Steem Think Tank Survey from @midlet

This post is a response to @midlet's new community, Steem Think Tank

         A part of me feels as if I'm on MySpace again. Remember those days when your friends make bulletins and you follow suit? I swear that's how chain mail spams became a thing. Enough of my blabbering, here is the meat of the content, the survey.

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How long have you been using Steem?

         Been here since March of 2018.

Where are you in terms of SP? (Plankton(0-500SP), Minnow(500-5000SP), Dolphin(5k-50kSP), Whale(you're probably not a whale, if you are you know what a whale is))

         I am currently a dolphin with a little over 10K SP at the time of writing.

Where are you in the world? (Just Country)

         The US of A.

What brought you to Steem?

         I decided to give this place a go after @someguy123's sales pitch in the LTC Discord.

What was your first impression?

         The Steemit frontend felt like it was missing a lot of features (and it still does today). The trending was a bit odd, but I supposed those were what people interested in. Then, the truths revealed themselves on their own.

How do you feel about the current state of Steem?

         Dire. If Steem cannot pick up the pace as we enter another bull cycle, it will die. Or, at least fade into obscurity like Feathercoin, etc.

         This doesn't mean your STEEM will be worthless, but it might as well be.

How often do you use Steem applications/websites/etc?

         SteemPeak is my main go to these days. I don't use most of the dapps enough to care. Let's be honest, most of the Steemians most likely spend time on Discord than the actual chain itself.

What is your favorite Steem Application and why?

         At one point in life, it was @musing. But, I have stopped checking it out. Is it dead? I don't know, but it would not surprise me.

What’s your favorite thing about Steem?

         It's so underground that you probably have never heard of it.

What’s your least favorite thing about Steem?

         People. It's an ironic statement given this is a social platform. Overall, the atmosphere feel a lot worse than the random strangers you meet on, say, Reddit. This could be the way "money" ties into the network.

         I'm surprised that it hasn't become a Rapture from Bioshock yet.

How difficult/easy would you say it is to use Steem?

         It's way too complex. Crypto is already not user friendly in general. Then, Steem adds another extra layer with the designs, DPoS, etc.

         The one thing about Steem that's nice and simple is the usernames. I also like the different levels of keys which you could use to minimize risks. Most other cryptos only have one set of secret keys and you are in huge trouble if they become compromised.

Would you recommend Steem to family/friends/coworkers? If no why not?

         No. Not at this time. My family, friends, and colleagues have seen the stuff on Steem. Here's a brief summary of how they feel:

1. Seems lame and boring.
2. Why the hell does STEEM even have value?
3. There are better cryptos out there (for those who are familiar with crypto).
4. There exist things with better functionalities already.

         In all honesty, people who feel like the government is spying too much aren't going to etch stuff on a blockchain. As if stuff leaked on the net isn't permanent enough.

What do you wish you could do with Steem that you can’t currently?

         I would like to not feel ashamed when talking about Steem. That's how bad things are around here. Do you see anyone in this space going to crypto conferences to talk about Steem? Of course not.

         I know that's not what the question is asking, but I chose this route instead.

What excites you most about Steem?

         It kills time. That's about it.

What worries you most about Steem?

         Not much to worry about when it comes to Steem. The next worst step is death of the platform. So, it's a nice feeling to be able to embrace whatever the future brings.

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         Anyways, feel free to disagree or ask for more clarifications. One of secrets to success for a social platform is how people feel about it. You could have all the technicalities in the world and people wouldn't care.

         At the same time, I could be speaking through my jaded experience. A new person might have a different perspective than my cumulative feelings.