Follow Friday: Welcome back!

We are in the post-Steemfest period when people are getting back home and digesting what they learned there. I see a few of them are fired up with new enthusiasm. We need to sustain that. @steemit may actually delived SMTs and communities early next year and they will add new dimensions to this platform. In the meantime we need to keep bringing people on board.

I keep monitoring the Steem price on @coingecko. It jumped up a bit this week. This coincided with a big, temporary drop in SBD. It may be that someone did a big trade between these two.

I will not show the depressing

, although I think the ranking is ignoring some countries. Steempeak is doing better with increasing visitors. I think it offers a better Steem experience and would encourage new users to adopt it.

I have noticed that a few people have come back to Steem after months away. Life can get in the way of playing with social media and their were negative forces on Steem that drove some away. I think the mood is generally more positive now, but some cannot adjust to #NewSteem where buying votes is discouraged. If you see new users doing this then try to persuade them that they will do better by engaging with the community to build a following. Steem is not a 'magic money machine' where you earn for no/low effort, although some manage to subvert this. Lots of the bigger accounts are behind this change. If you get downvoted by them do not take it to heart. It is more about a better reward distribution than what you do, but retaliation and insults can make it worse for you.

Here are some of the returnees I have spotted:

• @adambarratt is a Brit living in the Canary Islands. I met him at Steemfest 2. He is involved in some green initiatives in the Canaries which is something I can get behind.
• @hammaraxx (call him Thor!) is a rock musician from Australia who is back to rock Steem. A while back he sent me some guitar picks and a CD of his cool music.
• You may be able to guess what @breadcentric is into. He is commenting again now. I met him at a London meetup.
• @trevor.george runs long distances, but did not run away from Steem. He has been travelling, but is back now.
• @dickturpin posts now and again, so may not really count as going away, but he re-steems a lot. You may find something of interest in his feed.

Do you know of other people who have come back to Steem? We should make them feel welcome. I think it still has something unique to offer and we have a good core community. I am always finding new and cool stuff on Steem that I might not see elsewhere.

I have no idea how many #FollowFriday posts I have done, but I try to do it every week to share some people you might want to check out. I would love to see more people using the tag.

Steem on!

The geeky guitarist and facilitator of the 10K Minnows Project.

• I'll buy guitar picks for Steem.
• Get a Wirex Debit Card to spend your crypto.
• Get some passive income with Mannabase.
• Get paid to search at Presearch.
• Battle for cards on Steem Monsters and I will lease to small accounts.
• I have Steem accounts to give away to worthy people!