Review of My First Day of Steemit

First of all remember everything I say, comes with 1 day of experience. That is not enough.

So, I read about #Steemit @corbettroport.com. His mention of Steemit was as a "Free Speech" Social Media site, with the added advantage of possibly making some money from the content you publish and no filtering.

So, I came here really excited to support values I believe in. Investment, Free Speech, and I have spent my whole career working in start-up companies, so I love that as well.

Needless to say, my enthusiasm was high! Being the all or nothing type of person I am. I am typing this after some 18 hours of reading, browsing and learning about the site, business plan, culture, etc.

Here is how my day went:

I signed up, carefully regarding all the notices about the password not being recoverable. However, I didn't worry too much about the screen name thinking it could be changed later. (Oops) Sadly, if you are reading this it is too late to warn you.

I read a few (many) articles and "voted" for them. I decided to take the plunge and post a few of my own articles I had been working on or saving. I was pretty excited to get a little feedback on my very first day.

Now I had some questions so I began to look for help. I posted about this and received links and hashtags to look up. (Still so excited)

While looking at trending articles it was a who's who of new members and their bios. (Cool) At this point I try to figure out how to add Steem to my account and what it will do for me. I was extremely excited. I calculate my investment funds and begin to search some "how to" articles.

Now I get to all of the articles on how to maximize your first day, what newbies should and shouldn't do. There were weird comments about Whales and Minnows. How not to like a post in the first 30 minutes after it is posted, and How to try to find the "Whale Posts" and vote them up at just the right moment. There were so many articles on "writing a good article" and "Quality Content". What? I think to myself? Am I in a "Auther's Guild" or a start of Social Media Site? Nobody seemed to agree on a description of Quality Content and some of the Whales said it was their job to vote down the financial gains of certain members using flags. (Meanwhile that trending page is still there with all of the articles on top voted by Whales, and an obvious lack minnows. The minnows seemed to be desprately trying to figure out if there is any path to success for them. Well, the plan to invest immediately went away. I felt let down and discouraged. Not as much about the Minnows and the Whales but how the mission I had read about "Free Speech" and "Social Media" wasn't reflected in some of the posts I read, and in my opinion, the odd obcession with writing talent. Something I have never before seen when referencing Social Media.

At the end of the day, I saw a lot of good, bad and even a bit of ugly. If you think this is a negative review, think again. Every startup I have been invovled has been in this phase. Being here isn't a problem, how a business deals with it will mean success or failure.

My first day was an amazing learning experience. The jury is out on that $ investment, but it certainly isn't out of the question. I am excited to log in tomorrow and see if anyone has left feedback on any of my "Too Many Posts" (Because quality content?)

I know I should have added pictures, I should have been more careful with my grammar, I know because I read these things.

Anyway a final thought in the SteemTools section there is a tool called "Steem Analytics" which breaks down what posts get the most whale votes. It makes some sense due to how young the platform is and how new the business model is. I also assume the "Whales" and founders with the most investment are also trying to prioritize and direct development, some of the rule questions that are coming up etc. However, it doesn't seem like there will be a bunch of users converting from FB until these numbers settle down. http://steemanalytics.it/

So, at the end of the day. Yes, I will see you tomorrow, and somehow I broke the screen that allows me to format my post, put links in, etc. Nice to meet you Steemers. I have to find out if I can fix this browser app.