Community Builders on Steemit—What Do You Think of The Trending Page?
The front page of the world's only working concept for a cryptocurrency and blockchain powered social media platform is absolutely shit on most days of the week! I mean it's such a pain these days to open the site to a new user you are trying to onboard and find it full of crap!
How do you think this can be improved and what do you say to new users you are on-boarding when they ask you about all the drama that makes it the front trending page upvoted by bid bots and what not while all the remaining goodness gets trampled underneath.
Content discovery needs a lot of work according to most of the users I've spoken to on and off the meetups I've been doing and I'm flying out day after for another meetup I'm hosting.
I'm kind of out of ideas and reasons to explain all the crap on the front page to new users I've been talking to including some keen on buying into Steem.
I'm kinda sick of this crap I see every day on trending... Not that this post is going to make any difference.. But let's just talk. I would love to hear some ideas from you!
If you like my work kindly resteem it to your friends. You may also continue reading my recent posts which might interest you:
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Absolutely abysmal. Far and way the worst home page of any active social network that I'm aware of. The algorithm needs to be adjusted asap - though this is something I've been complaining about for over a year now - only to fall on deaf ears. Stake-weighted voting is a catastrophic form of curation / organisation when much of the stake is allocated to vote trading services and rampant self-voting abusers. Of course, that's a possible existential question about the Steem network itself (I don't think it is, there are solutions), for now an UI solution on Steemit will do wonders.
There's some pretty good content on Steemit, but some of the very worst content is what is trending. Of course, long time Steemians know never to head to trending, but this is the flagship page that advertises Steem. I don't know what a better algorithm is, but it can't possible be any worse. On a related note, Reddit's new "best" algorithm is pretty good.
I could not agree more.
This was spelled out the moment steemit was re-branded. You hopers are but fools.
Ned himself made it clear. You spend X amount, your position on the tending page is determined accordingly. He NEVER made a mention of quality or value or all them dreamer words. It was simply business.
Put forth this much, (through the network of automated gaming systems which we have given rise to) and your content, however shitty it may be, will get to rise and periodically exist among the other dogshits. And those who care to look (or for whatever reason, can't look away) will be your audience. Basic Advertising. Repetition = turnover.
The problem actually exists within those who, under some delusion, believe that they will one day see a Trending Page which brings them the "magical golden garden of freedom" which they believed would exist within these confines. I was once naive too. I am first, a realist though.
IMO, this is as good as it gets. SMTs is an exit plan. A way to try to bring in big money before it all goes pear shaped. Because, seriously... how on Earth does anyone think that this is a good system.
A place where automation takes care of all the plays in the game. You merely need to take your position and the results of the match are already known. "Good content rewarded".... the retraction of one of those words, thus leaving two. Would be more fitting. More accurately, to actually substitute that word with "PAID" would make better sense and at least everyone can proceed to exist on the... Same Page. (punmaster!)
Seriously though, where the hell does QUALITY and VALUE..
Fit into this well manipulated shamble that currently is steemit?
The thing is, there really is some amazing quality and value growing on Steemit. It is obscured by all the horseshit, but it is there. I find an amazing new artists every day with like two votes on their art. I got so frustrated I started resteeming like a turbo engine and a bunch of people unfollowed me. There are also some great curating tools on steemtools , but they do not serve every purpose and not everyone knows about them.
Looks like good things are coming. I know Curie has some plans in the works and I keep.hearing about other things. Perhaps Steemit will finally get some competition and so they can see what works on other platforms and steel their ideas. Whatever happens I have a lot of loyalty to this platform as it has been such a big help to me. Perhaps the trending page will always suck, but my feed just gets better and better.
I see your perspective... and I did actually have a footnote on my post which I later deleted. It read:
Felt like I was clinging to hope too much though, which, from my perspective.. is what you are doing.
You've spelled out the remedy well though. Change is the only solution.
Waiting for another to initiate the change and thus becoming a follower.. is a dangerous tactic however. Steemit was and still IS positioned as Genesis. Time grants such a title for a short period though. 'A Relic' becomes of that which chooses to toy with time so carelessly.
I pay attention almost exclusively to my own feed and selected keyword searches rather than the trending page. If I discover new people to follow it's because they used keywords related to what I consume most. :)
Yeah that's obviously an option or a 'fix". One which I alluded to by stating:
The issue is however how the page and in effect, steemit itself looks to new eyes. As, the home page would play a key role in their entry and impression building.
It's so bad that many would turn and not look back. Completely dismissing steemit based on what the page presents.
But, we know how this works now. And if we're ready whenever another platform comes along, we can be first to the goal. Not that I want to start over, Steemit has been very good to me. I feel I'm one of the ones that focused on quality and was rewarded, now I feel like a damn rat in a maze, hitting the blue button, but there's no one there to give any more treats.
Curie is a blip on the radar when it happens to anyone. The only hope is for whatever magic raises the price to do so again at a sustainable rate so that the pool expands in value, where it can't in quantity. I think Steemit is that proof of concept company that builds a new technology, but refuses to acknowledge that its own model isn't built to spec and eventually makes room for the platform that makes this work.
As to there not being any mention of quality, read the blue paper. There's never been anything but. I agree, the natural outcome of linear rewards AND delegations was the current state of affairs, but we're the suckers who keep sending our money to the top of the food chain, just like in the analog world, we build the 1% then we complain about them having all the power.
Who is responsible for adjusting the algorithm? And how exactly change in algorithm fight the bots?
Just want to understand and learn something new.
Steemit Inc operates the Steemit.com website, so their development team is responsible for the Trending page algorithm they run.
A frontend can decide to subtract amounts due to bots from the Trending page calculation, for example.
Thanks for clarification @librosist 🙏🏼😍😉
from what i have seen they don't care much to solve this issue. i don't know why is that so but in my mind they lose people by keeping this pile of garbage in trending page and in general steemit. i hope with the new update and the communities for something to change but wherever money is the only goal things go for worse to worst
This is actually helpful answer! But if they benefit personally from status quo, why would they do it? I'd welcome a change like that, cause it actually hurts your brain when you look at the trending page, but is it doable?
That would be the Steemit company.
They are in charge of what code runs on the Steemit servers.
Of course, everyone is allowed to build his or hers, own Steem interface. So if you can do a better job. Be my guest.
This is also why the people behind steemit can't control the bots. Because their is no way for them to block them from the actual steem blockchain.
The home page does too much. Did they put back the "beta" in the logo? If so, that's a great move. It sounds like some of the complaints are about branding -- people think the image of Steemit sucks. Slapping "beta" on the logo signals to everybody this is still a work in progress.
It also I think mitigates some of your concerns because people will let problems slide if they think a project isn't finished. It also discourages people from investing their time and effort, but I don't think that's a bad thing right now. The platform has no official mobile app and it's still working out a lot of kinks. I'd rather it go slow -- too slow, you'd say -- and risk annoying people, than go too fast and get popular before it can handle the attention (and criticism).
I totally agree with you, but how will the trending page get fixed if barely anyone cares? and if people actually care - they do nothing to stop this.
I asked the same question and &librosist answered me Aove here :
“liberosist (69) · 41 minutes ago
Steemit Inc operates the Steemit.com website, so their development team is responsible for the Trending page algorithm they run.
And how exactly change in algorithm fight the bots?
A frontend can decide to subtract amounts due to bots from the Trending page calculation, for example.”
Hope that helps 😍
Hit the nail on the head here. I think we also need a forum where people can openly discuss this, something built on the steemit platform, separate from the chat, the more brainstorming the better. I think this is where everyone needs to voice their opinions and not just the witnesses and those with lots of SP
Absolutely dreadful...
Steem's decent is right there for the world to see. It's a disgrace and very sad.
I agree with you @firepower and @liberosist you have to search and search among the publications to find a content worth reading. It is not possible that you are motivated by the help of bots or spam accounts, you find yourself with junk content, or you see the same user with several posts among the most "voted" and I think that many know about the user of whom I speak and for whom I start a discussion this week on the platform.
I hope that soon the situation is controlled, since it is distancing many of the good authors who feel disappointed at the lack of attention received by their publications.
Greetings from Venezuela.
It's pretty sad. Maybe the landing page needs to change if we can't fix the trending page. New might be better than trending with the way things are now.
Algorithm my ass, it's vote buying. That's all that needs to change.
Trending page is good, just jealous people complain about rich people. I think we have to learn from the trending page, we have to do what they do. Some people from trading page post even 10 times per day or more. If they are earning that much, they deserve it, if they are there, they are there for a reason. If a person was already famous on youtube, he will automatically be famous in steemit. We have to deserve that page, we have to fight for it, we have to create good stuff to be there. Every hard work has to be rewarded sooner or later. We have to keep trying, I've been here for more than 9 months and still earn sometimes cents from my posts, but it doesn't mean that I have to leave or give up, I earn sometimes a few steem dollars and I'm happy about that, because I work for my future, not for today. I hope more people understand that trending page is for the best people and we have to work hard to be there, my goal is to be there, my goal is to become a whale even if it takes me 10 years. Facebook also was nothing in the beggining and only people who invested there a lot earned a lot. But look at it now, it's still the same, if a person has something good to provide he will be famous everywhere. So we have to build our community everywhere and we will be in trending pages everywhere. ☺
Posts end up on the trending page because of dollar amounts, not total vote count. The 10x per day poster you are referring to receives 90%+ of his reward from 2 voters, ranchorelaxo and himself. If those two didn't vote for him, he wouldn't be on the trending page. You can receive the most votes, hundreds or thousands, and not get on the trending page. If you have a lot of steem power, you can be on the trending page every post you make just by upvoting it yourself. It's everything we hate about the real world, but it's hidden behind fake idealism.
I couldn't have said it better myself. If the Steem Power was more distributed then we wouldn't have all this. There is no way that the majority of Steemians would vote for that stuff to go to trending. STEEM will actually be worth more if the tokens were more distributed.
If the posts in trending page are displayed based on the combination of no of views, votes and rewards. Maybe it might look better.
Does anybody know why trending is on the landing page? Or any posts are on the landing page? What's the reason?
I used to develop web content and worked with U/X people. Generally, their goal is utility not content. Do you give people something useful? If people don't do anything in response to what you publish, you have a problem.
Steemit's landing page has two calls to action -- which is good -- and then a bunch of posts. Do you need the posts? Is there any data to indicate that the posts drive engagement?
The point should be to get people engaged in the site. The calls to action are focused on getting people to post and upvote. Ideally, Steemit should want to build the U/X around that goal and those activities. @firepower and other commenters - you have seen the posts actually undermine that goal and prevent people from posting and upvoting (because they're not using Steemit). Again, a problem.
Personally, without knowing the constraints Inc is working under, I would recommend three calls to action -- "login" or "sign up" or "browse" -- but no feed or tags or links or search bars or edit buttons. And, remove the "New to Steemit" sidebar -- just put a link at the bottom that says "New to Steemit? Find Out More" that directs people to the reference links.
Also, list the ways people can earn rewards on the landing page. E.g., earn rewards when you join, read, view, listen, post, write, and vote.
I have some other ideas but, I'm not here to opine.
For new users -- and I still consider myself a new user -- I would just say, post and read and upvote, then learn about the platform from people posting about the platform. I'd recommend they search for "new on Steemit" to find a bunch of advice posts for how to make the most of Steemit. Those posts are usually better than a user manual, anyway. The platform is still in beta, so don't sweat the U/X. They get to grow with the platform.
I'd also recommend they participate in contests, such as the one @firepower runs, or the many others. Easy, fun, entertaining and they might just win some SBDs.
https://steemit.com/busy/@mammasitta/how-should-you-feel-to-find-yourself-in-trending-page-on-steemit-every-day-absolutly-fabolous-really-haejin2moon-how-much-longer Not much more to say anymore!
This was missing
How did they really get there ???
As someone who helps manage the Israeli community and as someone who brought people to Steemit, I can definitely say that it bothers a lot of people, especially newcomers, that don't understand what actually going on and don't understand why certain content is on the trending page.
All the flag drama is ridiculous and just hurts the reputation of Steemit.
It's been a while since I saw content on the trending page that actually deserves to be on the trending page.
I miss @neilstrauss posts. they were high quality and one of the best piece of content I have ever read on Steemit.
There is a lot of great content, don't get me wrong, but the Trending page is embarrassing.
I want to visit the trending page and actually read some high-quality content or witnesses goals. not some drama, and so do newcomers.
Same for our #steemit-austria People who are asking many questions
I think if we improve our system or change something then we will have different kind of problem in a different way. So what I think is the evolution of this platform and sense of competition. When you have enough content creaters and writters then it will be difficult for shit stuff to make it to the trending page. Yeah they can use paid votes for that but I am sure in the long run it will be viewed as spam.
Its because a small group is in control of 90% of the power, they and their "community" that have been given some steempower deligations because they think the same way are all upvoting what their small group likes and flagging stuff they dont. the main page shows what the biggest people on the site think is "quallity" for "muh community".
What can be done about it IDK, but that is the reason for the main page looking like it looks.
The system may be decentralized but the power distrbutition isn not. And thats not even going into premining the system to get your power.
EDIT:
voting services and alt accounts sure dont help. just more consolidation of power to the powerful for a couple bucks
people on facebook, instagram, complaining about their algorithm, moving into Steemit, just to discover that the algorithm here is not perfect either. But on the other side, it also reflects the true nature of an uncensored network which is also good thing. The underlying problems may not be easy to fix. Maybe they are in the human nature and ethics. Not in the blockchain or any algorithm.
Yes, always. Everything created is created intentionally. It is on us to never create lies, waste, needless suffering etc..
Always the solution comes down to upholding truth while rejecting all lies and negative intentions.
It would be great if there was another column like treading saying resteemed posts. Since only the posts which have good content get resteemed (mostly) . It will filter out a lot of these mainstream posts. I wish the trending page could have been tampered with, but unfortunately its only for the rich now. And i was also thinking if there was any way to sort posts on a trending page as a default on post engagement basis, something to do with comments and number of votes instead of sorting it by its potential payout. This way you can stop whales from stealing all the spotlight. The problem here is not spotlight anymore it's all about who it falls on. I have nothing against the whales but its sad to see good posts get nothing while random crap posts get hundreds and thousands of PP just coz they are famous or rich. The whole point of steemit was to eliminate this right?
Great idea, this simple change would have an immediate positive impact..
Do know we can change the trending page just by sorting honest users from steem leeching capitalists!
If we don't, we'll simply create the real true currency exchange and watch this Steem evaporate along with everything else capitalist created
💛