I have been in Steemit for the past two months and I admit I got into it because of the prospect of being able to earn. Yet reality struck that it is hard. You do your due diligence, research a lot, make paragraph cuts and edit your post and place strategic pictures and it gets upVoted by cents or at the most 1 dollar. You just spent 2 hours to gain a few cents. Quite disheartening then you see a GIF or a selfie gain 5 dollars and you are further disheartened.
The way I see it we are still often looking at the number right next to that nane. More so when we perceive them as a whale. We try to get their attention by leaving a great comment on what they wrote in the hopes that they'll be interested enough to look at our profile and read our posts. It rarely does. Well in my case that doesn't happen.
Sure I have been finding some niche communities that has supported me but no where enough to what I thought it would be.
2 months seems like a short time for me to expect that good relationships will develop into followers and upvoters and it also depends on what kind of content you put out.

I have found that photographs, selfies and art get the most votes and kinds of posts and fiction and long posts don't necessarily get the love that they deserve. You can readily see that in teh tags and some of the data provided by the graph and eggheads who love looking at the daily numbers of Steemit.

Then there have been several scandals and issues from the likes of Zeartul and bellyrub, the vote buying and vote allocation to vote by some whales because it pays out better.

I know there are a lot of curation groups and individuals who have been actively campaigning on upping the quality of Steemit and stopping shitposts but a lot of people are taking advantage that they are on the autovote lists of whales and bots so they just churn out posts after posts and it becomes a cycle of shitposts.

I am not above it. Sometime I get into zappl and write something short and does not add to anything because at times you just have nothing to inspire you and you just take advantage of some of the tips and tricks you learned the way.

I have gotten into Steemit to earn but have realized that it's not feasible. Not yet anyway. The huge divide is really felt here the adage teh rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer is very prevalent here as teh whales get bigger and fatter and the planktons and minnows just get gobbled up and cease to exist. It is troubling to see those reports that more than 50% of those that created an account leaves after a month and only about 14% stays and are still active and upvoting but can be as frequent as once every two or three weeks.

Platforms like Steemit need a fresh influx of talent and people who support it but the way it is now makes it hard for planktons and minnows to stay. They just don't see the value of it.

To be honest I don't know how to fix things. I just write now to treat myself and no longer with the intent to earn.