Hi @timcliff, First off - Thanks for initiating the #discussion threat. This will be awesome. Secondly, I think the biggest incentive for people to use Steemit is the weekly payoff. This is the power of this incentive that people read posts at Steemit. For example, I've never read episodes of sci fi or crime fictions on any other social media channels but I do it regularly at Steemit.

I stopped blogging back in 2013 and it's just the money part that made me write again. Great post.

Steem on!

I for one look forward to seeing more “non-crypto” related discussion. While its great and all it’s leaving us in our small community. Nothing wrong that, but people searching for other things on search engine might not see Steemit and go “what is this???”

I’ve seen a few things like meme contest try and help out by asking people not to make memes about crypto and yet people still do lol.

I’ll have to think about how I want use the tag and I’ll even do my best to comment on some blogs using as well. I do love engagement.

Very wonderful idea you two brainstormed. I’m looking for being involved and seeing the end results!

This is an interesting experiment. I was under the impression that most people were posting articles with the intent of creating some discussion, so to create a new tag about discussion is actually very broad and will need further tags to zero in on those discussions that hold interest to the reader.
However, since this tag will be monitored by some influential people, it just might work! Let the #discussions begin!

I like it!! Very good idea... Discussions and debates can be healthy. I for one love Steemit because we can talk about any damn thing we want to here. So by starting lengthy discussions and debates, we can have a freaking blast!

interesting topic. i found steem to be very broad and random.

So far, i feel like what connects us all is out interest on crypto. For me, I consider it a gateway crypto. I do hope to see more features, and a more diverse marketplace. I think that would bring a lot of traffic!

I hope this takes off! These discussions are a big part of how I learn and grow here!

Luckily I just posted a discussion piece today, hopefully I get some more feedback on my ideas here!

Great idea! I think great discussions are one of the key things I've enjoyed about this place the most. I've never thought to use the discussion tag, but I'll start. Some posts I've enjoyed most have 100+ comments and many of them are full blog posts as well. I like zeroing in on our niche.

For me, posting and discussing topics on Steemit compared to other sites is like playing Texas Holdem with fake money vs. real money. When there's real value on the table, the game is a lot more fun.

Wow, @timcliff this is a great idea!!! On so many levels and that could be steemit's thing. I think this will also motivate writers and help with focus. Thanks. I love this platform. So many great minds.

This is a great idea :D Will be checking this tag out for the coming days (weeks) to see how it evolves. Maybe even start my own post if I feel up to it ;)

Terimakasih @timcliff saya sangat menyukai postingan anda karena postingan anda sangat menarik dan juga salam kenal dari saya @husnulkhatimah.

Interesting, but we have an inherent problem. And that is that post disappear after seconds.
Which means that unless you're following someone, or something, there is not a big chance you'll join an interesting conversation.

Let me challenge you a bit;
Steemit's primary selling-point is "make money by participating".

Just check what Google shows you when you look for Steemit.

But we have an even bigger problem; reputation.

You mentioned debates about flagging and fighting abuse. This is actually one of the items I hear from people who heard (a bit) about Steemit; Steemit has gotten a reputation as a platform where you can get censored without any means of objecting to this.

This is enough of a reason for these people to not join Steemit.

And this has a snowball effect. Just imagine a company joining Steemit, either to promote products or for another reason.
What happens when a group of people don't like this company?
They run the risk of getting flagged and their reputation on Steemit destroyed.

All the efforts they may have put into building something on Steemit can get wiped out in a heartbeat.

I think what Steemit's Selling Point should be:

• An open environment where anyone can voice their opinion.
  Only when we're talking about child-pornography or abuse, terrorism and posts like that, should action be taken.
  But that should be done by Steemit, or at least you must be able to object and Steemit should investigate.

Until then I feel we won't grow as wanted or expected.

hmmm, it's a good question, i'm not sure ultimately what Steemit's strength is. Like you say it's a place for alternative viewpoints and niche commentary on politics and economics/crypto, but also a big artistic community in photo-art-graphics, and then food & travel... i think ultimately the idea of subcultures needs to be developed more, like different pods or areas you visually "hop into" to pursue your interest. steemit is kind of "listy" and needs to get more 3D/visual in its format, imho

You are certainly on the right track here. I believe that genuine interaction is the life blood of a site like Steemit.

I made a post earlier that should have had the discussion tag I guess.. It is a god idea, thanks for pushing it forward. I hope that with the release of communities, that discussions will pick up across the board on all the topics. I am envisioning me having to pick a community or two to curate, and try to grow. But getting views, and comments are two tricky things on Steemit currently. Ideally I would have more views and comments on a post than upvotes, but its usually the other way around

I think our thing "We are not a circle jerk consisting of people masturbating each other as we humblebrag about how much money, votes or followers we have"

Pardon the crudeness, but I stand by it. Our thing is that we are all positive people with good intentions and a high payout isn't the only indication of success.

offcourse @timcliff, your assesment showing in your article is 100% true, every social media has something interesting to attract, but in steem there is something special that everyone share his thoughts and different issues in debate as in good manners and got reward in the shape of money, that why i think in upcoming days steem community should be No.1 social media platform. thanks a lot for sharing just an informative and useful lines with us.

EXCELLENT idea. Let's have a #discussion about
Consciousness Goes Deeper,TWO STATES Of Matter, Reality, THE NARROWING GAP BETWEEN AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL FABRICATION, and AirShip To Orbit… !

Great idea @timcliff - just posted my first #discussion post - I hope this takes off and develops great relationships within the community and grows us as people learning from people that have opposite perspective then us. check out my post and let me know what you think! https://steemit.com/discussion/@breakthrough/discussion-kids-technology-and-society

It's a very good idea, because I need improvement on steemit, it became very hard to earn good money, I am posting everyday for three months and earning cents, posting doesn't help me to grow at all, I waste a lot of time and don't get what I deserve, I am advertising steemit everywhere but it didn't help me, the only thing that we can to here to discuss, to share our problems and find solutions, to ask questions and have answers.

I will use that tag of course, #discussion is the tag that we miss for sure, and there are other tags also I try to add them sometimes, so maybe we have to use more tags not just that ones proposed in home tab.

Let's see how it will work for me, I need just a few dollars from a post, I don't ask a lot. ☺

@timcliff this is a great idea!!!! While the money is there, I love to write about stuff....Stuff that I want people to read and talk about. I find that all my hard work quickly gets buried, when I know that it really would benefit people. I'm thinking if I used the discussion tag, it may open up more exchange on these subjects. I'm definitely going to resteem your article to remind myself I want to try this....and help bring others in "grassroots" style. I can't wait to see how this pans out. P.S. I really do love the way we all discuss things around here. I have found so much respect and honor of individuality here and that is what I love most about Steemit!!!! Thanks for dreaming up this idea!!!

Great post I have tried to start a conversation on here and it has been difficult I'm still new and posts like this go a long way towards me getting better at posting and getting the comments started so thank you

I am resteemed my friends

Hi @timclif. Just a brilliant idea!

I resteemed it and recommend everybody to do so! This could make a difference, and let me explain why...

Let's pay more attention to the phrase you wrote at the beginning of this post - "Most of the major social media platforms have their "thing".

I would like to pay your attention that other social media projects, which did fail to become popular, usually also had their "thing" - though a kind of "downside thing". We may have one on Steemit as well, and we need to fight it!

The whole idea of Steemit is brilliang, but there is one thing (to my humble opinion) that makes the future grows of the platform questionable. And this is a low number of "live blogs". With a trend to decrease. As a new Steemit user I noticed that a lot of popular Steemit bloggers (many of them are just early Steemit adopters, having nothing really brilliant content-wise) just regularly post something to get upvotes/money, absolutely ignoring the discussion under their own post.
This seems like a disrespect to their readers, and I don't think such posts should get too much upvotes, those votes would need to be better spent on good content - to make the whole idea of Steemit ready for the mass market!

And #discussion tag is a good way to fight those cases of "I care only about money" content. When someone puts #discussion on their post, by doing this he makes a COMMITMENT to be responsive, at least to those who respond to their own post with any kind of thought! :) And we all need to put our major upvotes mainly to the bloggers ready for a discussion!

@timcliff this is really a great idea . Sometimes we are so much into getting upvotes and increasing payout that we tend to forget Steemit is a social networking site.Having healthy discussion is what I think is necessary for the community to grow. Thank you for taking this initiative :-)

Very great idea @timcliff ...upvoted...Blessings

I usually don't have a lot of things to talk about to start a discussion, but if it's a subject that I'm interested in, I'd be happy to join in the discussion.

Awesome idea Tim. I've never used this tag in any of my posts, but I usually ask people what their opinion is or ask them to comment on my post to get some kind of discussion going within the post because I try to post topics that will hopefully generate some feedback.

Either way I like the idea! 👍 to the idea of using #discussion from now on ;)

Good idea, I will use in future #discussion tag, discussion in general I like most on the platform especially if the topic is interesting for me) resteem

I very often love reading the comment section even more than the original post, so this is an iniative I will be delighted to support!!!

Wow... this is brilliant @timcliff!

For me, Steemit's "thing" is precisely what I hoped it would be when I found it: "Global Engagement." As I have said before, this platform reminds me SO much of the "social blogging" venues that hit their peak right before MySpace (and them Facebook) came on the scene.

Steemit is about creating interesting and engaging content... and then people having lengthy interactions over it. Which is something I find very rewarding and makes me what to come back and post again. And pretty much since about my 20th post or so I have followed the same format... end the post with a series of questions to get involved in the topic.... whatever it is. And it's a format followed by a number of Steemit's finest... @kus-knee comes to mind; he always brings the reader into the post. And typically ends up with 50-100+ comments.

It doesn't so much matter what the content is... but ask people to engage with it.

One of my all-time favorite things we've had on Steemit (since I've been here) was @merej99's "Community Engagement Challenge" a couple of months back. It was a 10-day event... and we had 40+ participants from freshly minted minnows to some very "senior" Steemians... write an engaging post every day AND make 500+ real engaging comments over the 10 days... the content and dialogue was stunning... we even had one insane post run to 700+ comments.

So anyway, I'm ALL about launching the #discussion tag and making it a thing here-- let's DO it! I would suggest part of a good "discussion" post is also for the poster to start off with some basic questions... just to get people thinking, and get the ball rolling.

Great idea. The making money angle is unique, I but it can't be the only selling point.
If we continue to promote steemit with that specific idea as the number 1 reason to join, we can only expect to see the empty content spam comments increase and continue.
Upped and resteemed.

That seems to be a great idea @timcliff
and yep it would be better if we had that THING in particular to say about Steemit and to open up a discussion within friends and family ,I guess Money can't be the only thing in Steemit ,Let's see what comes out of it :)

Re steemed

this is very good idea and I think it will work much better than on other social medias, because we have here some kind of regulation system. When I look at the discusions on FB I am very disappointed .. people are rude, vulgar, offensive... and why? just because there is no threat of any sanctions.

Everyone think twice before some action when there is a risk of loosing money and reputation. Thats why Steemit can have very nice reasonable discussion..

Here's my first Argument @timcliff hope it will reach...
https://steemit.com/discussion/@joshvel/the-sleeping-giant-of-steemit-who-and-why-my-first-argument

That was a good idea #discussion. Hmm the ideas in my mind are now rumbling. I can't decide what to start on my #discussion post. Lol.

Great Idea! I posted 2 posts on Topic to Follow back or not to Follow and didn't guess that it is #discussion topics.... they were without good involvement. I changed tag now. Let's see! It is two days old post. But Who knows.

Nice post

See this link i need your advice
https://steemit.com/photography/@muliadi/macro-shot-photography-2017921t175728227z

A very good idea, @timcliff. Upvoted and resteemed!

I suggest that we have a certain form for 'discussion' posts. For example:

1- The creator of the discussion post should not state his/her point of view in the post itself. The post should be for opening the discussion.

2- Anyone (including the author) who wants to defend one side, must state the side he is choosing at the top of the comment. Then, he should state his argument (why he thinks it is the right side).

3- Top-level comments should be reserved for new arguments. Refuting or supporting any reasoning should be through a response to that comment. You can not refute other people's ideas on top-level comments, only replies.

4- If you agree with an idea, you should upvote it. If you disagree, you should downvote it. a Down-vote should not be considered as an offense in discussions. It is only an expression of agreeing or disagreeing.

Great idea #timcliff im only new here in steemit and i so appreciate your idea and being a part of your idea i will apply it soon.thanks for this helpful post of yours.

I've been searching for a way to suggest small changes that might improve the steemit experience but I couldn't find where or even any example of somebody doing so, would #discussion be a good way of suggesting and getting feedback on those ideas?

There is a reason that people sign up for a Facebook account, and a Twitter account, and an Instagram account,

Yes, peer pressure. One of your friends or family member says "look at how many twitter followers I have... OR Hey! You should friend me on facebook"...

re @pfunk helping you brainstorm. Was that in discord or chat? (Curious)

...that is why most people join. Peer Pressure. :)

I do like the discussion tag. That is very useful, and shows you posts that want user action. Will be interesting to see how it will play out.

Totally agree. Steem could also function as Quora that involves money. That would be awesome!

I really feel like the variety of individuals and the connections we make here are what makes steemit different than other social media sites. It may be because we have to work a little harder to post and look at content because the platform is so young, but I think it weeds out those that would just clutter the content with meaningless items. Don't get me wrong Facebook and other platforms work well, but because it is so easy for everyone to do it we end up with water down content. On steemit along with the ability to earn you really want to achieve more with each post and this drives us to keep our community growing and working to reach more goals. In my opinion, the little more effort we have to put in draws more motivated creators and contributors. I like this and will try to throw out a few #discussion post even though most of my post deal with silver/gold/crypto. Thanks for the great idea and the awesome post!!

Thank you I am following you, I hope you will also follow up vote me this honor to me <3 <3 <3 <3

I think the challenges with payouts and giveaways will help to draw in new crowds and continue engagement with current users. On a larger scale the use in countries like Nigeria and India for social networking for a profit is amazing.

I think Steemit will find its 'Thing' being Emerging Countries and Cities just adapting to electricity and internet. By reaching out to those that have not yet to even create a Facebook or Instagram.

Company accounts will also be big for Steemit. Most companies Big and small have a Facebook and Instagram Account. By showing companies the value in creating and maintaining a Steemit account to promote and sell their product we can see a huge spike in Steemit Use and Users.

These are some of my @isteemithard ideas what are yours steemians?

This is interesting however I think that all of us have our dinsctinctive capabilities and interest. The good thing, however , is that steemit accomodates all segments of interests (except the bad ones) and thus a great platform for personal development. Here is also a great place to discuss issues and share idea reggarding cryptos, life, politics, education , music etc thanks and I cited you on my latest post about Positive attitude, consistency, great quality / Originality-feel free to see it...wish you a happy weekend.

I would like to join! Count me in , please. I wish that some topics other than cryptos will be in the discussion.Most of the post I am seeing are crypto oriented.. that would be lovely if matters about current issues will be discussed too.

Having a dedicated discussion tag is a really good idea. Too often this site is about publishing your own posts and not even attempting to engage your readers much less readers of other posts. We could certainly use more discussion around here.

This is a great idea in my opinion! I'm definitely a fan of deeper discussion and debate and spend a lot of time trying to promote that, so I will definitely give your tag a try and hope it grows into what you have envisioned! Cheers. :)

This is a pretty nice idea.

One of the best things about having money as an incentive is that people are generally more civil. It's nice to discuss rather than argue and I find it pretty easy to do here. Let me go check to see what topics have popped up. I'll see if I can think of any good topics.

Hi Tim, its me again sorry, :D

I fully agree with you, specially something I've identified in the short time i have been part of the community is the amount of time we waste in closed chat rooms trying to do some networking and promote our posts, when we should be doing it here.

But lets be honest this has happened naturally because the platform doesn't offers a nice U.E for discussions.

Something that hinders discussions is the nesting of replies which after 5 or 6 make the posting and reading area really thin and unconfortable.

I'm experimenting with always replying to the first exchange and this seems to work, but i think that the replies are ordered according to the number of votes they get, i'm not sure if that's the case once they are in at least the first level of nesting because to be honest very few people vote on comments and therefore i have been unable to see if they get scrambled because of that.

---

Another thing i started is a tiny-Upvotable curation thing (is in spanish but if you want to know more I can translate it for you) where the replies from others to the comment containing the proposed post are what determine the winner in an effort to bring the discussion to steemit!

I don't know if i will succeed but i is worth a try.

---

Let's make this thing great by ourselves!

This can be a game changer!

Hi @timcliff, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.

If you’d like to nominate someone’s post just visit the Steemit Ramble Discord

Great initiative. I've some subjects that I would like to discuss (outside from crypto unfortunatly I don't know the subject suffiently yet to bring interesting opinion on, and like english is not my native language it's harder to understand all in your posts), I will try to participate in the following days on the #discuss tag. Thank you and good continuation.

Brilliant idea I have to say, sad i missed that post until now. Think I would / will post some #discussion post - even consider tagging recent ones to the topic - a lot to debate. Agree this debate culture could be the steem thing.

I believe all blogs I post and most of the blogs, posts and vlogs I read are based on discussion. I read a blog where a group is getting prepared to bring around 100-2 million new Steemians on board. I thought wow that is amazing... People may hear that they can earn real money and overlook it because they don't trust the person explaining it to them. Others may think,"hey it's too good to be real." @cleverbot others may not know what Steem or Steem Dollars are. Steemit have Steemians and that what makes us unique/interesting/different. Word.

This place has atracted some really brilliant minds. I am looking forward to catching up.

Nice to hear and meet you today on @sircork's show.
I agree that this is an excellent tag,and topic.
I am a non tech and struggle w/ a lot of post of tech ,crypto,codes,ect.
What you witness's do is wizardry! ...lol.
Thank you for doing what you do.
I am glad to meet you,I will try and contribute in the areas I can,one of which is resteeming post's. I didn't see a couple people in comments that I want to make sure and see this. ;-)
Now I know of you and that you give a phuq! ;-)
be seeing you around.
Namaste

I just read this. THANK GOODNESS somebody brought this up. I'm going to start discussions SOON! Thank you for this.

Are you able to schedule a post on steemit? If YES can someone please show me how and If NO shouldn't we have such a feature?#discussion

That's indeed a very good idea, discussions will open our minds and we will be able to know some facts we aren't aware of that.

Hey brother like I said great idea for sure. Here is the link to my first one https://steemit.com/discussion/@dwingsworld/starting-a-discussion-about-buying-either-silver-bullion-or-higer-premium-silver
I hope to continue this trend and keep asking those in my community to contribute! Thanks for the great idea and like I said I will be using the #discussion tag in the future!!

Regardless whether you are a steemian or a non-steemian (hope I spelled the term correctly haha), the curious mind will always try to engage in a discussion (with self or with others). We can already see that across various social media platforms. This is important because through #discussions you will learn new things, & asking questions and engaging with others will help both (or even multiple) parties to understand different point of views. For steemians however, the added benefit is the involvement of the crypto currency. This works as another motivational factor for anybody to participate in a discussion, express or share their ideas, and even to vote.
I think personally the most important thing is that being respectful to others especially when disagreeing with someone’s ideas?
Maybe Steemit can be the place where we all could start to make a change? Just a thought.

Great idea, hopefully the #discussion tag will draw a bit of a line and help start new topics that are not all crypto related. Do we really need one more article on China and it's standing with BitCoin?

Good idea

And regarding the steemit thing

I think eventually when we be able to see all out friends and family here on this platform we wont be interested anymore in FB for example

We log in everyday there because yeah we know about our close and far ppl because they r there
But when they move to here thats it
As u said ppl can earn money from discussions here so why would they do it on FB if they have their ppl here !

wow....(y)

good post

The "Thing" that brought me here was blockchain "Based"? Social site that generated crypto currency. I came here to learn, and that's the "thing" that keeps me here, All the great conversations and information here is, imho pretty much cutting edge in the blockchain and crypto "space". The amount of quality information pours in daily. Steemit is now my research tool for all things crypto and blockchain. To top it off there are very many great traders and very informed anarchist that add that icing on top of the cake.
So, the thing about steemit is the knowlage base, thats updated everyday, 24/7 .. not any other place like this that I know of ..

Very interesting.
Yeah what is the "thing" about Steemit.
Well for me it became pretty clear from the outset that the community was very different from other social media platforms.
But what?
First of all, what really captured my attention was the Steemit "introduceyourself" method with the obligatory photo holding a piece of paper. I had not seen this before. As a visual person this had a powerful affect on me.
It shouted out something of truth and integrity and motivated me to be part of it. I spend a lot of time advising newbies to the same if they had not done this. Only yesterday I did this with a new member who has been on Steemit for about a month. They then looked at my intro post from December 2016 and today I saw that had gone for it.
Perhaps I am making too big a thing of this but I am only speaking from my own experience here. In my opinion this is a "thing" on Steemit, or at least one of the "things" that makes it unique.
The money part on Steemit will always be a "thing" I guess. But as time goes by and crypt currencies become more accepted in the general population, it will become less of a "thing". The world is changing because ever since the 2008 crash people are educating themselves about how money works. People never thought about this before. They simply went on with their lives trying to earn a living. But when their jobs and homes were suddenly gone because of greedy corrupt banksters who had broken trust with us all, then people began to wonder how this could have happened. They started educating themselves. That is what happened to me and it lead me to Bitcoin 6 years ago.
Steemit is revolutionary for sure but history moves on and rivals to Steemit may pop up in the future.
I see your meaning here @timcliff. In a world with many other Steemit style platforms on a blocjchain and its own crytpo-cucrrency, why would people choose Steemit? What is its "thing".
One other "thing" for me is the "reputation" system on Steemit. I was also blown away with that too. In modern times reputations seem to mean shit. In fact having a bad reputation can even go in your favour in certain circles or professions. I am rather old fashioned that way and like the idea of people earning a reputation. It is a kind of self policing method. A good reputation can take years to make but seconds to destroy. In the american native indian culture, a chief was chosen from their reputation of demonstrating wisdom.
Putting reputation as an integral part of Steemit was a wise move IMO and is a "thing".
Honesty is also a "thing" here on Steemit I would say. I tend to find people more honest here. I dont know that for sure of course because I can only speak from my experience. Perhaps I have been lucky but then I have been lucky many times. These are just what was my initial reaction but I will give the matter further thought and see what else comes to mind.

please resteem my post friend.i already follow u

I'm late to the game on this #discussion, but I think this will really help to create engagement on posts that are about interaction. I've been trying to figure out this very thing as I've just started building community around a particular topic that I want people to discuss and participate in. I'm going to try it!

I am so down! Matter of fact, as I read this I started thinking how people like @wwf, @johnvibes and myself could use this to foster topics and ideas for our respective blogs and podcasts as well as to support the many causes and endeavors in which we are cohorts. I'm even thinking, since you mentioned making it serial, I can put together a nice thumbnail to use each week maybe to make it recognizable. Thanks for this!

Great post! Voting & resteeming.

How's this?

https://steemit.com/discussion/@movement19/m19-hw-discussion-post-no-1-a-steemian-grassroots-effort