Hey Steemains - Let's start a #discussion!
Most of the major social media platforms have their "thing" that makes them unique/interesting/different. There is a reason that people sign up for a Facebook account, and a Twitter account, and an Instagram account, etc. Each one of the platforms offers something unique that makes their users want to join.
I have been trying to think about what is Steem's "thing"?
There is the obvious theme that we often use to recruit new users - this is a place where users can "post content" and "(potentially) earn money". There are many other sub-themes as well, such as "joining a great community", and "becoming part of a revolution", etc. All of these are great, but are they going to be the reason the masses join?
I think one of the really interesting things that makes our platform and community unique is our ability to debate topics. Having money involved of course makes it more interesting.
Usually our debates are about Steem topics (such as the acceptance of a new hardfork feature, or how the community should handle flagging and various forms of abuse, etc.). Even though these debates may not be super interesting for non-Steemians, we are pretty good at debating.
If we could find a way to expand this mode of engaged dialogue into a wider variety of topics, we may have our "thing".
Our ability to engage in conversation on controversial topics along with a rewards mechanism built in for those who contribute could draw a lot of new users in.
After all, who doesn't have an opinion on things?
I'd like to experiment with a new concept - Join the discussion
How to grow the #discussion tag
- Tag posts that are intended to spark an engaging conversation with #discussion.
- Browse the #discussion tag to find topics you are interested in discussing.
- Engage in the conversations within the #discussion posts.
- Spend time to upvote users that are engaging thoughtful discussion within the #discussion posts.
Tips for starting a good #discussion post
- Find a good thumbnail image that catches the viewer's attention.
(You can use Pixabay if you are looking for CCO images.) - Create an interesting title that draws the reader in.
- Provide any necessary background info about the topic.
- Make it clear what is being discussed / what input is needed.
- Let people know that you are looking for thoughtful responses/comments.
- Take the time to engage with the discussion.
- Possibly create a regular (daily or weekly) series.
- Foster good responses by giving strong upvotes proportional to quality.
Closing Notes
- This is a grassroots effort. We will start small, and will hopefully draw in more people.
- I will be spending a lot of my time and voting power browsing the #discussion tag to try and incentivize more participation. I encourage others to do the same.
- Thanks to @pfunk for helping to brainstorm!
- Please everyone help spread the word so we can get more people involved :)
If you have any suggestions on how we can grow the #discussion tag, please share in the comments below.
Wow... this is brilliant @timcliff!
For me, Steemit's "thing" is precisely what I hoped it would be when I found it: "Global Engagement." As I have said before, this platform reminds me SO much of the "social blogging" venues that hit their peak right before MySpace (and them Facebook) came on the scene.
Steemit is about creating interesting and engaging content... and then people having lengthy interactions over it. Which is something I find very rewarding and makes me what to come back and post again. And pretty much since about my 20th post or so I have followed the same format... end the post with a series of questions to get involved in the topic.... whatever it is. And it's a format followed by a number of Steemit's finest... @kus-knee comes to mind; he always brings the reader into the post. And typically ends up with 50-100+ comments.
It doesn't so much matter what the content is... but ask people to engage with it.
One of my all-time favorite things we've had on Steemit (since I've been here) was @merej99's "Community Engagement Challenge" a couple of months back. It was a 10-day event... and we had 40+ participants from freshly minted minnows to some very "senior" Steemians... write an engaging post every day AND make 500+ real engaging comments over the 10 days... the content and dialogue was stunning... we even had one insane post run to 700+ comments.
So anyway, I'm ALL about launching the #discussion tag and making it a thing here-- let's DO it! I would suggest part of a good "discussion" post is also for the poster to start off with some basic questions... just to get people thinking, and get the ball rolling.
I immediately thought of you when I read this post. You do an excellent job of not only writing, but always asking questions at the end of your post. As you say, join the conversation, what are your thoughts? Cannot wait to see what you write about for this tag.
YES! Engagement is definitely the key and encouraging #discussion is the key to building relationships! I love it and will be fully supporting this tag and initiative... just as soon as I get my ass in gear and carve out time to be on Steemit.
btw - I'm hoping to launch another 10 day Community Engagement Challenge. I'm thinking it will end in time for a Halloween party! What do you think @denmarkguy?
I totally agree! It is great to see people like you getting involved with the tag. It will really help it to become a "thing" :)
Very interesting.
Yeah what is the "thing" about Steemit.
Well for me it became pretty clear from the outset that the community was very different from other social media platforms.
But what?
First of all, what really captured my attention was the Steemit "introduceyourself" method with the obligatory photo holding a piece of paper. I had not seen this before. As a visual person this had a powerful affect on me.
It shouted out something of truth and integrity and motivated me to be part of it. I spend a lot of time advising newbies to the same if they had not done this. Only yesterday I did this with a new member who has been on Steemit for about a month. They then looked at my intro post from December 2016 and today I saw that had gone for it.
Perhaps I am making too big a thing of this but I am only speaking from my own experience here. In my opinion this is a "thing" on Steemit, or at least one of the "things" that makes it unique.
The money part on Steemit will always be a "thing" I guess. But as time goes by and crypt currencies become more accepted in the general population, it will become less of a "thing". The world is changing because ever since the 2008 crash people are educating themselves about how money works. People never thought about this before. They simply went on with their lives trying to earn a living. But when their jobs and homes were suddenly gone because of greedy corrupt banksters who had broken trust with us all, then people began to wonder how this could have happened. They started educating themselves. That is what happened to me and it lead me to Bitcoin 6 years ago.
Steemit is revolutionary for sure but history moves on and rivals to Steemit may pop up in the future.
I see your meaning here @timcliff. In a world with many other Steemit style platforms on a blocjchain and its own crytpo-cucrrency, why would people choose Steemit? What is its "thing".
One other "thing" for me is the "reputation" system on Steemit. I was also blown away with that too. In modern times reputations seem to mean shit. In fact having a bad reputation can even go in your favour in certain circles or professions. I am rather old fashioned that way and like the idea of people earning a reputation. It is a kind of self policing method. A good reputation can take years to make but seconds to destroy. In the american native indian culture, a chief was chosen from their reputation of demonstrating wisdom.
Putting reputation as an integral part of Steemit was a wise move IMO and is a "thing".
Honesty is also a "thing" here on Steemit I would say. I tend to find people more honest here. I dont know that for sure of course because I can only speak from my experience. Perhaps I have been lucky but then I have been lucky many times. These are just what was my initial reaction but I will give the matter further thought and see what else comes to mind.
Excellent points!
I was recommended to you by another user for advice with a problem I have with my wallet. I am new so still figuring things out and was told that you were an incredibly helpful and wise mind on the platform. Would it be possible to bug you for advice? Sorry for reaching out through your comments but I haven't figured out how to use messenger yet?
Yes, what's up?
I had a problem when I converted my steem dollars to steem in hopes of converting it to steem power. It disappeared from my wallet for a bit and didn't show in my steem but then came through. As I'm new I was worried I had missed a step but other members of the community were supportive in advice and it ended up showing in the end. I'm so sorry to have bothered you over a problem that resolved itself and am very grateful for you responding. Another user who was equally perplexed as I was recommended that I ask you as I was a bit panicky before the steem showed. In the end it did resolve itself and it the conversion of steem dollar to steem occurred allowing me to power up. I've got all my posts set at 100% to steem power now so hopefully it never happens again. I'm hoping someday to have enough weight to really up vote/support other steemers so I'm not terribly fussed with things like gaining steem or sd. Thank you for the reply and I apologize again for being a bother.
Ok, glad you got it resolved. In the future, if you want to change SBD into STEEM, you can also use the internal market. There is a link in your wallet. With the internal market, you can trade instantly at the current market price, rather than needing to wait 3.5 days.
Nice :)
Brilliant idea I have to say, sad i missed that post until now. Think I would / will post some #discussion post - even consider tagging recent ones to the topic - a lot to debate. Agree this debate culture could be the steem thing.
Nice to hear and meet you today on @sircork's show.
I agree that this is an excellent tag,and topic.
I am a non tech and struggle w/ a lot of post of tech ,crypto,codes,ect.
What you witness's do is wizardry! ...lol.
Thank you for doing what you do.
I am glad to meet you,I will try and contribute in the areas I can,one of which is resteeming post's. I didn't see a couple people in comments that I want to make sure and see this. ;-)
Now I know of you and that you give a phuq! ;-)
be seeing you around.
Namaste
Nice to meet you! 🙂
Regardless whether you are a steemian or a non-steemian (hope I spelled the term correctly haha), the curious mind will always try to engage in a discussion (with self or with others). We can already see that across various social media platforms. This is important because through #discussions you will learn new things, & asking questions and engaging with others will help both (or even multiple) parties to understand different point of views. For steemians however, the added benefit is the involvement of the crypto currency. This works as another motivational factor for anybody to participate in a discussion, express or share their ideas, and even to vote.
I think personally the most important thing is that being respectful to others especially when disagreeing with someone’s ideas?
Maybe Steemit can be the place where we all could start to make a change? Just a thought.
Having a dedicated discussion tag is a really good idea. Too often this site is about publishing your own posts and not even attempting to engage your readers much less readers of other posts. We could certainly use more discussion around here.
@timcliff this is a great idea!!!! While the money is there, I love to write about stuff....Stuff that I want people to read and talk about. I find that all my hard work quickly gets buried, when I know that it really would benefit people. I'm thinking if I used the discussion tag, it may open up more exchange on these subjects. I'm definitely going to resteem your article to remind myself I want to try this....and help bring others in "grassroots" style. I can't wait to see how this pans out. P.S. I really do love the way we all discuss things around here. I have found so much respect and honor of individuality here and that is what I love most about Steemit!!!! Thanks for dreaming up this idea!!!
Great idea! I think great discussions are one of the key things I've enjoyed about this place the most. I've never thought to use the discussion tag, but I'll start. Some posts I've enjoyed most have 100+ comments and many of them are full blog posts as well. I like zeroing in on our niche.
For me, posting and discussing topics on Steemit compared to other sites is like playing Texas Holdem with fake money vs. real money. When there's real value on the table, the game is a lot more fun.
The poker analogy is excellent. Sometimes I'll be posting a comment, and I go in, just get real interested in the topic and write a whole big thing. And then if I see a decent upvote, even $1, I'm like - YEA, I DID IT! It feels a lot like winning a big pot in hold'em.
Hi @timclif. Just a brilliant idea!
I resteemed it and recommend everybody to do so! This could make a difference, and let me explain why...
Let's pay more attention to the phrase you wrote at the beginning of this post - "Most of the major social media platforms have their "thing".
I would like to pay your attention that other social media projects, which did fail to become popular, usually also had their "thing" - though a kind of "downside thing". We may have one on Steemit as well, and we need to fight it!
The whole idea of Steemit is brilliang, but there is one thing (to my humble opinion) that makes the future grows of the platform questionable. And this is a low number of "live blogs". With a trend to decrease. As a new Steemit user I noticed that a lot of popular Steemit bloggers (many of them are just early Steemit adopters, having nothing really brilliant content-wise) just regularly post something to get upvotes/money, absolutely ignoring the discussion under their own post.
This seems like a disrespect to their readers, and I don't think such posts should get too much upvotes, those votes would need to be better spent on good content - to make the whole idea of Steemit ready for the mass market!
And #discussion tag is a good way to fight those cases of "I care only about money" content. When someone puts #discussion on their post, by doing this he makes a COMMITMENT to be responsive, at least to those who respond to their own post with any kind of thought! :) And we all need to put our major upvotes mainly to the bloggers ready for a discussion!