My 1 Year STEEM Journey : From Start to End
I’ve tied up my loose ends and it took a bit longer than I expected but I was always brought up to believe we should try and leave things in better condition than when we found them. I’m not sure if I’ve succeeded in that here but I’ve given it a good try. Certainly there are a few accomplishments here on STEEM that I can be proud of but there is a part of me that feels guilty – like I’m on the first lifeboat leaving the Titanic….however I’ve always had a cynical side and it’s often pretty safe to ignore. I’m still hopeful that STEEM will lead us all to the "Promised Land", I’m just not confident.
Source
Anyway, I wanted to sign off with a post to just make a short story about my journey here on STEEM. It’s been about a year now and a lot has happened in that time. I’m probably writing this as much for myself to give me some closure and leave a note for my future self, but there are a few people here who might appreciate my story.
Before I came to STEEM I was very focused on exploring the top Cryptocurrencies in the market to see if there was one which really stood out as a candidate for mainstream adoption. Having lived through the DotCom Boom I know that most Crypto projects will fail, but a handful will be spectacularly successful and I was looking for “the one”. For a while there I thought I’d found it.
When I first came to STEEM I was fascinated by the Graphene technology and the totally different way that DPoS worked. As an old Software Developer I was immediately impressed with the technology and design. Scalable, Fast, Cheap Transactions and the Baked in Governance Framework were all so promising. The Stable Coin implementation seemed clever and the Network Effect potential from the Social Media aspect of the platform really got me excited. I Powered Up and began what I called a “Deep Dive” and spent a lot of time trying to learn more. I joined a couple of communities too to help me get started.
I still believe that one of the keys to the platforms success is effective curation of content. Without Value Adding Content this is just another inflationary scheme, so I started focusing on curating content and earning some curation rewards. I was posting sporadically but Authoring wasn’t my focus. I wanted to see if it was possible to make an income as a curator on the platform and for a while I was doing OK. I could see there were some cliques and circle jerks going on, but at this time I still believed that good content could, and would, be rewarded and I tried to be a part of that.
The Crypto market Mania really was in full swing and when the STEEM DOLLAR started pumping to break the USD Peg it was a clear indicator to me that something wasn’t right. On the platform, the incentive to curate almost evaporated overnight and while there were BidBots in existence already, the SBD pump really triggered an explosion in the vote selling business. It was around this time too that the Steemit site had suffered major DDoS attacks that were not well mitigated and I lost confidence in the development team(s) we were counting on to take the platform forward. I became very Risk Averse during this time and I sold a lot of my Cryptos. It took me a while to Power Down my STEEM but I took what I could off the table. I missed some of the price peaks as a result, but at least I wasn't buying the Top.
The STEEM and SBD prices were still going strong as 2018 started and while I was now aware of some flaws and had become ultra-sceptical about the investment potential of the platform going forward, I had made some valuable contacts with good people. I could see there was still potential in the communities I was involved in and the incentive was there for me to step up my Authoring to have a 3rd attempt at starting a professional blog. I have actually always wanted to be a writer but my first 2 attempts (on other platforms) failed to gain traction. I wondered if it might be 3rd time lucky so I stepped up my posting rate to daily, expanded my topic coverage and my followers count nearly tripled in just a few months….but the whales never really came and I still had to buy most of my upvotes in the vain hope of getting seen by them.
I now believe that the greatest asset and the greatest hope for this platforms future is the voluntaryist communities that have started sprouting up. I could see there were people heavily gaming the platform and I felt the only way this was ever going to be addressed was via fostering a culture of higher behavioural standards within the voluntaryist communities. I had been looking to get more involved in helping my communities but I had failed to get any traction with my first attempt. However, when one of my communities started having internal problems I saw there was an opportunity for me to help. I had just the right set of skills and experience so I volunteered a lot of time and effort for that community…and it worked! I believe that together we demonstrated how a Decentralised Autonomous Community (DAC) could operate and thrive on STEEM. Yet, while the support from within the community itself was overwhelming and heartening and I thought we might be leading the way for others….we may as well have been in a bubble because outside of this community – nobody else seemed to notice or care.
I love to explore and innovate, but sustainability has always been an issue for me and I was starting to get burnt out. A lot of my other ventures were starting to look seriously neglected because of the time I was now spending on STEEM and when I started looking at my tax return for Financial Year 17/18 I realised I was staring at my worst year in perhaps a decade. I had achieved what I had set out to do on STEEM. My Deep Dive was long complete and I had given enough of my time and ideas on how things could be better, so it was time for me to take a break and look after myself and my family.
So that’s where I am today as I am stepping out the door. I still believe there is great potential here on STEEM but I have lost confidence that it will ever be realised. I’ve met a lot of good people here and I do hope to be able to stay in touch, even pop in here and there once I’ve freshened up again but there are a few things I really need to see from the STEEM platform for me to ever take it seriously again. Maybe HF20 or SMTs or Hivemind will take us to the “Promised Land” and change things for me, but I’m a sceptic. I’ve been here for about a year and there has barely been any technological or cultural advancement. Most of the change I’ve seen here has not been that encouraging and some of it has been outright demoralising.
It has certainly been fun and a valuable experience though, so despite my tone I don’t really have any regrets. It’s been good meeting you all and thanks to all my Followers for sticking with me!
Oh dear Mr Buggyman. You are leaving at the bottom - again.
What you don't seem to get... Steem can not fail. For the fewer people who post, the more the posters make. The lower the price goes, the harder the whales work. And economics 101 tells us that higher rewards bring people back.
Our friend in the armour looks at other currencies. They are years behind Steem, are used by a fraction of the people, and offer Average Joe no chance of mining. Steemians here mine through their stake and effort.
And assuming that SMTs are possible - every community on the planet will be able to set up their own currency to encourage communication, socialisation and creation.
The guy in armour was accumulating Steem 9 months ago at $1. Now we are at $2. How could any reasonable person not be happy with this? In 9 months time it will be $4.
Sorry to see you go B.
This decision to take a hiatus is not about the price of STEEM.
It's been a pleasure meeting you. Take some time and you could always come back if you change your mind later? I'll be here for ya 👊 😎
Thanks mate, it's been good meeting you too. I'm sure we will cross paths again soon :)
Well written summary buggedout !
You pretty much sum up where I'm standing myself on Steemit, I really enjoy it a lot but can't say I'm that confident because there are just too many flaws and exploits in the entire system I don't see solutions for. I have been spending way too much time on it trying to get something going which kept me away from much more efficient ways to earn a living and build a passive income over time. I'm nearly a year here and I do plan to stick around because the benefits of having a personal blog aside from the monetary rewards are definitely there. It really helps stay sharp handicapping the Belgian League and makes a difference also having a blog to track my personal development which really works highly motivating and takes up an acceptable amount of my time daily.
Good Luck !
It's a pity your on the other side of the world, involved with another sport that I know nothing about - because otherwise I think we are very much like minds. It's a shame we can only seem to compare notes at a very high level.
Are you totally giving up? It doesn't hurt to spend a little time on Steemit but yeah you probably don't want to spend all day on here. lol
Taking a break. I can't see myself posting daily again - like I was unless things drastically improve here, but I might make the odd post down the track when I am fresh again.
I guess I can't argue with anything you've said. I think you have given it a go here, maybe even more than a lot of others, and no doubt there will be more of us that will follow you out, while keeping an eye on things and hoping what more than not feels like against hope that things will get better. That things will happen that make sense.
It seems to me like there's a lot of people's hopes riding on the updates you mentioned. It has been a while without any major updates after they must have come one right after another. I'm not sure what that means, but I guess we will find out, one way or another.
Take care. I hope the year turns around for you. I wish you and your family well. Most of all, I hope to see you back, because something did turn around, both for you and for STEEM. I've enjoyed our conversations. You were among the first folks I came across on my own Steemit journey, and for that, I am grateful.
Thanks. Your one of those guys who have always had something insightful/constructive/clever to add to my posts and I've really appreciated that over my time here. You're definitely one of the good guys! :)
Very kind of you to say. I'm doing what I think I'm supposed to do here, and what is coming naturally, so if that makes me one of the good guys, I can live with that. :)
As I've told others, it helps when there's posts to engage on, and an author who will engage back. You definitely fall into that category, which is why I will miss you, along with what I've learned about you and the knowledge you've imparted. Thank you.
All the best mate. You'll be missed around these parts for sure, but hopefully you do pop in once in a while. You've been of great service to all the communities you've been involved with, and a good source of inspiration and information. You have helped me a lot in many ways during my walk here, whether you know it or not.
Thanks for your friendship. I hope we meet again soon.
Thanks mate. I am sure we will. The world is just too small a place ;)
What stood out a lot was your persistence in remaining an analytical and rational mind while others were happily serving up from the punch bowl. May your intelligence and your integrity reward you well no matter what paths you take.
I love this comment. Seems you have got a good handle on what makes me tick and I am very pleased that it can be genuinely appreciated. Thank you.
Get out while you still have your sanity bro, I can easily see how being an aware person and being in such an environment can wear someone down. People like you helped me grow the mental resilience needed to endure this by observing how you tolerated this all and why, and I can personally stay only because of a change in my mindset to how I view things around here. As far as the large issues surrounding the system I doubt they can ever change, hell they do seem like they're on a trajectory to get worse, I'm just here now to laugh at the general shitshow and to try and redistribute a few pennies to those who need it more than I do. Godspeed friend.
You’ve been a voice of calm and reason for ssg.
It was comfidence boosting knowing you were part of the leadership team. You will definitely be missed!
Take care! Good luck with all the real world things. ☺️
Thank you. I think SSG is in good hands and seems to be on a good course, thanks to great members like yourself.
You’re a good man buggs. Thank you for sharing your scope and guidance — ssg is a better community because of you. Come on back real soon now y’here!
🤘😁
Thanks mate. You're a good man too. I've really enjoyed getting to know you and I think I've got more laughs from you than anyone else on this whole platform. Never, ever change! :)
🤣👍
I feel ur pain.. I joined about a month after u and have been struggling with many of the same issues.. i have already started taking a step back from steemit lately and havent decided if i will ever give it my all again. however i am gonna keep my steem just in case it does take off one day 😉
Take care my friend.
P.S. Maybe u should delegate ur steem uf ur arent going to sell it, atleast make a return on ur money while it sits.. id be happy to lease it from u if u dont wanna lease it to bidbots. Just an idea.
I'm still trying to figure that out. Just powering down a bit for now and maybe I'll delegate some more after that.