Giving Thanks for the good times - Thanksgiving Goodbyes

Since some 30% of the traffic to Steemit.com come from the US, I guess the Thanksgiving holiday will be a little bit quieter with lots of people spending time with their family and friends.

For those of us that don't celebrate the occasion, I wanted to reflect on some of the recent posts I have read and why I think it is more important than ever to start giving thanks and show our appreciation to the people here on Steemit.

When I wrote my post celebrating the milestone of reaching 100 followers I was still very much new to the platform. I didn't care about the bots or self-voting because I came from the consulting world where you get rewarded for looking after yourself and making a living from the perception of being useful (fake it and you make it, that it being $). I was looking forward to celebrating getting to 200 followers, but in that time I noticed a few things:

• I stopped reading #introduceyourself posts because it was obvious that bots paid more attention to them than most people.
• I read many #thankyou and #goodbye posts because of the issues that have continued to plague steemit without long term solutions (SMT will not solve the problems, good people will)
• I branched out very deep into different parts of steemit and realized that attracting new followings and users must start with treating existing creators and contributors better

I won't clutter this post with many of the ideas and suggestions I proposed - I don't have enough clout to get heard or enough smarts to implement these ideas effectively, but I want to spend this time writing some nice words about people that have made a difference to me on this platform. As someone who doesn't actually celebrate Christmas or birthdays (I believe in doing something nice when the time is right and not wait for the 'right' occasion), I have chosen as a non-US citizen to give my thanks on Thanksgiving to (in no particular order):

• @marty-arts - your beautiful watercolours and glassworks is something I always look foward to; I love the details in your animals and the time you take to show all the process and steps involved. You also contribute to the community in different ways by participating in contests and promoting other good artists. I feel lucky that you were one of the first people I discovered on steemit and hopefully one day I might give watercolour painting a go :)
• @jungwatercolour - your watercolor portraits are full of soul and so expressive, and you really support other artists on steemit because I always see you resteeming other people's post when you could be posting and promoting more of your own content; the fact that it is even more difficult to make a living as an artist where you are from makes you an inspiration to me in many ways!
• @vermillionfox - I enjoy your writing and artworks because you are very honest with your feelings and you are also very active in the community; whether it is a quick sketch or a longer piece of artwork (which sometimes starts out as a quick sketch), the feelings and emotions in the characters are always the focus and highlight of your drawings.
• @edward-maesen - I enjoy our discussions and your very frequent comments on my various posts. Your photography (especially the B&W ones) with models is very unique and your style respects their individuality while also making the viewer connect with them emotionally; I know that you don't get the views or upvotes that you probably could if you played the game better, but I think we have a long term future here and I hope we can keep encouraging each other.
• @karenmckersie - I am not much of a cook so unfortunately I miss out a lot with your cooking posts, but everything else you do on steemit brings joy and positive energy to me and so many people here; I couldn't do justice to the work that you do and how #popcontest exemplifies your nurturing and caring spirit!
• @paulag - I hope that the things I am doing for #bisteemit shows how much I admire your tireless work and the dedication that you have put into this team, words can't say what your encouragement and support means to me, but I hope the data of my activities on the steemit blockchain can :D
• @carrieallen - you are my other go-to person on a bad day on steemit, so full of positive energy and another tireless contributor on steemit; the writing contests are not always easy but definitely enjoyable, even for someone like me who prefers #infographics; along with @chrisroberts you make up an adorable power couple on steemit and I shall have to write a post on the subject unless you beat me to it :)
• @mihail.tsvetkov - we haven't crossed paths as often as we might have liked (sorry but I only played WarCraft and stopped before WoW became popular), but synchronism will take care of that for us :) I like reading your writing for something calm and soothing to the mind+soul, and hope that you might do a numerology readying for some of the wonderful people that I have listed here too!
• @choogirl - thank you for welcoming me into #teamaustralia and introducing me to a wonderful bunch of people on steemit, and showing that no matter how far or wide we go in the world (or steemit) that we can still call Australia home :) You are an inspiration to an aspiring digital nomad such as myself, and I hope your travels and @steemitworldmap will bring steemians everywhere closer!
• @elear & @fabien - as a UX designer, I am glad that I found utopian.io very early on and was able to provide some contribution to what is now a fantastic initiative that involves and impacts so many steemians; it really helped me to find a niche right at the beginning and gave me the confidence to do more; I do have to point out that most of the SBD in my wallet seems to come from the utopian.io posts, but I would have happily contributed for nothing (or a lot less) because I know everything that happens over there benefits so many people :)
• @ausbitbank - for flying the flag as our Aussie ambassador on steemit and the important work that you do for the platform.

I do happen to follow a lot more people on steemit than there are people following me, which is a good thing because there are so many great people that I want to meet on steemit, but also a bad thing because I should be spending time doing more posts myself and get my reputation and voting power up. However, if I have been spending all my time trying to get my reputation and bank balance higher than what I really need them to be then I wouldn't be here on steemit.

I am sorry that I didn't get around to writing and thanking more of you here, but I wish you all have a safe and happy thanksgiving today and everyday!