A new social network will be launching in ...4, 3, 2, 1 days
There are already a number of networks out there, but none of them has ever made me think they might be a serious competitor to Steemit.
This one is different, though, and for the first time I believe this could be really serious.
It's not just that this one is BIG, and the founders really know what they are doing. They have built successful projects and platforms before and onboarded millions of members to it.
But there's another, more important reason:
It's great timing (for them)
What I notice when I look at existing social networks
- People want their data to be secure and private [ --> that's not Facebook ]
- People want to connect, have fun, share valuable content and have equal opportunities & a fair reward system for all [ --> that's not Steemit ]
What worries me:
Many of my favorite people here on Steemit post less and less.
- Are they discouraged because they don't see the progress they were hoping for on the platform?
- Are they tired of watching ego battles between community members or even the higher ups?
- Are they not seeing enough rewards for their hard work?
I don't know.
What I know for sure:
People will go where they feel best.
Every decision we make in life is based on how we think it will make us feel.
If they don't feel good on Steemit, in the Steemit community, and about the Steemit concept or progress - they will leave as soon as something comes along that promises them what they are missing. That's just human nature. (Whether that new platform will deliver on that promise is of course another question.)
I also know that if people have put a lot of effort in building the community here, but were constantly let down (or even attacked), they will put even more effort in building a new community somewhere else. And if they have been truly pissed off here, multiply the energy they'll put into that by 100.
How are they going to do that? By inspiring all their Steemit friends to follow them. One by one...
What I'm looking for in a social network
A community function. The chance to run private or public groups.
I mean, I love being here, and I love connecting with everyone, and of course I love earning rewards with my posts. But what I was really hoping for, was to move my Facebook community to Steemit one day.
That doesn't seem to be happening any time soon, though. Maybe it's not highest priority for the Steemit developers, maybe it's something really complicated to build - who knows.
The truth is, the moment there's a platform that offers me a true alternative to Facebook communities, I will go there. My community members are asking for it - they want to leave Facebook - and I want to deliver that to them.
I am in service of my community members. Without them I wouldn't have a community.
I wish Steemit would think like that, too...
I would love to know different opinions
Why should I not worry about ONO?
Is there anything about Steemit that I'm not aware of, that could give me confidence in continuing my efforts here?
(There might be a lot - I'm not here every day and I tend to ignore all the negative comments and "flagging wars". That's the reason I missed a lot and it came as quite a shock to me just how many valued community members with thousands of followers have become increasingly unhappy on Steemit in the recent past.)
Competition is always driving innovation. :) Bring it on, ONO.
Yes. Maybe the competition can push the progress in Steemit forward. Something the community hasn't been able to do so far.
Why can't you just be content with the new-ish minty green logo and the continually delayed promises of a mobile wallet, SMTs & communities... Seriously, you're such an ingrate!
LOL
XD I learned a new word and it's not even noon yet!!
Haha
No need to worry, healthy competition is always good... Steemit is a developed platform which handles highest number of blockchain transactions ....The technology behind Steemit has been demonstrated sustaining over 1,000 transactions per second on a distributed test network and can easily scale to 10,000 or more.... And as far as user activity is concerned, we just need a little pump in the Steem prices, active users will increase by many folds....
If other blockchains dwarfed the Steem blockchain in transactions, what would remain for Steemit then (following your theory)? Isn't social media more than that? What about Steem's original vision of 'value creation'? Is that not an option anymore?
To content creators value is not purely defined by price and monetary outcome. It's also not simply about being seen or heard (buying votes doesn't satisfy us). It's about sharing a common vision with others, interact, mutually support, inspire - it's about exchanging human values.
Bots can't do that for us :-)
Transfered to a real life scenario it's as if you said:
Where's the real benefit?
I think the issue is more of an emotional nature, rather than technical. If people don't feel heard or respected, if they don't align with the values (anymore) and if the reward system is not fair, and there's more bots here than actual people - then it doesn't really matter if it's the fastest blockchain, because nobody will be using it... :/
If you look with a broader view buy/sell of votes helping this platform to grow and maintaining a good economic ecosystem... If your voice is not heard, you too can buy votes and make your voice heard. BTW nothing is fair in this world.
I have no issue with people buying and selling votes, actually. We live in a free world and people are free to spot market niches and create services that others might value. Good for them!
And the people who do not value those services don't need to buy them. Just like in real life. Live and let live.
UPDATE
I just realized I totally contradicted myself, LOL, I have edited my answer above. I don't know why I mentioned the vote selling in my original answer.
It happens... never take anything too seriously...
Active users can't increase in many folds because of the big delay in registration. A lot of folks loose interest by the time there account is registered.
And I read the comments that it's not a problem because users who can't be patient and loose interest won't be real steemians are wrong because maybe if even 1/1000 of the users who don't wait out the account creation are excellent content creators, then steem misses out on the chance to grow big and be taken seriously.
Thanks for sharing this post! But for me no matter what happened i will never leave steemit!😊 im loyal to steemit! Even some of my post have been never acknowledge but i keep on steeming and persistent!
We're at the beginning at the crypto era.
ONO will be a sound project, and exactly for that reason could be a revulsive slap for the STEEM ecosystem.
I prefer to see it as a 'coworking-competitive opportunity' given the fact that ONO will be running on EOS (built by Larimer).
I mean, what do you would prefer? Be the top#1 in a isolated market (as we are already) ? Or to be a gear (with ONO) in the social network revolution? If STEEM gets competition that means that we're focusing a potential profitable market.
Let's don't forget that STEEM is just 2 years old... Facebook needed 4 years to explode (reaching 100M users). Not enough with that... STEEM is a cryptocurrency. A very 'weird' one btw.
EDIT: we don't need to reach the userbase of facebook to be a sound success. With SMT I see STEEM as a 'entrepreneur-friendly' platform. More or less like twitter.
How much is worth Twitter? 22Billion. We're at 0,6 Billion. That's a x36,6 increase. I'm sorry, but taking in consideration 'what we are'. in the crypto market... we're not that far.
Relax and let's enjoy what will be coming, if we have to move, we'll adapt.
Best wishes.
True. And if those good things take too much time, then maybe some serious competition can be really helpful in accelerating things and revisiting vision and mission and USP's.
Imagine yourself as a (blockchain entrepreneur) developer in 2015-2016.
''Let's built a censorship-resistant social media platform powered with a cryptocurrency (like Bitcoin) to reward good content and to provide access (or at least get closer to) to the financial world (usually described as 'bank the unbanked').''
Now code this.
@dan and @ned are genious. And they should collaborate rather than argue (I don't know their personal reasons, btw, so talking from the ignorance here).
Have a nice day @connecteconomy :)
Agree! :)
What an extraordinary article, Anja!
You perfectly described the situation most of the creators, curators and community builders on steemit are dealing with - as well as the possible consequences.
Where's the spirit gone?
YES. They will always go there where they're able to connect, to interact, to inspire, to be inspired and - to make a difference. They will also go there where they're able to exchange human values.
We don't want to be part of bot farms and groups of money-driven egocentrics. We want to be part of something much greater than that.
Again thanks for the read. Once more you inspired me to write an article connected with yours :-)
Big hug, Marly -
Resteemed
PS: Great teaser, had a good laugh starting to read - haha!
Can't wait to read it!
And yes, I had that meme in my head ever since I heard of ONO and realized what it could mean for Steemit... ;)
My today's lunch break will be dedicated to community building, inspired by your article :-)
That reminds me... food!!
Ha, we shouldn't underestimate it ever! :-)
Glory to ONO. Bring it out from unseen realm
Competition is always good and like you say, people will go where they feel the best.
I have noticed a negativity this last couple of weeks on steemit, that I haven't seen before.
(in my long 7 month career)
I'll be checking it out, for sure...
So wie du deinen Post geschrieben hast, hört es sich wirklich an, als könnte das passieren. Da ich ja erst kurz hier dabei bin und die Menschen mit tausenden von Usern nicht kenne, kann ich das ja gar nicht beurteilen.
Was fehlt Ihnen denn? Wird das kommuniziert? Gibt es Wünsche?
Oder ist es einfach nur langweilig geworden?
Mich würde die Antwort auf jeden Fall sehr interessieren!
Und ich hoffe sehr, dein Gesicht hier immer wieder auftauchen zu sehen!! 😘 Herzlich, Mo*
Einige finden's doof, das Versprechungen nicht eingehalten werden (neue features, die verfügbar gemacht werden sollten). Dann bekriegen sich die ursprünglichen Gründer Ned und Dan wohl öffentlich in den Kommentaren ihrer Posts. Viele haben das Gefühl, dass Ned selbst das Interesse an Steemit verloren hat. (Das hab ich alles nur gehört, und kann das selbst nicht bestätigen.) Dann gibt es Leute, die sich selbst zum Sheriff ernennen und alle anderen nach Lust & Laune downflaggen. Naja, und das Reward System ist nicht perfekt und schon gar nicht fair.
Letzteres hat mich nie gestört, da ich froh bin, überhaupt ein paar $$ zu bekommen. Aber irgendwie wurden durch die Ankunft einer echten Alternative all diese unzufriedenen Stimmen mit einem Mal lauter.
ONO wird auch auf EOS launchen, welches viele Fan's hier auf Steemit hat (das es auch von Dan ist). Das gibt dem ganzen auch nochmal mehr Gewicht, glaub ich.
Oh, dass hört sich in der Tat nicht so toll an! 😳
Dann hoffe ich mal sehr, dass es nicht wirklich so weit kommt. Das wäre überhaupt nicht schön. Ich hätte schon gern noch ein bisschen hier weiter gemacht.
Glaubst du wirklich, es wird soweit kommen?
Ich bin gespannt ob es sich in nächster Zeit bemerkbar machen wird.
LG Mo*
Also wenn, dann dauert das sicher noch ein paar Monate bis es überhaupt losgeht (jetzt wird erstmal in China gelaunched) und dann muss sich die Plattform ja auch erstmal beweisen.
So true! ONO has so much potential 💯♥. I have a post about ono as well! I can't wait to see what the future holds ✨
Always appreciate your honesty my friend, seems sometimes folks are unwilling to post criticisms of steemit ON steemit, sure there's a WAY to go on the social and fairness sides, but every time I meet steemians in real life I'm reminded about why I love it here- maybe we just need to me meeting up more! lol #excuses
Very true, but that's the thing - if I find a better network I'll take you along. And if you find a better one, you'll do the same, right? :) We will go to where our people are. If they all suddenly move to another network - for whatever reason (even if each of them has a different reason) - we will follow.
interesting, lets see what happens, hard work and quality appreciated in all platforms ,i think no need to worry
Great - no sooner do I arrive on Steemit that it's about to be superseded. :o) Or maybe not. For me everything comes down to what is meant by "share valuable content". I'm sure that's what Instagram claims to be doing but (though I admit I know little of it) it doesn't do anything for me, unlike Steemit, which I can really get behind. Where ONO fits on the spectrum between social media and informative website I don't know, but people connecting - even having a lot of fun - is not an end in itself, not for me anyway. The biggest threat to Steemit may turn out to be Steemit, where unfairness, and the perception of unfairness, does seem to be a real problem.
Yap, good point.
To me it's a bit like Medium and Facebook. Two very different platforms for different purposes, who can totally co-exist. Maybe Steemit and ONO will be the crypto versions of those.
Be interesting to see what it's like, and seems we don't have long to wait. Thanks for the heads up.
After ONO, will come EOS... I agree competition is a good way to evolve!!
cheers @connecteconomy
I read the ono whitepaper, but apart from the existence of groups from the start and what appears to be a mobile app from the start, I'm not seeing how it is better than Steemit. Won't any problems being created by the behavior of community members here be replicated there? Isn't it just leaving a maturing community for a fledgling one, that simply hasn't developed the problems of a maturing community yet, but will?
I'm just not getting why we would want to start over someplace else instead of working harder to make this place what we want it to be.
I just ignore the things like flag wars. I don't care if people have organized upvoting with bots. Really, all of the issues about how the rewards pool is portioned out are kind of irrelevant to me. I just want to find people I like discussing things with and learn and grow together, and that's happening here. What if Ono is more like Facebook, where existing communities just move there then stay in their separate silos because they don't need anyone else?
I have a few groups on Facebook, and definitely would like to get off FB, but I can't deny that had I been able to simply move my groups there to here, I would have connected with far fewer Steemians. Will Ono be as social as Steemit?
Anyway, all just speculation, since right now none of us can post anything on Ono. I'll probably give it a try, but I'm keeping my focus on Steemit unless and until I see actual benefits to Ono.
Ill always be on Steemit only.
Thanks for sharing, upvoted.
This is good competition that will drive both platforms to kick new goals and to innovate.
You definitely should be worried about it(if you care about steemit). I don't really contribute except to post my stupid opinions sometimes, but I can't really even find something legitimately valuable or enjoyable to read a lot of the time.
The only thing that kinda weirds me out about ONO(my only exposure was to the whitepaper blog here) is the recurring references to celebrities. Maybe I'm naive about the original nature of steem, but I thought of it as designed to create a platform of mutual benefit and social interaction. ONO seems to be more centered around influencers promoting themselves, attention harvesting, sort of mainstream focused type stuff. I'm sure they can be more successful than steemit because they'll probably run it like a business, but this is my only social media platform because I don't like that stuff. But, that could just be me. I read it, but I don't feel like I have a good handle on what they're offering yet.
So, I didn't answer your question, but I did some rambling. World of steemit.
Someday, something better than Steemit will appear, and then we can all go there after they've worked out all the bugs.
I'm suspect of anything coming out of China that calls itself decentralized and extolling freedom, even if the makers have that intent. It's still China.
People have been creating their own communities, with or without the actual software, app or site to do it. I know it doesn't function exactly like the group does on FB, but that's more or less a formality. You can create a tag, and have interested parties take part in that tag. Can't really control who uses the tag, but at least the framework to do it is there.
I've been finding the more I engage, and choose who to engage with, the better my experience. I can stay away from the negativity and the flagging. or I can come close to it and observe it and try to be a polite part of the conversation. There's plenty of things that need to be addressed, and I believe they can be. People need to start having a brainstorming session on a much larger scale.
I hope you get to bring your community over from Facebook at some point. If not, Ono or something else will undoubtedly pop up to fill in the void.
Super Artikel!
I am watching ......quietly....
Wonderful post ..thanks for sharing...Best of luck friend ✫
I will be on both and contribute to both.... the more Steem and EOS I have the better.