Just A Thought... The Focus On Steem As Money
I've been thinking about the past week or so about how much I've actually enjoying writing on Steem lately. I think the biggest change is the last couple of weeks is that I have stopped thinking of Steem as money and more as a tool to accomplishing different goals.
Rather than look at the platform as a means of making money, I have really enjoying using the platform to explore new ideas and have interesting conversations about those ideas. Being mentally engaged with enjoyable material really goes a long way in one's excitement to use the medium that material is on.
I've heard there's more to life
In the meanwhile, I have noticed the mainstream focus of the platform on improving the protocol because the platform isn't on "the right track" or "performing the way it should". On the surface these suggestions and complaints might have good intentions but in end it all seems to come back to growing the value of Steem in the future.
Whether it's short term or long term, many still view Steem as key to some future monetary value. Which it probably will be to some extent at some point in the future. But like why should anybody really care about that point? That doesn't make Steem more fun to use or provide people with more meaningful experiences.
I used to care a lot about the monetary value of this platform. I have spent a lot of time in the past coming up with proposals and trying to advance the conversion in some direction. But in the end that's counterproductive. The only thing I got out of that was a few Steem and frustration. And the frustration wasn't really worth it.
I still believe this platform has things to offer outside the potential windfall that another bull market may bring. But I don't really care if Steem goes down to 0. If it happens, it happens. Tough luck, but sometimes things don't pan out. But if they don't pan out, I want to enjoy myself in the process.
I guess this is simply a round-a-bout way of saying that I'm kind of bored of the obsession of making Steem a better place through code when we could simply make it a better place by share and doing the stuff that we enjoy doing. Not to say there isn't a place for that sort of conversion, but all your complaining might scare the people simply looking for a good time (with perhaps some additional benefits thrown in).
That's not to say, I not guilty of feeding the fire. Look at my history. I made regular trips to the gas station to get gasoline to pour on it. Perhaps this is an apology from a recovering arsonist. I'm sorry it has taken so long to see the light.
Although I thought I was doing what was right, perhaps I was doing it in the shadow of greed all along.
I don’t have much more of a comment other than to say I whole-heartedly agree with you.
I would feel it more useful if the display of Steem reward was not reflected as a figure in $.
Firstly, because I’m not in the USA, so any number has no connection to reality for me in a financial sense.
But secondly, because we are talking about a token that has value within the context of the Steem community. Linking it to fiat currency presupposes the importance of fiat... which most of us would probably agree we are in some way protesting against by adopting cryptocurrencies.
Irrespective, the Steem community and its diversity is what is addictive. Plus it’s a great platform for creative expression.
From my perspective, the problem is that we still need some tools/development based in code to make the evolution and development of the platform as a platform, as a social media intermediary, more useful and more readily put to work being a good social media platform.
Which is the entire motivation for any of my advocacy as regards "the code" at any point.
As some kind of money, STEEM is kind of crap. Which is okay if we use it to "keep score" and not to "go make a living." Unfortunately, that's a position that there really isn't too much support for in the community as a whole.
Until they get by that particular roadblock, sure – we can do interesting and cool things. They will just be really, really hard to get people in front of to know about and enjoy.
Truer words aren't often spoken