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🐬 I was a Dolphin, but when I got laid off last year I had to power down a lot of what i had which was over 11,000.00 SP! Im now around only 600.00 because the posts pay out crap! And it takes all my money that does come in now and what little bit I power down each week just to try and trend my post by using bots which usually doesn't work anyways , so I end up loosing money instead! And if I don't use bots my posts pay out usually less then 1.00 !
🐳🐬its really sad to see that the veterans like me that started here over 2 years ago get no support at all from the Whales and even less support from Dolphins because they are all leaving for the same reasons I mentioned! Both my sons have pretty much left too. Making only pennies a post gives zero incentive to stay or try to make better posts. I have tried so many different ways and nothing works, its hopeless really, and nobody seems to care enough to do anything about it, Especially the whales, they should be upvoting the veterans and showing support for their commitment to this platform and all the help we have given to the minnows goes unrecognized !
End Of Rant! I am tired just home from working the night shift, and going to sleep, good night!😴😴😴
Glad to see your getting this out! upped and resteemed for more to see!

This is really disheartening!

Unfortunate, but true. People get discouraged when they produce high quality content and the results are paltry. So they spend their time on other endeavors.

I start to feel it myself... and I've been barely half a year around and am nothing but a small minnow. Breathing and still trying my best.

Yes it is , thank you @drakos for your support! its the first opportunity I have had to really say whats going on here on Steemit, and I thank you for that 💕😀 Change is needed for sure!

@drakos & @karenmckersie,

I am in the process of publishing a Series of Articles explaining why Steemit is broken and how to fix it. Steemit's problems are systemic and entirely predictable. The solutions to such problems are relatively simple and easy to implement.

Winston Churchill once said that, "People get the government they deserve." By extension, I would argue that Steemians get the Steeemit they deserve.

There's an awful lot of complaining on this blockchain, exceeded only by the ubiquitous presence of empty platitudes. All-but-absent, however, is the will to fix what is self-evidently wrong. But ah ... we marinate in the Utopian dream of anarchists: No Rulers, No Rules ... just glorious chaos.

I look forward to your comments on said articles. And, given your respective number of Followers, your ReSteeming them would be helpful as well.

Here's the first two in the Series (I published them ahead of schedule given that the subject-matter became relevant given the Banfield incident. Be sure to read through the comments, especially on the 2nd post). The next articles will deal with the systemic problems/solutions effecting post-payouts :

https://steemit.com/steemit/@quillfire/jerry-banfield-down-voting-and-freedom-of-speech

https://steemit.com/steemit/@quillfire/down-voting-as-censorship-a-series-about-fixing-steemit-part-2

Quill

Great comment! thanks for the links I will check them out soon, I just got back from out of town for 2 days and just checking here quick on steemit. need to shower etc, but will be back soon! 😀

@karenmckersie,

"The Canadians Are Coming!"

I say, "Let Steemit tremble."

Quill :-)

Agreed!👍👍👍✌😀💕

Especially the whales, they should be upvoting the veterans and showing support for their commitment

You're making a wrong assumption here, pal. This is called circlejerk AND it is still flourishing in this pathetic place.

Yes! theres that too!😀👍👍👍

The problem ist hat Steemit.inc doesn't delegate to projects like @curie or any others that try to bring upgreat content and reward valuable Steemians!

Yes that too! there seems to be a lot of problems that nothing gets done about, and we just stop trying too hard to put out quality stuff unless we have a lot of steem to send bots to it .😀

🐳🐬its really sad to see that the veterans like me that started here over 2 years ago get no support at all

I feel for ya sis!

Awe thank you @kid4life ! 👍💕✌

I’ll be honest, my hopes of becoming a dolphin have pretty much vanished. There was a tiny glimmer of hope when I was able to post every day, but even then, growth was happening veeeery slowly for me. I’m really hoping to get back to a regular schedule eventually, but I’m also beginning to look at other options to diversify my “online portfolio.”

Truth be told, I really like dolphins (at least the handful I’ve interacted with). They have a lot of the pull and experience of whales, but they haven’t grown so big that they fail to see the little guys coming up behind them.

I try to be optimistic about Steemit’s future, but with the widening gap between minnows and whales (not too dissimilar to America’s pay gap), me hope fades a little each day. I like to the Dolphins represent the middle class, and a dying middle class is never a good sign.

That being said, I have no plans of abandoning ship. I may not know a lot about the finer workings of crypto, but I know bailing when things are rough is bad for everyone.

I have posted 300 days in a row which results in 600 posts in total. I have 2000 Steem Power, for a content creator, Steem is absolutely depressing.

(still better than blogging tho which by the way became way more lucrative thanks to Neds delegation to Steempress).

Fact is, I haven't seen 1 person here on Steem that became a Dolphin by creating content, and that will drive many Minnows away.

Dolphins leave because they do not make profits here it is really that simple.

If I would have had invested 10K USD into this platform I would still have to post another 300 days in a row if the price of Steem and SBD stays the same, that is a shitton of hard work which I haven't seen anyone else besides me put in.

You can also go the passive money making route, but that only degenerates Steem (Votebuying, Bitbods, etc.) and I don't think that leads to big cash because many dolphins, orcas and whales have left.

Add to that the Spread on all the exchanges & scams and you have people quitting Crypto entirely.

Most people simply don't have what it takes to make a large amount of money. And most people come here for the money, when they realize it ain't easy to make they quit.

That is due to people overhyping steem.

Fact is, I haven't seen 1 person here on Steem that became a Dolphin by creating content, and that will drive many Minnows away.

Meet me :) bought 1k earned 5k in a bit more than a year here.

People expect too much when they first come here and get discouraged when they dont get hundreds of dollars on their posts. My advice to those kinds of users is to get back to Facebook and other platforms who were paying them so much to post there.....

Get your shit straight people and stop feeling so entitled to getting rewards.

Meet me :) bought 1k earned 5k in a bit more than a year here.

Impressive!

People expect too much when they first come here and get discouraged when they dont get hundreds of dollars on their posts. My advice to those kinds of users is to get back to Facebook and other platforms who were paying them so much to post there.....

This should be a notification for every user for a year in the bottom right corner : )

Do you have Discord Runicar? I would be happy if you join my server and chat with me!

https://discord.gg/VRSaB9y

Steam gets most of em'...noting worth having in life comes by easily

You can also go the passive money making route, but that only degenerates Steem (Votebuying, Bitbods, etc.) and I don't think that leads to big cash because many dolphins, orcas and whales have left.

Nail on the head. A lot of lazy damn speculators

Totally agree!😀

My feed dies a little every week. It is my own fault for not going out and adding new people in. This place does tend to chew and spit people out. They hit the wall of trying post x amount of times per day or week and its game over.

While there is a need for a bigger middleclass right now we just need people not so depressed. Many seem to have given up and taking their few cents with them.

I don’t even want think how many people you have grown up with here that are no longer around. Just a little minnow like myself I’ve lost so many in just over the year I been here.

I use to have such fun times laughing the night away and helping people. Almost all long gone. No more having a friend dropping into a few month old blog of mine and just leaving me some friendly comments to say high as we have a conversion about what ever. No more chatting to the point we don’t notice we are not even in one of each other’s blogs and some poor guy now has 10-20 comments that are 100% not related or even towards that person.

Just lots of busy people left trying and hoping to make it past this storm.

I still have a few places where I try and have a laugh and a good time. They just seem to be harder to find. Many places I use to stalk for leaving comments on are now just cobwebs.

I just think its a great time to try and build something right now. When the masses return because of price and not passion they will see what they have missed out on. Blame the system for not loving them anymore for leaving and leave again.

I was expecting spring and summer to be lower points than the rest of the year. I could just tell people could not wait to get outside of their homes and go on an adventure. I even took the opportunity to do a little bit of rebranding of myself and further focused on more of one kind of content over another.

This week, in particular, many are on vacation it seems. Even then they still are logging in to make quick updates. Share a photo or two and even more. When it comes to something like this people tend not go cold turkey for 2 weeks or months. They just reduce the number of hours they spend on the site. A lot less commenting and other stuff and just shorter life posts.

I have noticed a trend for a while now and it started before even spring. Someone would go missing for weeks or months on end. They would come back. I’d try and welcome them back (I understand life gets in the way and you got to do what you must.) They will make a post or two. Then a rant amount things not going as they imagined it would be. They disappear again and maybe come back a few more times. After a while, for some, I stop opening my arms wide to give them a welcome back hug.

Many times when someone goes missing for a while almost no one even notices. I try and somewhat be a caring person and leave them a comment. Sometimes someone is just struggling and really just needed that little push to get back into the swing of things. With many after posting for a year sometimes a few times a day they just ran out of ideas finally. That never too hard to fix I just have to point to some trend or content and they now have something to write about again. Other times I’ll just tell them to go out and comment for a few days. That best way to break any writer's block.

I tend to be the last comment on a few peoples old blogs. Many were like a friend to me after all. If I went missing I would hope someone would do the same. Having those kinds of people in your life here makes a big difference. Far too many try and go it alone.

Even in the few months I’ve been here I’ve seen a decrease. Hoping it’s just “summer”

hi @enjar

let's be friends...like 4 like ?

Dolphins are legally protected in Australian waters, but in Japan, Peru, the Solomon Islands and the Faroe Islands, dolphins and other small whales (such as porpoises and pilot whales) are hunted and killed inhumanely to supply aquariums and for their meat. Over a million have been killed in hunts in the past 70 years in Japan alone.
Taiji

International bodies such as the International Whaling Commission (IWC) provide some protection for large whales (such as humpbacks), but do not regulate "small type" whaling (dolphins are in fact small whales). This means that there is no international policeman to prevent countries killing an unlimited number of small whales.

In Japan, where the largest hunts occur, thousands are slaughtered each year. Many of these - up to 16,000 annually in recent years - are porpoises killed at sea by harpoons along Japan's northern coast.

The largest hunts currently taking place, on which AFD's campaigns are initially focussed, are in the coastal town of Taiji, where around 1,500 dolphins and pilot whales are killed annually. Although they are not as well known, the Taiji hunts actually kill many more whales (including dolphins) than Japan's Antarctic whaling programme.

Very off-topic, but good information.

Wow, it's a new level of a retarded, low-effort stolen post. I'm actually impressed!

@drakos i have to thank you a lot because you helped me to become a red fish- minnow and i know something for sure! i will never quit steemit and i will not power down, with these upvotes we can help the people !!

You've read my mind with this one! After checking some of my old posts to see who voted and stuff ( being curious since its more than a year now ) and pretty much everyone who supported me back then are

completely powered down and left, others have become less active but their stake is still intact.

something in that fashion. Weird...

In my opinion, these bid-bots screwed everything over, people who hold a bunch of sp sell their vote and make money that way, no need to curate around ...

However, the dolphins who constitute a bigger population than whales are decreasing!

prenos.jpg

No comment.

Enjoy your day @drakos!

Why are they leaving? Simple. Crap posts get rewarded and good content get crap rewards. Do you really wanna stay here knowing 1 pic-posts or 1 sentence-posts get hundreds of dollars in rewards?

It's interesting to hear that, from the perspective of someone who's been here a while. I just thought the platform, in general, had been losing countless once-engaged users. Figured it must have something to do with the down-turn in crypto-markets.

Let's hope retention, overall, improves. Lest we find ourselves swimming in an increasingly sparsely populated ocean.

ganges-sunrise-2.jpg

...

I thought so too, most dolphins who helped me in my earlier days here are no longer active.
I guess people don't believe in steem as much as they used to.