Seven Years on Steemit — Some Steemversary Observations!

Greetings, world!

Today — being January 29th — marks the 7th anniversary of my arrival on Steemit! I must say that it has been an interesting and occasionally turbulent experience!

I Was Wrong!

In my very first post, I alluded to the fact that I had always had particularly bad luck with websites allegedly promising to reward participants for user-generated content. It was something like I had (at the time) been part of more than 50, and all except one had failed completely and gone away.

I more or less expected Steemit to go the same way, especially after I saw some of the rampant "system abuse" during the early days... or what some referred to as "rewards pool rape."

Here I am, seven years later... openly admitting that I was wrong. We're still here.

And I hope we will continue to be here, for many more years!

Yes, it IS Complicated!

This is not an easy venue to use. To be perfectly honest, it took me several days of just looking around before I even could figure out how to create my first post. I was terrified of losing my "keys," or using the wrong keys somewhere!

When you come here from a "log in with Facebook" environment, this feels like stepping 20 years back in time... back to where we all worried about "breaking" web sites, and the Internet itself. And I get why many people give up on Steemit as "too complicated and difficult to use."

I had the advantage of coming here not only with 20 years of online content creation experience, but also 15+ years of participating on "get paid to write" sites... which meant I also came with very realistic expectations. It is almost invariably "the nature of the beast" that a handful of people are quite successful, and everyone else is lucky to "make a few dollars."

As such, I had zero expectations that I would ever see any actual rewards!

I was wrong about that, too!

So MUCH Change; so MUCH Turbulence...

Ironically, just about the only thing that hasn't changed about Steemit is the interface! It looks pretty much the same as it did at the start... and that's actually strangely depressing in times where new web development literally fly by. But no matter...

I'm glad the "Whale Wars" of 2017-18 are over and gone.

I'm glad the "Bid Bot Battles" of 2018-19 are no longer a thing.

I miss the old SteemPeak interface... made Steemit so much easier to use. Is anyone building a new condenser from scratch? Anyone? @the-gorilla? And if someone did, could it even be implemented?

On the other hand, I'm very grateful that @steemchiller's awesome SteemWorld.org tool is still going strong!

I'm not going to linger on the infamous "fork" in early 2019. I'll just opine that attempting to centralize a decentralized venue heavily populated by anarchists and champions of decentralization is a bad plan. I don't care who did what... it was a bad plan. 'Nuff said.

I am grateful that Steemit is slowly clawing its way back towards it origins as a content creation platform with independent witnesses.

Meanwhile, it seems like some things never change: Steemit, Inc. (aka "Management") remains an enigmatic body of ???? that still never seems to communicate anything, with anybody.

Lessons Learned

I suppose lesson number one is a direct extension of the preceding: If something doesn't seem right, just be patient because it's likely to change! But it takes time...

Lesson number two — often disregarded by many of the early movers and shakers — just because we're on the blockchain and dealing with crypto doesn't magically "exempt" us from the bad behavior and sketchy nature of some human beings. There are idealists, fundamentally good people and scamming, cheating dirtbags everywhere! They are at your local pub... and on Steemit.

Lesson number three — no matter how much the people atop the "trending" feed may be getting for their posts, you're not 'OWED' a damn thing! You're not an employee here, and showing up doesn't entitle you to get paid!

Lesson number four — Always do your best and be patient. Steemit is no different from any other social media venue. "Mr. Beast" on YouTube didn't end up with 230 million followers just for showing up and throwing a couple of random efforts out there!

Lesson number five — Stick with it! In the early going, I also had posts I spent a couple of hours creating... and the result was that I ended up with 0.00! I could easily have said "This is STUPID!" and gone away. Don't be that person...

Lesson number six — Engagement matters! This may be my 1,922nd post on Steemit... BUT... I have also left close to 15,500 comments in the time I've been here.

Lesson number seven — Engagement matters! What I mean is, take the time to actually communicate with the author and the content you're commenting on. Just telling someone "nice pic" doesn't amount to a hill of beans!

Lesson number eight — Find your niche and do it well! It's impossible to please everyone, and when you try to do that, you typically end up pleasing everyone EXCEPT yourself. It's more important to just develop your own voice and trusting that it's right.

Lesson number nine — "Fishing" for whale votes is a waste of time. End of story. You will end up disappointed.

Lesson number ten — If you're "just here for the money," you're doing it wrong! I like rewards as much as the next person, but I am primarily here to keep my writing skills sharp, to share ideas, to connect with other people, to learn... and perhaps to teach... and to be part of a community. That I happen to get paid a bit here and there is just a cool bonus that allows me to gradually build a bit if a "savings account."

And so, I'm going to close the book on another year, and wrap up this post.

I have much gratitude to many people here; to numerous to mention... many have come and gone, a few are still still... and a few have even returned after lengthy absences.

It's much like a village... people come and go; there are births and deaths; some travel, some return.

Thanks to everyone who has been part of the journey!

How about you? How long have YOU been on Steemit? What have you learned? Are you happy with the experience?Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2024.01.29 19:40 PST
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