So this Steemit thing

I have been actively using the Steemit platform for a few weeks now, and I have to say I am reasonably hooked.

(made this in illustrator about a year ago)

The second thing I can say for sure is I have no idea what I am doing

There have been mild successes, outright failures, and a general sense of confusion and excitement. I have tried a number of different things

My current Questions:

• What do the intelligent human members of the community think of vote bots and services? Does everyone unanimously use them? Is there a certain stigma attached to these things?
• Is there in fact a kind of battle occurring on Steemit? A battle to determine how the platform gets used and abused?

So I guess I feel as if I have committed here, because I have a sh*t tonne of creative energy that needs to be put into something. But I don't really know what I am getting myself into, I don't mind a bit of a grind. But a grind towards what? And how can I know what this platform will turn into.

My thought at this current stage, is that Steemit is like a brand new economy that is working its self out. The various emergent communities represent states of consciousness, or perhaps biological entities. Some are supportive like big trees throwing nutritious leaves, Some are symbiotic, some are parasitic.

One thing that struck me is how new users get funnelled into programs for guaranteed votes. Do you think our content is compromised in playing to the vote, especially for the community you happen to be in? I don't want to compromise on my honesty and creative power much at all. That's not why I became a content creator, and that is heading dangerously back into the capitalistic mentality that made YouTube gross, and has corrupted many forms of art in general. Is our content just made to be sold?

With my current level of understanding I have laid the following plan. To just stick to my guns and keep putting out quality stuff. I might have to be incredibly patient about generating a real following of real humans who aren't just mutually obligated to me.

I think somewhere beneath the politics that seem heated right now, there is some really real stuff happening. Deep and meaningful posts being created that are designed to stimulate and awaken us to something beyond the confines of a systematic structure. That is really what struck me actually, how everyone wants to just systemise this into a no effort profit scenario. And maybe it is once you build up enough clout, but I don't know about any of that just yet.

But my heart feeling is that systematisation is just another aspect of synthetic life. The synthetic life that is creating suffering and making me feel sick to look at how disconnected humans are. We get infected by 'programs' and we live them out, the raw beauty of life is obscured. This is not what I want, and I wont vote for it. We are alive, we are real, and this life is an opportunity to share that and be that. So for me this platform represents that hope to allow for real connection and be rewarded for being a real human who creates beauty and truth.

My intention and my imagined outcome is that this sentiment ultimately wins out, over the course of time and only by the process of humans awakening to their own truth.

Peace Wellness Balance Wholeness Honesty Integrity Honour Truth
Heart Based Awareness
Love to all the beings
And recognition of our true life - which is freedom
PhillyC