The Steemit Team has decided to do something to bring in the masses. We're talking about growth and we're talking about opening the doors for the world. This is obivously something that most people wants, and this new innovative, genius idea is to have "light" accounts.
Many users seems to believe that this will help STEEM tremendously, and that we will ultimately see millions of people. I write this today, just to tell you that it won't work.
Would you get a "light version" of your VISA card?
Awesome features:
Now, they haven't given us any details on what these "light" accounts will be able to do or not, but if we, the already existing users becomes like "premium" users due to the "light" accounts, I expect these accounts to be like a "demo" account.
If you can't use STEEM with all features enabled, why would you even want a "demo" account in the first place? - I don't get this at all, and I will probably never understand why a "light" STEEM account would benefit anyone at all.
Are these light accounts issued so users will skip the waiting time for their real accounts? - So they can enjoy STEEM while they're waiting for the "premium" account?
These are the options we have today. 1-2 weeks waiting time, or instant access if you pay for an account. Have you ever paid for a Facebook account? A twitter account or a Reddit account?
"STEEM is different."
I don't know what you are smoking, but STEEM is not that different for the majority of the people. The main reason for people to be on STEEM, or to sign up to STEEM, is to earn money. They don't care about the other stuff.
While the price is low, activity decreases. When the price is high, activity rises again... It's ups and downs. All the time.
Most people, the so called "average people", wants to join STEEM to publish content they publish on other social medias too, because they earn something.
While so many people are certain of the fact that STEEM doesn't onboard the masses due to the sign up process, I am certain of the fact that STEEM doesn't onboard the masses because the "masses" are not interested in STEEM.
"Your voice is worth something. Get paid for good content."
Your voice is worth something obviously, but not on STEEM. Not in case you don't buy a ton of STEEM Power so you can upvote your own content or afford to buy votes. - Manual curation is basically dead, so there's a minimal chance for you to be rewarded in any other way.
This is the first thing you see when you visit Steemit.com. As people are not being rewarded for their posts, they leave. Which is the answer for all of those inactive accounts we have. (How many dead accounts are we up to again?)
Within the announcement we can see this:
"But the people who joined steemit.com early on were doing so in spite of the difficulty because we were giving them the opportunity to take ownership over their content. "
And here is my answer to that:
"Uhm. No?
People signed up early because they had an amazing chance to earn a shit ton of money for posting the same stuff they posted elsewhere.
The majority of the people on STEEM are here for the money. When we fail to reward new users they leave. Simple as that.
It has never been about being a part of a decentralised, non-censorship platform for the majority of the people. Bob wants money. We need to give him that or he will leave. The lack of rewards are the main reason for people to leave. It has always been about the rewards.
People can talk about community and whatever, that's not the main reason for people to join. It might be why some people decides to stay, but it's definitely not the main reason for people to join."
We can also find this in that same announcement:
""Steem and steemit.com grew rapidly because we offered people an experience that they couldn’t get anywhere else.""
Here's my answer:
"Yeah. You offered people money. When people realized they won't earn, they decided to leave. That's also the reason for people to not sign up today. They don't earn and the value of STEEM is low.
On top of that, STEEM is difficult for people to understand and we allowed people to promote STEEM like a personal ATM. Like a cash cow. They did that for years and everyone was okay with that...
bidbots destroyed the trending pages, vote selling in general destroyed manual curation. The users who scored a lot in the early days are the same people who earns today. (with the exception of some investor here and there perhaps).
Greed, poor leadership, ignorant behaviour and lack of self-control ruined STEEM. And that's the reason for STEEM to be stagnant no matter what happens. Give people a fair chance of earning rewards, like they had in the early days, and the masses will come without any major marketing."
I stand for all of those words. Regardless of what some people might believe or say, STEEM has never been about anything more than money for most people. If they don't earn, there's no reason for them to be here.
If they don't earn, and if they don't want to be here, there are no need for an account either. - Get my point?
That being said, STEEM can be great, due to friends and whatever. The community-stuff that many people are talking about. I agree on that, but Bob and Alice from Facebook aren't interested in blockchains, blocks or codes. They want to post a picture of their kids, just like they do on Facebook... But they want to do it on STEEM because they will earn.
Why would they ever bother with all the difficult stuff you need to know and do on and for STEEM, if they don't see any rewards?
Because it's decentralised? Because they love cryptocurrencies? Because there's a bunch of really amazing people on STEEM? - When Bob and Alice gets here they expect to earn rewards. They leave before they see this "awesome community" people are talking about... And they are not really interested in cryptocurrencies and they do not care about STEEM being centralised or decentralised. They love Facebook, but they want money.
Oh! No censorship? - Yeah, that won't work either, because Bob and Alice can't even dream of being censored for sharing photos of their kids.
And here's another thing they often say:
"please leave your feedback in the comment section below."
Effective feedback, both positive and negative, should be very helpful. Feedback should be valuable information that should be used to make important decisions. Yet, they continue ignore most of it.
I will end this by saying this one more time:
Give people a fair chance to earn rewards, like they had in the early days (and like they are supposed to have according to the front page on Steemit.com), and the masses will come without any major marketing.
