a way, it reflects some of the downsides of unfettered communism combined with unfettered liberty - the worst of both worlds. This has led to a lot of toxicity and abuse on Steem. Finally, most people are on social media to create social capital, not financial rewards, so the rewards has never drawn a substantial audience anyway.

4. Instead, replace it with a decentralized advertising and gamification model. We have seen some experiments by BAT and Voice on this front. The general idea is - anyone can create content, and there are ways to pay to achieve visibility. For example, if there's a celebrity content creator, there'll be people who would want their comments/contents to be high up - they can pay for it. The content creator will receive a large share of the advertising revenue. Another possibility is advertising on a certain community. I realize this is pretty vague, but I believe the revenue model must be attention economy-driven, rather than inflation-funded. And yes, the smart contract will take a miniscule cut that'll go towards paying for maintenance of Layer 2, development and Layer 1 fees. Of course, the same structure can also be used for a native blockchain solution like the one you're building.

5. Gamification. Tying into the above, it's important to gamify the social network. There's a lot of inspiration that can be taken from free-to-play games. There's a great body of evidence to suggest that people will pay if they are engaged. I believe this type of tokenisation and gamification is the only USP for blockchain-based social networks for the masses.

6. Community-based system. Communities has been great for Steem, but at this time it's clear to see it's a fix on top of a problem. I'd like to see a social network that treats Communities natively. Of course, it should be people centric as well, but Communities should be factored into the fundamental design of the system, including the advertising platform. There are many ideas to expand on Communities, including robust but decentralized moderation controls, gamification options, etc.

As you can probably tell, having been on Steem so long I have plenty of experience and thoughts. If you have any questions, please feel free, I'd be happy to help. I'm available @liberosist#8254 on Discord for a more private venue. I'll be following your project closely, look forward to it!

PS: Although I'm not a developer, if there was any way to actively contribute to this project, I'd be glad to.