Anons holding back mainstream Steem?

Before we get started, this isn't about censorship or any position on anonymity (or pseudo-anonimity) as I see it. However, no matter how careful you have been, most likely you have not been careful enough and a half decent government worker could find you if push came to shove. Be that as it may, stay comfy because for the most part, no one is going to chase you.

Yet.

 

I was reading a post by a friend, @futurethinker, about starting an education-centric platform. I will get into this later at some point as I have some views and ideas but tonight I thought I would add a few words about something said at the start:

Social Media content is meant to be spread out all over the internet rather than to be uploaded to Steemit to get a few votes and then let it sit there for eternity.

In my opinion any serious content creator would try to reach their audience on multiple platforms and tailor their content for long term consumption.

Do you recognize where this is leading already?

Yes, content is meant to be spread all over the place and if this was done widely, there would be a lot more interest in Steem as many more eyes would see links from articles and, the Dapps that can bring people in but...

Anonymity

 
For the most part, Facebook and Twitter are the places that are probably most suitable to drop Steem links but (Facebook in particular) many people use their real names and faces there as they use it for business. Those that don't have their real names are often still connected in some way, it is a troll account or has close to zero followers. So, once someone starts dropping Steem links on Facebook, they are most definitely outed.

Remember that Crypto people are different kinds of people, trusting hashes and smart contracts, not necessarily faces. On top of this, many are not the greatest fans of the state, taxes, banks and establishment in general. For the people who feel they must remain anonymous for some reason, there is a risk.

Add on to this that even though one has "friends" on Facebook, most of the world aren't accustomed to walking around with their bank accounts on display or their weekly paychecks being visible on their front page. There is plenty of room for a jealous friend to tip the authorities or, needy friends to become vote beggars with expectations if they join.

There is another reason too and I think that this is also a driving force for many people here. If family and friends do start coming in, is their account in line with reality or, do they now run the risk of being outed in other ways? Is the story they provide Steem users their real life? Perhaps they are 'embellishing' just a little or, are in a secret relationship they don't want Steem to know about. Who knows? But, people hide themselves for many reasons and for most, persecution from the state isn't a serious threat.

But, anonymity works on other sites

 
Yes and No. If we take Reddit for example where one would essentially be insane to use their real name, anonymity does work but, what is at stake? How many people have earned a dollar, does Reddit pay users, do users pay other users, is there what a government would consider a taxable economy? As soon as there is like on Youtube, even those who are anonymous are not anonymous to the system as they need to register themselves and verify in various ways.

But on Steem?

 
This is of course one of the draw cards for many people here as they can be unbounded from the reality of themselves and essentially hide from those they may know as well as, earn. However, this does come with its own costs as we can see here with accounts that would be deemed 'bad actor' accounts. For the most part, those with a name and face are rarely the bad actors, let alone the extreme cases because they have a price to pay in real-world reputation.

The problem could also be that for many users here they are very sensitive to being traced as well as wary of who is doing the tracing for various reasons. This means that they are going to avoid advertising the fact to loudly that they are here at all.

The real content producers @futurethinker might be talking about may not be so real after all if their persona here is connected to their real world life. People shilling skills they may not actually have or claims of success that may not actually be theirs. For any number of reasons, people hide themselves but in a social media environment like Steem, many people are not even willing to talk about it with their families. It is like a dirty little secret, an affair with a stranger.

The problem is

 
Perhaps the problem is that in order to go truly mainstream as a Social platform we have to actually be willing to socialize and even though it is okay on Steem to be anonymous, for the people required (the average person) to mainstream, we are going to have to be willing to out ourselves to friends and family at the very least. Obviously, this isn't happening because if each active user brought in just one person, that would be 60,000 new signups instantly.

Of course, that also means introducing your friends and family to the persona you have created and letting them into and explaining to them a world that they may not understand immediately, if ever. The thing is that the active user core here for the most part are engaged, they are hooked and if they could hook one friend, the ecosystem would be much better but, look at this place.

Once upon a time I was single and would occasionally entertain guests at my apartment. As they walked none of the first things they commented on was how clean the place was and how rare it is for a bachelor. Would you bring a pretty girl back to Steem and say, this is my new home, come and join me? It is a bit of a hard sell. If we can't sell something that many of us love and see a massive future in to our friends and family, what is the chance of convincing large scale investors?

Are you ready for mainstream?

 
Really? Even though everyone wants their Steem to go up in value, mainstreaming means that there is going to be increasing odds that friends and family are going to find your account, look at the wallet, read your content, see how you interact and then, ask questions. Are you ready to answer those questions? How may are going to be about how the platform works and how many about your persona here specifically? Does it worry you if your high school friends read your posts, your mother, girlfriend, boss? Are you thinking what you might have said about people who could potentially identify themselves or others? Sure?

That is what mainstreaming is going to mean on Steem because all information is available since the dawn of your account. Every complaint, every cry about receiving a flag, every breakdown because of price, or angry statement made to someone who you thought would never know your face is here, preserved, immutable.

Are you really ready for mainstream Steem? How come you haven't posted your links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram yet? You can share on the blockchain but not with the people who really know you?

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]