Why Steemit Probably Won't Replace Facebook

in #steemit7 years ago (edited)

When I was brand new to Steemit, I kept hearing that Steemit was gonna replace Facebook. I still hear it occasionally.

I quit Facebook many years ago though.

Facebook is dead. In fact, it's the proof that zombies exist, on the internet.

The fact that Facebook is dead was proven quite some time ago when Google+ came about. Google fucked that up royally by trying to enforce some stupid rules about real names and identities. It might not seem like that big of a deal now, but the people fleeing Facebook wanted something better, not more of the same old shit. Google still tries to force us all to use Google+, but it's as dead as Facebook. The speed to which users abandoned Facebook proved how much they were waiting for something better to come along though. Google came out with their new social network, and everyone rushed to create an account.

google_plus_reality-meme.gif
I made this! It took way too fucking long, and my hand hurts!

Of course, then reality set in, and people realized that Google had no clue what users wanted, and it was just more of the same.

Steemit is something different though.

For some users, Steemit really will replace Facebook. It will be the final nail in the coffin to get them to bury Facebook once and for all. But not for the majority of users.

Let's face it, Steemit is hard. At least it is for the majority of users. It requires actual effort. You can't just join here and start posting crap. You have to actually read the FAQ and the Welcome page, and learn how to use markup, and upload photos, and even use cryptocurrency.

That is way more effort than the majority of users want to go through.

There are actually quite a few types of lazy. There are people that just don't wanna do anything. They sit on the couch all day, and maybe they don't even shower. Then there are people that actually work really hard, all day, but then you ask them to do certain things, and they just don't wanna do it. There are several subcategories of the later as well. Many often mistake the later for the former, but they may actually be among the later type as well.

Lemme give you an example.

Joe Schmoe is a carpenter. He works all day, and comes home, throws his disgusting clothes in the laundry, and gets in the shower. His wife does his laundry. She also has his food waiting for him. But he works all day and brings in the money, so Joe thinks that's alright. No joe, it's not alright, you are a lazy asshole, who should learn how to do his own laundry and cook his own food, even if your wife usually cooks and cleans. Some days maybe she doesn't want to, and you shouldn't waste your money going out to eat on those days, you lazy fucking asshole.

Enter the Facebook user. They probably are a lot like Joe Schmoe, in that in their life, they have some things they work really hard on, but many of them are too lazy to learn how to use Steemit. Frankly, many of them are too lazy to learn, period. They don't wanna learn about new technologies. They like their old basic phone, and don't need the latest smartphone with its stupid touch screen. (Okay, I don't blame them for that one. Touch screens are annoying as hell. But hey, I can watch movies and play "games" where I don't actually do any playing, and it actually just plays itself.)

If you want to earn on Steemit, it takes real effort. You have to learn all these new things, spend a ton of time crafting awesome posts for people with no guarantee of reward, and spend a ton of time trying to find new awesome blogs and upvoting them. That takes real effort. And frankly, a lot of users just aren't cut out for it.

That's just my two cents. Leave your angry feedback below.


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So true. I'm speechless. Your article said it all.👌
When mh classmate introduced steemit to me it changes my life, I lessened the used of facebook and I spend my spare time in steemit trying to be creative, trying to be a photographer, an artist and also a blogger. STEEMIT brings out the best in every individual, steemit makes us an artists , a writer, a photographer or whatever we want to be, it shaped us to bring out our hidden talent and our hearts desire without judgement and critisism of others.

STEEMIANS accept each and every steemians weakness and strength. In here I learned to be more friendly and learned to appreciate everyones talent and diversity. I learned that every person has their own forte and every individual has their own specialty. I am truly blessed to be part of this flatform because I am surrounded with helpful, smart and talented people.

Yes it involves money but that would be just a consolation. Just enjoy steemit , learn and be the reason that someone learned, share your knowledge and let them feel your experience ❤👌

You are correct in peoples motivations but comparing facebook and steem is incorrect.

I personally think they are not even in the same league, Steem(it) is better compared to medium, tumblr or wordpress.com. I see Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest(fucking hate it) , and even that stupid Reddit all just as portals. They are not for original content they are for regurgitating content.

Ps. I feel if we want a facebook style site they need to change views on what gets posted and value ratings diminished based on how many times the content has been posted before not a voters choice, or make voters work much harder for their power if they want to be able to spend whatever they want. Maybe have actually power go down if the content is not original content. Or make a new blockchain.... reddcoin + steem.

Yeah, you're right.

I was more comparing Steemit than Steem in general though.

I think it might be possible to build a blockchain based site that's easier to use and might eventually be a Facebook replacement. I somewhat doubt it could be done on Steem though unless it were somehow separated from the current Steemit ecosystem. Of course, you could just make a Steem site, just with a lot easier interface, and maybe have a built-in chat of some type.

There are already some problems on Steem with the different sites sharing the same blockchain, so it's likely that someone is already working on the ability to separate parts of the blockchain. I know I have seen discussion of it.

You actually present an incredible advancement for the platform, that might actually be a fully valid reason to do a fork of Steem to create a new coin. You could use pattern recognition to determine text and images that are substantially similar, as in the same, with just minor differences, and use that to not only reduce the reward but the cost for hosting the data as well. So, you might store a post that's substantially similar as if it were an edit of the original post, recording only the changes.

The extra rewards could then either be returned to the system, or given to the original author, possibly with a system in place to pay out to copyright owners that aren't even on the site.

Of course, if it's too sensitive, it could have issues, such as if it ended up viewing music in the background as being the same or similar to someone posting the song with a picture slideshow. YouTube can't seem to get this distinction right.

Yes automating too much will just give us youtubes shit they have now, we have a nice mix of humans here they just need the tech.

On a simpler level interfaces can change how people thing so a like button would vastly increase the value of the vote button, likes for crap and votes for real things, if likes out weigh votes by 50% then votes get reduced by 50% currently that would be flagging it down to the right worth.

on a tech level maybe even a good metadata reader to start with or some kind of binary signature that files get tagged with so if the file is 90% match they are duplicates in a sense , so that even if you voted on them the system will diminish the vote amount.

Comments though must either not be monetized or be but at far less than a post.

I like the storing posts that are similar as edits, like codepen.

I've said that the interface needs a like button as well, for new users especially. We often want to like something, but not necessarily increase the earnings for it.

I'm not certain about it diminishing the rewards though. Perhaps to a lesser degree than you suggested.

There are a lot of different ways that sites could go. I look forward to the future. It might be that we have dozens of smaller Steem based communities that each have their own sites. Some of them may be running on forks, while others are on the Steem blockchain, and even some of those may be on the blockchain, but separated.

I upvote comments to encourage them. Possibly occasionally more than I should. I have a different scale for good comments than good posts though. I think contributing to a post through comments is very important. I'm not certain the rewards should be reduced, even though some people abuse the system. I instead prefer reducing rewards for people that vote for the same people.

Honestly, when I first started blogging on Steemit, I felt pretty overwhelmed to keep up with creating quality contents because it was so time-consuming yet all the hard work will eventually pay off. Of course after a long day or week at work, I would prefer to have some easy down-time and that is achievable on other social media platforms. I scroll my newsfeed on Facebook, browse through Insta Story and Snapchat highlights at ease. Nevertheless, I am beginning to like Steemit, mainly because of the quality contents of people from different walks of life - a closer look into their beliefs, experiences and perspectives. Thank you for sharing your opinions about it though, @geekpowered! :)

Quite good conception..! 🤔

I also don't think that steemit can take over, not nearly so..

If you want to earn on Steemit, it takes real effort. You have to learn all these new things, spend a ton of time crafting awesome posts for people with no guarantee of reward.

That's the bitter truth most of the people dont want to admit.

they just want to sign-up and earn money, people aren't willing to put efforts. only a few have the courage to see the end and they seemingly get success..!
Cheers buddy, have a good one..!🙌
~Greetings from Tennis Girl 🎾🎾

I like your perspective, Similar to mine I see steemit as a social interaction with the blockchain thats all. its more closer to the blockchain than it is to Facebook. we might get to that social platform soon but not yet. Maybe a more interactive app will be built on steem for that to happen. who knows?

Yeah, I think you're right.

In the future there might be a Steem based site to replace Facebook, and perhaps other sites as well, but I don't think Steemit is it.

It's still an awesome site that I love though, and I think it will become the primary social network for a number of users.

I totally agree, there is a massive learning curve to get over when you initially join and most will be putting the platform to the back of their mind within an hour of being there.

Steemit is really designed for those of us who are willing to put in that effort to learn and promote learning throughout the community. A community with a minimal amount of hate, which is seriously awesome.

Hopefully when crypto becomes more widely used and people can understand it a bit better, we will be able to see more crossing over because of the potential.

In reality though, a majority will be crossing over to dMania.

I think them joining dmania is fine. As long as they fix whatever issue prevents me from using their site. I think it's due to me using Linux, but I could be wrong.

I think there might eventually even be a Steem based Facebook contender, but it's not Steemit. It would likely need to be a bit easier to use, have posts completely separate from Steemit, so we don't go crazy about plagiarism, and have a built-in, easy to use, SBD to fiat conversion tool that's easy to understand.

I've got to be honest, dMania has never interested me enough to get involved. Just seems like over paid posts for not a great deal of value. I've just had to reformat back to Windows 10 because of Linux issues.

I can imagine it's being worked on right this moment. I don't see much benefit it would really have as Facebook has just evolved into an endless stream of garbage, but everyone has an opinion.

Steemit is a lot like Reddit afterall and was never really a contender with Facebook. It kind of goes back to the purpose of the platform. Facebook is almost like a condensed form of Reddit where people make small statuses with video links and a comment box filled with 90% of 1 word answers.

Then Twitter just takes it the next step further.

The reason Steemit works is because it rewards people for their effort. It makes sense, which helps out with the future potential of the platform.

I was thinking about posting original memes to dmania, rather than here. Mainly because I usually don't feel like writing a tutorial or a related post around the meme.

I was never big into Reddit, so I mainly just see the similarities to all sorts of platforms, from before Reddit existed, and after. It's another blogging platform.

I think a lot of bloggers will get on well here.

If Steemit is a replacement for anything, it's the dozens of blogging platforms that have died.

It's one way to make money from blogging, that doesn't involve getting into selling adverts and using affiliate links.

That's what it's for after all, the meme at the bottom of this post is top notch.

Likewise, I hated the consistent spam and shite that came below all the posts. I'm hoping to see a lot of bloggers come over to here, it would be nice to see them getting onto a platform that rewards them without having to rely on adverts and affliates, as well as seeing some more quality posts.

As a newcomer to blogging, more quality reading = better quality writing.

Couldn't agree more. First of all, every beginning is hard as fuck(had no blogging experience at all), still remember all my struggles at first 5-10 posts, how do they need to look?! let me check that one, blah-blah. But the learning curve was steep, as it requires just a bit effort, time and practice. After my first earn, I suggested to lots of my friends to come to steem, with THE PROOF! Well... 2 of them made account - one never posted anything, the other is not active anymore (hopefully he will come back).

I think what our Joe is doing when he comes to steemit - he is not seaching for community but for easy profit. Ok, we all reap the benefits and do our best for the biggest reward we can get, but as we all know from countless hours lost in the chat (our precious chat), community and good times makes this platform cool, and also opens you for new horizons, and various cultures.

But lets see, I still use facebook, but they are just trying too much - and almost every innovation is step backward for a long time now.
The more the merrier, lets steem this plane up! :)

I'm totally here to make money. I haven't let that affect my content yet though. The times when I wrote about crypto, it was because I wanted to. If I wanted to make more, I would be making more science posts. Instead I'm posting a science fiction story that's only making a few dollars per post.

I don't think that being here for money is actually the problem. It's when someone wants to make money, but doesn't have the dedication to research how to succeed here, or ignores the social aspects.

Of course, I wasn't in chat to make money. Although it did have the side effect of getting me a few social connections. It was mainly just to hang out. It provided somewhere to interact with people live about Steem/Steemit, and crypto. It also kept me from going 100% into work mode, which I now realize was a really good thing, even if sometimes I could have gotten more done.

Well I came here for the money, and will stay for the money, but also why I work and give myself into steemit, why not use benefit of some human interaction in the process.

I don't think that being here for money is actually the problem. It's when someone wants to make money, but doesn't have the dedication to research how to succeed here, or ignores the social aspects.

Exactly! Ask around, search, interact.

But lets be honest, if you put money in anything there will always be greedy people around it doing nothing right to get some piece of it. :)
I thought I sent this before :)
cheers!

And don't forget scammers and con artists.

And because Steemit involves money, there are those who find ways to "work smart". They're not entirely lazy but they make it look like it's easy money. From plagiarizers to those I will not mention hehe.. But because of them I have another source of SP when I report them to steemcleaners :D I just hope that soon something will really prove that those who put in more effort are those that will be successful, and maybe that will motivate them to work harder.

I can't imagine activating my FB again. Maybe just get my photos and then deactivate or cancel my account completely. I'm just thinking of those who I only have contact through FB.

Agreed, I want Steemit to succeed, but it won't beat Facebook. I love it here, and I haven't used Facebook for ages. Part of why I like it is that I don't know my followers in real life, and they don't know me. So everything I post has no layers of what other people might think of me...

I agree with you as well, @geekpowered
Something interesting about Facebook is that i actually logged in a few days ago, and it told me at the top of my feed about something 6 years ago, and it's celebrating, it made it's own 3 minute video, but the other person died. 🧟Zombies do exist on social media, especially Facebook.
woke up today and still tried getting onto steemchat lol.
Keep up the Excellent Content, and Steem-on! 🧟+😰👻=🧠

Hello @nova-tv nice to see familiar people here. Looks like geek bought in the chat in here haha. :D I miss everyone even those I just see and haven't really talked to :) The chat is still my fave hang out place.

About your FB story, sounds scary. I haven't logged in for months now and don't want to get a ghost experience like that 👻