SquareLink: Thoughts on the Steemit Winter Update 2017 #hypetrain
steemit·@phaazer1·
0.000 HBDSquareLink: Thoughts on the Steemit Winter Update 2017 #hypetrain
 <br> <br> Yesterday, the [Steemit Winter Update 2017](https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemitblog/steemit-winter-update-2017-reflection-our-vision-statement-and-mission-and-a-look-forward) was posted and we wanted to take this Newbie blog post to share some thoughts on this very important update. This will not be a comprehensive review of the entire post, but will concentrate on three key topics: * Overall Thoughts of the update * Growth of Steemit Platform and Expected Growth * Plans for Steemit in 2018 These topics were selected as they seem the most crucial information for newbies who consider the condition and potential of the Steemit ecosystem to be of primary importance. ## Overall Thoughts on the Update While the post is made by "Ned and Team" it begins with a short youtube' video of Steemit CEO and co-founder Ned Scott introducing the post.  For the uninitiated, it is great to start the post by learning about the teams "Vision" (**empowering entrepreneurs to tokenize the internet**) and "Mission" **(build in ways that create as many opportunities — and catalyze as many amazing Steem-based entrepreneurs and communities — as possible**). They see themselves as creative entrepreneurs who are empowering application developers who are entrepreneurs, who in turn enable "entrepreneurial end-users" This frankly is the first time I have read about this level of intentional and deep engagement with the end user community, and this got my attention right away. This is a refreshingly honest update that while positive on Steemit and growth, also admits some failures to execute on last years plan and stay engaged with the community. This actually for me builds confidence in the team. I would have also in this post somewhere liked to have included a bit about any expected challenges facing the project in 2018. Reading about the plans the team has is very exciting as it evidences a deep engagement with the community's expressed needs, like lowering the hurdles to adoption, so the user base can grow, but honestly, so I don't have to play tech support when I invite family, friends, and followers over to this platform. ### Growth last year, and this year Of course this is one of the most interesting parts of the update for me. Seeing where Steemit has come from and where it is going. #allthehype #fullsteemahead #### Some key take aways regarding last years growth: * Price of Steem up > 5000% * Hundreds of Thousands of New Members (like me) * Growth of applications * Growth of traffic, with millions of unique visitors each month ___ Those of us new to the platform may not realize how fast things have grown and changed around here. I can imagine what a fast ride this must be feeling like for these leadership and development teams.Compared to other social media platforms, the user base is tiny and the content is not exactly varied, but of course, this only means that there is room to carve our your own space before too much competition gets here. But, it is coming, of that I am sure. #### Key points mentioned for future growth: * "Massive Resources" dedicated to scaling the platform to support exponential growth * Explosive growth of applications like Busy, DLive, DMania, DSound, DTube, Utopian.io, Vessel, and others will attract new users while engaging the current community with opportunities to create and consume new content in new ways. * Improved core functionality to get more community engagement and create entrepreneurial opportunities. This includes allowing users to delegate Steem Power, and allowing users to define multiple beneficiaries to receive rewards from posts and comments. * The introduction of SMT and new 'Community' feature are clearly seen by team as the biggest enhancements that will drive growth and spur new opportunities. --- It was very helpful to understanding where things are at today to learn that a conscious decision was made last year to focus on building out the platform to scale for growth, at the cost of meeting some planned deliverables. This may have been frustrating form many users over the last few months, but for those of us just getting here, this works out great. We have a strong platform to launch our Steemit projects on as the larger Steemit team takes off building on the strong foundation laid over the previous year. While we have discussed some of these exciting apps mentioned in this article, it is also helpful to note that many are still in beta themselves. Most of them have a pretty decent UI and overall user experience, but we can only expect to see many great improvements in these, which will in turn, bring more users over to Steemit. (Plus the SALT is real for many users of those other *cough cough* social media platforms) Reading about the focus and enegry behind the SMT and 'Community' enhancements really makes me want to dig into these in greater detail and explore the possibilities that these will bring to the ecosystem. Stay tuned for more in-depth articles on these features. ### Plans for Steemit in 2018 This year the team has revised their development process, and are working on what they have heard the community say are priorities: * Communities * Spam management * Modular application components for simple and fast development * A great sign-up flow [experience] * Smart Media Tokens I'm not really sure what Spam management is about, but the rest is congruent with what I have been reading. While I am not a developer, I am very excited about what the effort to make development easier and faster will produce. The great apps we have seen are just the beginning. And it bears repeating that a great user sign up experience is probably the single greatest impediment to explosive growth of the user base. In other words, get ready, once this drops, there will be a tidal wave of users flooding into Steemit. Is your project ready for this? ### Conclusion If you have not already read the [Steemit Winter Update 2017](https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemitblog/steemit-winter-update-2017-reflection-our-vision-statement-and-mission-and-a-look-forward), I encourage you to do so. It is encouraging and exciting and really gave me the feeling that NOW is the exact time to be setting up shop here in Steemit. We all have a chance to be on the ground floor of helping to "tokenize the internet" Game on. Source: [Image 1](https://pixabay.com/en/steam-locomotive-passenger-train-1352338/) Source: [Image 2](http://www.coinfox.info/news/company/6183-steem-s-special-powers-ned-scott-on-steemit-before-and-after-the-hack)  @phaazer1 [SquareLink] *If you can Dream it, you can Steem it.* Please add any questions, comments, or other ideas below, I would love to hear from you.