The Guiding Mission, Vision and Values of Steemit, Inc.
Hi everyone,
Happy new year! We’ve been working hard on the cost cutting roadmap we began in late November, and we’ve made significant strides on Hivemind, infrastructure that reduces costs and also opens up the road for steemit as a communities web-app.
Here’s now another new development: the first portion of a new About Us page, which includes a renewed Mission, Vision and Values, and it is accessible by steemit.com’s hamburger menu.
Click here to go to the new About Us page: [https://steemit.com/about.html]
The reason I want to post this now is, 1) there is no time like the present and, 2) it’s an important document for understanding Steemit’s renewed purpose and direction. For one, you may notice, we have re prioritized communities on steemit.com, after immediate infrastructure cost reductions go far enough.
Overall, this document exists to represent who we are and how we’re moving forward. I want everyone to know these basic tenants of how this company operates today. With greater understanding of each other, we can be greater in how we work together.
Thank you for contributing to this community, we are privileged to share the opportunity to grow with you.
Best regards,
Ned
p.s. I will be at The State of Steem townhall tomorrow to stand shoulder to shoulder with you and discuss this document with @pennsif.
Hi @ned,
I am @edprivat, a musician that has been active on steemit for more than a year now.
I am also in charge of the curation for @artzone that you can come check it out if you want, we've just reached 10k followers not so long ago, and has been a driving force on this platform by actively helping artists, musicians, producers,painters, and digital artists.
I am also a Musicoin global ambassador and active on Choon.
I was performing at the Steemfest this year with other artists @Yidneth, @katrina-ariel , @greencross, and the @steembirds that you already know.
Music is an art that is universally appreciated, and can be felt by everyone, across all class, all races, and age.
This is a tool that can get us one step closer to hopefully one day mass adoption, I've witnessed first hand the incredible impact that @dsound had on the steemit community, attracting real talent with skills, expertise, passion and dedication, maybe not "Instagram celebrities", but a lot of key players active on the blockchain like @ftlob, @d-vine, @musicvoter, @jeffleinwand, @grizzle, @heaterville, @theomgbrand, @theturtleproject, @isaria, @soundlegion, @avesa, @atomcollector , @termitemusic , @kayclarity, @darrenclaxton, @newenx, @alexworld, @cinelonga, @melissakellie, @vachemorte ,@laritheghost, @gjart, @nakedverse, @whymonkey, @krazypoet, @djlethalskillz , @paintingangels , @jonmagnusson, @soundwavephoton, @taphophilia , @wolfnworbeikood, @jeffandhisguitar, @davidfar, @samprock , @beats4change, @rant-vegra, @elainefaye, @pennsif, @onemedia , @ivan.atman , @kryptoe and I am forgetting so many more that post daily creating amazing content, quality products that have a proven record of selling music and performing with AAA players,, this is the type of production value that you cannot underestimate, and should be cherished.
As a guitarist yourself, you should understand that most professional musicians, people making a living of their work don't have the luxury to dedicate their time to a platform that is not profitable anymore, this is a cut-throat world out there, and we witnessed lots of music related platforms crashing and burning due to bad decisions.
I understand that the delegation was never meant to last forever, but we would have all appreciated a better communication, and maybe discussed with the community prior to doing so , talk with @prc its creator, to find a short term and long term solution.
Right now I am ending up running after whales across Discord and pitching like a salesman for their support, I don't have a multi million dollar company so I probably don't understand the intricacies of the business, however I aspire like everyone else to build a healthy community and company through quality music, and I don't think this matter should have been handled so lightly.
I hope we can find an arrangement, and maybe get a support for a short period of time and allowing us to find more investors. 3 months of delegation will be for example enough.
Thanks in advance!
Totally agree Ed! As much as we would all love to dedicate many hours a day to crafting text/image based content for Steemit as musicians the work that goes into our craft should also be nourished on the platform.
There are many fantastic initiatives and competitions such as yours and @OpenMic plus many more however musicians tend to exist on a small income and dsound had become really important to them.
The last thing we want to do is drive this talent off the platform so here is a chance for you to do the right thing @ned for the benefit of everyone. Please put any differences and feelings you may have to one side for the sake of the independent musicians on Steemit.
In time of war, the first to exit the country are always the "brains" and then the artists. People start fighting when there's no one left to entertain them.
So I am being a bit dramatic, or am I?
I think you are allowed to be as dramatic as you want Ed. This is a serious issue that could have long lasting ramifications.
It is quite troublesome, I've been contacting tons of whales, I will continue to do so , hopefully we can get back our 1millions SP
Well otherwise I am out of idea
THIS is awesome btw well done!
Spot on, most of the brains left in late 2017. The few that remain are just standing around like me, watching the dumpster fire blaze on and begin to peter out...
I am actually a big fan of your brain and your rants, so I don't know what to think of the fact that you agree with me, I think I need to meditate on this for a while.
we are the dumpster of the internet indeed
Thank you for the kind remarks. I don't think our agreement is indicative of much more than being awake, observing and having more than two brain cells between us to see such obvious inanity right in front of all of us.
Okay, maybe you got your own two brain cells, I don't mean to insult you or sell you short, but I figured it out and I'm pretty sure it only took me my one remaining brain cell to do it.
This place is full of "Yes Men" so I always love people asking the harsh questions or answering them, even if it hurts a little.
Not taken personally, always assume that you are speaking to Tweedledum or Tweedledee, in other word, that most people's intellect is below average.
That's an assumption I've learned to live with but I don't have to like it! :)
The sooner this community ditches it's fanaticism for you the better off we'll be.
The fanaticism has died down to some extent thanks to the price dump. To be honest, I think the price dump has done more good for the community then bad. Before, the price was almost entirely controlled by speculation.
But now, real use cases are adding up. Ads on Steemit is a big plus point. The low price is forcing DApps to brainstorm business models that work instead of speculative investments.
The performance optimizations were a must. Many critics and witnesses were complaining about that but Steem inc didn't listen. But now that their own costs were getting out of control, they started working on Mira and other performance related stuff.
If the price didn't dump, they probably wouldn't take these things so seriously.
well said...
I agree
We release you @ned from your spell as #Steemit's CEO ...
I agree. (that hurt to say)
I'd say hell just froze over but I think anyone and everyone can agree here :D
LOLZ! Now that is funny right there!
Yes and may he take the guitar with him out the door.
You know there is consensus when both you and Bern agree!!! :-)
Couldn't agree more. If you want to slip further down CMC rankings, then lets keep No Show Ned as CEO. With the same leadership, you will continue to get the past results.
Wow, an upvote from berniesanders.
This means, it is serious business..
We will see, how keeps on breaking promises. Should we look into some older posts from him?
It feels like, he said the same a year ago.
No Roadmap, no nothing... Steem basically lost a year in development
Some of the major software improvements finished in the past year:
Hivemind ✓
SMT bones ✓
Resource Credits ✓
Account Credits ✓
These are fundamentally important and perhaps under-appreciable to the end user.
And how much did you spend on that "fundamentally important" development, @ned?
Well, i don't know. Let's see below my comment...
FYI sir @berniesanders drugs & whores don't come for free ...
Weren’t 2/4 supposed to be ready many months ago?
You mean the entire list was meant to be done time and a half ago?
2 years later Steemit has failed to deploy my roadmap, even things that were largely developed before I left.
Dan Larimer on Steemit (2 December 2018)
https://www.reddit.com/r/eos/comments/a2jen4/dan_larimer_views_about_steemit/
I don't think Dan Larimer can have an unbiased opinion about steemit. Why would they deploy his roadmap when they obviously fell out over the direction things were going? I don't like how slowly things are happening with steemit but hopefuly the bear market has made people more focused on their tasks. Lets see where we are in another 2 years, Steem isn't all about steemit, so even if Ned doesn't come up with the goods, I think other people already are.
Yes, people should stop identifying Steem with Steemit Inc and with Ned. Worker-boss mentality doesn't work in decentralized world. There are many DApps here and Steemit was the first one. So other DApps will continue the development in a decentralized way.
I don't think it's worth hating or praising Ned and Steemit Inc. More power to the people...
This is not "decentralized world". There are actual reasonably-decentralized systems out there and this isn't one of them. Steemit's dominant share of the stake (about 35% of voting stake which is more than enough to be considered absolutely dominant in practice), willingness to use this stake to threaten and replace witnesses, and now the fact that the stake is on its way to becoming invisible means that this is not a decentralized cryptocurrency if it is even a cryptocurrency at all.
Oh, and the 35% doesn't count founders' stake which was split off from the same steemit account, as well as already-hidden accounts (there is no way to know that Steemit's stake sent to exchange accounts in the past was all sold and not powered back up into new accounts), and the mysterious (and heavily witness-influencing) freedom account which is or was almost certainly associated with Steemit in some manner. It is quite possible there could be absolute (50%+) control, although given non-transparency of some of this we really don't know, and given more non-transparency in the future we will know even less.
At best this has promise of future decentralization. At worst it is a complete sham of decentralization.
Let's believe in the future then. And yes, freedom might actually be steemit's another account. Who can tell...
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Can you address the rumours about you doing a deal with Samsung?
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...and how much will he rise up the cryptocurrency after the untrust rised due their implementation:
-Resource Credits: Huge limitation to post articles if you don't buy Steem Powers to
SMT: Let's see how much will go after the release date.
Account Credits: Buying account for 3 Steem and officializing the bot develpment. Bittersweet.
Hivemind: I don't know how much works making changes on the kilobytes on RAM for a better experience, but after the Resource Credits limitations, seems useless.
Better do things to improve those changes instead be proud of get made it.
Will you create a Steem account Faucet to help use steemic inc's RC mana to help create more than a few hundred accounts a day? You seem to have the credits on @steem and @steemit @ned etc to actually make thousands of accounts per day
Why wasn't rocksdb finished last year when it was clear that expensive servers was going to be an issue. You've done some good work, but deciding to push back rocksdb until the ship is nearly sinking shows you lack common engineering sense.
Last year RocksDB was scheduled behind SMTs. Different factors including time and relative costs.
Costs, how much you taken out of here by the back door, want the account details, you know I have them!
We could start there, account creation date 31st March 2016 then work our way to freedom eh?
I am happy with the accomplishments @steemit checked off for 2018, and I appreciate your work with the Steem blockchain. Thank you!
Please, help!
Bots vote against me and take the money. Yesterday they took 10 steem.
Clvr25 bots,
I do not understand what I am doing wrong ???
I play at https://steembottracker.com/#bid among people.
I sometimes win, and often lose.
You fired 70% of programmers and want to destroy this social network? Or how????
I am beautiful, smart and looking for a friend !!!
Please, help!
Bots vote against me and take the money. Yesterday they took 10 steem.
Clvr25 bots,
I do not understand what I am doing wrong ???
I play at https://steembottracker.com/#bid among people.
I sometimes win, and often lose.
You fired 70% of programmers and want to destroy this social network? Or how????
You are using wrong means for a right end, and thereby the right end ceases to be.
This is the fact, the only fact.
😂😂😂damn
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Fired!
good to see you back @ned. My advice for your benefit as well as for community benefit would be
These two actions of yours will be much appreciated around the globe for generations to come.
Magic Dice has rewarded your post with a 54% upvote. Thanks for playing Magic Dice.
Thanks for this update @ned, and for appearing the other night with @aggroed and co.
I'll be there tomorrow evening, hopefully you'll be sans guitar :P
How tacky was that?
Playing whilst talking? A bit - I was trying to listen to the chat!
Not just that, but it gave the impression that he was not very concerned with the needs of the community. Literally, @aggroed was talking to @ned about the lack of communication and that the community as a whole feels that we are spoken to but not listened to. It's not a one-way street, listening is a huge part of any effective communication.
Quite.
During the video chats, the strumming was no issue while the text chat was being read, but not while someone is talking and others are listening, dude!
What did you expect from a Ned and Aggroed show? Adults? Professionals? From a couple of vapid, incompetent frauds?
Yes exactly!
(lol)
Heathen. I actually like the guitar! :0)
There's a time and a place!
Exactly! It adds to the ambience. :0p
Ahh, yeah I just commented on the guitar. WTF.. Doesn't he take this seriously? Is this how young people run businesses these days?
Dang abh ... don’t hate on the guitar 🤣😂
In what is supposed to be a decentralized blockchain, I have to wonder how those who invested time and money into the SMT vision would feel about this. Those developers are now holding applications that are waiting for SMTs. Many within the community put time, effort and money supporting that vision.
And yes, I am glad you are well.
Only a few weeks ago, there was talk of sunsetting SteemIt.com
Did you gather any stakeholder advice prior to switching directions again?
I understand 2018 was a rough year for many, but I don't know what I am investing in from week to week.
And I do not know how stakeholders get to have a say in the future development and direction of Steem.
SMTs are still a priority and is listed as such in the new Mission, Vision, and Values document on the about page under the Priorities section. Development on Communities does not impact the direction of blockchain development.
I’d like to add the following question in that context: why is there a mission/vision defined for one app (steemit.com), but not for Steem as a whole network? Is that the new (reduced) focus for Steemit, Inc?
Would be great if you picked that up in tomorrow’s talk with @pennsif. Thank you! ;)
No idea if they'll stick to their stated direction this time, but if they do, I think this answers your question:
Of course, you have to actually believe them. It would not be fun for an entrepreneur to believe those words and stake out a path, just to have steemit change course again and use that ninja-mined stake to stomp all over them later.
Everything starts with a vision / an overall goal. In my opinion it’s nothing you can leave out and let someone else pick it up for you. You can’t have multiple visions for Steem - that’d be absolutely inefficient.
All projects ever built on Steem should aim to strengthen STEEM as a token, but you need to clearly define that so that everybody can identify with and work towards it.
I think Steemit, Inc. can only speak about what they intend to do with their own software (Steemit). They cannot decide for example what @aggroed is planning with Steem Monsters or @heimindanger with DTube. So they cannot speak for STEEM as a whole, but only for their own area of accountability.
(That's how I understand it.)
Hey @jaki01! Good to see you around and a belated Happy 2019 ;)
I agree with you to a certain point since (according to the about page) Steemit, Inc is still planning to provide the updates on the blockchain, which means that they’ll define the direction the whole chain - hence all projects built on it - is going to take.
So i wonder who would be able to define a vision for Steem then - if not Steemit, Inc?
There is no defined vision for Steem and certainly not a Mission. There is only an aggregate set of visions and missions held by numerous projects, businesses, communities and individuals who can do their own development and make their own proposals for changes. This aggregate, ideally, should be greater than any singular vision or mission, which should be what decentralization is all about.
Hi Fredrik! Well I agree that different projects and businesses built on one blockchain can definetely have different strategies on how to work towards a certain goal / vision. But the vision itself can only be one for all of them - like e.g. becoming the best social blockchain in the world.
it is something that should come out of the SOS forums that pennisf organizes. That common vision shared by everything to work on it, something like Steem's constitution
We agree with you
Steemit.inc don't own Steem (at least they shouldn't). So they shouldn't decide for the community what the goal of Steem should be.
The vision of Steem is the vision of the community, there will never be a single defined vision. Everyone is in it for the their own reasons.
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Same to you! :)
Maybe steemit. Inc confused steem and steemit themselves?
I don’t think so, but the vision is clearly focused on just one app:
Our vision is that steemit.com is a vibrant communities web app, expanding the boundaries of community coordination and online discussion by incorporating cryptocurrency as incentives.
That’s quite different from Tokenize the internet (November 2017) which was a more widespread approach.
_
Thank you for the open communication, Justin!
Though, SMT is a priority, the Statement only places Steemit Inc with an enhancing role towards SMT as against the initial plan. In any case, I think there is a movement.
as far as I know, Ned told somewhere, that SMTs are needed to implement communities, and since communities are priority, SMT are priority even more - please correct me if I am wrong
While it is still there it is now near the bottom of a long list.
Thank you for the answer and pointing that out.
I just read the 'about' page. does this mean SMTs won't be out by March as earlier stated?
I have no expectations on SMTs. In my mind they are dead until I see them.
Dear God! :-(
can we do un-resetting of goals...please...
or lets just wait for BTC to moon
Hello, sunshine!
Please reinstate the Dsound deligation. This delegation ensures artists have the freedom to create and be rewarded.
@Ned - Steemit delegating to DSound is some of the best PR / customer acquisition dollars you can “spend”. @prc and the team he has built set the bar for what can be accomplished with a delegation, actively and -manually- curating content. If this platform is going to succeed, @dsound should be paraded around as ambassador and proof of concept, bringing creatives to the platform, not un-delegated in broad stroke cost cutting.
The community curated @dsound upvote -matters- to people wading into the waters here for the first time. The investment Steemit makes through its delegation creates the ripple effect that has hooked numerous crypto musicians on Steem as their platform of choice. Please consider your continued patronage of this community. It is what any Steem dapp should aspire to.
Yes we do all appreciate that you didn't need to delegate in the first place @Ned BUT that delegation is the reason that 1000s of us have started to believe in crypto as a way to earn regular income from our music. However in my opinion once an eco system is developed, albeit through altruistic means, those involved have a moral obligation to the community that become dependent on it.
Maybe you are unaware of just how many people have been affected by this? You are not short of a dollar or two I am sure but you have pulled the rug out from under the feet of people who have come to rely on the very generous @dsound upvote. Many from very low income areas of the world that this made a real difference to.
I would urge you to please reconsider your position on delegations. The thousands of independent musicians who have put in tens of thousands of hours on this platform thanks to @dsound would really appreciate it.
He's not unaware (other than being generally inept and clueless) he just doesn't care.
As far as I know they said on SteemFest that no project should rely on delegations and rather should find other investment methods to fund their expenses.
Bummer. I would hate to see the Steem version of SoundCloud fail because of a little more support needed to keep the community attractive. The delegation was removed without notice. Not very professional.
At least we're getting some serious communications from you now.
Thanks for sticking around.
Rumours fly when the head of any organization is incommunicado.
Maybe address why steemit is powering down?
That would be great .
P.S, we need more guitar sessions!
Those are damn lovely ... The guitar....not so much the singing .
Hivemind needs a lot more detailed documentation then what it has now. That's not my opinion, that's the feedback I'm getting from every developer who comes my way.
LOL I’m sure Ned is not looking forward to this like I am when my gf tells me we need to talk and why I like other girls pics on Instagram
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You state that cryptocurrency adoption is one of your values,
You do nothing to support exchanges that list STEEM and SBD. Months can go by with broken wallets. Other exchanges won't touch STEEM with a 100 foot pole.
STEEM is not a currency if it is not listed currency exchanges. It is not available to everywhere other cryptocurrencies are. All the Dapps in the world and all the quality content in the world will not save STEEM from the death spiral in market ranking. Other cryptocurrencies that don't have a social media platform are smoking STEEM. That is because they do what works (getting their currency on exchanges).
I would love to communicate with exchanges to coordinate listing of STEEM and SBD, but most of them won't respond to someone that is not the CEO or doesn't have majority stake.
If you claim to be a CEO, then do your job!
People are too stuck up with their "decentralization". They think "centralized" exchanges oppose to that vision.
I have to be honest though. What is the nett positive of listing Steem to exchanges? More short term money in from speculators?
If the core value of the Steem ecosystem isn't properly dealt with, what's Steem to any other shitcoin people pump and dump with?
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People are incentivized for using STEEM Social Media. Don't kid yourself that this place is sooooo much better than any other social media platform. Without the incentives, this place would be dead. The problem is we are incentivized in a currency that can easily be edged out. If it is not available everywhere other currencies are, then it is not a currency. If it gets worse, the currency could die and the incentive could go away and thus people will quit STEEM and this place dies with it.
Listing on an exchange does create a short term pump and dump, however, the coin will experience higher prices over the long term. In addition, adding STEEM to more exchanges exposes potential new users to STEEM. The problem with STEEM is that Bitcoin dominates and creates immense market pressure. STEEM can potentially overcome the market pressure if the numbers of active users can grow to a substantial size. By walling ourselves off from the rest of the world by means of not exposing STEEM to the external markets, we will never get those numbers of users. We are a great community of hard core enthusiasts and STEEM currency is an amazing product with zero transfer fees and 3 second transaction times. The solution is to tear down the economic wall that prevents our currency from being used by the rest of the world to expose new people to STEEM.
Don't forget that until recently Steemit Inc's sole income to pay for development, Steemit.com, and staff was entirely from ninjamined STEEM in which a significant amount has been sold to keep Steemit Inc alive. Now, Steemit Inc must resort to layoffs, advertising, and potentially postponing SMTs forever to keep from selling all of their STEEM holdings. The advertising is not going to save-the-day by preventing the sell-off of Steemit Inc's holdings and it aggravates users who wanted an add-free home. It is in Steemit Inc's best interest to strengthen the coin that pays the bills so that they don't have to sell so much. It also has a indirect benefit by creating a path for new users to become Steemians. That in turn increases the number of STEEM users and grows the network. Go research the numerous mathematical models of network growth vs. value. They all have something in common. They all show that value grows exponentially with the number of (nodes) users.
Creating Dapps and polishing community projects without fixing the currency problem is like trying to drive a car with no wheels. We are focusing on fixing the dents without adding the wheels. We will never get anywhere doing this.
There is a Ether based micropayment social media called Cent.
There is a LN based micropayment social media called Y'alls.
If by your logic, listing Steem on Exchanges means better awareness, How many exchanges must Steem be listed if it were to grab mindshare away from Ethereum and Bitcoin?
That is why in my opinion listing on Exchanges does little to the ecosystem as a whole, other than creating more avenues for arbitrage and pump and dump.
Mass listing on exchanges is a strategy for a shitcoin. I haven't resigned to the narrative that Steem is a shitcoin.
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Since Bitcoin is on every exchange and is a trading pair with just about everythig, then STEEM would have to be on every exchange and be the major trading pair of everything else to break away from the Bitcoin dominance. That is not going to happen.
STEEM is far better than Bitcoin in terms of transaction time, cost to transfer, and scalibility, and yet none of that matters. All that matters is how many exchanges a coin is on and how prevalent the coin is as a trading pair.
Ever wonder why Litecoin does so well? The simple fact that Bitcoin and Ethereum take so long to transfer and costs are so high creates a need to have a tool to transfer currency quickly and cheaply. It is called Litecoin. We can take over the need that Litecoin provides, but first we need to be everywhere Litecoin is.
Exchanges are fully aware of a need to edge out Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin with respect to providing an alternative to them as central trading pairs. This is why most major exchange have their own coin. They have the unfair advantage of pairing their own coin with everything their exchange has. Binance coin is a perfect example. That coin is growing extremely fast in popularity.
You are making that statement as if only shitcoins have that strategy. That is the strategy for all coins.