Thoughts from an airport
This is my 8th waiting room in the past 4 months. I´m not saying this as something good or bad but because I want to contextualize this piece of writing that, while it is not about any specific subject, it is about everything flowing through my mind during the past few days.
Maybe you didn´t notice, perhaps you did, but I haven´t written anything substancial for about a week; Yeah, I´ve been doing my contests in order to keep the support flowing towards the newer users but apart from that I haven´t brought anything interesting to the Steemit table.
And I don´t mind. Some users take Steemit as a full time job and altough this platform is my only source of income, and it has been for the past 9 months, I don´t consider posting an obligation or a must do.
There is nothing wrong if someone sets the goal of posting once a day, or 10 times a week or however they want to do it... hell, it makes no difference if they deem themselves a full time Steemian or not but, during the the past few days (or perhaps weeks), I have read a lot of rants from users that used to give the impression that they love Steemit but, it seems to me that the very essence that made other people love their content, is gone.
Without really knowing the truth and risking some negative critics, I can only attribute this rants to one single reason: They are seeing Steemit and blogging as a job, an obligation, a must... instead of taking Steemit, Steem and the blockchain as a plus, something we enjoy, a hobby that allows us to generate money in the form of crypto. Steemit is not a job, it´s a hobby that let´s all of us make money out of blogging... BLOGGING!! Isn´t that amazing!?
It is awesome that people can pay the bills with only Steem, in fact I have a lot of friends from different communities that manage to make a sustainable day-to-day life out of blogging and that is just plain awesome. But what happens if we as a community start to generally depend on crypto earnings? There is going to be people who maybe won´t make ends meet at the end of the month, and we are going to have rants about this. The hell, I have been very lucky the past months and I am getting nicer rewards than I ever thought would be possible - which is pretty much why I stopped posting daily, not because I can´t or I don´t have the inspiration or ideas, but because I think it would be greedy from me to post daily making +$150 in rewards... sometimes is nice to take a break and let other people get their share of the pie - but perhaps if I stopped earning these rewards, I would write a rant where my self entitlement perception of life would come afloat; luckily, I´ve only stated these rants with people close - or that used to be close to me - and gotten to a better understanding of our beloved Steemit.
I can only say one thing: Making Steemit our only source of income is hard and it takes balls to do it but, we know the posibilities that could derive from this decision. I know that at some point I can just stop earning rewards and puff, I end up back to where I started - hopefully a bit wiser - but I promise I will try my best to not make a rant.
To be critic and real, honest and direct: A well written post criticizing the platform is received as something that can build a better Steemit, on the other hand, a rant falls on deaf ears and it only builds up negativity and defensive positions towards and from our fellow steemians.
That´s all, plain and simple. To explain our point in a civil way can do wonders... to rant about certain subject will take us nowhere and we will only tire ourselves.
Moving onto another subject...
The Steemit burnout syndrome
I think we´ve all had this one at some point, some more frequently than others, some deeper than others... well, if you´ve been here for more than 3 months, then you´ve felt it.
Let me tell you something: There is nothing wrong with that. Sometimes we take Steemit so seriously that we forget that we have a life outside the computer. If you feel like you are taking you Steemcomittment too far from sane standards, take a few days off.
I know I´ve done it. And I´ve done it with 20 dollars in my pocket in a Country I´m not from. I know people who´s done it even when they stop earning big money from blogging and autovotes. There is nothing wrong with taking a few days off and putting things into perspective... believe me, it works.
Another though...
I read a post about a girl who posted about suicide and improving her life, I know it got flagged by our Grumpy friend, I read the post about this set of doings and I left a comment in her post letting her know about my support and how she can always reach up to me for support... I don´t think I got a reply, perhaps she didn´t read it or maybe she thought I was being condescending... I´m not sure but I want to reach out to anyone who is reading this:
If you have a post that you think deserves nice rewards - but really, a good post, a post from the heart, written in the middle of the night with tears in your face - feel free to send it to me on Steemit.chat (@anomadsoul) or over discord (#8841 @anomadsoul). Do not pay for votes to reward these kind of posts where you expose your inner secrets, where you tell us about your life achievements and circumstances that changed your life...
Send it to me. Those posts written from the soul deserve organic votes... I know I have written them and luckily I´ve gotten some organic support towards them, so feel free to send me a DM. I can put on trending a post at least for a few minutes and you don´t have to pay me anything to vote big on your heart exposing post.
My plane is about to board
I want you to know that I´m still a minnow with just a big delegation that can end any moment now, and I know how hard it is to get support some time (I haven´t forgotten), so do not hesitate to hit me on discord or steemit.chat from time to time and send me deep posts, I assure you I will read it and vote accordingly.
Pardon me about my post editing and perhaps some typos that you may find within the post, I am writing this on my cellphone and you know what? I don´t like it but sometimes inspiration hits you in the weirdest of place and word keep flowing. Feel free to discuss any subject here and please, DO NOT take this personally, I´ve been speaking with a lot of people about all of this subjects and read a fuckton of posts about these topics, so I´m not directing this post to anyone in specific, I am *ranting* about my thoughts about this delicate subjects... well,l I hope this is not taken as a rant, it is a post written from within trying to put myself in your shoes and trying to give advice the best way I can: Being crude and direct.
SteemBirds Video Comment for @anomadsoul
This is lovely
LOL, this is awesome!
Wow I wasn´t expecting this, you can rhyme very easily like, this probably took minutes for you to come up with it, record it and upload it, you rock guys.
Haha epic as always guys!!
As someone who's read a lot of rants and sometimes written a few of my own, mostly about stuff happening on the platform than about myself, I agree with your view on them. They do bring a lot of negativity but they might also change someone's perspective on things.
I've wanted to stop posting for some time now, focusing mostly on curating is what I've been wanting to do but seeing how a lot of rewards are being siphoned and leeched out of the rewardpool which more often end up outside the platform is what has made me stay active with posting as well. During the SBD spike I saw so many Steemians just lose it and go on posting sprees, especially those that used to post once or twice a day and had some autovoting support started posting 8-10 times a day and the amount of self-votes was heartbreaking in my eyes.
I do understand that people wanted to make the most out of the spike that no one could explain or tell how long it would last, but I felt that many Steemians lost a lot of dignity at the same time. Especially those that kept on self-voting like crazy even though most of their rewards were from other sources and then topping it off with never buying any Steem or powering it up with those rewards felt like I couldn't just sit by and watch everyone just go ahead and do so. I expected there to be more policing, more people telling them to calm down but it never happened. Many seem to forget that we all share the same rewardpool, when you earn a lot more either through autovotes, posting more often or buying votes it means that there are other authors who rely on organic votes that are making a lot less than they used to.
I promised myself to post a few more times a day but to watch the amount of self-votes I would cast. I couldn't just sit by and let this opportunity to power up with the SBD go by and just let the majority which at the time were not powering up do their thing and now that SBD is cooling off I am glad that I did cause it means once the delegations are gone and the SBD is back to it's peg I will be able to continue curating users which I believe deserve rewards more than others better with my stake.
I know that my decisions have indirectly made a lot of other users earn less since my post rewards have increased but I just couldn't sit idly by and let the "abusers" make the most of it. I've also told many other authors that I know are here for the long run to post more actively and earn their stake, especially smaller authors I've tried to encourage them to self-vote more and not care about that too much for now while this SBD spike was going on as it was a good way for them to increase their stake. Better them than those just moving value out of the platform.
Anyway, been meaning to post about this but your post made me want to say my thoughts on the matter even though it was not completely relevant.
Hope you had a nice vacation. ^^
I can get behind that idea, rants can create some consciousnes towards certain subject but as you say, they have to be on point to make it through the defensive mind state of some users.
I remember we spoke about the rewards a few weeks ago and I want to clarify that this is totally on point, if you are keeping the coins inside the platform and powering up, I think even more rewards should go to you (this is something that people don´t understand, the more we sell SBD, the more we unbalance the supply and demand and lower prices) so yeah, using you as an example, Im pretty much powering up arounf 75% of my rewards :D
Those people lost a lot of respect and credibility but we as humans tend to forget and forgive very quickly and easily... If only some of the autovotes stopped going the way of people powering down, people abusing the rewards and people who overposted during the golden days of SB being+10 well...
I think you know this but well, whenever I feel like I´m might be straying from the good path I ask for your opinion, so I guess you already know that I am more than ok with you posting a bit more than usual, because it was for the best reason, community building. I don´t feel bad about my rewards and no one that is powering up should, I just felt that for some people I may not deserve all of them (cause I just started to work towards the community, not like you or other OG steemians) so it was just a statement, but Im still going to try to post once a day (but wont feel obligued).
Thanks for this thorough comment, I really appreciate to read your take on this matter, especially because I probably would have asked you anyway :P
The trip was cool, not like I intended but was ok :D
There’s probably a point where an account is sufficently stocked and you probably no longer need to self vote... that’s the point when ur responsibilities as a user change, u probably have enough steem lol and you should probably be using ur vote to help grow other users and not applying it too much to ur own blogs (which likely have sufficent support too).
There is yes, the SBD spike has changed all that lately though, posts give you a much bigger opportunity to increase your stake than before. There's been a lot of talk about the curation rewards lately and SBD not being pegged sure hasn't helped that aspect.
I'm hoping SBD will go back down to the peg soon so other curators and authors will get more selfless with their voting. Vote-collusion on the other hand is a whole other issue, people seem to want to vote trade instead of leasing out their SP so they end up as if they were self-voting 100% daily. This has decreased the amount of organic curation on the platform by a lot.
I see what you mean. It's certainly a double edged sword.
On the positive note for the new user, they can instantly make greater rewards than when i started. My first post made 0.17 cents initially and paid out 0.00$ lol.
On the other hand, my friends who have finally joined (past couple weeks) after much encouragement have made like 10-20$ on their first posts which is really apporx 5 times that.
I'm betting that If they had made 17 cents well...lol I believe that the spike is partly responsible for keeping a lot of new users on steemit which is ultimately good.
I guess what I'm trying to say is: I believe the difference is in what you do with it all. And unfortunately bc of Steemit's decentralized nature, ppl are free to do whatever they want....The larger accounts might be getting greedy instead of thinking ahead to the fact that if they help grow the new users base instead of trying to get more Steem (when they probably have enough) they would ultimately be helping to drive the price up and popularity of the coin which would be way more profitable for them lol.
I'm with you in some sense tho, I hope the spike doesn't last too long. I'm just appreciating it right now more than I'm worried about the abusers in the short term I guess. I'm not going to be able to stop them currently, however I can at least make a bit of a difference using my little influence as I see fit right!?
Some direct result of the spike for me has been growing the shit out of my SP and in turn being able to reward all the entries for "Steemit Sandwich Contest" with post rewards even if they don't win. Furthermore, for a few months I was able to dish out 25 Steem or more in prizes per/week.
Hello @acidyo
I totally agree with some of the issues you raised here. And that's human beings for you - greedy and ruthless. There is a threshold to how much greed could define a man. Unfortunately, while very few thinks like you, thousands think the greed way. And that's very unfortunate. There are lots of hardworking Steemians with quality contents who don't earn 3sbd in a week and the fortunate few, out of sheer greediness, are bent on moving out hundreds of sbd per day.
You're only a human sir, you did what you have to do, and I don't think anyone could have stood idly and watch while events unfold before their eyes.
On sbd being pegged at 1$,...i think this is the best decision developers of Steemit Inc should take a serious stand on. Otherwise steem risks being rendered worthless by frequent hike in the price of sbd.
@eurogee
The good thing about the price of Steem is that the higher it is the more SBD is printed daily pushing the price further down. So eventually it should go back down to it's peg. The worrying thing is that there are some noob traders out there placing thousands of $ into it without knowing what it is or that it won't reach the prices they are hoping for, it could cause them to at some point dump all their SBD after they realize what it is and cause a short term price of SBD to be under $1. I'm sure there will be a lot of traders wanting to get back into SBD if it goes under $1, though so it's primarely just the ones pouring in money into it now that will be losing out.
The good thing about this is that it is giving those who trust the platform and the currency Steem to succeed in the long run a chance to increase their stake faster than those just dumping it for something else. The bad thing is that it has disincentivized most of the platform to curate properly and instead self-vote to the max.
I have to say it has been hard to remain at the current self-voting I'm at, I believe it has been at around 10-12% in the last 3 months seeing so many others collude and self-vote. I am glad I've made some good trades though placing it all on Steem when SBD was so high and profiting from Steem going up as well, wish many others had done the same.
What an educative response....
Thanks for exposing this truth to me... Really an eye opener. Grateful for this.
@eurogee
What else can I say. This post right here, people like @anomadsoul, @acidyo, @guyfawkes4-20, many of the @ocd crew and other good minded people and community are what is giving Steemit the edge. It is not just about making money but how we make the cash, so much love been shown to someone on a computer many rivers away without expecting any return. I don't know if it was because everything around me here is fucked up, but the human I have seen, felt behind my keyboard is so much more and better than I have felt from people I have had contacts with in real world. Steemit is not just a way of making money...Steemit is a movement of love and humanity.
Many of us tends to take steemit commitment too far, all because of where we are coming from. Putting myself out as an example, a university graduate with very 'little' chance of getting a decent job. Plus you can make the salary of a teaching job you will still struggle or beg to get with a single decent rewarding post on steemit. You can understand why some people are overcommitted.
Even at that, there is need to apply moderation to everything. I have heard people here admitting they addicted to steemit and they love the addiction. I used to feel like that too before realising that no matter the situation of things, there is more to life than and outside Steemit. No addiction is completely good. There is need to explore other sides of life. I wrote a post about. It is 8 days old now but you can check it here
I believe the major cause of steemit burnout is over commitment. Not exploring other sides of life other than our computer will leave us physically and especially mentally drained.
I like the fact that you have a good habit of living and exploring life. And that is my dream kind of lifestyle - to travel and see new people, new culture and so on while still working. My earnings currently can't afford Me that but I believe that dream will come true soon.
And again I will love to be part of @ocd projects, @sndbox and any other project that will allow me the chance to grow more while contributing to the community.
Keep doing what you doing as you have people learning from you and following your footsteps.
Cheers.
Some of our realities are so far from each other... for a mexican, a venezuelan, a nigerian or a filipino, making good rewards out of steemit can actually help you pay the rent... for a german, a finnish or an argentinian its not even enough to make $20 on each post... I understand what you are saying man and why people have so much commitment, but sometimes, as with any job, it is nice to take a break.
The dream can come soon, you would be amazed how cheap it is to travel in central america or south east asia. Set a goal and you will meet it if you work hard (without overworking :P )
Thanks so much for dropping by and commenting my friend.
Enjoy your journey brother and yes it is your journey and unfolds for you in your reality. Whether your posting a dozen times a day or once a month it's your journey as well. Great points you've made and some should heed the warnings and become more humble to the realm of steemit. I hope the flight was enjoyable with good company a drink or two followed by some more than likely much needed shuteye. Take care brother and I'll see you here on our ever thriving, entangled steem journeys..........
Hello fellow sndboxer @anomadsoul sir,
Some of the points you raised here speak volume of your generosity and numerous acts if kindness towards other Steemians!
I respect you for this @anomadsoul. Your type is really what this world deserves at every level of leadership. Not greedy pillagers ravaging our commonwealth all over the word; and even here on Steemit.
May God bless you for always thinking out of box in care of your fellow human being.
@eurogee of @euronation community
Hey man! How is it going?
I know there are a lot of other steemians who think like me, and some of the sndbros would do the same in my fortunate position... it is just about sharing man, sharing is caring.
See you around the sndbox my friend!
You have a point sir.
You are right @anomadsoul
Some times we get too committed on the steemit blockchain that we forget we have a life outside the steemit blockchain. Break may be needed some times to create a balance.
It's painfull sometimes when a post is written from the heart and don't get the reward expected, this is what makes many abandon steemit for alternatives but we can grow better if we have people like you supporting these posts.
I mean I am committed and I take it very seriously, but I don´t take this a job you know man? That´s the difference, I am having a lot of fun by doing this.
I understand the feeling, when I started I was spending 4-5 hours per post and it got to a few cents but I know that is how it should be, starting is not easy especially because we are competing with thousands of other people doing the very same and wanting the same rewards!
You are right sir
To starting is not easy but with hard work and dedication, It sure becomes fun.
We are still very early in the life of this platform and this blockchain, as communities develop I think we won't see rants of that type about earning because we will be supported by our communities (hopefully).
You are among the select few here that are so transparent and direct; and I think this is more than inspiring for other people starting out. Keep it up :)
I am really looking forward for the role that communities will have within the steemcosystem, but as everything everywhere, it has to have backing and that backing will come only from stakeholders, so we will have well supported communities as well as low to no support communities.
Well, transparency and striving to be the best version i can be are my main motors, not everytime I get to do it but at least we try ^^
Good stuff. I have delt with Steem burnout and sometimes I find myself forcing a break from here just to get my voting power back up.
I have seen a lot of what your talking about. I equate it to personal growing pains, as well as platform growing pains. I do give much more heed to the less rant driven and more thought out complaints or addresses of grievances.
I have thought about what it would be like to become a full time steemian as they say, and I don't have the following of the motivation it takes. One whslevote going away from the full time steemian equates to a decent paycut. Living post to post and not paycheck to paycheck sounds even harder, like you are placing too much trust in others to keep yourself going. Nothing against those who try though.
To me this I'd more civil then a rant. Safe flight man, im glad we have you on this platform. I made a challenge for people to share their most profound life lesson. You should take part if you get time between your travels. Or just read some of the entries and show them some love :) . I would say they all mostly qualify as pouring their hearts out!
Nothing wrong with being burnout, altough I try to avoid it at all costs, sometimes it is worth it. I stopped working a 9-5 just because of stress and burnout syndrome so I avoiding it like the plague but that doesn´t mean everyone should... but sometimes people don´t want to be burnout but they end up like that because of the insane goals and objectives they set for themselves :(
I gotta tell, there are only like 50 full time steemians who are not whales and yet their rewards can allow them to live like that... while there are thousands of those who Steemit is a bonus at the end of the month... to really resign to that monthly paycheck is hard, really hard.
I will definitely check it out man, that sounds like a good contest.
It seems like a lot of time on your hands while waiting around at the airport got you thinking. Very interesting, lots of people around you at this vey moment yet you found solitude ... or you found yourself for a while there.
That is something I like and admire about you as a writer. You are not afraid to look into yourself and to talk about yourself and what goes on with you. You are open, and i bet it helps you be such a good writer. You are also honest and you speak up. Not everyone can do that. That is a very special quality!. I hope you never change that about yourself.
From all the contests and from things that you do like this( telling people to not be afraid pf sharing their stuff with you) i take it that you are also veey kind and sensitive. How nice is that, dude!? .
Thanks a lot for being so genuine! The world needs more people like that! Congratulations!
It is aways good to put things on perspective. Our lives can change on a split of a second and it could be for good or bad... we sometimes feel like we have control of things but we really don’t. So we better appreciate where we are standing right now.. Steemit is wonderful and even though it has a lot of potential it might not last forever. So we have to act wisely.
I know, I spent like 10 hours in a bus and then 2 hours at the airport, so this piece was product of those 10 hours thinking haha. Tbh sometimes I ignore everything around me, it is kind of a jerk move because I really just stop paying attention to everything and focus on my task - sometimes people around me get annoyed by this lol -.
Introspective and looking at myself in a critical way are two top reasons for me to write as I write, I like the fact that you noticed that.
Well you never know, perhaps I´m nice because I want followers (someone said that to me lol) or maybe I´m nice because a lot of people were nice to me when I joined... who knows :P
Thanks for dropping by and leaving such a nice comment Kat.
haha! I bet it seems like you are a jerk to other people. It happens to me when i am writing a song, if i don't concentrate and ignore people i might lose the idea and lose the inspiration and ruine the song . People don't get how important it is to me. So they think i am being rude, i am not trying to, but i have my priorities haha!
Yes, it shows that it is a big reason for why you write the way you do . You analyze yourself a lot. Ergo, you know yourself and understand yourself well too . Not many people do. Very interesting. It's like you have the behavior of an artist .
very interesting way of putting it. Only you must know the real reason why you are nice to your followers... haha! either reason is valid, and understandable, however, only the second one shows genuineness. The first reason though, shows a mastermind who is way ahead of everything! haha!
You are very welcome, it is my pleasure to read your stuff.
Oh but I AM a jerk :P I agree, we all have our rituals and our reasons :)
Well, I could be selfish and still make a lot more of what im making, perhaps you can deduce which one is it :)
I understand that feeling and I have felt it, but even so i miss reading your adventures.
Also I can't post anything i haven't enjoyed and I post it to share with the people and i treasure most those comments that came from the soul, those that reflect that the reader cares. They can be private or public but they are definitely better than any $$$ reward.
Somehow i feel that recently steemit has returned to that melancholic blue it used to have. Don't know why...
Wish you a safe journey compadre!!
Lol ya sé, a veces quiero escribir de aventuras pero como que se presta mas para posts de este tipo, aunque creo que debo regresar a las raíces pronto!
Exacto, si un comentario se ve que esta dedicado al tema de la persona y se ve que leyó y le interesó, siempre es bueno votarlo y responder!
Saludos compadre!