Steemit Has Made Me An Ass Licker, Extortionist And Hypocrite

They say money doesn’t change people; it only brings out their true nature. I wonder if that is true about Steemit; deep inside, I hope it isn’t (Although the evidence suggests otherwise). This is a story of how Steemit turned me into the Mother of all Ass Lickers, An Extortionist and a Full Time Hypocrite.

First, The Ass Licker

I was surfing through Steemit, looking for contests to apply for when I saw the post. To start with, I thought it was all a joke. I mean, when a contest post says the goal is to produce the Mother of All Ass Lickers, you are wont to think it’s one big joke. Turns out it wasn’t a joke. It was a real contest. To win, I had to prove I knew a lot about Ass Liking.

Now, I love a fun challenge so I applied. But as I developed my entry, I wonder if I wasn’t just expressing my true self. Thing is, on Steemit, a few guys could make your day, week or even a month. They are called Whales and Dolphins. (For a guy who struggles with an average of $2 per post, I know what I am saying.) Anyway, I wrote all that I could, know (and probably did) and submitted it as a entry. I came first and was declared the Mother of all Ass Lickers on Steemit. These days, I don’t do any of that. I simply apply for contests, check on my friends and get back to work in real life.

You can check out the post. It is titled: The Ultimate Steeemit Ass-Kissing And Ass-Licking Tutorial (Only For The Brave)

Then An Extortionist

This one happened quite recently. Some one was in desperate need of fiat (Naira - Nigerian Currency) and offered to exchange five SBDs. At the time, it was going for 950/1 on the black market. I offered him 850 (partly as a joke) and he accepted. I couldn’t believe my ‘luck’. Anyway, I bought the SBDs at that price and went on to sell it on the black market.

This happened in a whatsapp group (I mean the initial transaction). So other Steemians read the chats and knew what was up. Soon, folks told the guy that were better ways to exchange his SBDs for fiat. No one spoke about me, but I could read the accusations and sense the disgust in their chats (maybe my guilty conscience was simply working on me). Anyway, I told myself it was all business - maybe bad business for the guy. But everyone knew the official rates; that he offered to sell for lower was my fault? Well, I only know that the last time I had a opportunity to exploit another person, I didn’t take it. In fact, I helped him get a good exchange rate.

Now, All Hail The Hypocrite

I joined Steemit primarily because of the money. I had a blog, was a regular on Medium and had fun on Twitter. I left all of these sites primarily because of the money. So imagine my frustration when in my first few weeks on Steemit, I made next to nothing. I then learned that Steemit was all about community (some call it nepotism, circle-jerking and godfatherism). Anyway, I practically knew no one so I had to walk up the ladders on my own. Good thing I found contests - they have helped to provide rewards and helped me connect with writers like myself. Anyway, back to the story.

So I began to rant. Yeah, I did a lot of rant in my early days; most of which got the attention of many. I complained of how people only upvoted themselves and their friends, how people hoarded the good stuff for only those in their communities, how good relationship always win over good content and all of that. Soon, I was doing all of that - and more.

These days, I don’t even search out for new content. I go through my heavily audited feed and read from folks I already connect with. For the newcomers, you have to impress me with your writing/thinking skills or we might never click (thankfully, that applies to whales and dolphins as well. Regardless of how much upvotes you share, if I don’t feel your stuff, I don’t come around). Forgive me for the digress.

Having realised how much of an hyproctite I am, my conscience went into work. It was eating at me. I remembered those times I used to rant and wonder how many newcomers are feeling that way. It’s not as if I earn much, but folks could use an encouraging comment and an 0.01 upvote from time to time. I had to get my conscience off my back. There was only one way: give back to the community.

Right now, I am working on a project called Grayesque. It is a curation service, something like Curie on a very much lower scale. I don’t have time to scout through Steemit looking for posts (I’ve got a busy schedule in real life) so I listed the help of some who could, created an account and look for ways to fund it with Steempower. I’m looking to fund it with a delegation of 150 SP for four weeks and see wheat happens from there. At this point, it is more than just assuaging my conscience; it is helping other with the little I can.

You can read the introductory post here: Introducing Grayesque

Final words

Looking back, my Steemit journey has been eventful. It has showed me a lot of my personal tendencies. I’m grateful though. I think Steemit in some way is helping me become a better person. There are other stuffs Steemit has made me do but I don’t want to bore you with an excessively long essay.

This is my entry for the 'Look What Steemit Made Me Do' Contest by @mermaidvampire.

Thanks for reading

Blessings

[Image source: Pixabay]