When I first joined steemit it wasn't long before I heard about the infamous @curie. It was literally the only manual curation community with a heavy upvote that I heard the most about. It was nothing short of a goal to get a curie upvote and my first one came in January when I wrote about My first snowmobile adventure.

This came after I had used my first bidbot (I only used them for one post) and the feeling of being rewarded for my work was not there with the bidbots. The curie proof of brain system is exactly what brought me to steemit. Since then I've had multiple curie upvotes. It feels like I receive one every month as I have found my niche sharing #rockhound pictures of my agates. Two months ago my second curie upvote came and the feeling was just as good, if not better than the first. It let me know I'm doing something right. I even spent a bunch of money on a new Nikon so that I can take better pictures of my rocks. Good thing I did cause I got a third curie upvote because of it.

This is what Steemit is all about. It's not just about curating crypto and developer posts. It's about curating original content. Not through the illusion of bidbots though! Take it from me, persistence, hard work and dedication really pays off as my fourth curie upvote came through this morning and I couldn't have a bigger smile on my face. My day has been made!

I actually watched an article the other day go from nothing to something as I refreshed the page and they got a curie upvote. You can't find a community that will reward you with any amount of money on any other platform.

We all have plenty of channels to find information on becoming great bloggers. 100 well thought out posts with good content in 100 days alone shows great results. We don't have many communities like @curie and this is absolutely the #1 way of advertisement as every time I get a curie upvote I share it on facebook to let others know what they're missing out on.

Curie doesn't just curate content and pursues the proof-of-brain concept. Curie helps create and strengthen communities all over the steemit blockchain. While not all my steempower comes from curie, a large percentage does, and it's helped strengthen the #comedyopenmic community. The curie upvotes that our COM contestants have received only strengthened our community by encouraging more people to make entries.

This is what Steemit is meant to be.

I just love the organic exposure that it has given me. These rewards have allowed me to support the #comedyopenmic / @comedyopenmic community with voting power and judging the contest. So I have to say that curie doesn't just upvote and abandon the author. Take it from me, I've gotten 4 curie upvotes since mid january. These upvotes encourage us minnows to keep going and reach for whale status.

Keep up the great work @carlgnash because Steemit needs you and @curie. I've heard rumors that @curie was going away. I don't believe this to be true, but I do think @curie needs more support!