A New Beginning

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I Am Valuable.

I have been fighting for a long period of time. Different types of fights and battles, but I've been in constant "fight mode" for such a long time so I can barely remember how it feels to wake up without anxiety, without pain and fears and without being sick to my stomach. I have fought my inner demons. I have fought for my rights. I have never given up, even though I many, many times have felt that the best thing to do would've been to buy a rope so I could hang myself. That would've given me a break.

Different rules, laws and regulations in Sweden basically brought me down on my knees. I was half-buried and in a never-ending shitstorm for a very long time, but I never gave up. I continued to fight for as long as I could clench my fists. As long as I could move and for as long as I could fill my lungs with oxygen, I would never give up. That is something I promised myself several years ago.

I suffer from mental illness, but I am not my illness. I am sick, but I am not the disease I suffer from. I am like many other people, but I am also different compared to some. When it's dark for some, it's often pitch-black for me, but I always move forward. Even when I walk backwards.

During the last few months I chose to focus on my studies more than anything else. I am literally a "straight A" student nowadays. Not because I am the typical "nerd" or "bookworm" that studies 24/7, but because I am interested and I seek answers. I want to learn and I work hard to achieve my goal in life. I want to help others and I strive towards that goal.

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A Steemian Since 2016.

Steem has given me a lot. I have met some amazing people and even though I haven't always been satisfied with the direction of Steem, I have always been able to interact with others and I have been able to talk with many of my "online friends".

Something I, with time, basically had to force myself to truly understand and accept, was the fact that Steem is and has been a sinking ship for a long period of time. Perhaps from the very first day of its existence.

The value of our beloved tokens could obviously function as proof of that, but I am not talking about the value of Steem, as a token. I am talking about the value of Steem for its users. The true value of Steem.

Steem is home. Steem is family. We are clearly a dysfunctional family with a wide range of different issues, but most families have issues in one way or another... The important part is that we care about each other.

It's not a secret that Steem has suffered a lot from poor leadership and bad decisions. Steem is driven and controlled by money, and being wealthy is not the same as being a good leader. We have several real life examples of that. Think of Trump as one. He might be one helluva businessman, but he is definitely not the definition of a good leader.

It was easier to promote Steem and do wonderful things with- and for Steem during the highs. We have many examples of that too. Ned, The scammer-chick and a bunch of other random people who "gave 100%" to hand out flyers and whatever to promote Steem in their countries. We have seen billboards and giveaways of various merchandise with Steem logos...

  • Nothing worked.

The majority of the Facebook, Instagram or Twitter users have never heard of Steem... And they never will, if the existing users continues to promote Steem in the same fashion as before. It doesn't matter how many times you try if you don't do things differently. The results will be the same.

Steem will never "blow up" and reach millions of active users if we don't change, and the only real change I have seen since 2016, is the actual mindset of people. People are sadly more selfish nowadays.

The quantity seems to be more important than the quality. People doesn't seem to think long term anymore, and truth to be told, why should they?

The value is on what it seems to be a never-ending decline, many of the top earners are frequently cashing out while they tell others to invest.

  • In a nutshell, Steem reeks of hypocrisy and bullshit.

I honestly think that Steem would've been better with one person to rule it all. There's "too many cooks in the kitchen", and the result is a bad flavoured Steem-soup.

Steem is sick and the existing users are supposed to be the cure. Steem is half-buried. Who will save Steem if not the existing users?

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A New Beginning.

I have recently powered up ~1700 Steem. It's not much, and it won't change a single thing. In fact, the price dropped even more since I bought it...

Do we honestly think that Steem will survive because Steem is being bought and powered up? - It will only add to the current problems we have.

I like #spud and I love the intention with #newsteem and all of these things, but I truly doubt that any of that will actually change Steem.

The true powers with Steem is the users, but people usually ignore lesser accounts because they believe that wealth is the key... But that ship has sailed.

It didn't work with Ned and his millions of Steem he had earlier, so why on earth would it work with 100K, 200K or 500K Steem Power? - It won't.

I would rather have someone with 1000 Steem Power, who earned everything from scratch, to rule everything. That user could easily relate to lesser accounts, he would be able to identify problems "wealthier" accounts doesn't seem to understand, and that user would ultimately be able to bring in more users too.

We failed when we allowed bullshit "internet marketers" or "YouTubers" to spread lies and false information across the world. We failed when we allowed the same people to sell Steem courses, ebooks and "how to"-guides. We failed, but no one seems to admit it.

We need to admit our failures before we can adapt and conquer. We can blame Steem or the hardforks for all the bad things we've seen, but we are our biggest problem. We need to change our behaviour, our priorities and our mindsets. That is how we eventually will flourish.

We Are Valuable.

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23 comments
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To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.

Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.

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(Edited)

The idea that there should be centralized leadership I find totally disagreeable.

People are sadly more selfish nowadays.

Actually, they aren't. The change in culture is obvious. There is a very, very clear change in Steemians' behavior for the more constructive and less short-sighted and greedy. The EIP did it together with the rise of @ocdb and @curangel that have continuously supported small accounts and effectively broken up some of the oldest and most powerful circle jerks on Steem. Now @ocdb is funding Steem promotion on Twitter. Former fucking bid bots are doling out free upvotes to hundreds of small accounts that put out quality content.

What I agree with you on is that Steem had a really terrible start. Ned giving his posting key to a bunch of random maximizing scumbags before delegations were introduced was but one of Ned's horrible decisions. Gladly, he is no longer at the helm.

As to centralized leadership being preferable, just think how fantastic YouTube is for the "smaller accounts". The vast majority of YouTubers earn absolutely nothing. Ditto for all the large centralized platforms. In the future, most Steemians won't be earners, either, because such a thing is mathematically impossible at least in a sustainable manner because investors will lose patience at some point. But for now in this still very early stage, we all can consider ourselves lucky having discovered this platform. Pray tell, what platform out there that has ever had no more than 130,000 monthly active users even at its best has given out 70 million dollars in author rewards. It actually angers me to hear people bitch and whine given all that.

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"Actually, they aren't. The change in culture is obvious."

I hear you, and I think those things are great. Obviously. But I personally think people in general are way more selfish nowadays compared to the early days when I joined despite those good things... And I also think that people have been way more selfish for a long period of time.

However, I also think that it went that way due to how things evolved and in correlation with the decline in price. The bigger decline, the more greed and selfishness. Sort of.

Also, I don't really like the idea of centralization either, but I can't help to think that Steem would've been in a much better shape if it were centralized. Perhaps I am still being critical due to how terrible the leadership has been in the past.

Like I said, "too many cooks in the kitchen", and I truly believe that. People tends to listen to wealth more than anything. "Lesser accounts" are struggling to spread the word or to be heard or taken seriously due to their stakes, and I see that as a huge problem. (And I am not talking about how much they earn).

"But for now in this still very early stage, we all can consider ourselves lucky having discovered this platform."

I totally agree with you on this, but I am not as convinced as I once were. Hopefully, I am wrong, but I just can't see how Steem would ever improve and grow as it is today, despite these dozens of cool ideas and good initiatives out there.

I feel like we are missing some ingredients for our success recipe.

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But I personally think people in general are way more selfish nowadays compared to the early days when I joined despite those good things...

Why? Why should I believe this claim?

I've been active since June 2017. I've seen SHIT occupy Trending and being rewarded with HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS. Trending is REMARKABLY CLEANER than it used to be. I've witnessed a completely broken PoB for over TWO YEARS before it was fixed.

Haejin is gone. Slowwalker's circle has been obliterated. Bernie is no longer posting pictures of turd. There are no longer any flagwars.

What the fuck are you talking about, man?

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You don't have to believe it. It's my personal opinion. I've been here since July 2016 and even though I can't remember exactly everything from back then, I can see and/or feel a difference in peoples behaviour. In general.

I agree with everything you've said, but I am not really talking about the abuse in that sense, I am talking about the general behaviour. For instance, how people who used to put in hours to produce amazing quality has stopped, so they can put out more content instead. Quantity over quality.

Now, that might not sound like being selfish to you, or to others, and it might not even be the proper word to use for it, but that's basically what I would call being selfish. I mean, it's pretty easy to assume that they are doing that because they earn more or the same, with less effort. (Due to the support they have)

Also, about all this circle-jerk prevent stuff. It's awesome to see that authors who've been circle-jerking their way to thousands of dollars (and/or more than that) have been stopped. But, where do we draw the line for circle-jerk, and who decides that?

I can easily spot 20 different users who are "circle-jerking", including myself. The only difference is how much the votes are worth and the pending rewards on the content.

(Just look at this post. I got flagged due to "circle jerking" or whatever, because I received and upvote from SBI.)

Many of my absolute favorite authors are "circle-jerking" or "trading votes", and they've been doing that for years. But it's totally okay for some people to earn anything between $10-$30 per post they make, while others are being flagged for doing literally the same thing.

I know that the "system" is far from "perfect" and whatever, and I am still glad to see all of these good changes, but I'm having a hard time to understand why these "rules" or whatever doesn't seem to apply for all.

And because of that type of behaviour, I call it being selfish, in lack of a better word for it. Also, why do you think people wrote comments on bernie's "turd"-posts?

It was not about the content or the quality of it, it was about the opportunity to get an upvote from him. An upvote that was worth something. Once again, people listens to wealth, and all "rich guys" out there aren't good leaders.

The only thing I am saying is that we need to change. What we have done previously did not work. Hopefully, what we are doing nowadays will. With time.

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I have authors on auto-vote. Not all of them have me on auto and I don't auto everyone who autos me. But there is some overlap. Is this a circle jerk?

You're absolutely right. Money talks. Except when trying to get people to use Steem. It's an absolute fucking mystery we don't already have tens of millions of users. You would think that when the money was as absurd as it was in 2016 and 2017/2018 people would be climbing on top of each other to come to Steem to earn a little for their photos or something. But no. In my observation, getting people to use the platform has been extremely difficult. What the fuck is up with that?

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Leaderships has definitely been lacking. Ned did not seem to help much. Despite all this events like Steemfest keep happening and people turn up, including Steemit management (minus Ned). The strength of Steem is in the community who have created loads of apps around it. That is still not getting public awareness, so we need to find ways to achieve this. I publicise it to my small social media following, but I have to admit few have joined up. We need a few 'influencers' to get on board. They have a lot to gain and not much to lose by doing so. If we can find some niche where we can make an impact we can go from there. Good for you on powering up some more. Keep making it fun and I hope you can win those fights.

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(Edited)

Steem is still extremely well funded for such a small platform. We have only about 51,000 monthly active users. The reward pool distributes is 4.28 * 820,000 STEEM = 3.51 million STEEM per month. The price has been somewhere around $0.15 for the last month. That works out to about $526,000 per 51,000 month active users or a little over $10 a month per monthly active user.

That's incredibly generous. Twitter generates a little over $9 of profit per monthly active user ANNUALLY and Twitter is the best platform at generating profit per monthly active user of all the large mainstream platforms.

Whining and sniveling when given basically unearned investor money is despicable. The money given is a token (sic!) of TRUST. So, everyone who snivels should just SHUT UP and GET TO WORK or GTFO.

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I wouldn't really complain about what I make right now. I couldn't make that anywhere else on-line. Of course the distribution is uneven with some people making $1000 or more each month. That is part of why I keep buying more Steem so I can affect it.

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In fact, @gooddreams is the only one who makes anywhere even close to $1000 a month. There are many who only earn about $500 in the top 5 if I recall the numbers from usesteem.com when it still worked.

I definitely could not earn what I earn anywhere else. I've made photography posts to local Facebook groups having some tens of thousands of members that have been liked between a few hundred to a thousand times. @old-guy-photos said 1000 views on YT could be worth a dollar to the author. Nowadays, I regularly make several bucks a post. But that's thanks to a few large accounts, among which are former bid bots gone curators and @theycallmedan who is funding the Quora Onboarding Initiative.

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I have built up some support through intensive engagement on Steem and I'm grateful for that. There were crazy times when I could be making thousands each month when the price was high. That was a little scary. The more genuine curation is helping a lot of people do better even if they get less of a share of the post rewards.

It is a problem that some people go for optimal curation rewards which tends to favour the accounts who already get a lot of big votes. I keep mine mainly manual.

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It is a problem that some people go for optimal curation rewards which tends to favour the accounts who already get a lot of big votes. I keep mine mainly manual.

That's a common misunderstanding that would be most useful to have dispelled. It is not the case that you can maximize your curation rewards by only upvoting those posts that get large rewards. That's because there usually are many other such opportunists that you have to share your curation rewards with.

The best way to maximize your curation rewards really is to be among the first to upvote posts that are so good that a lot of people will upvote them because of that, which will draw in the opportunists as well.

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That is how it should work, but just look at how many votes some trending posts get compared to the number of comments. People may try to gain that way even if it doesn't pay off. Could be better off following the good manual curation projects. Not everyone has time to seek out content themselves

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That is how it should work, but just look at how many votes some trending posts get compared to the number of comments. People may try to gain that way even if it doesn't pay off.

Lot's of ignorant people.

Could be better off following the good manual curation projects. Not everyone has time to seek out content themselves

Following curation projects doesn't actually pay very well. Delegating to @ocdb or @curangel in particular are probably the best options. Both offer a solid but not spectacular return to delegators. I think the latter offered the equivalent of 40% curation efficiency. With 50% being the average, that actually isn't too bad.

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I don't care that much about what I make. Plenty of people I can support anyway. We have to think beyond the quick profit. We all win if Steem succeeds.

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Many do, however, which is why both projects made sensible decisions when setting their delegator payouts.

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"The strength of Steem is in the community who have created loads of apps around it. That is still not getting public awareness, so we need to find ways to achieve this. "

Yeah, and that's the thing.
It doesn't matter how great your product is if nobody sees it.

I honestly believe that all the Steem promotions in the past lead us to this. If we had tried to prevent people from talking about Steem like a cash-cow, and if we had stopped people from being greedy and selfish early on, I think we would've been in much better shape.

I know more than a handful of people who gave up because of how things were in the past, and none of them are likely to come back no matter what happens further on, because they felt deceived.

"We need a few 'influencers' to get on board. "

That would've been awesome, and hopefully, we're heading in that direction.

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In reality i think having a small group of high powered steemians adds a lot to the problems of distribution. If we had 1m accounts with 500SP then you would see a lot better content and distribution of rewards. The more people with stake in the system the better as then it would really be influenced by the majority rather than a handful of powerful people.

That has been slowely changing but i do thin the future for STEEM itself lies in the investment side of things as other tokens take over reward distribution and promoting good content. It is still early days but i like that the people developing apps and the chain are really cranking out updates now and moving in a direction. We spend far too long wallowing in the same place and lost all momentum that STEEM had as a first mover.

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"In reality i think having a small group of high powered steemians adds a lot to the problems of distribution. If we had 1m accounts with 500SP then you would see a lot better content and distribution of rewards."

This is why I've tried numerous times to strengthen the lesser accounts or to create a healthy middle class on Steem. The good news is that more people seems to be rewarded nowadays, so it seems like we're heading in the right direction.

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Distribution has spread out a lot over the past 12 months and it's great to see the active STEEM users growing to healthy mid sized accounts. I do a bit with Helpie to try and push the smaller accounts as well. It can be tough to start here with the way the site is set up for the moment so trying to keep the smaller users active and growing is very important. Hopefully communities will allow us to do this a lot better as it is easy to get lost in the beginning.

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Steem is and has been a sinking ship for a long period of time.

This core belief is fundamentally wrong. It’s a thriving community. Splinterlands is booming. 3Speak is growing by leaps and bounds. The Communities feature is going to be huge, @roadscape’s presentation at SteemFest was electrifying in person.

For what it’s worth, I think your outlook on Steem’s future could not be more wrong.

People are sadly more selfish nowadays.

This for instance. Human nature really never changes. Greek philosophers were making the exact same complaint 2500 years ago.

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I wouldn't invest in Steem if I didn't believe in it, or saw potential, but I am definitely not as convinced as I once were.

Not sure if that is due to my absence lately, that things aren't really moving in the direction I first had in mind for Steem, or because I am just tired of all the bullshit I've seen for such a long period of time. Perhaps it's a mix between it all.

Let's just say that I definitely hope you are right, in everything you said.

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we are both valuable, yes its me the blond from a steemit past, sorry to hear that life is a bitch for you, if you ever need a bunch of great people join steemterminal discord, its nice to talk steem but also life, that sometimes helpos, and trying never hurt anyone,
stay safe
and valuable
Britt

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