Steem Feedback Contest Entry Post; @alaeddin

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I joined the #Steemit community just a couple of months ago around mid December 2020. I did so, as I mentioned in past posts, because I was looking to get into the crypto market. I had read an article about #Steemit and was immediately intrigued. #Steemit was not the only option I looked into, there was also Sapien as well as a couple of other obscure platforms. I began to post on Sapian before Steemit because of its more simplistic user interface, design and clearer brand identity. However, the problems with Sapien the platform (not necessarily the coin) were way too obvious even for a newbie like me. I will leave my criticism of Sapien here as this post is not about putting other platforms down. All I will say is that I deleted my account within two weeks and never looked back.

I decided to give #Steemit a chance. The idea of joining the ‘Newcomers’ community was an option but honestly it never appealed to me. Providing newcomers with awards based on their initiative to learn how to manage their own accounts and competency in using the platform, is a fantastic welcome. However it was not for me. To be perfectly honest it felt like an initiation!

So, I just began to post as you do on social networks. My first posts where never received. No votes. No comments. Nothing. This was obviously because I was not initiated. The posts were not great but I was trying to add value. Perhaps I missed something. Was it really because I was not initiated?

Luckily I began to browse through the communities and I read an invitation for a contest on #writingnreviews. I wrote a post and I did so from the heart. It was recognized and I received some well deserved upvotes and comments. I still had only 16SP and a few Steem coins but I had to start somewhere. Obviously my interest grew so I posted outside a competition. I received nothing. Actually I was greeted with a down vote. So I posted again. Again nothing. Perhaps two more down-votes. Then I began to explore other communities. I came across #worldofxpilar. The community was very active, full of creativity and there were so many contests happening. I posted an entry for several contests and waited. Then I wrote couple of good posts and I received some more SP! I also received something else that was very valuable to me. I began to receive some much needed compliments and recognition from the admins and moderators. After my newly acquired approvals, I tried to post outside of the contests once more. I received one maybe two up-votes. So again I found myself discouraged.

With that intro I present to you three problematic issues I have found with the #Steemit network.

1. New Vs. Trending Content: In the community pages we are greeted with the ‘trending’ section first, where we find higher value content for curation and it grabs all the attention. Also, the more popular a community is, the more ‘pinned’ posts occupy the top of the feed. Even if we post something of value, it will not be able to climb the ladder to reach the ‘trending’ section quickly enough and our posts are lost and often ignored unless users actively search for newer content. One solution to this would be to have a 2 column feed whereby both ‘New’ and ‘Trending’ posts are displayed side by side. On mobile this would be harder to achieve yet there are solutions such as having collapsable content sections using CSS. On social media platforms obviously ‘Trending’ content matters the most but on #Steemit there is a very high barrier to entry to that section. By leveling the user's view of both Trending and New posts I strongly feel authors and curators will benefit more.

2. Highly Valued Bad Content: Some communities have members receiving high income votes for, in my opinion, sub par content. They are able to post and receive high value on a daily basis. This issue upsets me the most. Perhaps I do not know enough about how #Steemit works, so please forgive my ignorance. I don’t care that there are users gaining lots of SP for crap content per se. My problem is that I have been trying to understand how and why it happens. How does really bad content gain so much when within the same community really good content gains so little? I feel that some more ‘knowledgeable’ members are aware of the issue, yet it is not spoken of or addressed publicly. I have not found anything myself although I spent many hours researching it and trying to discover what is happening. I do believe that some members even though they claim to be ‘new’ are not new at all. They understand how #Steemit works and they leverage the network as well as bots and other members to gain valuable up-votes. The main problem here is that it is inviting more and more members to join with no intention of improving the content whatsoever. They are using #Steemit to just get coin regardless of what they post because they can. This issue I believe is a deterrent for many newcomers. I myself often feel discouraged because it really does take a lot of effort to write and post something I feel might be of value. One look at other blogging sites like Tumblr and you are quickly aware of the incredibly creative posts that actually exists on the internet. The benefit of reading or viewing high quality posts is that it can inspire us to do the same.

3. Variety Of Communities: It is relatively cheap to create our own communities and I hope to start my own one day. This is also a two edged sword. I believe that once a member has enough SP, reputation and followers then it would be a good time to start their own community not before. Unfortunately the level a member has to be at, to successfully begin a new community would take an awfully long time! My idea is to have a continuously running contest by members with very high SP to receive suggestions for starting a new community. The winners would be allowed to create a community with those high SP members as moderators/ mentors. This will give the starting community the backing it needs. I trust this would benefit all members involved.

Finally I would like to say that I have come to appreciate the #Steemit network on many levels and I hope to continue to be a part of the community as a whole. I have discovered that I enjoy blogging and writing in general. As I mentioned above, I am truly thankful for the inspiration and support of the #worldofxpilar and #writingnreviews communites. Specifically @xpilar, @adeljose, @axeman, @mister-omortson, @belenguerra and @fendit for being exceptional admins and moderators. I know I am being biased because I spend most of my time in their communities but I read their posts, join their contests and I understand how much effort and work they must put into #Steemit on a daily basis to keep it growing and alive. I have a special thank you to @stef1 for being a supportive and encouraging friend on #Steemit. @stef1 creates and posts wonderful art, she is a very talented and inspiring person. She made me feel welcome from the start and through her I was convinced that the #Steemit social platform actually works!