I was pretty bummed out when I read @surfermarly is leaving steem
To find the reasons for her leaving you have to look through the comments of her last post and read a bit between the lines.
Why I am bummed out if I did not follow her content this closely?
I was happy to have her on Team Steem. An inspiration for many especially if you were interested in the blogging aspect of Steem.
Am I surprised?
Not really there were a couple of foreshadowing posts.
Also more and more Steempower is not used to curate with make it less attractive to post here from a money perspective.
Can you imagine Pewdiepie using voting bots so he can reach trending?
Is this a big deal?
For sure it is. One of the most known Steemians is leaving who has been here since 2016. Built up a huge network and I assume quite a lot of friendships as well.
There is some kind of social pressure here to stay around (at least I have that feeling) and with the powerdown function you are staying around for at least 13 weeks.
That someone is willing to "throw that away" is saying quite a bit. Especially if you have seen way lower prices and still kept going, so the argument she will be back if the price recovers is no argument in this case.
@exyle mentioned it a couple of times in his vlogs.
Steem will not be "only" a blogging platform but furthermore a platform were people build dapps on a fast and cheap blockchain.
But who really knows what we will be in a couple of years? Maybe communities will be out and proven to be the game changer many are hoping for? Maybe SMTs? Or maybe we will just be a memory? Maybe the Steempower is distributed more equal or everything is delegated to one super bot?
As I see it as a blogging platform we are hanging in the ropes at the moment with the development the last days Steem as a blockchain is at the best place it has ever been though.
Did you know that youtube started as a dating platform?
Look it up if you dont believe me. They changed their business model, they changed how they rated videos and they changed a lot overall. Did this make people upset? Probably. But to pivot seems often necessary to survive and after that thrive.
Even if you look at the evolution of Bitcoin it changed? From being the darknets gardeners favorite to what we trying to figure out what it is today. But we know it is not the currency you should choose if you want to buy something anonymous..