community event live now: https://discord.gg/S7npwYU

Well yeah, you could definiately pick some holes in the 'six components of culture' with regards to Steem/it right now.

Has this always been the case one way or another though?  Some good / some bad?


> Self-voting, vote buying and flag wars are the dominating elements in that culture now.

They are yes if you seek the trending / hot pages.

> There is zero solidarity and team spirit on Steemit. Constructive debates do not exist anymore. 

I have to disagree here.  But agree that they may be harder to find.  Personally, I am loving my curation league community, and @fulltimegeek's #stewardsofgondor - some excellent things happening here!


> Most users send out their voting bots in order to allocate their contribution  

I would say this is 1% or less.


> ....while the real conversations between human beings take place on discord.

Sadly (or is it for good!) Steemit.com doesn't have a instant chat, and some work/ideas/communities are built by/on discord.  I feel that for some projects 'offline chat' is required but do agree that people are spending more time there.

However, you also need to be active on Steemit too! Can't get no STEEM on tha' discord!

I'm sorry you feel a little negative and that Steemit.com isn't fulfilling the vision right now, I hope i've persuaded you a little that it's not all self-votes and selfishness!

Ash

really appericate ur work on steemit and steemit is soo interesting and mwaningful cause of people like u>

'This Platform Returns Value To Those Who Create Value' best sentence to define steemit.....great work @surfermarly

Beautiful post @surfermarly and I agree with you, things has changed since last year. Upvote and Resteem ;)

Wonderful post Marly. You really touch base with a lot of things that needed to be said. It has felt like Steemit has become a crypto echo-chamber that is only inclusive to those savy enough in the crypto world. I'm not sure what the solutions are but I think posts like this that make people really question the future of the platform are a good start.

As time goes on and the platform gets more users and becomes more diversified, we will see a healthier more complex ecosystem here.

Being a newbie I still have kind of an outsider perspective and even though I see some posts like yours, that are critical about the development, I have to say, that I´m overwhelmed by the culture and different communities here. Maybe you as a veteran got used to these community spirit, so that you can´t see it anymore? Maybe in a year I will also see it different, but for now I´m falling in love with Steemit more and more every day.

yeah i really agree with you on this i mean if there is no quality in the contant what is thee for i mean when i begain this ... i was posting contant with zero value but i think know i know what to post and how thanks nice post liked it

Great post. STEEM is in the beginning stage and has many flaws and a lot of maturing to do. But I believe future is very bright. A lot of people working on very hard to improve it. This platform already improving many lives and helping people, specially in third world countries.

This is true talk @surfermarly
> Shit rolls down the hill

When i first joined steemit with the intention of it being a social media, i was impressed. I decided to take a look at the trending session and it was all crypto. I must confess the shit nearly rubbed on me. But i was advised by a mentor @torico, to post freely, that it would be nice if people post less of crypto and more about personal life experiences which would make it more social!
I personally think, self-voting is a flaw in design. This is because the Big crypto steemians will continue to trend on the platform and will continue to rub this shit on other steemians!!

you are exactly right @surfermarly  As a relative newcomer I find it hard to wrap my head around the mission.  By definition of the platform I feel like I know what it should be but it hasn't surfaced for me yet as I consume content.  I'm hoping that people understand the value of the platform and what everybody should be doing to keep it healthy.   Posts like yours really help define it in the murky waters where us minnows swim at first. I'm learning a lot from following you.

You bring up so many great points here. I joined about 4 or 5 months ago and I do wonder what this place looked like a year ago before the days of voting bots. You ask about the current mission and values of the platform - and it does seem less cohesive than the original intent, but I think there are still many users on the platform who embrace the ideals of creativity, freedom and relationships. 

On the flip side, there are many who do not. I guess the next logical step would be to evaluate what I can personally do to help foster that kind of community. I’m just a small fish in a big sea... but here is what comes to mind:

- Only produce quality posts that provide value to the platform 
- Use my vote to support those creating great content 
- Engage with other users in meaningful discussion 
- Vote for witnesses that share my values 
- Try to help/educate and encourage new users 

Am I missing anything? I know the idea of building the community “one comment and vote at a time”  may not seem like a very revolutionary idea... but as a single user, it’s really the main source of “power” I have to affect change. 

I would welcome your thoughts on this and thanks again for the thought provoking article.

People like you are the reason I believe this platform can reach its potential. You're not selfish and you actually care for the community. There's still hope but definitely something has to change. I'm a minnow, so the only way I can help is to resteem your posts and try to get people that think the same to see them. Maybe then those with great power will understand that they are ruining Steemit.

sad but true, there is no room for new user like me, self voting self buying votes making this platform dirty

Very helpful and thought provoking @surfermarly! This platform has so much potential. Creative freedom and relationship building is a noble and excellent goal. Would be amazing if we keep striving for it!

this is the third post i read about this subject today. it seems to be a real problem and i already get a sense of it. 

your insights are the closest to the processes that have lead up to this point. i am really curious how this develops. thanks for taking the time to explain everything (also for new people) since you apparently already posted similar ideas before

Die Idee war sicher "net" von "ned".... und irgendwie lebt sie ja immer noch..... aber ich denke es schreckt so viele "neuen" Steemians einfach ab, wenn sie sehen was im Trending verdient werden kann. Und ehrlich? vieles im Trending ist sicher kein Mehrwert sonder das ausnutzen von Beziehungen und das abziehen von Geld aus dem Pool..... Aber da alles das zulässig ist, bringt es nicht sich deswegen aufzuregen. Ich mag die Idee immer noch und werde auch weiter hier bleiben........ PS: wurde an meine Wand verschoben......

Yes @surfermarly the question still remains unanswered as it is evolving infront of our very eyes.  All of the blockchain is evolving at such speeds that it is hard to keep up. 

I am really trying not to look from a micro perspective but more of a macro one. I agree some are making a ton of cyrpto for cash and then spend on stuff that devalues over time. Ironic isn't that, but hey it is their prerogative. I think those here for the long hall, along with the masses driving in will benefit the most. Live today and plan for tomorrow if you can afford it. 

Right now it feels quite wild west on here, wait until corporations/businesses/non-profits get in and want to start marketing  to users on the platform. They could 'reward' consumers with their own tokens (discounts on their products of course) backed by SBD or Steem. Imagine you are on Face and you actually get rewarded for participating... don't you think that wouldn't be very addictive to social media platform users.

Wahre Worte! Es gibt immer noch viel Gutes auf Steemit und zahlreiche Autoren, die ihr Bestes geben und tolle Artikel abliefern, aber eben auch genau die von dir angesprochenen Probleme ... Jeder Einzelne, dem die Community am Herzen liegt, sollte versuchen, die von dir angesprochenen "Creativity, freedom and relationships" aktiv vorzuleben.

I do agree that those who create value, will only help to make the whole platform better.  That said, it's really tough for minnows to get noticed in the sea of content - not unlike every other platform.  Building my insta audience was hard work, building my twitter audience was hard work.  No reason why this shouldn't be hard work too.  At some point I have to hope people like my photography enough to comment and updoot my stuff.  Hopefully my contribution is putting a smile on someone's face with a good pic....

essentially, that is why curation initiatives like @ocd and @curie are helpful because they reward users with content that is mostly *deserving* but often *unrecognized*. it provides the impetus for authors to continue posting and creates a healthy and diverse mix of content here... the retention rate on steemit would be otherwise abysmally low is suspect. the more creators we have on the site, we will need more curators, and curators won't be able to do much unless they have the backing.

A great post @surfermarly, some of your points I had wondered in a previous post of mine "how to help steemit grow" .. 

I am only 2 and a half months old here and as I joined it was really hard for me to understand the scope, to see the greater picture, to find valuable content and to discover the people behind it.

It turns out that there is the content, there are the people.

But you have to try hard, to search in a variety of ways to find them.

An to be heard, to have a voice, this also takes some time.

Many worthy people may just leave without understand the potential, because it will need  time + guidance.

Not to mention all these bots and automated responses that a new person does not know how to handle. I have witnessed a case where someone sent sbds and lost them, and all this for a vote! 

I understand your concerns and I believe your voices are important to be heard ... We look up to you and some of us will do our best for this platform.

We **need** to share a greater vision...

> This revolutionary concept requires a community with a healthy and stable culture, shared values and common practice. Otherwise it'd be just another website.


All the best from Crete, Greece
@katerinaramm

"Do not aim at becoming a man of success, but aim at becoming a man of value" - Albert Einstein. Ned Scott is indeed a man of value.

@surfermarly Great post. I have been wondering the same thing as far as steemit being in beta for 2 years. Maybe the focus is to attract other companies to develop things on the blockchain, and steemit was just a test run...? There is no marketing (Like Dash and Amanda B. Johnson). We seem to be handling that. I am in the music community, but noticed right off that most of the popular accounts only post about crypto. I am still trying to convince many of my musician friends to come to this platform, and so far, it has been few-very few. I will follow your page, and try to keep up with all that happens here. Thank you Hero.