Communities, SMTs and Tron, Oh My! Towards a Brighter Future?

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Well it has been a busy week!

Unless you've been living under a rock, you're pretty much aware of all the changes that have happened around here. So I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about their specifics.

This morning I have been pondering what we're going to do with all this.

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A More Positive Outlook?

Because I'm a somewhat optimistic person, I'd like to think these have primarily been changes for the better. Yes, I'm well aware that Justin Sun remains an unknown quantity, and we're not quite sure how this is all going to play out.

But — for the moment — I'm not going to worry too much about that.

I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in worrying about what's going to happen in the future or whose "fault" it's going to be... that we completely forget about trying to do anything useful with the present.

Based on what I'm seeing in front of me right NOW, it's exciting to see Communities having been rolled out; it's nice to see the updates and improvements to the various interfaces an our front ends; all of which adds up to — at least through my lens of perception — makes me feel more comfortable about bringing our community to the world.

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I think it's important to keep in mind that when we talk about wanting to bring Steemlandia to a wider audience, that wider audience most likely will have different priorities from ours.

They just want to know whether we have a cool place where they can put their video clips or a cool place to blog or a place to share photos or a place to play games and most of them *(sorry!) are not really going to care what a “blockchain” is or what “decentralized” means.

Those are things that might be important to US — because we understand their importance — but to the average bystander and potential new community member out in the world, those are just fringe benefits you get to learn about later.

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Then There's the Whole “Name Issue.”

Do we call it “Steem?” Do we call it “Steemit?” Do we call it “Tron-it?”

From where I'm sitting, most of the arguments for correct naming conventions, seem to be centered around technical semantics. Let us once again remind ourselves that the people we're marketing this idea too don't look at it through that lens of perception.

To be perfectly blunt, they see a landing page that says "STEEMIT" in the top left corner and will only be confused by someone's insistence that "it's actually STEEM."

We need to get out of our heads and consider how that sounds to an outsider! But let's consider this:

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Personally speaking, my favorite front end here is Steempeak.

Accordingly, I choose to bypass the whole "naming mess" by answering questions like “why aren't you on Facebook anymore?” with the answer “I have been blogging on this cool and kinda new platform called @steempeak. It reminds me a lot of Xanga where we used to blog. Remember that?”

That's a real world answer to a real world person and it puts them in contact with the Steem ecosystem through possibly the most intuitive and visually attractive front-end interface we currently have.

Still have few minor issues to work out... @steempeak? @asgarth?

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And that makes sense to me.

“But what about the rewards? Aren’t you going to tell them about the rewards?”

Not up front. At least it's not going to be my primary focal point. In fact, I think it's the previous excessive focus on the rewards that have caused a lot of the spam-and-scam problems we have around here. But that's just my personal opinion... and there's enough material there for an entire separate post!

Anyway, I’m kind of done with being distracted by all the upheaval and uncertainty... and ready to just “get on with it.”

How about you?

Thanks for reading!

(Another #creativecoin creative non-fiction post)

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

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(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 20200221 14:09 PST

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9 comments
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(Edited)

They just want to know whether we have a cool place where they can put their video clips or a cool place to blog or a place to share photos or a place to play games and most of them *(sorry!) are not really going to care what a “blockchain” is or what “decentralized” means

This !! And we need to constantly be reminded that this is the priority for many newcomers and those 'sitting on the fence'. And will continue to be.

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It cuts both ways. In a DPoS system, it's important for stakeholders to have awareness of possible threats.

Not saying Justin is a threat per se but he has done a few things that are to put it lightly questionable. I appreciate optimism as much as the next guy but still got to be mindful of the flipside.

I'm trying to evaluate both but tend to find myself on the other end. We'll see what happens

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When I log in now from steemit I first see 'trending' posts.. is this the same for you? wonder if any way to change this permanently? I tried selecting 'New' posts but it won't stick.. adds more work for me to navigate away😄. Other than that I am enjoying the changes so far, hope to see many new people sign up in coming weeks, months ..etc

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last time I was on tron it was in chinese, and I had to copy and paste to google translate to create an account and get in. There is a Russian version of steemit called Golos.io also.

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SPOT ON

I think it's important to keep in mind that when we talk about wanting to bring Steemlandia to a wider audience, that wider audience most likely will have different priorities from ours.
They just want to know whether we have a cool place where they can put their video clips or a cool place to blog or a place to share photos or a place to play games and most of them *(sorry!) are not really going to care what a “blockchain” is or what “decentralized” means

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We can pretty much choose to think whatever we want to... but the reality of 99% of social media users is that they expect "log in with Facebook" and then they are ready to rumble with whatever new app/venue they just registered from.

If something requires an explanation so long their eyes glaze over... it just isn't gonna fly!

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It is a nice food for thought type of post you have put out here. As a new user I have to say Steem(it) comes across a little confusing for new users. At my first attempt to join (in December) I gave up, because the UI is not very logical. Now I am putting in the effort to get acquainted with the system and can experience it much better. But because of naming confusion and sorry to say non user friendly UI I think a lot of new users drop out before they can experience what Steem(it) is really about. If mass adoption is the goal, this needs to be addressed.

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This was a good read and more or less reflects a lot of what I myself have been thinking of late. I especially like the following two passages and the 'naming' synopsis.

I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in worrying about what's going to happen in the future or whose "fault" it's going to be... that we completely forget about trying to do anything useful with the present.

“But what about the rewards? Aren’t you going to tell them about the rewards?”

Not up front. At least it's not going to be my primary focal point. In fact, I think it's the previous excessive focus on the rewards that have caused a lot of the spam-and-scam problems we have around here. But that's just my personal opinion... and there's enough material there for an entire separate post!

Cheers & Happy Steeming!

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I have long since said that this "space" does not "cater" for the masses in their approach or handling... they need to tone it down a few notches lol. but the last time I openly spoke about that on voice in a witness chat - I was treated exactly the same way they treat everyone that cannot converse on their level - like an idiot. It will forever be the shortfall of this blockchain if "the powers that be" are not willing to cater to "non-thinking" crowds.

Anyhoooo.... that aside, I am very curious to see how this all unfolds and where it takes us...

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