RE: How can we help steemit grow? Here is one possible simple way...
This is a great idea. I've been thinking along these same lines. What I try to do every day, in order to keep my Steemit activities sustainable, is to establish and maintain relationships on Steemit. People will stick around when they feel connected. The only way to do that is to consistently read and comment on what's posted by the people you want to connect with. I have a list of people I "visit" every day, and that list is broken down into three tiers: a few whales (people way above me in SP and reputation), a few peers (people who are about as far along with Steemit as I am) and a few noobs (people just starting out). But following new people isn't enough, you've got to engage. (In fact, one of the first things I noticed as a noob was that most of the people following me never upvoted or commented on anything I wrote.)
Yeah today I was looking through tags and I stared at introduceyourself for a minute and realized that because I do have a lot of people I follow I spend far less time in NEW than I once did. I realized that the new people doing their first post were likely not getting shown as cool a welcome as we once had. That simple step is something WE can do for the platform without expecting Dan and Ned to change the code. It is something I could change about myself now.
While I can't go vote on ALL introduceyourself posts I'd like to due to it greatly depleting my voting power, I can at least make a difference. If all of us do that then it could make steemit a lot more welcoming to new people.
They may find it hard to STRIKE GOLD again, but at least they know it is possible, so we might keep more of them around than we are right now.