This is a relatively small community and even though people liken it to other social medias, it is fundamentally different in two key ways, decentralization and potential to earn. You know that? Oh. Okay, well moving along.
These two things and their interrelationship means that this community is going to face challenges that similar online communities that have been built in the past did not face. For example, Spam. There is a discussion going on over at 
Other social medias of course have spam issues also but, the difference is that they can deal with them directly, they can algorithm sort them out, block them, ban them and censor them but, here the community has to deal with them directly. The other sites also don't incentivize Spam by offering the potential for direct rewards either. This is just an example of the challenges and, that is a relatively small one.
There are many, many challenges that this community faces and will face in the coming months and years that need to be addressed so that they are not built into the foundations of the community itself. This is of course further complicated because it is a decentralized community that requires consensus for change or the highest staked users to collect together and act as one.
Again, this is a challenge because everyone has their own vision of what they want this place to be and their own ideas as to what will get it there. On top of this, some are short-term thinkers and others long-term business operators. It is difficult to get any number of them to talk together, let alone agree on a course of action.
This creates another challenge that Steemit is very likely to face in the near future, we move very, very slowly. There is a proverb;
"If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together."
What this means is that we are traveling together to a distant destination but, a centralized community is essentially going alone as there are a very small handful of decision makers. If they are able to offer what Steemit can (incentive to engage) and make it compelling enough, they will travel very fast indeed. If people are only in it for the money, they don't actually care about the decentralization and lack of censorship at all.
We can see from many of the behaviours here at all levels of the eco-system Really do not care about the long-term view of the platform, they are individuals who want to go fast. They want to grow fast, they want fast profits, they want to earn all they can, fast. For some individuals they will make a lot doing this but, the community will die and their 'a lot' is nowhere near what it could have been if they had developed a strong community.
There are people here engaging in some very poor behaviors that act against the community because they are looking short. From a potential financial perspective, A whale is selling their potential future with hundreds of millions out for a guaranteed few million or a few hundred thousand now. A dolphin could be a millionaire but instead, will settle for thousands and the minnows who could potentially buy houses, get dinner and a movie.
The platforms and the technology that came before this didn't have this problem as because of their centralized nature, the millions were guaranteed since they didn't pay users especially, new users on their platforms. Monetization on the other platforms requires a hell of a lot more work than it does here and often higher quality in a much more competitive environment. This means Steemit attracts all kinds and gives them a chance, including the dregs.
Dealing with all the challenges requires a community of at least a high enough number of engaged and able members to drive forward changes. This requires discussion and work and a lot of that work is not the fun stuff that makes a lot of friends or money in the short term. A lot of the discussions that need to take place go against the general ideas of community building but, they are core to building that community.
There is often a call to protect users here. Protect their freedom. Think about that for a moment, protection for freedom. Seems quite an oxymoron when you look at it. The thing is though, a community isn't free, it can't be as a community relies on people to engage in endeavours that benefit the community. The community can be self-governed though but as said, this has challenges.
There is a cost to being in a community and that cost is what you are putting in to get the benefits of the community out. It is the cost of going slowly, but far. Right now, if someone isn't willing to put in and travel slowly for the good of the community, they are not worthy of being a part of that community and should be cut away as they are limiting how far the community can travel together. They are the ones slowing the group down, the many individuals who are unwilling to pull their weight. Why protect them?
I have talked about Steem being the Musketeer Coin where All for one, one for all means the community can grow healthily but, there are too few of the community supporting the many ones who are not there for the all. It is a leaking boat problem where a few people are trying to plug holes while many more are drilling new ones.
Each of us have to come with terms with ourselves here and decide what we want this community to be. If you are thinking and acting for the short term gains, the long-term actors should highly consider cutting you off completely as it is likely not in their best interest to support you. If you are looking long, then you have to act long and that means... finding out what that means.
A rough guide for the long thinkers is, it is going to take work and, you can't leave it up to others to do it. Why should the community work for you, upvote you, engage with you, support you, if you are not willing to engage with the community and unwilling to support others, join in the discussions or even try to learn the basics of the technologies.
Someone DM'd me the other day who has been on the platform for 8 months. They wanted support for a community they have an idea for and how they want to take it world wide. I asked them their thoughts on SMTs and Hivemind... "Umm, what? Never heard of those.." If you want to start communities here, you are going to likely need to understand what is happening in the communities and what types of things are affecting the communities. Yeah, it'll likely take some work.
This platform takes all kinds including the ones who challenge it by acting poorly but, there seems to be an abundance of poor actors at all levels and a very narrow selection of long-term players. True or not, this is the view when one spends some time wandering around Steemit. The community needs to discuss these things and act before they become a forever part of the ecosystem, a part of the community culture.
There are so many issues going on that it is impossible for a small band to think of and take care of them all, this is why a strong and diverse community is vital as it gives many hands to do the many jobs. Benefiting from the community without working for it is to be a freeloader. That is not free, it is absolutely reliant.
A healthy decentralized community is a symbiotic relationship between the group and the individuals within. Take some time to think about your place.
Sunday night thoughts.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
