Stuff I've learnt about Steemit

So I joined in January 2018 so that makes my tenure about 5 months. To be specific, my account is 129 days old according to Steemd. Man, talk about steep learning curves. I didn't know anything about blockchain, very little about cryptocurrency, I wasn't really a blogger though had dabbled, hadn't used markup.... need I go on?

Source

Some of the great things about Steemit for me are:

• My creativity has returned. Somehow the crypto reward for effort has encouraged me to play my guitar again, and complete some video projects I had started.

• I am learning to write again. For much of my career I have been teaching myself to be succinct and make strong points with my writing. Now I find myself trying to lead a reader through my train of thought (not entirely easy since my train generally climbs hills, derails, starts again on new tracks.... you get the idea...)

• I am communicating with like minded individuals. I've met awesome people like @yahialababidi and @galenkp to name a few, who I probably wouldn't have met in real life

I've also learnt recently that it's a big game. I mean, I still love the content creation, and positivity that is the foundation of the platform, but there are heaps of gamers in this Steemit world who are gaming the platform because it is a game!

After a meetup in Perth, where I met my first real life Steemian @superoo7, I learnt enough about community bots to give one a go. Previously I thought it was cheating, but seeing @jackmiller's comments on the community bot and that it was there for everyone to use, I gave it a go. I delegated some SP to the bot, because I think it fair that if I'm using it, I contribute to its success as well. The bots won't make or break my posts, but they are a nice little boost.

My strategy so far has been to put everything back into the platform. I reinvest in SP, and even put in my hard earned each month to build my SP and influence in the platform. I delegate SP to @mrsquiggle, who curates great Team Australia content. I also came across Steem Basic Income and agreed with their philosophy, so sent out a sponsorship to @benleemusic, @joshduthie, @yahialababidi and @galenkp - Steemians who I want to see succeed in this platform.

At some stage I learnt about Busy, which allowed for notifications on posts, so all of a sudden I knew who was replying to me and mentioning me! A deeper level of engagement was immediately possible. I was also told about Ginabot, but it took me a long time to work out how to use it! I wasn't familiar with Discord, I downloaded the app for my phone, but thought it was just a messenger for IT gurus.... I didn't really understand the usefullness of it for some time to come. I'm still learning how to use it, where to discuss certain topics but I'm starting to understand it's place in the Steemit ecosphere.

Right now I'm learning about Minnow support programs like Minnow Booster which provides an upvote (upgoat!) service, an SP lease service, and investment options for leasing your SP to other Steemians. I came across Minnow Booster while trying to learn more about what service a witness provides to Steemit. This also led me to the Minnow Support Project, and whilst at the moment these support options are at the limit of my understanding, they seem to be very helpful in terms of building community and your Steemit account.

What I love about this platform is that whenever I feel like there is some kind of mastery, a whole new level of depth is revealed. It kinda reminds me of....life!

So i'll keep Steeming, keep learning, keep commenting and keep levelling up. I hope you do too.