Where is Everyone? (The End of Steemit)

_{Aretha Franklin's funeral, lolz}

So, I haven't been on Steemit in about two months. I apologize mostly to those who liked seeing my comments on things and looked forward to my little $0.02 upvotes. I got this job, then school started back, I've been a VIP at a film premiere, and I was booked to play at this big festival, which is crazy exciting!

Here's the deal.

Steemit has issues. Lots of them. If I'm honest, I don't even know what half of the issues are. Mostly it's my friends at Write Club that complain about Steemit.

And they found new refuge in Medium.

Medium is a lot like Steemit, but it's more user friendly, it's based in real money v.s. crypto currency, and you can earn on your posts for the rest of your life if you want. You also retain all your rights and can edit any time you want, even after seven days (I think). So, of course, they all wanted to go there.

Medium looks great. It has a great interface, and professional publications running the place, but it's new. It's something I would have to reinvest in and find new friends, which I'm horrible at.

I like it better here.

I think I got bogged down from trying to run around and upvote everyone and comment and was spending a lot of time per day doing so. It was like endless homework. But I love this community (the ones you can find, anyways). I love the drive, the commitment, and the legitimately good work that people put here.

I miss it.

I don't know if I'll be coming back, honestly. Maybe this post is the start of another six month run, and I'll post all my depressing poetry and life updates and some short fiction for my peeps to see. That'd be cool! But I can't promise anything.

One of my favorite things about Steemit kind of died. The Writer's Block was my home away from home, and I felt pushed to be a better writer alongside other great writers. I love Negativer and Tiny and Jayna and Rhonda and all the other folks I met there (there are way more, I just can't list them which is namely why I didn't do the @ for them :P ).

But the Writer's Block fell apart.

It's still there, but a lot of my friends left and it leaves me wondering how many actually considered me their friend back. And I don't have a great answer for that. I don't know. This is all online stuff. I've been at this for, like, a year, and I still don't understand a lot of it.

I thought I had somewhere I belonged.

Steemit is dying. I think seeing wonderful groups like the Writer's Block implode is some weird symptom of that. You can't really make decent money on here anymore, and I may get 40 upvotes but only 5 people who actually read the article.

Steemit has helped me spread my art. It's gotten me a little more recognition for my music and a lot of internet presence. There's nothing I could do, honestly, to repay this community back. I've got my $0.02 upvote. I've got my time.

And most of all, I have you.

Please don't die on me, Steemit. Or, if you do, have a fun funeral.

Thanks,

-Caleb