It's my 2 year steem birthday

Back when I used Facebook, a lot, I saw a guy post a blog link to steemit. I noticed a blurb at the bottom of the steemit saying, join steemit and upvote this users content to support them or something like that. I was trying to be nice and thought why not, whenever this guy posts a blog I can give him an upvote to support him. Little did I know my vote was worthless. I was a new libertarian back then, with a narrow mind, a lot has changed. I only shared memes on Facebook and trolled my friends about how bad the other side was. If facebook was noticing, they would have seen a drastic decline in my chronic facebook time when I joined steemit. I felt freed and my knowledge of politics and especially economics grew. What really sealed the deal, I had finally got to find out about Bitcoin. I was always interested in Bitcoin but kept lieing to myself saying it must only be for computer wizards. Yes, I joined steem before I knew it was a crypto currency.

The First Post

My first post did not get a single vote besides my self upvote and rightfully so. I knew nothing about posting and had no idea how to attach a picture. This was the time when steem was comimg down from the high price. It was also a great time to learn how to use steemit. New features and articles about the new features where all the rage. It was the Renaissance of steem. I watched the price of steem come down from its all-time high when everyone was making boku bucks. To 10 cents per token. Yes the same people were making the trending page back then but some of my posts we making 10 dollars. I was happy to finally earn more than what I made on Facebook. I finally figured out how to set up a exchange account and buy a fraction of a Bitcoin at the most outrageous price of $700 a coin. I purchased some steem at 10 cents a steem. And sold some of it when it hit 25 cents. Not my last rookie mistake. My opinion of Bitcoin would be tortured by my assumption steem would never go back up to its original price and Bitcoin would never go higher then $1000 $1500 $2k $5k $15k. I always decided not to buy. A mistake I still make two years later. I watched the bot wars as the debate over bots heated up. The dollar vigilante come on board and soon after the flag wars of said party. Numerous wars have come and gone forgotten and people change and become self-made hypocrites. It's sad to think about how hard earned accounts were ruined because of high arbitrary standards. Those same people are missing when we are dealing with crap posts making the trending page everyday. Lots of people have made a fortune over night and left the next week. I am glad I never made it to the trending page, and it's not because I deserved it (I don't). My head is big enough already.

On the positive side. My posts began to get better as time went on. I remember my heart jumping when I saw @Berniesanders had upvoted my post.

and a second time just to let me know the first one was not a mistake.

Unfortunately the whale voting drastically changed as the introduction of the bidbots came into play. Some of it was demoralizing and some was physical change to the way whales voted. It made me regret not buying more steem when I had the chance and not working harder when the market was mostly manually curated. Those screen shots are 2/3 of all the big upvotes I have received. My posts quality went down, while this is still no excuse I started to realize this is just another social media site. I never worried about how great my stupid post's on Myspace or Facebook so why start now. It's how life works this is still no Utopia social media site.

Things I am most proud of.

I tried getting friends and family to join. I would set up the account and even bribing them was not good enough. One friend joined and picked up a few steem but he walked away. So I tried getting my favorite YouTubers to join. My proudest moment is when I had some success with a big YouTuber who exchanged a few emails on how to use steemit. Still haven't found a personal contact who enjoys steem as much as I do. It reminds me of when my Myspace friends were not interested in joining Facebook. But I like to think planting a seed can spread like wildfire one day. And soon only the cool smug kids will be saying. I am proud I don't use steemit.

I love that guy.

Things I learned

Boycot any account supporting what you don't like or believe in. Use your account to picket or support picketing. The only other option I see is to complain and moan about stuff around here. I have drawn a correlation between the size of the wallet on a majority of complainers. Its cool if you want to complain, I'm just saying. Listen to the old timers especialy the grumpy one's. It's best to judge a whale by looking at old comments to see how right they are or not. I learned to give up on trying to fix the abuse. I tried using my limited steempower to fight a vote farm only to have the main account come back and upvote over the top of my flag. If the whales want to devalue the price. They have more to loose. By all means use the flag, some of my best friends on steem use flags. I love flagging some spamer off my page and it should be used more often and with less shame. By far the best way to clean up the crap posts is use the mute button, a lot. Start with the trending page. If you are not happy here, I know you won't leave, try being someone's "whale" (however small your SP is) and making them feel welcomed. Find a tribe(s). Try to keep as many new people here as you can. Deligating some SP is the ultimate upvote. Find someone with <200 SP, doing a great job and deligate as much as you can. Its a great long term investment to see them succeed. We all can't be taker's all of the time.

Thanks for reading.

My Tribes

@steemmakers, @socalsteemit, @spl

In lieu of gifts please help my pathetic reputation score.