What Did Steemit Look Like in 2006? Before Steemit There Was myLot!

It was 2006 Facebook had just started 2 years earlier and was still catching on which would surpass all other social networks in 2008. Myspace was just purchased by News Corp in 2005 for $580 million and was still the top social network.

During this time a site called myLot was born. After playing around with myLot, I managed to make a few bucks writing posts and comments. Essentially it was a discussion board that paid it's micro amounts to post and comment.

I had seen this model in smaller discussion boards which it never seemed to make it past a year before users started to abandon ship. However, this time did seem different there were a massive amount of users, and their referral model was perfect for bringing new users.

The downfall... The largest reason why myLot was not successful was the same reason the sites before had not been. Instead of high-quality posts coming into the mix users started to create content for the sake of creating content even if the quality was terrible. myLot did have a quality control process in place, but it did not stop from the quality from diminishing over time.

Comments began to lack real opinions or facts, and therefore the community began its slow decline into nothingness. I do love the idea behind Steemit, so far the community has been great, but my real question is what makes Steemit different from the type of sites we have seen in the past?

Getting rewarded for curation seems like an excellent idea for Steemit but does this cause issues for the community too? Can this system be manipulated easily? I am curious to know what the Steemit community has experienced both negative and positive.

Before cryptocurrencies existed was there a need for a decentralized social network? Do we even need one now? I am interested in learning more about the benefits of using a system like Steemit and what makes this community love it today so feel free to share your thoughts!

Just started but follow me @hara!