Is Steemit the next Reddit?

As early adopters of Steemit we are all rooting for it's success. There is nothing that I would like more than for Steemit to have mass adoption within the next five years. However, to become a top contender in the social media ring it has a long way to go and I have some concerns with the way the community is evolving.

Financial incentives. Good or bad?

In theory this sounds like the best thing in the world. Paid to provide content and feedback on a social media platform? It's something that we all have been doing without compensation for years. But if you've been here long enough you probably understand that it comes at a price. Some users just pump out as much content as possible hoping to get a few more likes and followers. Rarely is this content original or organic.

Browsing the new section you will see people posting photos they ripped from a google image search or posting YouTube videos without a summary or any commentary. Commenters rarely read the full article and just make a quick comment based on the title of the post in hopes they will get a like or a follow. Many users just post straight up asking for a follow. Is it wrong? Not really... But is it going to be healthy if it continues like this 3-5 years down the road?

Curation rewards

This is probably the one that needs to be looked at the most. It seems like a great idea but I don't think it was executed properly. Right now the best curation strategy on SteemIt is to find someone who has the most followers and just vote for them whenever they post. Most people use services like Steemvoter so the process is automatic. The big dogs who got in early with a big following basically get a free ride. They could literally post a picture of their defecation and the post would still make $300+ dollars.

I'm not trying to say content from whales is bad and undeserving. Every time @sweetsssj posts I am amazed of the length and quality. @jerrybanfield probably spends 12 hours a day writing his content. These users provide value to the community and are deserving of rewards but I am sure you all know a whale out there that posts garbage and gets nothing but votes and praise.

It would be nice to see curation rewards increased when content comes from users with a smaller following. This will promote curators to search out for quality content instead of taking the easy route and only voting for whales. It will also help motivate contributors to do their best to provide the best content they can. Right now the curation reward system feels too much like a pyramid.

Steem Power / Vote Power

Your voting power is based on your Steem Power. This means that one whale has significantly more say than a bunch of smaller individual contributors... Which on the surface seems corrupt and unfair.. But I get why it works this way. If holding SP didn't have a monetary incentive than users would just cash out their Steem as soon as they earn it. If everyone was cashing out their Steem then the market would be all sellers and the token would be worthless. Holding Steem in your wallet needs to provide value - otherwise no one would value it.

Vote Trading

Unfortunately when someone's vote is worth $10+ they are unlikely to spread the love. The reality is that users holding the most SP are giving away their 100% vote to other whales and giving the low % to minnows. It's not wrong but it just doesn't feel right. Not to say that we all haven't been touched by an angel once or twice.

Contests

These can be fun based on what the contest is... However the authors that post these that have requirements of "must follow/upvote/resteem" are no better than the sleaziest used car salesman and have a special place reserved in hell.

Bots

I'm not sure how I feel about this one yet. I feel bots can provide real value. Reddit is a great example of how bots can help the user experience. The Remind me! And Twitter bot all provide tremendous value.

Although I do use some of them now, I feel that the vote bots are something that should eventually go away. Content should be voted for based on quality, not because of some bot or service.

Summary

SteemIt is a great platform and I look forward to seeing it evolve over the next few years. Hopefully all these problems can be fixed by adjusting the rewards and incentive systems to promote original and quality content.

Thank you and if you would like more information on cryptocurrencies and how I invest in the crypto space please visit my website cryptoindex.info