Why can't I "follow" tags/topics?
Anyone that's been following me is aware of where I've stood on the overall reach of Steemit. It's been lacking in the diversity department, in part due to the content, but mostly due to the short-sighted nature of the core team. I've expressed these concerns in a previous post, "The #circlejerk needs to END NOW!".
Following Users via "home" Tab is a Start
To the team's credit, they've made the landing page now default to your follower list, and this is a real improvement - thank you! However, it's not enough! Allow me to elaborate.
Firstly, I don't have all the time in the world to peruse Steemit and learn who is and who isn't a good writer, nor will I expect this person to continue to write about things for which I give a shit about. This isn't Twitter, and it's one of the reason's Twitter is horrible, in my opinion. I tried to use Twitter, I tried very hard actually. It was a horrible waste of time that resulted in noise I never cared about.
This is the issue with Steemit still. And while solving this issue through other methods is still a challenge, the approach of following people is guaranteed to deliver noise 100% of the time. People are complex, unique creatures that have diverse tastes and preferences. By virtue of that, unless someone devotes their account to only writing about specific topics, which hasn't really happened yet, people will write about a variety of topics. Some of these topics I will care about, most of the others I will not.
The Hollywood Syndrome
Now, I realize that some people just love following other people, like some kind of sick obsession. It does work in some cases, like Hollywood and celebrity gossip, for instance. But Steemit is not that, and shouldn't focus on that, per se.
Now, I do have a couple quick suggestions that could become a start to improve the homepage. It's actually the same exact thing I mentioned in my previous post. However, I do think that the ability to follow people, in conjunction with the ability to follow tags/topics, is another positive.
Allow us to follow tags or topics already!
So, my suggestion is the same; allow people to follow tags or topics of interest. I don't care to follow just certain people. I may want to discover what new people have to say about a topic as well. And while you may say, "You can go and find these people to follow", that's the point - I'm not interested. I'm busy, and the last thing I want to do is go around trying to find things. It's too much work, it's not worth it, and there are thousands of other content sites vying for my eyeballs that will deliver up content that fits my fancy, with half the effort.
Until Steemit focuses on the end-user, the platform and price, as I stated in the article I wrote months ago, will continue to fall. It'll reach the bottom soon enough, but it will remain there.
Totally agree here. Following a person assume you find someone just like you. What I would really like is a feed that filters topic and people so I can only read what certain people say on topic I like.
anything new on this because THIS is what steemit needs to implement. I want to segment through TOPICS- Make it happen steemit
Totally agree .i wish they would fix it and this is $1b coin
I posted a way to build one. Looks like Ender posted it below. Unfortunately I have no ability to build one. I think the two changes hats stopped votes bro spread around were reputation and feeds. They may of fixed other problems but they concentrated votes in the hands of the few. A topic feed could reverse this!
I wonder if in the meantime they could add a 'most used tags' feature on profiles. At least then you could see the consistency of the material before you follow someone.
Here is how to build it
https://steemit.com/steem-ideas/@dennygalindo/help-me-build-a-topic-feed
No one has tried though.
As a new, excited, user on steemit - I found this because I was trying to figure out how to follow topics I care about, just like I do on Reddit.
I'm very surprised and disappointed that this isn't possible.
Everything you've said I agree with, I'm not going to try and find all of the individual authors (including those who don't yet have accounts!) to curate my list of content.
While the bot idea from @dennygalindo is somewhat viable (someone would still have to maintain the list of users that it posts links from, and ensure the bot remains functioning), it is not an ideal solution because it's a hack around what the platform allows vs. just having the core functionality present in steemit itself.
I have just joined Steemit and have already come to see this problem and thought of the same solution. I would love to be able to follow tags and topics, it is these that are my interests - not particular individuals.
I especially click with your comment about being able to see the variety of new views to a topic that new people would bring.
Lastly I believe this could help to prevent the Hollywood factor you mentioned causing the growth of an elite minority.
So please Steemit, let us follow topics and tags!
The crazy thing about this is the feed looks as if it is designed for following tags. Why is there a random list of topics in the drop down that I can browse? Just let me customise what I see, please!
Your post hits the nail on the head - the idea is great, but the user experience needs work.
I just signed up and this was my first impression. Tags. This is tag-based. But…no…it's based on following other users.
So 2 years later they still didn't address that ? I feel like this should be a core feature...
I'm going to look for a third-party interface for Steem that does that, I guess it's hopeless for Steemit.
like