Getting started on Steemit: Lots to learn!

Being new to steemit is tough. There is a lot to learn. Stuff you'll need to figure out includes, but is not limted to:

How to write a post in markdown - bold, italics, _{tiny text}, headings, how to upload pictures and acknowledge sources correctly etc.
How to get your blog looking nice - banner and profile pic etc.
General literacy and a writing style that you might have to adjust from writing for other venues.
Learning what the expected behaviour is;
- What will get you flagged (plagiarism, spam, begging for followers or votes etc.).
- Who you shouldn't heckle or disagree with in any way.
Developing realistic expectations regarding earnings.
Understanding the steem attention economy, including bots, resteem services, and why the trending page looks the way it does (it's not you, it's them).
Finding a safe discord where you can vent about people, steem economics, or whatever is grinding your gears, as well as get moral support and a sense of community.

A quick look at how many accounts there are overall vs how many are active shows that there's something missing from our onboarding of new users.

I'm not sure what the best overall approach is. But I do know that certain communities have helped me a great deal since I've been here:

#TeamAustralia: If you are an Aussie, or anyone living in Australia, or an Aussie ex-pat living overseas, you should definitely sign up. Details on how to do this can be found in this post from the inestimable @choogirl. People on this team have been a great source of ideas, epic discord channel banter, support and upvotes.
TeamAustralia grew out of the PAL (Peace Abundance Liberty) Minnow-Support Project and associated discord channel. Joining MSP/PAL is super helpful, no matter where you are from.
@newbieresteemday and the associated #newbieresteemday tag: A great community and discord channel full of (mostly) newer members, all trying to think outside the square and give each other a boost in terms of votes, coverage, and generally making sense of steemit.

There's theme here: All these channels are worthwhile, but I'm sure there are others. The main thing is getting on the right discord channel and talking to people who've been around longer. This is tricky as lots of people have set these up, and I'm not sure they are all good - especially those who spam the introduceyourself tag looking for people who don't know any better.

Like I said, I'm not sure how to ebst tackle the bigger problem of properly onboarding new steemians. I do think OPERATION SAVE A NEWBIE is the kind of thing that can help, and I'm happy to support it. But it would be great to see something more widespread.

Finally, while this is about numbers overall, it's also about individuals as real people. When someone tries to get into steemit, and it's too difficult, isolating, disheartening or off-putting, we never know who we are letting slip through our fingers . You want to send the next Stephen Hawking or George R. R. Martin to a rival network or leave them supporting Facebook? More importantly (in my opinion), we might be missing a chance to make someone's life a bit brighter and less lonely - which is important no matter how much or how little value they might bring to steemit.

Thanks for reading. Upvotes, resteems, and comments are always appreciated.

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