@matbaker - I really enjoyed reading this. I am having the same debate with myself, and frankly, right now, don't have the time to spend here - in a sense, "nickeling and diming". @jaynie, who happens to be a personal friend, introduced me to @steemit and she has given me some useful pointers. At the get-go she warned me about the politics, trolls and spammers. I was familiar with that from having blogged for a few years on another platform. I wrote about it there, and also shared it here https://steemit.com/steemit/@fionasfavourites/cape-town-s-burning

Now, before I get on to other issues, the reason I started blogging there were two-fold: I needed to find a different (writing) voice other than my professional one and put it out there. The writing (ha!) was on the wall in my day job, for reasons I won't go into, but a decision was precipitated ahead of schedule (you will find that in my first two posts on @steemit https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@fionasfavourites/6ndjsc-the-journey-to-a-new-chapter) and the blogging platform that I had chosen did not have much by way of income generating opportunities. Similarly, finding work via other virtual platforms was difficult: I could not / cannot compete with the prices that folk from certain other parts of the world are prepared to accept.

So, since that first post, I have dipped in and out of @steemit and about a month or so ago, perhaps not quite, I took the decision that I was going to spend more time here. Like you, I find myself thrashing about. My other blog was just me, and I had found bloggers I loved following (still do), and had built up a fairly decent following – of my eclectic collection of musings – which do include a lot about cats (really), and, of course food, as well as my very amateurish photographs.

With hindsight, it took 2 years to build that following and I took a decision early on not to “do” politics. Mainly because I do not like confrontation although I will get involved in a heated debate: on the premise that the participants can agree to differ which must, in turn, be predicated on mutual respect.

Let me return to some advice that @jaynie gave me: use the hashtags to find topics that interest you and/or that generate the most income and use them as a guideline. I’m not very good at this – yet. Like you, I have put posts out there that have just gone into the ether which is annoying when they’re often the ones I’ve spent most time on. I keep on thinking that I should have a look at those posts that have generated most votes (ha!) and why. Then, I think that perhaps I should carry on blogging, my way, and looking for others I’d be interested in following and engaging with – like you. Often their interests are not the same as mine would appear to be when you read my blog. So…..

I also am not sure, actually, no, I am very sure that I do not understand all the blockchain stuff let alone all the stuff that @sathyasankar talks about. It intimidates me, and I glaze over. I also have a life outside @steemit that demands, no deserves, my attention. So I will learn this stuff over time, and probably the hard way. My own fault.

So, reading your post and writing this comment has helped me with my reflection on the space I’d like to carve here: I don’t really want to be part of the platform’s politics. I live in a small village and have enough politics to deal with in real life, never mind living in a country where our political environment is hugely fluid and dominating for me (which has to do with my “old” day job). So, I think I’m going to play a longer game: writing what I like (to paraphrase Steve Biko), and engaging with bloggers whose contributions “talk” to me, and who wish to either reciprocate by way of a conversation in the comments, or by following me if what I post is of interest to them. If it isn’t, no offence taken.

Carry on blogging, Mat, I am sure that you will build a cohort of followers who “get” you and build your own @steemit community.

@fionasfavourites