My First Steemit Birthday Card - One Full Year In The Books

Happy Steemit birthday to me. Please read if you have a few.

I've met some incredible people on this platform who exemplify what humanity and Steemit are all about. To those people, who clearly will know who they are, thank you VERY much.

Interacting with these people is the main reason I've committed myself for a full year, as it'd be a joke to say I'm here only for the rewards. I don't need them. Yes, I've swapped a bit of earnings into other coins, but it's mainly been for the fun of it.

For a generally non-social media person prior to this time last year, I've spent a lot of time on Steemit. However, writing on Steemit helped me get through some very difficult family challenges, so for that alone, I'm grateful.

I suppose the highlight was pouring my soul into a post about my abusive father before he died from brain cancer, and seeing @idikuci donate 100 SBD of his own money to boost my post. That was humanity at its finest, just after I'd personally flayed myself for the internet to see. Being able to connect with others in a powerful way such as that is what I wish I could've done more of.

I suppose my least favorite memories are when I tried introducing myself to some influencers via Steemit Chat, only to get muted or told I was wasting their time. I'll spare the gossip. Either way, I tried.

As for most, I enjoy knowing someone actually read my post or watched my videos. A comment or vote seems to be the main ways we can express that. Engagement is all I really care about if I was to be "selfish" here. Realistically, engagement is at a low now, which leaves me with nothing in the tank to continue.

I've tried my best to put nothing but passion into what I write or do, meet new people, and encourage/challenge others along the way. I've tried small initiatives to help with adoption, but they all were glazed over by the majority of active users, and therefore showed me I was wasting my time. I'm just an amateur though, with talents in niches most people have consistently proven they don't care about. Growing them has proven to be impossible. It's a sinkhole.

I also don't feel that being on camera should be the only way to make significant financial rewards from investors and influencers. To those who have those talents, I fully support you! On the contrary, I do find that there are some actors who publicly say they care about people, but their actions across the community are heavily self-centered, or obviously for profit. The blockchain doesn't lie.

I really hope these people get the bigger picture eventually since they're critical to keeping adopters aboard. I've seen a few people flourish with the proper healthy support from investors, but most just tread water until they tire out. I'm done floating around hoping my effort will attract bigger eyes. It's not what the site should be about.

Next there is the topic of privacy. Privacy is something people value and I feel that it shouldn't significantly hurt their success as people seem to care less and less about the written word. It feels like the more one writes, the less the average person cares because it's too much work to read. Just like gifs and emojis have become the preferred way of communication for some, patience for reading seems to have going out the window. I'll admit that I fall into this trap at times as well. Maybe making videos is the new era of Steemit, and it's survival of the fittest.

As for true "content", I built a global fitness army of 55 Steemians for ~160 consecutive days and 580,000+ team exercise reps, and put countless hours into my drum videos. The lack of support from those who had me in their feeds as a whole, or the entire community, was a slap in the face, but nothing is a given when you're a minnow. I kept grinding with the fitness challenge because I cared about the health of those who found motivation and excitement from it. Watching people develop from the daily spark I provided was best feeling. Regardless, you'd think that some whales would've seen the bigger picture, or even part of it. As for drumming, it's just not practical to spend 3-4 hours getting a solid recording for less than $1 and 1-2 comments.

Trying to teach people about thrifting and upcycling (everyone dreams of not having a day job - and this has given me 3+ years of that freedom), an even smaller niche, seems like a black hole to invest more time trying to build. I also planned on going to SteemFest, but it genuinely feels tough to give more. Wah wah wah.

Just be positive! This is a ground floor opportunity! Keep posting great content!

Venting done, I've mainly focused on writing jokes. The punchline, COM and funny crew understand Steemit better than most. They engage, encourage, reward and support each other. It's the only reason I've hung on as long as I have. There are great people in this community. Thank you to all of you.

In reality, I don't have a ton of Steem Power to attract reward-hungry followers (nor would I want to interact with those types of people). I made a deal with myself to earn everything in the true spirt of the platform. If I pumped my posts with bid bot posts to fake it, or made auto-vote arrangements, I'd personally never feel like I truly made it. Perhaps I did it the wrong way.

I'd also been excited to post that I'd finally organically reached half-dolphin status in Steem Power, but I didn't see the point anymore. Let's call this that post too.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me in some way. Thanks also to the small crew who auto-vote or regularly vote for me. It never ever goes unnoticed or unappreciated in any way.

Bowing out for now...

@steemmatt