I've been here 8 years this july and lurked for a year on Steemit before joining in 2017, so I know. I wouldn't say I was discouraged, more VINDICATED in proving that regular quality posting and thoughtful engagement rarely works without whales supporting your work.

I was actually considering posting/powering up daily to earn the Hivebuzz yearly badge, and would have if just one of my janurary posts had cracked $10 to make it worth the time spent researching, writing and engaging.

Of course that didn't happen. And I was not surprised.

Instead of discouraged, the word I'd use would be PERPLEXED.

When you see low-effort posts of blurry pictures of some guy doing pullups in the park that earns $40 or someone making a bowl of soup worth $30, its time to reevaluate whether you want to continue daily content creation for a year on Hive with some high-effort posts failing to cross even $0.50. (or even 20 cents).

Not discouraged, just a realist.

So I had no disillusions whatsoever when starting this monthly badge quest. I could have gone for a yearly posting/powerup badge and the result would have been the same. So now I'll post as I feel led knowing that post quality and consistency matter little when it comes to support on Hive.

So not discouraged at all, as everything went exactly as I predicted. Thankfully, I have other places outside of Hive where the renumeration is more balanced to the effort put in. So I'm catching up on those platforms, but will still pop in here to post from time to time, as I really do like this place despite the lack of support. :)