Steem Witness Chat - Clarifying my thoughts...

I really enjoyed the witness chat last night and just wanted to say thank you to everyone there as well as to @shadowspub for being an “always awesome” host and for giving me the opportunity to voice some of my thoughts – although I think that to a degree they were a little misunderstood… or perhaps I just did a lousy of job of putting them across lol! So, for that reason I thought perhaps I should just stick to writing and put them down into words and (hopefully) a little clearer haha!

I was not in any way trying to negate the efforts which have been and continue to be put into the many positive changes and developments of Steem – in fact I hold a great deal of respect for the amount of time and effort given from all parties. I was simply trying to address a few things from an “average users” experience as well as from the eye of someone who has spent their entire career in design & marketing. I will do my best not to “waffle” too much lol… (not my strong point haha!)

Whilst I completely understand and respect that the inner workings, back end functions and “behind the scenes” aspects and functionality are of the utmost importance and definitely a number one priority - I do think that a little more balance needs to be struck when it comes to applying some more focus on looking from the outside in and not the other way around. What I meant when I said that the focus seems to be dominated inwardly is that very few people appear to be paying attention to the messiness and chaos of how the Steem network is perceived by the outside world and this, to my mind is one of our biggest stumbling blocks. Let me attempt to elaborate…

We have people like @theycallmedan, @stephenkendal and many others including myself that actively punt the Steem blockchain on external platforms such as Twitter etc. and as great as this is – the handful of people that it actually penetrates are met with total confusion when they arrive at the door. It is like enticing someone to swim, showing them the amazing new diving board and then walking away completely ignoring the fact that they cannot swim.

A simple search of the #steem tag on Twitter will illustrate the levels of disjoint. You have people sharing steemit.com links, steempeak, steem.com and a million other front ends and there is no common thread among any of them except for the tag itself. So for someone stepping into this sphere for the very first time – there is absolutely ZERO guided direction nor clarity. It is all very well saying we should be onboarding new users, and promoting the network but what about “after that”. The majority of newcomers need to have their hands held for some time before they get to a point where they can stand on their own two feet and I don’t think this is happening in an effective enough manner.

My point being, that whilst the facets of the Steem blockchain may operate independently, we all still have one common interest and for that reason, should try and find ways in which to streamline things and simplify “stage one” for newcomers. Pushing steem.com, to my mind makes the most sense but then to say that “the face” of that landing page and its efficacy is low priority whether it has been discussed a thousand times or not - is somewhat foolish in my opinion, because that is a starting block.

People are skeptical enough about blockchain technology and I don’t think that having a fake live feed reeling on the landing page is going to instil additional confidence. Skeptical people DO care about details like that. I am not saying that precious resource should be squandered on a facelift but I am saying that it is far from irrelevant and it absolutely should be addressed. It need not be a massive overhaul, in fact very small tweaks could yield some very positive results and there must be a thousand other ways in which to visually depict the diversity of dapps without displaying a fake feed.

Last night, I mentioned the “heads” of the community and the fact that some guidance should be coming from that side of the fence. This suggestion seemed to confuse a few people and it is likely that I did not elaborate efficiently. What I was trying to say is that yes, we do have some wonderful initiatives such as @steemterminal which has been made possible by @thekittygirl, @xcountytravelers, @brittandjosie and many other helping hands… and I think they should be highlighted in places like the steem.com landing page. To the average Jo, it should be plain as day on that page, that there is a live community of people ready and waiting to help them if and when they should get stuck. A simple link to a page that gives a brief overview of what they do in the Steem Terminal with a button to their discord server would more than suffice. A small tweak that could literally change the entire experience for new users form the get go.

As for the “heads” of the community as I referred, I am talking about the witnesses, the high earners and the well-established, influential users of the platform. I understand that time availability to assist new users with a million and one questions may not be viable but a simple thing like adding a little info about The steem terminal in their post footers would be a small but positive start. In fact, ALL users could and should be encouraged to do that… but my point was that noobs tend to gravitate to the trending page when they join, because those are the people they initially look to as “pro’s”.

Feeling a little confused or stuck on Steem? Stress less, we are here to help you! - Simple as that, with a very brief blurb on who they are and a click through link to their server or perhaps their page.

This “guided direction” could be linked to ANY community or team of individuals that are willing to dedicate time and effort to newcomers, but I have used Steem terminal as an example because I think they are the most established and have an AMAZING team of helpers.

Something like this could be adopted by ALL the front ends so that no matter where people “step on” – they don’t stand there feeling like a lost fart! And onboarding aside, I can assure you that there are plenty of existing users on the platform that are feeling precisely that way and many others who have simply left because of it.

Perhaps the pending communities will alleviate this problem, but I have a feeling that it may cause even more confusion to newcomers, especially considering that there will be no limitations regarding the number of communities focused on the same/similar genres. Perhaps I am wrong.

People, for the most part are confused by blockchain technology - it overwhelms them and I touched on this topic too with regards to people not being adequately educated on the topic of witnesses and therefore voting blindly.

If the people of Steem are not going to put unanimous focus on simplifying the process by placing all the eggs neatly into a basket thus making new users feel welcomed and at ease versus clueless idiots, then that public confusion and reluctance is not going anywhere and it certainly won’t do the Steem blockhain any favours.

At the end of the day – ALL the facets carry their own set of importance and things can only function like a well-oiled machine when each one of those areas is given the necessary attention. Well, that is my 10 cents anyway… and at 1300 words, I was only partially successful at not waffling. Anyhoo, thanks for “hearing” me out… that is, if you do read this haha! Oh, and apologies in advance for delayed response to comments but tonight is my weekly wine and dine evening with my mom, so I will only be around again on Friday :)