I won't keep you guessing, I think it's through attracting content creators.

Now I don't mean to say that I think Steem should only be for content creators, or even that that should be the eventual "main" thing. I think as I mentioned it's the best path that we have to onboard as many people as possible.

Why?

So the thing that Steem has that other social applications don't is the money game. Whether you like it or not, that's a big part of the value proposition. I wish people would accept and lean into this instead of denying the obvious reality.

People don't use social media to earn money, they use it to connect to people and be social. To see what people are saying about certain topics, to consume tons of content quickly and easily. These are all things Steem is horrible at and will probably remain horrible at for quite some time. I think the major social platforms have two main value propositions.

• Everyone is on them
• They are maximally convenient, easy and user friendly.

Again, this is not something Steem is going to be able to compete with anytime soon. When I say compete, I don't mean Steem should be trying to "take down" these companies, I think honestly suggesting that would be pretty naive, what I mean is it's highly doubtful anyone will use Steem INSTEAD of Twitter for the same reasons they use Twitter. It is highly doubtful that anyone will use Steem INSTEAD of Facebook, for the same reasons that they use Facebook.

That said, I think Steems best chance, our best on ramp to mass adoption is empowering content creators and helping them to be successful. To the point that they want to bring their massive audiences to Steem.

I think people should understand that asking a content creator to tell their followers to go to a different platform is not a small ask. These followings are typically something that these people have built over YEARS through tons of hard work, and studying, and failing and succeeding. It's a precious resource that they've cultivated through their own hard work, blood sweat and tears. When we ask them to bring their following to Steem, we're asking that they entrust this platform with that asset.

Analogy Time!

Imagine a content creator as the leader of this huge parade of people. The people support their leader because they offer them something they value, whether it's entertainment, education, whatever. For the leader, the people in their parade are their livelihood.

As Steemians, we're like a group of people saying, "Hey! Bring your people to our party, forget that Youtube party, and especially the Facebook or Instagram party, ours is so much better AND we'll even pay you a little sumthin sumthin for showing up.

The leader says, "I'll go first, to see if I'm going to actually bring my parade and risk pissing them off."

The leader gets here, and turns out it's a total shitshow. People are burning potatoes on the front lawn, and screaming at each other about the fact that they're burning potatoes. Everyone in the party warmly welcomes the newcomer as soon as they get there and indeed does tuck a few bucks in his/her pocket as a thanks for coming. They then proceed to totally ignore them while they only talk shop about topics the newcomer is totally ignorant of.

The newcomer then starts dancing the way they do normally at other parties to which we then inform them that we don't take kindly to dancing like that here, THIS is how we're going to need you to dance if you want to be one of US.

Newcomer says, "Fuck this, I'm out!" Then we all continue to complain about the lack of newcomers.

Analogy FIN

So I think Communities are the first step to us getting out of this vicious cycle. The idea that now I can create my own Community that I own can moderate, and where I can dictate my own culture, takes this analogy and makes it to where I can invite that newcomer into MY ROOM in the Steem house party, and I can say "Dude, you can dance however you want. You want to do the single image shuffle? It's all good. I know that's what you're used to and I think it's great, if someone doesn't like it, they can gtfo of my room"

But...

That's just the first step. I need more. I need my own DJ, I need my own bar, I need to stop with this analogy.

Basically we need tools to be able to help people succeed. Specifically, in case you were wondering when @midlet was going to mention Donations/Tips again, the wait is over! :D We need this yesterday, last year, a decade ago. Steem Power is a game breaking character in the game of Steem, it's too important. Too much relies on it, and it's too necessary to participation in the system. Creating more accessible features around the simple concept of the transfer is the bridge from brand new user to a fully invested cult leader like myself.

We also need more powerful sharing features. Allow me to reintroduce my enhanced Resteem idea, this time not forgetting Resteem + Comment.

I don't feel like making a new graphic, but imagine there is a third option that says

"Resteem + Comment"
"Share the contents of this post as a new post from your blog and leave commentary. This option will split the rewards to of this post between the original poster(80%) and you(20%).

I think if you want to change the beneficiary split to something custom, you're probably advanced enough to just do all this manually.

This effectively neutralizes the 7 day payout problem, which I think limits the type of content shared on Steem and incentivises lower value regular frequency posting, and instead incentivises people to create high value content that people would share for the long term. ie Helping people be successful.

Think about it. What value does content have on Steem? It's to engage and bring users to Steem.

How does this correlate to the 7 day payout period?

It doesn't at all even in the slightest. These things have nothing to do with each other. If there is one video on Steem that brings a million people here, would we be better served if it were 100 videos bringing in the same million people? NO! It doesn't matter whether it's with a lot of content, or only a few pieces of content, what matters is that contents ability to bring people to Steem and currently the system directly acts AGAINST this effect by burying all content regardless of quality. Also it doesn't incentivise content creators to share their most valuable content because they wouldn't be rewarded fairly for the potential value they could provide, and it doesn't incentivise sharing, because the benefits of sharing content older that 7 days is reduced to almost nothing. It's all a bit backwards.

If we can get content creators to try out Steem,(which is undoubtedly something we CAN do, because we've already done it before plenty of times, the problem is keeping them) then give them powerful tools that they can use to succeed and especially to empower their communities to support them in new and innovative ways, this is how we get what everyone wants.

More and better content for people that want to consume content, more people for the people that want to use Steem socially, more money flowing to empower entrepreneurs to build businesses, and incentivise developers to build applications.

I think this is the best path forward. What do you think? Letme know in the comments.