I was tagged in a post the other day by someone 'schooling' their followers on earning at Steemit. I only came across it because @Ginabot informed me. I wasn't about me or any of my posts in particular, it was a suggestion that they should target me for their commenting as I upvote many. I have come across about 3 of these articles in the last week and I have seen the people commenting on them about how they got an upvote. Good for you, I am glad my good will could be of service to you.
So, why the hell do I bother writing what I intend to be something of quality, useful and thought provoking in nature if very few actually care as long as they get an upvote on their comment? I have written a fair bit about engagement and the benefits of it but, this is not engagement, it is deception. Now of course, many of my comments are from people who do actually engage with the content and I thank them.
But still, I have the same question; why bother?
I have financial aims here like everyone else but, I have up until this point always balanced whatever I have earned with my content level. Since my average earning are around 10 dollars a post, one post a day isn't going to cut it as for me to be a part of this place at the level I look to be, it is going to take me 10 years. I really wish someone had told me to buy 7 cent Steem when it was available because at the moment, I am killing myself trying to catch up the way I am doing it.
I figure this; I have over 1600 posts of decent quality, they cover a great deal of content and have been helpful to many, I have handed out about 30,000 manually curated votes in my time here, have made 8500 comments, upvote comments, onboarded and delegated to people over time, yet, still struggle to make a significant impact. I am obviously doing something wrong. The people who support my current position are nearly entirely people who benefit from me keeping this same approach which alone, is indicative.
Considering there are people making much larger gains by offering the community much less, doesn't this indicate that what I offer is not as valuable as what they offer? This is the law of supply and demand. The drop off of quality over the last 6 months has been staggering from people who used to offer substance yet, they are having the manual curators support them still. Perhaps Steem just isn't ready for what I think is useful. That is fine, I don't mind that at all and I have even written a post or two mentioning that niche is likely to struggle here.
What I find personally difficult to stomach is that if instead of taking an interest in the community, I partook in maximization processes, I would have at least double the Steem Power I hold now. Sure, I wouldn't have as many friends but, with a larger vote and this being Steem, friends can be bought and going on the first paragraph, so can engagement. People don't even care these days as a month ago is ancient history and with people like Haejin raping 5% the pool and the bidbots taking 50%, what does it matter if people act poorly.
Why does consistency mean so much to me if it apparently means so little to others? This is potentially a sign I am unable to adapt to the changing ecosystem which means, irrelevancy is fast approaching. But, I m not even close to being where I need to be yet, it is too soon for irrelevancy and early retirement.
I am having an existential Steem crisis. I am middle aged too which doubles it and I don't have the money to buy a convertible Porsche so, I am triple screwed. Thankfully, I am not going bald.
This is the problem though as it is just not me who is feeling this way, it is many, many of the people who have been here long-term and put in the hard yards but are struggling to get anywhere. I am just among the last it seems as so many other have already drifted off to try new methods that don't appear in the FAQs. The new people think it is a struggle now but, they may not realize how much work some of the old went through to get to this point. But, I am definitely not saying everyone had a difficult time of it as some of the biggest names have had it quite easy. Timing.
I do not work on an entitlement mindset however and know I am entitled to nothing here no matter what I have done. It is all up to the community whether they choose to reward or not (since I don't boost posts). But, that community is effectively shrinking instead of growing and even though the votes might come, they are having less and less value for a couple obvious reasons. Instead of niches slowly getting more support, they are getting less as there are fewer and fewer manual curators holding and offering value and many, many more small accounts with no value needing support.
What I face now is that I have overbalanced the community aspect too heavily at the cost of personal growth which in time, will likely cost the community even more as people who have done similar to me by thinking community won't have the power to support the growing community we care about. Those who are growing are often the ones who don't care about the community at all or, are extracting out into other coins and banking on EOS. This isn't just the whales, orcas and dolphins either.
I and others have said before many times that this place needs a healthy middle class but I have failed to become part of it by being community orientated. That in itself is an issue. I wasn't in early enough to take advantage of the early insanity of 10,000 dollar posts, knowledgeable enough at the right time to buy-in, and too late to attract consistent support from the circles. Timing is everything as they say.
You know, Haejin could have been a hero with the support he gets but he chose to be a C-word instead and it isn't 'community-minded.' He could have had a massive affect on distribution and user-retention just by upvoting comments for 700 dollars a day. Here are some of us struggling each day for scraps and there he is suggesting to buy fortune 500 stocks for 200 dollars a post and 15,000 SBD a week. WTF?
"Opt OUT of FIAT & Opt INTO Cryptos"
He has that line on his profile confused it seems. I wish he would, Opt OUT of STEEM & Piss OFF
Asshole. C-word.
I do not know all of the future issues I and my family will face but, ethics unfortunately don't pay medical bills and being a decent human doesn't come with perks. People like to say that people will get what they deserve and perhaps it may be true at times in the negative but, what about all the good people suffering? Don't they deserve better?
Meh, I obviously take all of this shit too seriously. It is a pity I wasn't here at the right time or had the money to buy-in to potentially make a difference. The problem with putting your money where your mouth is that you have to have the money upfront. I still have to work to earn mine and no one is going to hand it over easily.
People like to cut down tall poppies but, this place needs some tall weeds uprooted and burned.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
This is my niche; overly-long, meaningless shitposts. Don't worry, it won't take much from the pool.
