Couch Discussion - Do Steemit Stats Still Matter?

Well Heckety Darn Yea they do! Ooops my bad, let me start off a little slower and quieter...

It was a big thing back then to post about your blockchain accomplishments. You’d see posts about follower gains ie. reaching 1000 followers, rises in reputation scores, SP holdings and fish rankings. Do people still posts about these milestones? Are they still important?

I remember joining Steemit in 2016 with a starting reputation of 25, the number most Steemians start out with. As I became fully active in 2017 I noticed Steemians with a rep of 60 and above and thought...

I look forward to having a rep of 60 one day but I’m sure it will take a lot of time and hard work.

Three years later I have a rep of 67 and I must say I’m proud of myself. I’m proud because I know it took many hours, days and months to continually write quality posts that others sought to upvote. I know that it took others with a higher reputation to invest in me by manually upvoting my work which caused my reputation score to rise. I am so grateful to those who have supported me and still are supporting me.

Then in 2018 I noticed that new Steemians were able to get high reputations pretty fast due to bot vote buying. I would see someone join and within just a few months they were already in the 40’s range. My reaction was like

WHAT?

It took me two years to get where I am and now people can join and get where I am in three months??!! Honesty it just made me more delighted in what I had accomplished because it was done organically through blood, sweat and tears making sure I created worthy content that others wanted to read.

This did cause some big debates and problems to rise because the reputation system was being questioned. Let’s look at the Oxford dictionary’s definition of reputation:

reputation -

• the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something.

• a widespread belief that someone or something has a particular habit or characteristic.

If someone who hasn’t been around the blockchain long is quickly gaining high reputation scores through bot voting, how could anyone accurately form an opinion about their character and habits? If we haven’t read enough of their posts and gotten to know them or even had the chance to vote on their work, is their reputation score fair and reliable?

When you see someone with a high reputation score you expect them to be engaging, influential, hard working (creating quality posts), supportive of the smaller fish, and to truly be reputable. Unfortunately it seems there are always ways to get around things and this causes certain systems to be questioned.

Regardless of all the concerns, having a good reputation matters to me. The fact that I worked hard to be where I am, creating original content and supporting other Steemians and groups with what I have speaks for itself. The fact that it took me three years makes it still matter to me.

By the year 2020 I was going to become a Dolphin. STOP, don’t even do it...I see what you’re up to. You’re about to check my account to see if I did it. No need to because I’ll tell ya right now it didn’t happen...YET! As long as I’m still breathing it can still come to pass lol!

I went from posting 4 to 5 times a week to only 1 to 2 times. After having my fifth child I decided to cut back and focus more on home, being a wife and mommy. If I weren’t homeschooling I would have more free time on my hands. For now I’m just glad I still get to spend time here and use posting and interacting as a relaxing getaway.

Of course posting less has caused my goal of becoming a Dolphin to get more miles away from me. If you don’t post you don’t earn rewards that raise your SP. Being in a leadership position also puts a halt on your plans because you want to make sure you are supporting others and making sure your community is running smoothly. I have no regrets in the time I have put in for the communities I serve. It’s all been very worth it and I have made some wonderful friendships from them.

Although it’s going to take longer than anticipated it’s still a goal that matters to me. I hope that by the time I become a Dolphin Steem has mooned and my vote will be enough to really help those in need of more support. I would love to see my vote put a smile on someone’s face and encourage them to keep writing quality content.

I also remember the follow for follow (F4F) era back in 2016/2017 when everyone just wanted some followers. You would see messages that went something like this:

If you follow me I’ll follow you back.

Hey great post I just followed you! Please return the favor and follow me back.

I’ll support you if you support me.

I admit I joined in on some of that too. I remember following several after they followed me and expected my returned commitment.

That’s the thing though. When you follow someone based on conditions or an agreement and not because you really enjoy their content, are you really going to be committed to supporting that person? It really takes the joy out of following people because you truly like what they post and want to support their work.

After awhile it died out and people began getting irritated if someone left a F4F in the comment section of their post. Actually it became looked upon as spam and people started getting flagged for it.

I recently started cleaning out my following list by removing some of those F4F deals because most of those people haven’t been active for a very long time. Also I wanted to make sure I am only following people I relate to, and who create content I enjoy reading and love supporting. I would rather people follow me organically rather than through a deal. The ones that follow you because they really want to are the ones that stick around for the long haul.

Having almost 2000 supporters means a great deal to me, especially when you start with none. I put a lot of hours in going from post to post interacting and commenting on other’s work and have been able to build some great friendships and connections.

Sometimes I glance at how many posts and comments I’ve made. Over the last three years I’ve submitted almost 500 posts, made 10,471 comments and replied 8,197 times. It’s always been important to me to reply back to comments, that’s when the beauty of interaction takes place. It’s no secret I like being here! 😁

So yes, Steemit stats still matter to me and I am proud of what I have accomplished here so far. My belief is if you like a platform and plan to stick around, you might as well contribute, enjoy it and make some goals to shoot for.

We don’t know what the state of Steemit will look like a year or two from now but I want to be around to find out. I would love to be sittin’ pretty on SP if it moons but either way I’m enjoying the ride because I still love being apart of it all!

Do Steemit Stats Matter To You?

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