Our Own Personal "Genesis Block"

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I have been fortunate enough to be a part of the amazing community of Steemit since way back in July and while it did take me a few tries to finally find my footing, I can honestly say I’ve loved every minute of it. Money aspect aside, I firmly believe as I’m sure many of you out there do too, that Steemit is primarily a platform for creativity.

Whether that might be producing a masterpiece of a post or making some new Steemian friends, change within Steemit is always happening in some form or another.

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Tapping into the power of your imagination and unleashing that vision onto the keyboard of your computer can be every bit as addictive as it can be fun. And Voilà! A new post is born. A unique take on a subject matter chosen by you and brought to life through your own private insights. That in itself is, I believe, extraordinary.

Most of us started out here not even contemplating the idea of "blogging." It was a niche market already covered nicely by YouTube and Reddit. Why disrupt two perfectly good websites by introducing another? Well, like most things in life, money!

All of us were initially enticed by this novel and breakthrough concept. Getting paid for posting articles! So, if there was actually a hidden blogger deep within us all waiting to burst through, this provided the ultimate catalyst. Any of us who joined early in July or before will remember the fiasco that took place when Steemit blew up.

The invasion of the big three! Spammers, GIF’s and bots. It was like a free-for-all! A lucky dip or casino. A “try your luck” jackpot. Anything that could be posted, was posted. It was that simple.

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Many that joined back then left just as quickly.

"Where are all the promised riches after posting my “Facebook-esque” article?" you would hear.

I like to think of this as the period of filtration. Steemit itself wasn’t even sure of what it was or what it wanted to be. I believe the users took over from that point on and shaped it into what it is today.

The intelligence and originality flowing through many of the posts I scour through daily are testament to how different things are now than from the “olden days” (aka just under four months ago!). Where we go from here is still very much up to us!

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The Power of Conceptualisation

Do you, like myself, love watching movies? Playing the latest video games? Marvel at trying out the new-fangled VR technology that’s being demonstrated almost everywhere we look?

Well, I’ve got news for you. Since birth, you’ve already had the headset on, enjoyed the crispest graphics your eyes could ever conceive of and played the ultimate game no developer could ever hope to reproduce. The game of life!

And what a great game it can be if played correctly!

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We, as humans, are capable of building worlds and opening up new ways of innovative thinking. All sourced from the power of the mind.

No other living creature on this earth has that ability. I see us as an incredible species with an extraordinary gift. Because of this, I also see Steemit as being one of the ultimate tools for nurturing and expanding upon this complex way that we process information. Everybody’s post (especially now) on Steemit originally stemmed from nothing but a single thought. If that isn’t reason enough to love Steemit as a platform then I don’t know what is.

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The Sordid Topic of Money

I, like everyone else, has been watching the price of Steem go steadily down into what seems like a never ending abyss. A flurry of posts have highlighted various intelligent solutions and measures to keep the peace within the Steemit community. This is how I perceive this delicate issue.

We know the cogs are turning in the background trying to address the numerous issues raised. This post by @thecryptofiend breaks those things down into a logical and ordered fashion extremely well.

If that is the case, then what can we do to improve things from our side? What changes can we make as users to enhance the experience of Steemit? Well, I would personally refer to a popular quote that speaks volumes when applied to something like Steemit.

"The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of its Parts"

By that, I mean the content. After all, that is one of the key ingredients that actually makes Steemit work. It’s the posts and articles being published every day. These are things that we can implement on a purely individual basis. Trying to create great content, criticizing oneself with the view of improving our writing techniques, promoting and praising other deserving pieces on Steemit so that over time the user base and overall level of quality continues to grow.

I’ve been doing my best to try to up my game with every post I make and I’m sure that if we all pull in the same direction, time will hopefully play a big part in rectifying anything that is now seen as being broken or unfinished.

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The Future and Things Way Beyond

I’ve been having an absolute blast writing my short(ish) stories on here and also following and reading many other Steemian’s impressive blogs. Users like @getonthetrain, @jedau, @rea, @thecryptofiend as well as many others, are some of the primary reasons I spend so much time on Steemit.

It can get quite addictive reading everybody’s various posts and enjoying in sharing their exclusive take on the vast amount of subjects discussed.

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My next personal goal is to finish up my first novel that I’m working on and publish it here on Steemit. This can be a great platform to build up a valuable portfolio of our work and that alone can carry many intrinsic benefits in the future.

I’m also very excited to be attending Steemfest in Amsterdam which should be a lot of fun. In fact, it’ll be like having twice the fun. Getting to mingle with a large group of Steemians (possibly meeting Ned too if he’s not too busy) as well as checking out a part of the world I’ve never visited before.

Much to look forward to then...

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So, that’s as far as I’ve come with my time spent on Steemit. Let’s see where we all are one year from now, I’m sure we will all have a much clearer picture of how things panned out as opposed to where we are right now.

But I continue to remain positive and will continue to do so. The community is great, the content is way superior to what it was a few months back. And with a little luck and some tweaks here and there, I hope we release the full potential this platform has locked away under the hood.

Thanks so much for making my experience on Steemit such a memorable one! Here's to many more good times to come."

Sources: (1-2-3-4-5-6-7)