_{With so many leaving due to reasons, I thought sticking around would be for the best.}

I don't want to be just another statistic.

^E

First, I said I needed to chill out.

^{Then, I said I needed to leave for a bit.}

Instead of leaving, I chilled out.

And it's working. Just doing my thing, focusing on me, all while hoping the better side of my personality rubs off on others, I guess. That negativity nonsense is contagious. Why would I want to make others sick?

That's a good start, right?

---

So much talk about retention lately. The latest, greatest, fad.

Let's write articles about retention, scratch our heads in confusion and argue about solutions all while blaming the platform itself instead of ourselves.

Yeah! That's a great idea! I'll get to work on mine right away!

Me too!

Me three!

Sigh

^{Please. Just do your part. Carry your weight.}

Why is it: When I look around, I'm constantly entertained?

Because, that's where I'm looking. I'm looking for posts and people who satisfy my own personal content consumption requirements, whatever those are.

Meanwhile

^{I create my own content.}

That simple action of creating content helps steer the eyes towards my direction. People are looking at this blog, sure, but they're also looking at the platform as they're seeing this blog. I've given them a reason to be here, just as those who produce their own stuff give me a reason to stay and look.

So why, oh why, is there so much focus and attention being spent on those who are not here?

Every single day there's a handful of new posts about the problems people have with those who are not here.

Wouldn't it help retention if we shifted our focus onto those who are here instead of those who are not?

^{The painfully obvious answer.}

Then the content police show up.

^{"Low quality content," they say.}

Why is it: I'm not seeing this low quality content?

Because, I'm not spending my days looking at the crap! I enjoy looking at what I'd consider to be entertaining content. That stuff gives me a buzz so I guess I'll call it high quality. Why not?

I don't know anyone who blames Youtube for providing poor quality content any time they see junk. There's far more shit posts on Youtube and even more crap on Facebook. The people spending time to comment complaints under those shoddy videos and bland status messages about having a weekend off (of all things) are anti-social bottom feeders. Losers. Plain and simple.

When you visit a Facebook group or community, do you see a whining complainer at the top of the page with the most likes?

You won't see someone blaming Facebook for the quality of the group either.

Why do I only get three likes on my post and I see others here getting 100?!?!

This place must be broken!

Sigh

^{Say something like that here.}

Hundreds more who share that same sort of demented mentality slither out of the cracks to agree, and of course the post is a paid promotion sent straight to the top of the mountain...

Sigh.

Meanwhile, back in reality land, there are thousands of us who produce and enjoy what we consider to be solid stuff.

Most days the place reminds me of a park where buskers are all setup to entertain. Everywhere you look, something to see, and many little containers to hold the money being dropped here, there, and everywhere.

The buskers in this park of ours can do whatever they want though. It doesn't have to be a musical performance. We have a woman, sitting on a bench, a small crowd gathers around, and all she's doing is telling a story about her life. Over on the hill, there's a man wearing a lab coat, sharing some knowledge. Under the tree, in the shade, someone takes a picture of a frog, and it's a nice frog, so they walk around the park showing off this picture of a frog. This park has something for everyone.

If someone walked into the park blindfolded, holding a megaphone, and started complaining about how there's nobody around and those who are here, suck; how long would that guy last before someone steps up to say, "Dude, shut the hell up. Get out of here."

One minute.

^Tops.

But if an army of these whiners with blinders on enter the park and commence cramming their narrative down the throats of everyone else, the buskers will leave because nobody can hear their sound over all of the noise.

I won't tell anyone here how to think or what to do. I do understand the differences between rationalized grievances and whining as well.

Personally, after being here this long, consistently busy producing my blog, accepting the contributions of others I come across... sigh

I think it's time to finally embrace the people and their contributions instead of turning a blind eye.

I know from experience, it's not easy to stick around after spending nearly two years of being indirectly told there's nothing to see here and nobody to look at.

It's 2018. Why can't I reach through my screen and shake some of these people?

Time to wake up!

^{Is retention truly an issue?}

I recently visited a few of the Facebook groups I'm a member of.

Thousands upon thousands of members in each group. Only a handful of them actually post. I didn't see thousands upon thousands of likes on those posts. It's always been like that.

This platform will have communities or groups soon as well. We will see the same results. Will we see a new set of whiners here to tell everyone how the new features are broken?

I hope not. It's annoying.

I just finished watching a Youtubers latest vlog. The video is four hours old. He has 268000 subscribers. So far this video has 17000 views and 3000 upvotes. A normal day there. He's not complaining. Tomorrow's another day.

Of course those numbers are higher than here. If you stand next to the freeway, you'll see more cars. This platform is still a road under construction. So what's the problem? Be patient. Each lane will be open soon enough and the road will eventually lead somewhere.

Some say this publishing tool is too difficult.

^Sigh

When I was six years old, my dad gave me a hammer and taught me how to pound a nail into wood.

I missed the nail on my first try. I'd hit the wood. I'd bash my fingers. I'd bend nails.

I didn't care though. I wanted to build my own fort, and the only way to do that is to learn how to use the tools first.

Some of those walls are still standing today. They wouldn't even be there today though if I had given up after missing the nail. The hammer wasn't defective or too difficult of a tool to master.

Learning is easy but if you're unwilling to put in the time and effort it takes to master something, that's your fault. Deal with it.

Have a nice day.

Credits: _{All images seen here were produced digitally, by me. "And that's how I feel about that."}

^{© 2018 @NoNamesLeftToUse. All rights reserved.}