My fellow Steemians,
I have had a bit of a rocky history with Steemit. When I was first convinced to join two years ago, people were showing me Jeff Berwick’s famous introduction post that earned him $15k. People told me that because my online following was bigger, I could make even more money on Steemit. By then I had already been demonetized and censored so much on YouTube and Facebook, I was ready for an alternative. At first I was skeptical. It seemed like it had to be too good to be true.
But because of my support for blockchain technology in general and enthusiasm for decentralized social media (anyone else remember Diaspora?) I jumped in anyway. I put a lot of thought and effort into my Steemit introduction post and boy was I pissed off when I made only a tiny fraction of the money that Berwick earned with his. “Holy shit, life is unfair, and Steemit is even more unfair!”
I wish I could say that my ego has no sway over me, but when it takes a beating like that, it certainly can influence me! One of my good friends and someone whose opinion I value highly, John Light, told me it was a kind of pump and dump scheme and I wouldn’t want to be associated with it. I don’t want to be an expert on blockchain technology so much as a cheerleader for it. I want to focus on waking people up and spreading a message of peace, love and freedom. Blockchain and cryptocurrencies are a huge part of that, but I don’t need to be an expert to convince people to embrace them.
I was really torn. I wanted it to be true, but the unfairness of it really made it look like a scam to me so I took John’s advice and backed off of the platform for a while. It wasn’t until about a year later that I started to take a serious look at the undeniable community that has formed up here. I had to think long and hard about what it represented despite the undeniable unfairness of it. Of course in one sense, there’s nothing unfair about a voluntary system that you can opt out of at any time that isn’t forced on anyone, but the imbalance of power was undeniable.
I spoke at length with my friend Barry Cooper about his success on the platform and how it was mainly due to his directly appealing to whales who control a lot of the upvoting power because they were the early investors in the platform. We can complain all day about the imbalance of power, but the people who invested early are the ones who helped make this platform what it is. Ultimately, I came to be grateful for their contributions and realized that while it may be “unfair” it is also a just market reward for their foresight.
I slowly began to get back into Steemit but only in a half-hearted way for quite a while. I thought of Steemit as another place to post my content that at least pays better than YouTube, but didn’t really get into it. I didn’t realize that there really is a unique value to the community around this platform. That all changed on January 13th when AggroEd invited me to speak on a virtual panel about “The Steemification of Social Media.” I listened a lot more than I talked and I learned a lot. It dawned on me what an opportunity I had squandered by not engaging on Steemit sooner. I made a commitment then to make a concerted effort to get my following off of YouTube and Twitter and Facebook and onto Steemit.
I found happiness when I left Facebook. I was able to leave Facebook because there was a vibrant community and conversation here. It wasn’t until I felt like there was a real conversation here that I was able to pry my brain away from the unhealthy addiction of Facebook. Since then I have been a champion of Steemit everywhere I go. I tell people at Libertarian Party gatherings to get on Steemit. I recorded an outro for my YouTube videos that tells people to get on Steemit. I just very recently decided to #leaveloudly on Facebook and have an autopost that goes up every 24 hours telling people that if they want to find me, I’ll be on Steemit.
I have been well-rewarded for my cheerleading for Steemit. I am able to fund a lot of my activism with money earned on Steemit. I have been able to help many underemployed and unemployable activists find regular income through their content here in a way that would never be possible on any other platform. Even more recently, I have been delegated an immense amount of Steem Power and I do my best to use it to encourage others to participate in the platform. At least every third post on my feed is from someone else and I try to distribute my upvoting as much as possible. I upvote nearly every meaningful comment on my posts. I want to get new people onto the platform and turn minnows into dolphins.
As I was once resentful of the imbalance of power, I have noticed I am now the subject of the same sentiment. And of course I have had my screw ups and my ego driven mistakes. I don’t particularly care if you forgive me or not, but I do care about this community and what it represents for the future of social media and the future of humanity. I care if you help me become a better member of the community. I want everyone on this platform to know that I value your input. I read most of your comments. If you ever think I’ve missed something, please email me at [email protected]. If you have content that my audience would enjoy, email me the link and I’ll probably RS it. I welcome your feedback, I read your comments, and I cherish your trolling. There’s a lot of love and a lot of light here. There’s a lot of passion and a lot of power. There’s a lot of brilliance and a lot of brainpower. There’s a lot of money involved so of course there’s a lot of controversy. There’s jealousy, and ego, and insecurity too - and that’s just from my posts! I’ll take the good with the bad knowing that Steemit represents a major leap forward for humanity. There’s a different kind of community here and a different kind of conversation here. Let’s keep it that way. Steem on!
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I am the author of FREEDOM!, a book endorsed (I mean banned) by the US Department of “Justice.” You can get a copy here. I’m running for Not-President in 2020 on the platform of the peaceful, orderly, and responsible dissolution of the United States federal government. You can find out more here. You can find an event near you here. Whoever has the top comment on this post after 24 hours can claim a free signed copy of FREEDOM! by sending me an email at [email protected] with their address.
