I want to let you know about a new social media site that pays in crypto (or USD if you prefer to take the 15% cut to earnings for ease of not dealing with crypto exchanges). You might say, "But I'm on one of those right now."
True, Steemit and Narrative are quite similar, but there are some notable differences.
Steemit is more mature than Narrative. Steemit is in Beta whereas Narrative is still in Alpha. Though it does have a cryptocurrency already, unlike Minds which is more like pre-alpha on that score, it doesn't yet give you the ability to actually create content. You can suggest a niche that platform members may vote into existence, but you can't write an article in that niche yet.
Which brings me to the fact that it has some degree of "communities" built in. It isn't a true group like what you might be used to on a site like Facebook. Think of tags here on Steemit, only with a moderator and "owner" like you might have on a message board. So there is some leadership within a given topic (sort of like APPICS is planning) and that may foster more connection among the people writing on that topic. That remains to be seen.
On Narrative you also have the option of either writing on a personal blog that is not in a niche, or writing content for a niche. There is also something called Publications for brands that allows a company/product/group to own their own territory and control it completely. With niches the members of the platform vote on what the niches will be and who the moderators will be. There is also an auction to see who gets to buy it and be the niche "owner."
Narrative has set the niche price to be the equivalent of about $75 USD, payable for that amount in Narrative tokens (NRVE). You pay a 15% extra fee if you want to use a credit card to pay for your niche in USD instead of converting to NRVE first on one of the exchanges that trades NRVE, currently two.
While STEEM is a coin on its own blockchain, NRVE is a token that runs on NEO blockchain. I guess that makes Narrative more equivalent to APPICS than to Steemit, really. It also makes me hope Narrative is successful regardless of how much I participate on there, because it may help me recoup some of my NEO losses by helping to add value to that blockchain.
Moderation within niches is very different from Steemit. Here I guess the downvote is the closest equivalent.
Right now as I said you can't actually create content. You can suggest a niche, upvote/downvote a suggested niche, and invite new people to join under your referral link. (Here's mine: Join Narrative)
It took almost a week for me to get approved after I clicked someone's referral link. I just had to confirm my email address a couple times, if I recall. First when registering to be notified when my round was ready to go, and then to put in my name, handle (indigoocean), and once more confirm my email address. Really easy. (Much easier than all that byteball stuff was.)
But since it isn't yet a live content platform, you're really just collecting NRVE in a semi-airdrop by signing up now and referring people. Actually, maybe that makes it more like a bonus program for referrals, though you also get some NRVE just for joining.
Anyway, if you think you may want to participate in a younger "content for crypto" community at some point, this is an interesting model and may be worth giving out your email address to get. Hopefully you've got several email addresses and can use one just for this sort of thing and email newsletters.
I'm going to continue participating on Steemit regardless of what other platforms come along, because I feel like I'm a part of a real global community of quality writers on here. But a lot of people aren't having that experience here. Maybe the moderation and niche ownership on Narrative will provide real readership community to more people. Time will tell.
Narrative website: https://www.narrative.org/
Narrative whitepaper: https://www.narrative.org/assets/documents/narrative-network.pdf
Referral link again: Join Narrative
(Photo source: screenshot of Narrative website homepage)
Resteems always appreciated
