I haven't been here for a long time so I'm not an expert. I know that Steemit has a potential to become something great. But we all need to work together to achieve that. The point of decentralized social network is that the community gets to build it. And let me say that we have long way to go.
A lot of new users are joining us everyday and seems like most of them are chasing a rabbit with bare hands. And instead of doing some research first, they just act like they already knew everything. Applying ignorance has always been easy and it doesn't mean that you won't succeed. But surely you are not improving your odds of success by doing so.
Simple tactic like "follow me and I will follow you" maybe seem to work at first. But than you realize that most of those people don't share a common cause. They are not interested in your content, in fact they probably just hoped that you might be interested in their's.
Other approach that I see a lot is making tens or even hundreds of blogposts a day. And the logic behind it might be simple – more posts is more money. Sure you might catch some votes on some of your posts, but clearly in a long run that is not the case. As your content doesn't hold any value because it was created in 2 minutes. Unless of course you are a GENIUS.
Many of those who copy-paste articles don't even bother to provide the link with the source. Not to mention the author or the date it came out. Sometimes I even read trough the article, but I wont upvote because I don't think it is you, who deserves the credit for it.
I don't think that our goal should be getting a lot of followers. Creating quality content should be the goal. And the amount of followers will be the reflection of the work you put in.
To be a valuable part of this community, you don't have to be a quality content creator. Not everyone is cut out for that. It's just that there is no point of getting a lot of followers, if you are not going to do that. Your time could be spent more efficiently elsewhere. And you can still make some money from your short/simple posts if you make valid points and have buddies in the community. So instead of trying to make an army of followers, try to find people with whom you share a common interests and make friends! They are the ones who will actually support you no matter what.
Curation awards are also not to be underestimated. I have noticed that some of strategically placed upvotes are getting decent awards even with my very low Steem Power. And that is where I think we can improve.
Many of the new users don't know about how the voting power works and where to find it. So my suggestion would be to add voting power percentage bar to the personal blog section. With simplified explanation box appearing when the mouse cursor is dragged over.
I'm not presenting this exact design, I am presenting the general concept. Because my belief is that, when people see something that they don't understand, they will try to find out what it is, and how it works. You can show your support for this idea in comments section. I am always ready to have a discussion about the relevant matters.
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