Seven Years on Steemit — Some Steemversary Observations!
Greetings, world!
Today — being January 29th — marks the 7th anniversary of my arrival on Steemit! I must say that it has been an interesting and occasionally turbulent experience!
I Was Wrong!
In my very first post, I alluded to the fact that I had always had particularly bad luck with websites allegedly promising to reward participants for user-generated content. It was something like I had (at the time) been part of more than 50, and all except one had failed completely and gone away.
I more or less expected Steemit to go the same way, especially after I saw some of the rampant "system abuse" during the early days... or what some referred to as "rewards pool rape."
Here I am, seven years later... openly admitting that I was wrong. We're still here.
And I hope we will continue to be here, for many more years!
Yes, it IS Complicated!
This is not an easy venue to use. To be perfectly honest, it took me several days of just looking around before I even could figure out how to create my first post. I was terrified of losing my "keys," or using the wrong keys somewhere!
When you come here from a "log in with Facebook" environment, this feels like stepping 20 years back in time... back to where we all worried about "breaking" web sites, and the Internet itself. And I get why many people give up on Steemit as "too complicated and difficult to use."
I had the advantage of coming here not only with 20 years of online content creation experience, but also 15+ years of participating on "get paid to write" sites... which meant I also came with very realistic expectations. It is almost invariably "the nature of the beast" that a handful of people are quite successful, and everyone else is lucky to "make a few dollars."
As such, I had zero expectations that I would ever see any actual rewards!
I was wrong about that, too!
So MUCH Change; so MUCH Turbulence...
Ironically, just about the only thing that hasn't changed about Steemit is the interface! It looks pretty much the same as it did at the start... and that's actually strangely depressing in times where new web development literally fly by. But no matter...
I'm glad the "Whale Wars" of 2017-18 are over and gone.
I'm glad the "Bid Bot Battles" of 2018-19 are no longer a thing.
I miss the old SteemPeak interface... made Steemit so much easier to use. Is anyone building a new condenser from scratch? Anyone? @the-gorilla? And if someone did, could it even be implemented?
On the other hand, I'm very grateful that @steemchiller's awesome SteemWorld.org tool is still going strong!
I'm not going to linger on the infamous "fork" in early 2019. I'll just opine that attempting to centralize a decentralized venue heavily populated by anarchists and champions of decentralization is a bad plan. I don't care who did what... it was a bad plan. 'Nuff said.
I am grateful that Steemit is slowly clawing its way back towards it origins as a content creation platform with independent witnesses.
Meanwhile, it seems like some things never change: Steemit, Inc. (aka "Management") remains an enigmatic body of ???? that still never seems to communicate anything, with anybody.
Lessons Learned
I suppose lesson number one is a direct extension of the preceding: If something doesn't seem right, just be patient because it's likely to change! But it takes time...
Lesson number two — often disregarded by many of the early movers and shakers — just because we're on the blockchain and dealing with crypto doesn't magically "exempt" us from the bad behavior and sketchy nature of some human beings. There are idealists, fundamentally good people and scamming, cheating dirtbags everywhere! They are at your local pub... and on Steemit.
Lesson number three — no matter how much the people atop the "trending" feed may be getting for their posts, you're not 'OWED' a damn thing! You're not an employee here, and showing up doesn't entitle you to get paid!
Lesson number four — Always do your best and be patient. Steemit is no different from any other social media venue. "Mr. Beast" on YouTube didn't end up with 230 million followers just for showing up and throwing a couple of random efforts out there!
Lesson number five — Stick with it! In the early going, I also had posts I spent a couple of hours creating... and the result was that I ended up with 0.00! I could easily have said "This is STUPID!" and gone away. Don't be that person...
Lesson number six — Engagement matters! This may be my 1,922nd post on Steemit... BUT... I have also left close to 15,500 comments in the time I've been here.
Lesson number seven — Engagement matters! What I mean is, take the time to actually communicate with the author and the content you're commenting on. Just telling someone "nice pic" doesn't amount to a hill of beans!
Lesson number eight — Find your niche and do it well! It's impossible to please everyone, and when you try to do that, you typically end up pleasing everyone EXCEPT yourself. It's more important to just develop your own voice and trusting that it's right.
Lesson number nine — "Fishing" for whale votes is a waste of time. End of story. You will end up disappointed.
Lesson number ten — If you're "just here for the money," you're doing it wrong! I like rewards as much as the next person, but I am primarily here to keep my writing skills sharp, to share ideas, to connect with other people, to learn... and perhaps to teach... and to be part of a community. That I happen to get paid a bit here and there is just a cool bonus that allows me to gradually build a bit if a "savings account."
And so, I'm going to close the book on another year, and wrap up this post.
I have much gratitude to many people here; to numerous to mention... many have come and gone, a few are still still... and a few have even returned after lengthy absences.
It's much like a village... people come and go; there are births and deaths; some travel, some return.
Thanks to everyone who has been part of the journey!
How about you? How long have YOU been on Steemit? What have you learned? Are you happy with the experience?Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)
Created at 2024.01.29 19:40 PST
x687/1922*
Congratulations! You have travelled a long and above all sincere journey and you are still here. Then the Steem can't be as bad as the scumbags in the pub... ;-)
Your lessons speak to me from the soul, I'm just tired of “preaching“ them over and over again (in comments). Why should I?! Only experience teaches, even if it hurts sometimes. I'm quite happy about your summary... :-)))
Thank you @chriddi, I suppose all we can do is continue to do the right thing and set the example... and hope that the message reaches even just a few people!
I'm sure it is seen by a few. Like you said: We've seen so many users come and go - so this also just needs patience... ;-)
Congratulations! In this summer I will have my 7th anniversary here)
Thank you! You're definitely another of our "old timers."
😊
Congratulations on 7 years on steemit @denmarkguy , thanks for your informative great post.
Thank you @xpilar, always appreciate your support!
How about you? …
… How about you …
Yes I'm here again after a while on Blurt. I'm still here. You wrote
That's right! You found the words for what I am doing here. Yes, we are miners for coins. But from their beginnings people always are miners of hearts too. That's the melody of life and the coins beat the rhythm here. It is the mixture of both, what makes Steem a part of my life for so many years. And i always saw you, playing on this ground very easy. Not a reason for congrats, it's even not a reason for to think about. Steem is a part of our lifes. Nobody can deny.
I have tried Blurt as well, but I have just never found it to be with quite as much of a sense of community as there was on Steemit, perhaps because Steemit was the original and Blurt was essentially a copy.
Indeed, we are also all miners here in a way. I think one of the places where Steemit perhaps went wrong in the early days was with the heavy emphasis on people promoting that you could make hundreds and even thousands of dollars per post here. It did not necessarily attract the right type of people, and they had too high expectations.
After 7 years, Steemit is definitely a part of my life, and these days I think less about rewards and more about just participation.
Thanks @petface, I appreciate your kind words!
Congratulations on 7 years on Steemit
I think you get less time for murder in some countries LOL
Thanks! I'm pretty certain you're right about that... this is more fun, though!
Cheers to 7 years on Steemit! 🎉 Through ups and downs, it's been a journey of connecting with people and diving into their thoughts. Here's to 7 years of decentralized memories! 😊
🥳 🎉 🎊
Thank you. All in all, I'd say there has been many more positives than negatives.
Congratulations on this wonderful event in your life. Seven years, this is really history and gaining experience in working on the blockchain. I liked lesson #4 where you advise being patient and doing everything you can to perform well on the platform. Your post is a kind of book with useful tips and memories; this information will be of interest to literally all those who want to live and work on the Steemit platform. Thank you very much sir for your informative beautiful post. Good luck and all the best to you.
Thank you! I am glad you found the post informative and useful.
As always, it is my hope that some of the things I put out here can be of help to other people who have not been here as long. And yes, being patient is definitely one of the most important things you can do to succeed here.
There is a lot of "patience" in your text... ;-)) I'm glad you were able to show this - over seven years! Seven long years and may be seven more years ;-)))
I think it is easy for people to "lose their temper" and move on in frustration because they come to a difficult point.
To be honest, there have been more than one time when I have looked at this community and thought "this is just TOO MUCH to repair and make better" but I am still here... whale wars, bid bots, scammers, downvoters and whatever else we have had.
Thank you, friend!
I'm @steem.history, who is steem witness.
Thank you for witnessvoting for me.
please click it!
(Go to https://steemit.com/~witnesses and type fbslo at the bottom of the page)
The weight is reduced because of the lack of Voting Power. If you vote for me as a witness, you can get my little vote.
That was a long journey with many things to learn.
I won't say it was a smooth one, I can only say it was a successful one.
Congratulations on your 7 years on Steem and as one of the best writers in the blog!
Thanks for your kind words! It has definitely been an interesting experience, if nothing else!