So, I had abruptly "left" Steem quite a while ago (more than 7 months!) and finally got to come back and have a look at what Steem has become in the meantime. This is my quick first reaction.

Why I was gone

There wasn't this one reason why I stopped posting 7 months ago, it was rather a combination of reasons. I was a bit discouraged by some of the changes in #newsteem (curation rewards, more specifically) and in particular the way those had been discussed. However, since my spare time got reduced tremendously due to private and professional changes over the last year and a half, my priorities as to how I want to spend that spare time have also shifted.

Yesterday was the first time in months that I actually logged in, and today I wanted to have an actual look at what has changed in the meantime.

So many changes

I don't know whether this can be attributed to the changes in #newsteem, a general shift in the sentiment or simply the low STEEM price, but it seems like bots are much less of a thing, and users buying big votes get downvoted a lot. The fact that there's more downvoting is definitely a good thing, so I guess there has been some real progress on this end.

In addition, there's a bunch of more subtle changes which I have failed to fully understand so far:

• There are "hive" topics like hive-133333 etc, which I don't know what they're used for (I've read up on Hivemind, but couldn't figure out whether that's related)
• There's a thing called "Tribes" which looks fun and I'll try them (hope nobody will kill me for using them in the wrong way) - always been a fan of steem-engine and the tokens.
• Proposals are a thing in the drop-down menu; I'll have to check them all out, but it seems a pity there are so few
• It seems there's a new type of promotion on Steemit that makes posts appear in the main feeds as "Sponsored" (not that I care much about Steemit because I use @steempeak)
• I can use up to ten tags now

Maybe some of you could shed some light, especially on the hive thing. Also, feel free to point me to things I've missed, yet.

My impression

My feed is full with interesting articles, tons of interactions and very little spam. The tone seems overall positive, a lot of the old "regulars" are still active and everybody is still bullish on Steem and promoting it.

To anyone who has been contributing to those changes:

GREAT JOB, FOLKS!

Looks like an overall better place to come back to, even though the STEEM price doesn't seem to reflect that, at all. But I for my part don't care about the price that much any more, only about great content and a great community. I can't promise I'll be posting a lot from now on, but I sure will be trying to catch up with things and stay more up-to-date in the future.

Steem 4ever!