An Open Letter To The 147 Steemians Following Me

Hey! How's It Going?

Thank you for following me. I know 147 isn't a milestone number, but I failed to say anything when the first 100 of you showed up, so I figured better late than never.

So, thank you.

Now To The Real Followers

Since roughly 10% of you will actually see this, I will direct the next part of this post to those who do. I'm not going to list any of you, since I don't want to miss anyone. You will know who you are, anyway.

Thank you for following me. I don't know why you do that—hopefully, you find value in what I contribute here. Some of you have said as much, and I appreciate that. It's nice to have validation outside of my own head.

You are the ones who consistently interact with me in some way. Be it through commenting, upvoting or a combination of the two, I appreciate it very much. You are the ones who are helping me to come back to Steemit every day and I hope that I've been reciprocating in some meaningful way. Any time I can come up with something semi-intelligent to say on your posts, I will. Frankly, there are some subjects I know very little about, so you might not find me interacting so much on those.

I will try to find other ways to return the favor, though, like heading to the comments you've made on other posts and seeing what I can help out with there.

I am trying to be a little more discerning with the rewards I control, but only to the point where I see value added. And I'm also trying to make my meager amount last, so I can actually give someone something for their post or comment.

Being a small minnow is better than being a plankton, but it's still pretty discouraging when it comes to the amounts you can leave. I don't think I'm ever going to be satisfied with that until I'm well into the mid-dolphin range. Who knows when that's going to happen, so I do what I can and press on.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Okay, I'm back to talking to all of you, even if 90% of you won't see this.

For what it's worth, and for the good of the order, I'm going to make a suggestion to all of you.

It's hard not to notice when I come to your main page to look for posts or comments to see how many people you are following. What you do here is up to you. You don't need my permission or my blessing. However, may I suggest to you that if you are following more than 1,000 people that you might not actually be following them?

I don't believe it's humanly possible to see that many posts. Since some of you are actually bots, that might not be a problem. For the rest of you who are human, you really should give yourself an opportunity to actually read and curate those who are adding value to Steemit.

I'm only following 26 right now. That's lower than I probably should, but I know now the number will never go above 100 (too many people with multiple posts a day along with resteems to properly curate over that). More likely, it will fall into the 40-60 range.

I can't tell you what to do, but if you're finding yourself unable to keep up with who you are following, or that you're really only curating a smaller group, maybe it's time to prune who you're following.

If that means unfollowing me, then so be it. I'd hate to lose you, but if you don't see what I post on a regular basis, or you've grown disenchanted with it, by all means, it's probably time to move on. I'd rather not have anyone following out of some feeling of obligation where there is none.

I don't follow because I want someone to follow me. If they do it, great. If they don't, that's fine, too. I follow because I'm consistently interested in what the person has to say, and because I feel what they contribute adds value, as well. I understand that's what Steemit was set up to do. I can be pretty nonconformist when it comes to things like this, but in this case, actually providing value and curating it from others is the rebel way.

Something To Look At

If you're ever interested in a quick breakdown of how many people your own followers are following, you can check out @umich's page. He built a bot that would specifically spit out the stats you see above on his post. When I checked earlier today, it was his last post, so it should be easy to find.

That's all I have. Thank you again. I wish you all well in all your Steemit endeavors and look forward to interacting with you for as long as you can stand me. :)

Peace out.