So, in the aftermath of #SPUD2 and my power up, newbie me kept on reading, and rolled across these two truly rattling articles:
Where are the VOICES of STEEM?!
MEOS ... June 1st ... The STEEM/Steemit Killer
I then was further intrigued to find this article: I'm not worried, which both subtracted and added concerns.
As a newbie to cryptocurrency and to Steem and to Steemit, I'm not equipped to understand all the ins and outs and data presented in those three articles. I can't have my head in the sand because I don't even know where the sand is, and my investment is not yet that huge for me to be overly worried. By temperament, I am always inclined to stay the course, and my sister always says I'd be the last one off a sinking ship because the minute I found out it was sinking, I would be trying to help others off instead of rushing to a lifeboat. So that's that.
But I offer to the general Steemian public why I have stayed around this long, why what I learned about "SID" -- Steemit Induced Depression -- did not make of me another victim who left the platform scarcely after joining. I offer this because I have gathered through research and commentary since my beginning here that retention is a problem, and perhaps hearing it from a newbie's perspective will offer some ideas that more advanced Steemians can use to solve problems.
I'm still here because you gave me a tangible welcome, dear Steemians.
I'm here because @carlgnash gave me a big enough delegation for me to operate in a rational way until I learned how to use my RC and voting credits appropriately. I never had to get as frustrated as others must within the limits of where we all start.
I'm here also because @c-squared and @classical-music recognized the value of my work early, along with many other Steemians, and so I never had to deal with the forbidding wall of $0.00 on article after article after article.
I'm here because Steemians pointed me to @pifc, @steembasicincome, @team-ccc, @curie, @qurator, @oleg326756, and many, many other communities and people who helped me.
I'm here because somebody showed me how to use Steem Board and Steem Now, and so I can track my progress periodically and see that indeed, things are looking up.
I'm here because the Steemians I have met and encountered are passionate creatives who want to build individually and collectively.
I'm here because all of the above confirms my belief as a Christian that my Lord led me here, and I'm here until He says otherwise.
With all that, I still took a week off to deal with Steemit Induced Depression in May. I got depressed like many others, and consider: I am a 13-year small business owner with two published books and a background in journalism. So, I already am capable of massive production on deadline. With all that, the low payouts at first were just depressing, even though I know it takes a long time to build something from scratch and be profitable.
Imagine what it is like for newbies who don't have such a background.
Imagine what would have happened even to me if all of you hadn't welcomed me, and given me heavy support.
Okay, okay -- "But you're a decent writer and musician, Deeann, you produce and you add value to the Steem blockchain and Steemit on a regular basis" -- granted. I do my best over here with my piano improvs and other music (need to get back to that, but May was rough, as you'll see below) and my writing. Yet without the heavy support, I wouldn't have stayed here long enough to show what I can do.
I also have something else going for me that you won't find as often in looking for mass adopters of Steem and Steemit: a measure of emotional discipline, including a tolerance for pain. With all the support, getting to here has been painful... you put your heart into something creative and you get a few views and fewer cents ... that hurts, a lot. Not everybody can endure that, again and again. We are living in a time when the walking wounded are legion.
Also, consider this when you consider people like me trying to onboard other people: nowadays I can't always get people to work together for $22,500 or so USD, much less for cents at a time in cryptocurrency. That was a lesson in heartbreak for me in May. Because of the way things are in many levels of society, people are less and less willing or able, time-wise, resource-wise, and emotionally, to invest in a complex process with a lot of work unless the payoff to them is sure and quickly coming.
I say again: in May I could not get folks to move for a chance at $22,500USD to spread around. $10,000 of that chance is gone for at least five years. $7,500 of that chance is likely gone forever. $7,500 I have reached out to seize alone... just like I quietly work, alone, in the wee hours on Steemit, after everything else is done, seizing this chance, alone.
I also say again: although I am self-motivated and skilled for such an opportunity as Steemit, I would never have seen the opportunity enough to invest in it without the heavy support you wonderful Steemians gave me to get far enough to see what was possible.
So, what can we all do to help Steemit grow?
Form a Steemian Welcoming Committee, or something like that, so when people get here with whatever gifts and talents they bring to the table, they stay long enough to find out this is the right place. There is absolutely no point in trying to get more and more people in the front door if they are going to go right out through the back. I can't even in good conscience invite a whole bunch of mass adopters that I can't delegate enough to in order to get them off to a good start -- they will blow through the back door in a heartbeat.
Yet with a welcoming committee, we can remove the constant bumping into messages about RC limits, and the forbidding walls of $0.00 payouts -- we can delegate enough so newbies can at least get a good footing, and point them to the right resources to help them pick up quickly what they need to do to make this work. Yes, they are going to have to put work in, and lots of it, before the rewards are big.
Yet as it is, some of the best people who could be using Steem and Steemit go somewhere else because they CAN. I can. My habits assure me success just about anywhere. But I stay here because you all showed me you wanted me here, strong enough and long enough for me to figure out that I could make this work in a lot of ways. Within the vast pools of mass adopters, there are plenty of people who will rise to the occasion of being valuable and productive if we can show we want them here, on Steemit, and we do it better than ANY of our future competitors.
I'm just a newbie. Take everything I have said here with a grain of she-just-got-here-and-still-knows-practically-nothing salt. I am aware from reading the first two of the three articles I referenced that there are systemic issues that need to be addressed with Steem and Steemit. But those are FAR above my newbie pay grade -- I've only been a minnow through delegation for a week, after only three months here. I can only offer what it looks like from someone who started in March as plankton, plankton that was loved up into a minnow quickly by all of you, and who therefore wants all of us to succeed with this.
I want us to make it, Steemians, and I want us to be able to bring to Steemit all those who should be here with us, and have them be glad to stay. I offer these thoughts in that spirit, and in that hope.
Photo Credit: Kristopher Roller on Unsplash