Everyone loves a comeback

No, not me, been here for years and am not going anywhere soon - much to the chagrin of some I am sure. Over the last few days there have been a few members of one of the oldest vote trading circle on Steem announcing their sign up for #newsteem and vowing to spread their votes a little further than their tight knit group.

I have always found it interesting how people love comeback stories and while I understand it when it is in sports or from injury, I have never really got it when it comes to the comeback from bad behavior or vice. People seem to elevate and admire those who are alcoholic, drug-addicted, lying, thieving, wife-beating, cheaters - but fail to give a crap at all about all of the people who never fell in the first place.

Having said that, I think what it is about these kinds of comebacks is that it shows that people can change, even the worst of us. Even though often they are short-lived returns to "sobriety", they still give some hope they themselves can change. I find the "This is just the way I am" excuse among the laziest of all inability to change excuses, closely followed by the "I tried everything" people.

Anyway, welcome to #newsteem new members.
Leave your coats on the block and your votes all over the chain.

@jrcornel wrote a post about joining in the festivities and asked for a clear definition of what #newsteem requires. While I think that people can do what they like, those with stake and especially those who are looking long need to start considering more of how they themselves can help the ecosystem involve and bring value to the tokens they hold.

@smooth who I have found to be much, much more often than not, level-headed and practical in his approach to handling the Steem blockchain, gave a clear and concise response that I think others should have a read of:

That pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?

Of course, there can and should be many interpretations of:

adds value to Steem by helping to promote it, helping to attract large amounts of high quality web traffic, helping to recruit new users, etc.

But, that is the way it should be in regards to any diverse economy with many actors who are incentivized by many things. What is pretty clear though and quite obvious from what has been going on much of the last 3.5 years of the Steem blockchain is that voting:

because you are paid to vote, because you are trading votes with someone else, because you want to boost your own rewards, etc.

Doesn't work.

If it did work, Steem would be rivaling Bitcoin considering how much of that behavior has been enacted on this blockchain. But, here we are with a #newsteem lease on crypto life with a chance to find ways to make this chain valuable. I do not believe that leadership is an answer here, I do believe however that leaderships can play a huge role and when there are those who take positions and demonstrate value adding activities, many others will follow.

I think that this will come more through applications taking lead roles than individuals on Steem itself, however I also think that to get to a point where SMT-powered applications can be valuable, standalone entities, users of Steem play a massive role as a community.

I got a comment on one of my posts yesterday from @sanjeevm

I agree, but that isn't going to happen on Steem and someone like me is unlikely ever going to be able to share a picture of my lunch because, I am not most people, I do have make the time, skill and patience to create and I have been doing it for almost three years multiple times a day. As a result, I have built up a following and the part of the quote he cut away was:

We as people love to consume, most people do not have the time, skill or patience to create - let alone build a following which literally could take years.

Yes, it takes for most - time, skill and patience and that patience may have to stretch for years and come at a cost. The cost for me is that at least on Steem, I am unable to post that selfie or random picture without feeling like an asshole or looking like an asshole because, it is going to likely get support and I will feel like shit getting support on something that adds very little value to anyone at all. I will likely never be able to treat Steem like Facebook, if I used Facebook that is.

Sure, people can downvote the reward away, but I don't want people who have voted on me to lose their curation because I have decided to create what I do not consider provides something that:

adds value to Steem by helping to promote it, helping to attract large amounts of high quality web traffic, helping to recruit new users, etc.

I am not saying that every post is gold by any shot, but I do consider what I add value-adding most of the time, even if that value is internal facing content that helps users already on Steem improve their Steem journey.

However, perhaps once SMTs really get out and rolling, I will have a chance to "break-free" (it is a position I am grateful for and hold in high regard) and have a little more fun with my blog, or at least a blog. At this point though, I see that my current approach as having value to the community and to myself. Sometimes I consider what might have happened if I had chosen a different path on Steem and while I can't know for sure, I am relatively confident that if I hadn't taken the long-form, hard yards approach, I wouldn't be here and, I definitely wouldn't be here enjoying the support and network I have developed.

Once I started learning about Steem, my content lengthened and my understanding of the potential of Steem increased incredibly - my approach became more serious about the future and it helped me continually opt-in to Steem time and time again, through UPs and Dooooooowns in price and a 2.5 year period of bidbot misery, that I saw from day one of it as a fucked move for Steem's value and future.

However, keep chipping, keep plugging, keep moving, keep writing and eventually, things will improve - or collapse completely. Since I see a massive amount of potential for Steem, I work toward improvement, not undermine it for collapse by treating it and the community like shit. This is what that time, skill and patience amounts to - one of the greatest skills to have on Steem is being able to find the time to try and add value in any conditions on chain or off. Consistency comes at a price too.

For the first time in over 2 years, I feel that Steem is finally heading in a better direction and becoming a more attractive place for users and most importantly, developers to build their experience upon. Yes, user experience is important, but developer experience is vital for them to build the applications that are going to empower end users to have anything to experience at all.

Users on Steem including myself are all consumers of the infrastructure and application components of the Steem blockchain with most of us having no ability to build it ourselves. Do not take development for granted, instead be grateful that someone has built a place where people are able to post an image from the day and have the chance to earn a little magic internet money on it, transfer it to an exchange and sell it for a coffee, or a chocolate bar, or perhaps one day, a car or a house - there is a lot of potential here and for me, I look long.

I have done well on Steem in terms of my earnings and holdings, but this is not life changing by any means, other than the life I have spent to get to this point. Going forward, I am hoping that value starts to build in all of the value adding places through people doing what they believe adds value to the ecosystem as a whole, and while that may be by supporting some individuals over others, it is unlikely that for most, those individuals are going to be a close circle of friends who have always voted for each other.

It doesn't really matter how much I or someone else has bought or when they have bought it, if it is in a loss position and one still holds, rather than trying to increase personal holdings and therefore personal cost averaging through vote trading and self-voting to add coins, it would be a much better and stable process to add value tot he ecosystem itself to push the price up and beyond the purchase point.

That way, instead of just making an ROI, everyone in the entire ecosystem will benefit and that pushes demand and value even higher, and then higher again as more and more interest ramps into Steem. People are waiting for 5 dollar, 10 dollar Steem to profit when the potential is much higher than that.

Don't sell Steem short.

Well, this was much longer and rantier than I was planning it to be and I am sure that some or many will disagree with my position, but this is the beauty of Steem as a decentralized and individually owned ecosystem, people can do as they please, but it all has an effect on the greater environment, the digital world we all live between 3-second blocks on Steem. If everyone went out and value-added, everyone would benefit even if they took different paths and approaches. If everyone rapes resources and pillages, everyone will suffer.

In both cases, the ones who will benefit or suffer the most are those who are still here putting in their effort regardless of the conditions.

I will make my comeback tomorrow - just as I did today and yesterday - as everyday,

I opt-in.

 
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]