Next Generation Social Networks – The Journey Comes To An End
During the last weeks/months I have been intensively involved with various new social networks and described my impressions in various blog posts. At the end of this article I will add a list of all contributions to the topic Next Generation Social Network, before I would like to draw a final conclusion.
After I already liked the Steem-Blockchain (Steemit.com) more than a year ago, it took a while until other platforms could gain a foothold in my horizon.
As mentioned several times, I wasn’t aware how many crypto projects in the field of social media had sprung up.
So that’s how my research about new projects, as well as the subsequent journey through these platforms, began. First of all: The Steem-Blockchain was for me the basis to compare the networks, because I used this platform by far the most often and continue to use it. Besides Steemit.com my journey brought me to various projects.
Minds, SocialX, Sola, ONO, Belacam, Narrative or TRYBE – to name just a few – were all places to go on my journey. In this concluding post, I would like to illustrate my preliminary feedback. For the time being, because there will certainly be a lot more changes in the coming months and possibly more new platforms will be added.
My conclusion: Only three of the networks can exist
At least in my case. Maybe someone else may have a different experience, but I can only imagine using three networks more regularly. To better understand my point of view, I’ll give you some reasons for and against my three favorites below. In addition, I will list these three in a ranking.
First of all, I’d like to say that all networks that aren’t in the Top3 either don’t have a functional version of their platform, only make access to their platforms more difficult or, in my opinion, don’t offer sufficient added value. For this reason I won’t deal with these platforms any further for the time being.
But now! The favorites are: Trybe.One, Minds.com and Steemit.com.
Why? I will ask this question for I will answer this question individually for each network.
3rd place – Minds.com
This may surprise some who are not familiar with the Minds.com platform, but I do see an added value in the benefits of this network. Among other things, the interaction with other users is extremely positive, of course not continuous, but predominant. This is due to the fact that I have the largest reach on all platforms on Minds.com.
Advantages:
– Minds has an interesting approach to equal pay for user interactions, which encourages the adaptation of new users.
– The reach via the platform is relatively large, at least in my case and thanks to the in-house advertising opportunity. My channel has 600,000 views in a few months, although most of the traffic is probably caused by bots.
– The interaction of the user community is sometimes very intensive and of high quality.
– Top content is usually really top content. The best blogs are usually original and interesting.
– For the non-technical user, Minds.com probably has the most intuitive user interface.
Disadvantages:
– The system for rewarding network interactions is very susceptible to attack. Vulnerabilities can easily be exploited.
– As a result, Minds.com has an extremely large number of bots. The bot problem is currently being counteracted, but this is really noticeable.
– Many of the opinions, which are represented on Minds.com, are not to be represented in my eyes. I am also for Freespeech, but I am not receptive for Hatespeech.
– The spam on the platform is gigantic, only the fewest contents are of real quality. However, it is possible to filter the spam. All in all, the content is still less interesting than on other platforms. But here, too, the personal perspective is of course highly relevant.
For me, the fact predominates that the platform is not optimal for obtaining information. Since this is the actual reason why I use these social networks, this criterion is very important. And even though most of the top blogs are really good, they are not always what I would like to read, thematically. In combination with spam and bots, Minds.com is third in my favorite ranking.
2nd place – Trybe.One
The last candidate I visited on my trip is Trybe.One. And I must say, the end was once again a small ray of hope. While Minds.com was the first network I tested in this series, Trybe.One was the last one. In between was a valley of confusion and disappointment.
Advantages:
– A lot of crypto-related content, which I personally like very much.
– Possibility to evaluate contributions, more differentiated, because up- and downvote.
– Interesting approach to the monetization of content. Post for this is linked below.
– High-quality interactions/evaluations of contributions and filtering of spam by so-called “primary editors”.
– Different approaches to advertising models.
– Optically appealing interface, even if it is not clear.
Disadvantages:
– Speed: The platform, based on EOS, is incredibly slow in performing interactions. And when I say incredible, I mean incredible.
– For people whose interest lies outside the fields of technology, business and crypto currencies, there is currently virtually no content available.
– Many components of the platform – such as the wallet – have not yet been implemented or are available in an absolute alpha version.
– Ultimately, an EOS account will be required for the token transaction from the platform. This creation is more difficult than creating an account on the Steem chain.
– (The evaluation of the blog posts offers room for manoeuvre for vote battles, as was the case on Steemit.com). So far, however, the system seems to be working. So this disadvantage is put in brackets.)
– Have I already mentioned how incredibly slow Trybe.One is? Of course, but since this is the most important point that I think needs to be improved, I mention it again.
Trybe.One surprised me especially because of the content. Actually, I have to say, I’m interested in most of the articles on this platform. Probably neither Steemit.com nor Minds.com have such a high rate of overlap concerning my interest and the presented content. However, the speed of the platform is partly so disturbing that it can be used normally throughout. The submission of a rating takes at times about ten seconds and this is unfortunately not a state. Especially not for an average user. According to this Trybe.One manages at least place 2 in my ranking, although the speed is underground.
Place 1 – Steemit.com / The Steem Blockchain
Do you know that? You are on a journey, perhaps on holiday, and at some point the thought occurs to you that home is the most beautiful place after all? I can draw this conclusion when it comes to the next generation of social networks. Therefore from the comparison, here once again advantages and disadvantages of Steemit.com:
Advantages:
– Steemit.com is based on the in-house Steem blockchain, which brings a lot of advantages, like an unbeatable transaction speed.
– Several other projects are building on the Steem chain, resulting in a much larger ecosystem. Steem is more than a social network.
– Three seconds transaction time is unbeatable in comparison.
– The basis to implement Smart Media tokens, which will make the Steem chain more interesting for some projects again.
– In principle, many interesting contributions and valuable individuals who are very committed to the development of the platform.
– Steem’s development status is more advanced compared to the others. The user has more possibilities to use the platform.
Disadvantages:
– The design of contributions on Steemit.com is not as easy and intuitive as on Minds.com or Trybe.One.
– There are problematic conditions in the Steem ecosystem that jeopardize long-term success. You can interrupt this, if you want to keep it simple, probably by self-interested behaviour of some/many stakeholders. Keywords are Vote-Farming or Flag-War.
– At the beginning, the normal user can easily be overwhelmed by the complexity of the platform. The other platforms are “simpler”.
– The relationship between advertised and advertised content is, especially in the trending pages, sometimes very disturbing.
– For authors without a readership it is sometimes difficult to achieve visibility, as the advertised content dominates strongly.
– The Stake-Weighted-System, which Steem uses to distribute the rewards, is not optimal for attracting new users, because they have little influence in the network.
This journey started some time ago on Steemit.com, more precisely by a random Steem trade on Bittrex. And after testing all possible alternatives I can say: Steemit.com is my favorite. Also the Steem-Chain has potential for improvement, without question. But which project in the early adoption phase doesn’t have this potential? In general, Steem is more to me than a new social network, Steem is a new economy. And that is what distinguishes Steem from all other competitors. Not to mention the speed – projects like Utopian.io, DTube, ActiFit, 1Up or Foundation build on the Steem chain. As well as several others that currently exist and a multitude of those that will follow in the future. This fact raises Steem clearly in the level and is the decisive reason why Steemit.com is the absolute favorite in my rating.
Therefore I am looking forward to doing my mischief on this platform in the future and invite you all to share your experiences with the next generation of social networks in the comments.
This closes the chapter [Next Generation Social Networks]:
[Social Media Meets Blockchain – The Next Generation Social Networks]
[Next Generation Social Networks – Strange, this Sola.ai]
[Next Generation Social Networks – My first step at Minds.com]
[Next Generation Social Networks – A rather sobering interim conclusion]
[Next Generation Social Networks – Trybe.one: A first assessment]