No, I didn’t go to Bangkok. So I won’t make any claims to know how things actually went for the team of event hosts or the attendees. But I did see the group photo and was sad--though not surprised--to see such a small number of people. Compared to last year, it was a pretty striking difference.
I’m not going to do a side-by-side comparison of those photos here or count faces or anything like that. This post isn’t about statistics. It’s not even about low morale in the Steem community and what I think was a poor choice of venue. Combine those two things, and the number of people who showed up for the event was pretty impressive. I cover those territories in this post, but the bottom line is that I think everything runs in cycles, and there's a good chance for an upswing soon.
Community Perspective
As part of a Steem community leadership team, I endorse our decision to lay low for a while, to “hibernate” on the platform while the new communities and SMTs are being rolled out. We’re not leaving. We’re not struggling. We just don’t want to invest time and resources into transient side projects that to us seem detrimental to the platform over the long run. We’d rather wait for the advent of more decentralized solutions. Our project itself, Steemhouse Publishing, is definitively centralized because it’s a Limited Liability Corporation registered in the U.S. It functions as a traditional publishing house. However, when it comes to the wallets and tokens and blockchains that Steemhouse wishes to be affiliated with--well, as defined by the core principles of Steemhouse, those must be open source and decentralized. There will be no compromise on our part, even if it means waiting until Steemit, Inc. gets the bugs worked out of these new platform features.
Business Perspective
As both an individual account holder and owner of a “real world” business, I have watched the leadership of Steemit, Inc., make a lot of missteps and deals with the devil. As I predicted, none of them were good for the platform and I think the consequences of that are quite clear. Attrition rate remains untenable. The price of Steem is at a sludge-sucking low. Investors are not interested. Major exchanges have stepped away. But am I ready to toss a handful of dirt on the Steem coffin and let it rest in peace? No. The product itself is still breathing and has a discernible heartbeat. The Steem blockchain is solid and some truly good innovation is coming down the pipeline. I’m willing to wait and see what happens, especially now that bidbots have been decimated and some of the old regimes were successfully neutered. Our front end project has a blueprint for success in the mainstream that does not involve Steem post value, trending, upvotes, flagging, or any of the failed “proof of brain” concepts that taint the current ecosystem. We’ll launch it in due time, provided that progress made by Steemit, Inc., continues with its current momentum.
Conference Perspective
As far as SF4, I feel certain it was a measurable success because it was organized by 
However, I hope that next year’s Steemfest venue will be a bit more agreeable. Some people aren’t bothered by a region’s sketchy reputation--human trafficking, child sex workers, and the dog meat trade don’t register with them as long as they aren’t exposed to it directly...and sometimes even if they are. But for many people, venturing into a city or country that is tolerant of such third-world practices is just not on the bucket list. From a personal standpoint, I actually considered a foray into Mexico City until the latest wave of gang violence against innocents struck the whole country of Mexico off my radar for the foreseeable future. I’m just not going there. Period. Roeland, I hope you have enough discretion to not even consider a nation where the average murder rate is in excess of twenty percent. On the same note, I saw a suggestion in the comments of a recent SF4 post about considering India for SF5. Hello? Do we really want to breathe that air? Some places just should not enter the running to host an event like Steemfest.
I understand the need to find a venue that is affordable and maybe even off the beaten path. But many, many options exist within smaller countries that are truly striving to make the world a better place, and I think choice of location for Steemfest should reflect this. Please, Roeland...keep us out of sketchy third world places from now on. Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Krakow were brilliant choices. Bangkok, not so much. I can’t state for certain that I would have been able to attend SF4 had it been in a better location. Money was really tight this year and Steem worth virtually nothing. However, I would have put a lot more effort into finding a way had the location not been so objectionable to me. So I implore you: please, please, please make environmental footprint, social accountability, and personal safety some of the top priorities when choosing a venue for Steemfest 5.
Personal Perspective
I’ve read many of the SF4 posts that have been circulating, and while I do think people had fun there, the energy from last year is definitely absent. Like I said earlier, morale is low. But while I see this as a gauge of the current climate on Steem, I don’t see it as a definitive forecast for what’s to come. I think we’re in a particular season, where roots are growing and spreading underneath the surface without much visible flora. This is a critical and necessary time. What happens over the next year will determine a great deal about the future viability of this platform. Communities and SMTs are true game-changers. I’m so excited about those developments that I can hardly stand it. Between those new features and the front-end we hope to roll out soon, I believe my pet project Steemhouse will, for the first time, be something I can proudly market in the mainstream without fear of user attrition. So here’s to 2020! And hopefully, to the best Steemfest we’ve seen so far in the history of this platform.
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