Steemit.com - The probable future of social networking - Could it ignite interest in Elgg again?

I have been using the relatively new network at https://www.steemit.com to blog and connect with people. It's based on blockchain technology so it is distributed and also has it's own cryptocurrency built in. It's still in beta so it is somewhat volatile as a money making platform, but the fact remains that you can literally get paid significant amounts of money just for making posts, commenting and curating! As a social/payment system it is very intelligently set up (with a few issues that continue to annoy me a bit). During the peak period in May that I was using it, I was earning more from posting blogs there than I have earned in any job I've done ever! Pretty impressive.. There is one travel blogger who earned over $100,000 in one year just from writing blogs about travelling and a bit about cryptocurrency.

So, since I can see that no-one has mentioned this yet in this community, I am interested to open a discussion about whether or not anyone is interested in integrating Steem (The blockchain) into Elgg - so that every time someone posts or comments on your social network, they too get paid?

This website contains an introduction and the original whitepaper for the system that was produced a year ago: https://steem.io/

There are currently developers looking at how to best integrate Steem into their own websites and possibly into Wordpress too. I think this could very well be a way for Elgg developers to get paid and for Elgg sites to really get a significant boost.

What do you think?

  • I understand that Steem blockchain (Monetary system) has two tokens: Steem Dollars and Steem as a form of money system.

    When Steem started in earlier days (March 2016), it began using a highly inflationary supply model monetary system. They paid their users roughly double every year!

    However, on December 6th, 2016 as the demand from their community users increased, Steemit changed their own inflation rate from 9.5 % per year and reduced by 0.5 % per year.

    I watched when Steemit was launched in March 2016. For me Steemit smells like a Ponzi scheme. For example, Even though Steem as a form of cryptocurrencies has disrupted Bitcoin usage as a form of digital currency, Steem business model will continue to grow and grow to a point that there will be fewer new users of Steem and finally it will collapse. That is how Ponzi schemes normally goes or end.

    Unless these forms of cryptocurrencies are supported secretly by government entities or “New world Order systems” as forms of future currencies that will be used as universally accepted form of digital currencies, these form of currencies are likely to run in trouble or collapse.

    I am not against the Steem or any form cryptocurrencies, but it is nice to point out some of the cryptocurrencies concerns so that future Elgg users who might be interested in Elgg and steemit integration will know what they are getting into or signing for!

    I think for Elgg ignition part, most of the users who could be actively using elgg by now might have been frustrated by few things and moved to test other scripts like Wordpress, Dolphin, Oxwall, pH7CMS, Jcow, Open Source Social Network, Beatz, Etano, PeoplePods, HumHub, Family Connections, GNU social, UNA, Bitrix24, MangoApps, Intelli Enterprise, Yammer, Workplace by Facebook, Jive, BuddyPress, Igloo, Axero, and many more.

    Here are a few things that might have frustrated our former developers and users.

    1. In the past there was a lot of verbal fighting here on the community.
    2. The verbal fighting affected our customer service to new plugin developers and core developers.
    3. Also the core developers disagreement might have created uncertainty in the minds of the former users who did not know how long Elgg was going to last or if they chose Elgg application and start building their users and Elgg got discontinued due to lack of developers or plugin developers, the active site owners could have been forced to change to other Elgg alternatives if the Elgg core or major plugins were abandoned by developers.
    4. The Elgg hosting companies also were not friendly to our past Elgg site owners or admins who were either testing or learning Elgg on shared hosting accounts and as a result there are very few Elgg based sites that are actively running.
    5. The Wordpress wave swept through Elgg Land and most of our former users switched to make money on wordpress based sites plugins.
    6. Former Elgg developers moved on for various reasons and other users forked elgg and developed it into Minds and Open Source Social Network applications.
    7. The spamming attack did not help either, unlike in WordPress, the Elgg sites admins were bombarded by spam attacks and this might have frustrated some of our former Elgg sites admins.
    8. There might be other issues that i might not have covered that others might be familiar with.

    Moving forward, As Elgg community continues to add more new users, Elgg stands in a better position to grow and even get its old users back even though there are fewer developers at the moment.

     

  • Ponzi schemes, by definition, involve a system where the system absolutely requires new users to be involved for the system to continue. In the case of Steem, that is not true since the new coins that are used to pay people come in response to the rising value of the currency and not purely due to new users joining the system. In other words, a ponzi scheme literally requires new investors to come and buy into the system for anyone to make any money at all, whereas with steem, the system can continue very nicely provided that the value of the currency increases. I do see what you are saying and I share some related concerns.. However, for me, I don't consider steem to be any worse than any other existing currency - since ALL currencies are somewhat similar to ponzi schemes - it's just that their initial growth phase occurred long before we were born and the new members that are brought into the pyramids are our children, who usually never even realise this is occurring!

    I would much rather evolve humans away from money altogether, but not many share my direction at this point and it looks to me like as with so many other topics, most people ignore the calls made by me and others like me until a 'celebrity' comes along and says the same thing to them! lol

  • @ura soul, lol. You are absolutely right in your analysis about money or currencies and many other topics you have raised before and even today. Old and new Elgg developers and designers should not wait for 'celebrities' to come a long and say the idea you have brought up nor should people ingnore the concept about integrating Elgg and Steem. We got the working material in Elgg Engine to accomplish things that we have not imagined.

    The first command is for us to go out and create. I say this because there are several people online who are looking for open source scripts that have been created that they might use or slide into or there are some developers who might be waiting for the jobs to call them.

    If there is no Elgg core tools or Elgg plugins created we should make it. If all the things a developer would like to see In Elgg are not there we should build it ourselves. Do not wait for anybody else to do it.

    Our developers should know this. I wish I was told this when I graduated! Whatever salary that one gets,  he or she is getting the end of the stake! This is what I mean, essentially when you are employed by a company you are creating time for money. In other words, one is trading time which is an entity that cannot be replenished for cash which is an entity that can be replenished. So, no matter how much money someone is making, time needs to be the most valuable thing that one can get from education or learning.

    So our users and developers should approach time with agency. Most of us are young and strong but do not have time to waste. It is time to create and produce new plugins and Elgg core tools.

Feedback and Planning

Feedback and Planning

Discussions about the past, present, and future of Elgg and this community site.