Hey, @d-zero.
That's quite the list you got there. :)
So, regarding the on STEEM actions—flag wars, downvoting just because, and how we treat each other, I'm wondering if you know of any investors who have been concerned with those things. Or maybe someone has posted to that effect? It would be good to know once and for all if that's actually factoring into why investors are staying away from STEEM.
I remember many users who were producing great content left because of flag wars and and not so great behaviour in the community. Here's a huge casualty: https://steemit.com/steem/@tcpolymath/it-s-time-for-the-voting-system-to-end
There's many similar situations I've seen over the 2 years I've spent on STEEM. They are not exactly "investors". But they were all valuable and I'm sure investors wouldn't want to take part in a community that turns out to be more like a 4chan or angry reddit group. I think STEEM should aim to be more like LinkdIn in terms of community behaviour.
I definitely agree that we should aspire, and then do better, as far as how we treat each other. It's kind of mind blowing that there are people here who don't see it like that. It makes me wonder what goes on in their lives that makes it somehow okay to be uncivil. But then I'm not privy to everyone's back and forth here or on Discord or anywhere else and so I largely stay out of the way.
I've never been much of a fan of Reddit, angry or not, so I'm in agreement there, too.
I know of tcpolymath and always found his comments I would come across to be insightful and educational, since it was usually about something I didn't try to think about, or didn't know I should. :)
STEEM as a community has a lot to do, and as tcpolymath and others commenting say on his post, as a social media site, STEEM isn't as fun as it's been in the past. I've been thinking of all the folks I could converse with. Now, most of those folks are either completely gone, mostly gone, or off doing other STEEM things, mostly games.
So, no disagreement with any of that. The question for me is, while ultimately the number of users in a project will draw the attention of an investor, I'm not sure the social side of STEEM is necessarily where they would want to put their resources, anyway, with or without toxicity. STEEM will have to build out much more than it has, and attract someone who actually has the desire and the capability to create cutting edge social media dApps for that to happen.
Otherwise, all the mainstream social media sites do what their STEEM clones do better, and still draw the people despite the privacy and online property concerns, the control and manipulation, and the inability for most to earn much of anything, if that's even something the site does.
Right now, it seems like the innovation, and thus the fun, are more in things like Splinterlands, and I would imagine that at some point, it's other types of businesses and services being built here that will carry the day for STEEM. The social side was supposed to be a Trojan Horse to get the people here. Unfortunately, I don't think the social part ever got far enough off the ground before the content police clamped down.
Money changes things, even if cryptocurrency is meant for bigger and better things, and the exact opposite of what some people still try to make it—their own circles of power and control.
STEEM isn't as fun as it's been in the past. I've been thinking of all the folks I could converse with. Now, most of those folks are either completely gone, mostly gone, or off doing other STEEM things, mostly games.
This is the saddest part of it all. The place where I'm having the most fun is actually Splinterlands (+ some NextColony) I really hope SMTs would help to bring more serious writers in and make sort of a decentralized Medium.com That would be really awesome. At the end DAPPs will be the lifeblood of STEEM in the future. It's having all those projects that has kept STEEM going ahead while competition falls behind.