Well @broncnutz, when I first got on Steem and started posting, all the posts I were getting advice from were a year or two old. So this led me to believe the whole Steem ecosystem is one big circle jerk, and good content will get me nowhere, with bots and veteran accounts controlling the scene.

Not long after my Steem journey began, the #newsteem came, and manual curation too. The way the new voting curve works we are incentivized to do more manual curation, which is what I do now. I now try to carefully place some 100% upvotes here and there on content I like.

My account has organically grown quite fast without me joining any circle-jerks, and it seems to have come from producing just good ole' good content. There was a learning curve at first, but now I'm somewhat comfortable on Steem.

There are some really dedicated Steemians and curators on here doing a lot more to help this platform than I will ever be able to. I wouldn't dare join a downvote trail of an untrusted Steemian. @acidyo and @ocd have solid reputations on Steem through and through.