1 Year Old, on the STEEM Blockchain, My Story - Part Two

This is a continuation post of the story of my 1st year on the STEEM platform and its related interfaces.

Other articles in this series:
1 Year Old, on the STEEM Blockchain, My Story - Part One

The Steem Engine (Circa April 2018)

It was great to feel like one of the community and my first post managed to get on the coveted pages of TheWhistleStops, a daily produced by @enchantedspirit. It got a shitload of comments and I had only been on the platform for 4 weeks!

Gaining an entry on TheWhistleStops also gave one a decent vote and that was another reason I wished for it. I made a point to make sure that ALL my posts were going to now going to be featured (they weren't!)

I met @natubat during this post with the looks of things and after just a month really had no business writing something like this.

The Bid Bots (8th April 2018)

I remember speaking to @beautifulbullies at SteemCamp about these ‘bid bot' things. She was telling me she had made some profit during the good times of 2017 when SBD was sky high.

I had to have a go at these, and so sent some STEEM to @minnowbooster and saw my post shoot up to $9 in value.

It looked great, and I made some good ground regarding my reputation, but was it really all that great? It was just a #metalweekend post.

The end of the Bid Bots (6th June 2018)

This would go on for some time when I publically stated, NO MORE. I was telling myself during this time that nobody would take me seriously due to my low reputation.

When I reached (55) I would stop, and I did. I have not used one since in any form. Sometime during my ‘bot’ period I had met and befriended @bozz. This was likely via @thesteemengine as we were both members and he told me about @travelfeed.

@chops.support (8th June 2018)

I applied to Steemit.COM for another account which would be named @chops.support. I should have named it something else but we are stuck with the original name once it’s created.

I was feeling bad at this point about taking and not giving enough so decided this would be a passive account that would vote people up who had not been an arsehole with me so far.

The vote started as a very modest one and one day later @steevc delegated 250SP. This made an enormous difference and so now I had two accounts to manage.

The Big Curie #1 (12th June 2018)

I have a feeling the @curie guys were taking an interest in my writing but were muttering amongst themselves....

‘This ones using bots, no @curie for him until he stops’

It seemed coincidental that just 6 days after I posted my snub of bots, I got the BIG @curie. The price of STEEM was falling by this point but an almost $40 reward was still a staggering amount for little me.

At the time I was using some content I wrote maybe a year before about my torturous past working at a horrible supermarket named ‘Kwiksave’.

Tasteem (19th June 2018)

An announcement was made that a new dApp was to be born. You could now review restaurants and get a vote for doing so. There was a white list and I was one of the first bunch to be approved.

I submitted a review and received a vote of $1.40 just for posting. I had to give them a full vote for doing so but then I think I won this competition and some STEEM to boot.

@tasteem would be one of the first of many dApps that would appear and is still going strong after some initial problems with abuse.

DolphinHood and gaining my Flippers (12th July 2018)

I had been quietly powering up everything I was gaining in rewards and a dip in STEEM (again) persuaded me to cash in a couple of stocks and do a HUGE buy that would send me over 5000SP (when powered up).

The community took it well with @matt-a and @drakos handing me some whopping votes to help me along. Thanks guys!

Big Curie #2 (19th July 2018)

During the months of July and August was I between contracts and decided to take up walking and hiking for some fitness. One of the first locations we visited was Malham Cove in West Yorkshire.

As well as @curie, @travelfeed and @steemitworldmap liked what they saw and this post did rather well.

Alternative Weekend (22nd July 2018)

I figured I would start a new topic based off @deltev's #MetalWeekend. I still write these almost every weekend but nobody else does anymore.. sob.

Ironically, the first one was Muse and I have just done another Muse one recently. The old memory is starting to fade.

Urban Exploration Prelude (25th August 2018)

While in Valletta, Malta I picked up a book about Bizarre places and discovered Mystique, An Abandoned Nightclub.

It fascinated me that something had been left since the 1960s and so I tracked it down and then wussed out when I got in there!

Despite this, I got a taste of Urban Exploration and have done many since. It a great topic to write about and the photography opportunities are tremendous, yet I see little content on our blockchain.

Big Curie #3 (18th August 2018)

This album review was to be my last BIG @curie and I really don’t expect to get another, EVER!

@curie look after the little guys and I think I’m too big (in terms of votes) to attract them (if anyone from @curie can tell me otherwise please do).

I did put a lot of effort into this post and to anyone reading, you can do the same. Make the effort and @curie will notice you.

SteemFlagRewards (5th September 2018)

After some prodding by @steevc, I started taking an interest in the discord group @steemflagrewards and what they were doing. You could gain votes by flagging abusive content.

It was dirty work, and you could face retaliation from the flagged ones. You had to pick your battles wisely and being a Dolphin at this time I had some SP I could utilise.

You could it seemed, not vote for anything and use ALL your power by just flagging, there was so much crap out there that needed looking at. I delegated 100SP and had a go.

Since then, I flag regularly, not to piss people off, but to try and correct their ignorance. Is it the STEEM police, perhaps it is?

Prelude to SteemFest 3 (11th September 2018)

@anomadsoul created a series of writing incentives to let the world know what to expect of us when were arrived at SteemFest the next month.

These were great and so were @anomadsoul’s votes if he liked what he saw. We don't see much of him these days. I think he's taking a breather before coming back for the next one.

Urban Exploration Proper (22nd October 2018)

THREE months later after the Malta experience, I would start of exploring old buildings that were dangerous as hell and dropping apart.

It’s harder than you think doing this, and maybe that’s why the young are all at it and not me!

The @utopian.io Abuse posts (7th November 2018)

I was asked by some members of @steemflagwards to write some article’s about abuse and submit them to @utopian.io. By this time I had seen quite a lot of different types of abuse and had experienced some retaliation to boot.

The option to write more for @utopian.io is still open and available to me on this subject. You need to understand that by showing examples you are drawing attention to yourself and some of the flagged ones can hold sustained grudges against the group and you personally.

SteemFest 3 (8th November 2018)

SteemFest is something not to be missed. My biggest regret was not being there on day one. This is when they hand out the goodies. Arrive on day 2 and you get the XXL T-Shirts because all the rest are gone!

There are other reasons besides this one. People are fresh on day one, and SteemFest is HARD. By the time it finishes everyone is drained due to too constant chatting and not enough shuteye.

This year (if it happens), I will be there right from the start. I found the event a little overbearing at times. It helps if you’re a great socialite and I’m not.

I found myself wondering who to talk to next and sometimes just called it a day. Is that @revisesociology (below) in the background?

Hopefully this year I will know more people and it will be easier for me. @roelandp was rushed off his feet but still had time for everyone. Make Steemfest 4 happen, please!

The Slump (20th November 2018)

SteemFest was finished, the festivities finished and like everyone else’s moods the price of STEEM took a big dip. I, on the other hand, started to buy and buy big.

Was this the time for opportunity? I believed it was and my holdings of around 7000SP went up to over 11000SP quite rapidly.

The price of STEEM was to decrease again in the subsequent month, and I will finish this story in the final episode.

Thanks for taking the time to read this…, if you still are.. you are patient :)

To be continued...

All images used are in the public domain or are from previous Steemit articles I have written or referred to.

If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, resteem, engage me or all of these things.