Not making it on STEEM after the fork

in #busy5 years ago (edited)

tokens IMG_1834.JPG

With 33% cut off of my rewards here on steem, I am dead.

I might get 160 steem transferred tomorrow. This will be about $20 to live on for one week. I would normally save half of any removal for rent coming due on the 15th. Hmmm....

My rent is about 125 usd a month once the fees to get the cash are taken into account. This is around 1300 steem now.

Not happening.

Those who could help are either busy excitedly downvoting with theycallmedan or have decided they need to go out and get more noobs to kill as in the case of ocd with a post trying to get people from reddit. That will work. ocd's rationale for this is that there is no more available talent posting here on steem so they need fresh meat.

Other posts are explaining how to bot your way to $20 a post so you are not such a loser.

And the sad posts of minnows and redfish are getting little reward and no attention.

STEEM has a 95% kill rate already.

Today many of the awesome small fish we have are swimming away.

Who is going to test dApps, and engage, and make steem a vibrant place if there is no lower and middle classes? I think some of you will soon know the answer to that question.

Where will I go if I cannot stay here? I am 60 years old and disabled with no family, and live in a country where I have no work permit. I could not work a "real" job if I had one due to my health. My weight loss coaching takes time and does not provide money. My books sales have no us account to deposit to.

STEEM has been my path for the last 2 years. It seems this has come to an end.

I will keep posting as long as I can. This post tells you how I am trying to survive and help other small fish too:

Minnow Tips: What to do after the fork if you are a small fish

My photo is From my Bangkok balcony after a big flood we had. Where there is life, there is hope.

If you want to help me keep posting on STEEM, here is some information:

Why should you help me? Why do I think I am worthy of help?

I am an asset to the STEEM blockchain. My constant effort goes to helping redfish and minnows grow here.

I work on three blogs, creating 40+ posts each week. The most important things I post are minnow tips to help others. Here is a post from a few weeks ago with a summary of many of those tips.

You CAN Succeed on STEEM

I am working on a new set of posts in light of all the new tribes and options for them. It is a whole now world of STEEM now that this has happened.

This is what I do on STEEM:

I post 2-4 posts on each blog each day, cycling through the noted dApps below.

@fitinfun

  • esteem - freewrite
  • busy - Minnow Tips
  • nTopaz - Photography

@fitinfunfood

  • esteem- food and ccc posts
  • tasteem - restaurant reviews
  • busy - how to posts about food

@bxlphabet

  • esteem - dApp and gaming reviews
  • dpoll- dApp, lifestyle, and STEEM questions
  • busy - daily holidays

How you can help me

  • Please send any amount of STEEM/SBD to @fitinfun so I can survive.

  • Please upvote any current posts on any or all of my blogs; especially the older ones.
    @fitinfunfood
    @bxlphabet
    @fitinfun

  • Please support any or all of my blogs in an ongoing manner with your auto-voting and following so I can continue on and not have to keep asking for help.
    @fitinfunfood
    @bxlphabet
    @fitinfun

  • Please send any amount of money to my new SE Asian Paypal account.

[email protected]

Send any amount of LTC to
Lhuh274DFkS6CNq4SJjhNem242QYwcTu59

  • If you can "only" vote some posts - It is enough.
  • If you can "only" send 1 STEEM - It is enough.
  • If you can "only" offer advice for how I can do better - It is enough.
  • If you can "only" offer encouragement and good wishes - It is enough.

Thank you so much for your attention,

Sharon
Discord:
fitinfun #2249

The photo for this post is a taxi I passed on the way to the airport in Bangkok. I am going through my vehicle photography these days in preparation for a series to try on the new travelfeed dApp. For someone that does not drive, I sure take a lot of vehicle pics. I took this one with a Canon ELPH160 point and shoot camera.

039lew8cd0.jpg

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The whales are getting desperate. This fork seems to be all about saving the whales at the expense of the rest of us. Then people wonder why I don't use all of my Witness Votes. Because most of the witnesses are egotistical jerks, that's why. 😣

Haha! Well, I do not know too many of them and I have gotten help from some. I always had the idea that a lot of vibrant minnow accounts could make this place great. I still have hope, but I need to be able to eat and keep a roof over my head. I wish I could see some positive sign at all.

I don't need to know them. I see their actions in the blockchain.

This is my complete Witnesses List:

@blocktrades
@busy.witness
@c-squared
@curie
@dsound
@good-karma
@krnel
@steem-bounty
@steemitboard
@steemitportugal
@steempeak

There are a lot of other STEEM projects I enjoy but I refuse to support them as they vote for a Witness who I consider to be a leech, a scammer and one of the main culprits for Steem to be in the sorry state that it is now. Everybody knows how toxic that guy is... but they still vote him for a Witness. Go figure.

I must be a nobody, since I have no idea how you mean, but go you for not supporting a bad guy. Hopefully others will follow. I have not looked at my witnesses for a while. It is very far down my list.

Eh, I was not refering to us, common red fish and minnows but about the whales and the rest of the witnesses. 😁

I must be a nobody as well Sharon, this is the first time I've heard the term
REDFISH
Used in reference to us small fry. Minnow, Dolphin (though I never knew
Exactly what dolphin status was) but not redfish. I'll try to send you
Some USD in paypal, but it will only be a stopgap, if you have
Been depending on Steemit to pay your bills. This is a case
Where you should be able to take this up to the "SUPREME COURT"
of Steemit, if something like that were to exist. I hate it for you my friend.
@fitinfun

Haha! Redfish are those with under 500 sp. You get to be a minnow at 500-5000. Dolphin is at 5000-50000 sp. Then orca to 500,000 sp - then whales above that.

I will look for that court you are talking about. Until then, thank you so much for your generosity @jerrytsuseer. Not only does this really help me financially, it also boosts my spirits. I will keep going and trying everything I can to succeed.

Glad to help

Well, in recent months you have been getting upvotes from tokens too (all at 50% author rewards) that you weren't getting a year ago. It isn't all doom and gloom. There will be an adjustment period. But the real problem isn't the amount of rewards it is the value of steem. You are probably getting more a lot more Steem (if you include the tokens too) than you were 6 months/a year ago. It is just worth less.

TY for this comment Bruce, @felt.buzz. I sure need the optimism. I do have maybe $50 value in about 50 tokens across the three blogs now. I need find a path in there, but I am grateful for it all.

And yes, my steem sp has grown a lot this year - even while powering down. I try to keep the sp growing each week by adjusting what I take out. I know this will pay off if/when the steem price recovers and I can give better upvotes.

And my bxlphabet will be in on SPUD5 for a small amount. Every little bit of growth to sp helps.

Will Steem ever be worth anything after this juncture? ...Not much chance for tribe tokens to grow in value if Steem is worthless crypto... What are your thoughts?

Hmm... Well, I know it went to 10 cents in 2016 and rebounded, @apostle-thomas. I do not feel the STEEM blockchain is worthless or I would not be here at all. The coin performance is a mystery.

I spent a few days a month ago trying to figure out the fork. I underestimated the devastation for low end rewards. BUT I did come way from that effort deciding the whales and witnesses I could read, reach and interact with really do care about this place. I decided to
just.
keep.
posting.
I use great dApps, have great friends and was able to survive when the price was above $1. Now I am in better shape - more upvoters, more sp, more sbi etc. So if theprice goes up, I will be ok. Right now I do not even have money for food.

But that is me. What about the new people coming in? Who will help them figure this place out if there are no people except big guys? This is why we need a middle class.

I have 50+ tribe tokens. As long as STEEM succeeds some of them will too. Which ones? I do not know.

I agree with your comment

Posted using Partiko Android

Around Christmas time last year I donated some Steem to you to help you pay your rent. I had no issue doing that, despite people around me warning me against it (they are capitalists).
This time around I do not have the liquid Steem to help anyone.

The price of Steem is the worst I have seen it in my time here. I bought into Steem at US$5.
I had hope when it reached US$0.44 earlier this year after the semi recovery from the Christmas winter, but now I don’t know what to think.

I wanted to see if I could be a dolphin this year, but it doesn’t look like this will happen.

I'm with you on the issues of the price, @shaidon. We do not rise with the tide but surely sink with the fleet each time. It is hard to believe that the value of this blockchain is recognized by so few.

One bright spot for me is that my sp has grown a lot with the low prices. This is even with powering down and only by the 40+ posts I do weekly on my 3 blogs. As long as I can, I will keep up that volume.

I did not know we had capitalists here! Do these people post? I have surely missed what they have to say.

I so appreciate your support in December and with upvotes since then. You can only do what you can do and I m very grateful for it all.

After I made my call for help at that time, a generous steemer who believes in minnows and minnow tips started helping me financially. This ended two months ago, which is why I am right back here trying to get followers and more regular voters again. I have been asking, but I guess not loudly enough.

And that is why it is dangerous for people who don't know how asset values behave, to invest in cryptos like that.
EVERY coin and every asset in the past 5 years that I have followed has only rebound when it hit 90+% retracement from the highest price.

There needs to be a major education for folks who don't understand this yet,s o that they don't piss away their life earnings on stuff like that, BEFORE it has retraced to the levels before the bullrun. I see comments like these so often and am wondering why no one wants to educate people on that.

To clarify: When I say "bought into" it just means the price Steem was when I started my DTube account. I didn't invest in crypto in that sense. It's just worth a lot less than when I started accumulating it.

Thanks for sharing @fitinfun... My take away is that Steem is adrift in the blockchain ecosystem. The price is 80% lower than when I started in January after a 2-month wait. I'm hearing some accounts have been wiped clean and told the TWITTERVERSE what we all are going through ~ A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!

Will there be a Dapp for recovering Steemians After the HF21 and now immediately HF22... How do any of those wonderful innovations make anything better for Steemians when NO BODY in social media sees any incentives to on-boarding...

How can anyone on-board with NO SP for the user account to function... TOO BAD DON'T GET MAD DON'T BE SAD JUST CHILLAX AND FIND A WAY TO BE GLAD!

Of course, this doesn't change or disrupt my worldviews... I see a fantastic challenge to health wealth happiness on this Steem journey... I will continue to blog and pursue cryptocurrency investment opportunities with the tribes until an HF kills that community of the blockchain as well!

Aw! I am so sorry to read this, @apostle-thomas. I know you have been optimistic in the past. I will keep trying as long as I can and hope we are both wrong about a lot of things. The dApps and tribes are my bright spots now and I need to keep that in mind.

As to the price, I feel that the STEEM blockchain is undervalued and needs investors to grow. But if there are no little people here, the whole paradigm changes.

Hi @fitinfun!

Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 5.055 which ranks you at #1088 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 7 places in the last three days (old rank 1095).

In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 117 contributions, your post is ranked at #25.

Evaluation of your UA score:
  • You've built up a nice network.
  • The readers appreciate your great work!
  • Good user engagement!

Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server

My books sales have no us account to deposit to.

....have you tried to use an online US bank account?
(tranferwise, among others.)

They are very good.
...easy sign up to, and transfer my $US to my account here, no problem.

Hope it helps!

How do you use? I had 4 us accounts when I got here, and all are gone now for various reasons.

...sign up online with ID, and away you go. (i'm a uk citizen, not even US)

Transfer direct into my account here, from the US.

(working out how to is a bit of a bugger, but I'm sure you can suss it)

TY - I will remember this. I have zero cash to even open an account with right now, but I will try if I do.

You don't need to deposit to open it!
It takes 24 hours to approve, if i remember correctly.

Post resteemed and upvoted, and friend request sent in discord.
I am tsuseer#3994

hmm well have to see how things move out

Hi @fitinfun

Interesting read. HF21 is a very hot topic today :)

I wonder how will this fork impact users behaviours. So far it seem that most people will be upvoting content which is already popular.

When I upvoted post with 0$ then my upvote was worth only 1,04SP and it used to be 1,7SP before the fork. However when I upvoted the highest post in trending page (100$) then my upvote increased reward by over 2 SP. So pretty much it doubled in strength.

So somehow pushing your content to trending page will bring some solid traffic.

Upvote on the way :)

Yours
Piotr

I think we have to wait for the dust to settle. Hopefully all is better than it seems.

I got to agree... Seeing how the rewards for posts are getting so much smaller, while the curators earn so much more, makes me feel as if there is no need staying around... I will not leave Steemit, but I feel like I have just lost a lot of the motivation for writing!

Posted using Partiko Android

I hear you, @unbiasedwriter. Please keep trying, as I will too. STEEM needs content creators even though it seems bleak now. Supposedly we will all get many more votes. I just now found out this downvoting is draining their power. So they cannot upvote in the thrill of the moment. Hopefully this passes soon down to a dull roar.

And since you are a writer, please join us @freewritehouse. There is a daily prompt on the blog of @mariannewest and lots of good people there. It is my favorite place to post. It will help with motivation for sure.

While I love that Steem is used by people that have their lives significantly improved by the financial rewards it provides, I have to say, and I guess some will find it controversial, I don't think such people have much of a right to complain about price direction.

Consider this: Bitcoin's rise and fall has utterly wiped the cryptocurrency market. Many altcoins have suffered beyond repair. That's not really anyone's fault, and one can point fingers at particular events that may or may not have further contributed to those coin deaths. But one thing that doesn't make sense is complaining about the price direction, ignoring the market as a whole, when you heavily rely on being the very selling pressure we struggle to escape from.

Steem is going through some massive changes right now, and yeah, some benefit some more than others in the short-run. But few have actually considered what this reward split really means for smaller accounts: that selling pressure is now reduced, and accounts that never curated or gave a single shit about anyone other than their own profits are now encouraged to start curating and build their own accounts as a result.

Yeah, you lose some rewards from posting. But each of us is directly benefiting from another by curating, which is a fundamental process on this network; one that has been neglected for far too long. Perhaps things were a bit easier before when the prices were a little higher, but few bothered to actually upvote, right? Well now they have an incentive to do so.

Things won't improve overnight. They won't improve within just two weeks. It'll take a bit of time and effort for us all to see some growth; and while I understand that you and many others rely on generating an income on Steem, perhaps see the positive side of having more go into what you should consider 'savings' that will only generate you more money in the long-run.

The truth is: Steem isn't here for you to make a living on. It sounds harsh to say, but it's the truth. You can't strictly rely on the income you make and then find people to blame when a volatile market moves in the opposite direction you'd like.

I want to add that while I'm replying to your post, and have spoken to you directly in this reply, a lot of this applies to those in the comments as well. This is a fluctuating economy, and it isn't guaranteed to make you profit. Each change isn't designed to make the whales larger. Not all witnesses are greedy (some are totally useless, yeah).

I hear what you are saying and disagree, @namiks, especially in light of the fact that many people here make more than I need to live on even in light of current prices.

My living expenses are in the neighborhood of $500 usd a month - 3100 STEEM at the currcnt price. haijen takes 16K a week out the door in STEEM for contrast. Many others also take more than I need.

I HAVE been living off STEEM and STEEM related money since Dec 2017. I work here 18 hours a day, every day, and help new and small blogs with minnow tips so that we can grow as a platform. People support me in many ways and have since the start. But with this huge drop from the fork, I need more help and will not stop letting people know. I think my real problem has been not asking more.

If someone like me cannot be supported here, who can? There are only a few of us willing to help new people learn how to format posts, use dApps and the like. Our big fish are not doing that and never will.

I am not blaming anyone as you state. I am simply asking for help to survive during this time. As our user numbers plummet, I try to help others, but I need to be here in order to do that.

I rarely pay attention to witnesses or whales. But I guess you know which ones are useless and/or greedy. I would not know where to begin to find that info. They are who they are and there is nothing I can do about it.

I deal with what is going on at the time and try to help minnows and redfish. I've made the decision to believe in STEEM and trust those running the show do too. I have no time to know which ones of those are good or bad and neither does any one walking in the door.

My living expenses are in the neighborhood of $500 usd a month - 3100 STEEM at the currcnt price. haijen takes 16K a week out the door in STEEM for contrast. Many others also take more than I need.

And now we're capable of fighting back at those who don't deserve it via the downvote pool.

If someone like me cannot be supported here, who can? There are only a few of us willing to help new people learn how to format posts, use dApps and the like. Our big fish are not doing that and never will.

With all due respect, you are supported. You're just not supported to your heart's content. And a likely reason behind that issue right there is the fact that people have been too preoccupied with dumping their earnings -- generating even more market weakness -- upon redemption rather than powering up and letting their accounts grow.

I'm also going to go ahead and make the argument that many don't attempt to educate in those areas because the majority coming here most likely already know the basics. Hence how they found their way here. I'm not saying it's bad and you shouldn't do it, just that it generally doesn't have much value, across the entire span of cryptocurrency, because there's generally not an interest for it.

Again, I'm not saying quit, just perhaps diverse the content a bit more if you're really dependent on earning an income via Steem. Try new things and see what performs and what doesn't.

I am not blaming anyone as you state.

That was more geared towards the other comments.

I have been posting minnow tips for two years now, @namiks. I assure you people have no idea what to do when they get here. This is why we have a 95% kill rate and most people who walk in the door leave in two weeks or less. I work with people who get to 45 rep for the most part and they are NOT crypto knowledgeable or able to even blog when they start sometimes. These people are called "the masses" and supposedly we want them here.

My work has value because we are trying to grow this platform beyond the sliver of the population who is involved in the "entire span of cryptocurrency."

I have three blogs, using and testing the most popular and highest paying STEEM dApps and posting 40+ posts per week, along with 300+ comments. I assure you this work is diverse. I point others to what I am doing on any given dApp and help them if they want to try. For the ones I do not use, I have STEEM connections I can send them to. I try new things here constantly and write reviews of them.

I do not know what more I can tell you. A handful of crypto-nerds downvoting each other is not an ecosystem to draw people in.

PS - few downvotes are going to haejin as we speak, so he is still getting his 16K STEEM a week for ZERO added value.

This is why we have a 95% kill rate and most people who walk in the door leave in two weeks or less.

I've spoken to countless people that have decided to sign up here and soon after decided to leave. Their reason was never a lack of understanding behind the tech. It was the fact that they had no interest in producing any type of content, and to add to that, they saw the rewards and felt it wasn't worth the effort.

These are people with jobs of 30k+. It's the curiosity that pulls them in, and then disinterest and a content financial situation that pulls them in. They were never interested in buying Steem. They were simply interested in seeing how much they could make with minimal effort. When signing up is free, people will take advantage of that.

Now, another reason why we have so many minnows is that simply so few are willing to take the leap to buy Steem to power up. Why would they? They're here to make money as struggling artists or students; then there's the photographers that came here to post their works because simply anything is better than nothing for their efforts.

When you add into the equation that earnings are absolutely tiny due to the majority being minnows and not even bothering to attempt to curate due to the pointlessness of the returns, that's why you have so many people abandoning ship. People see select groups making bank and think "Well why the fuck isn't that me? I'm out."

That isn't to deny the fact that people enter and are met with nothing but confusion regarding the wallets and the concept itself, I have no doubt that it happens often, but to ignore the bigger reasons, I have to say, is a bit delusional.

A handful of crypto-nerds downvoting each other is not an ecosystem to draw people in.

It's already evident that it's enough to make the existing users far happier than before as a result of the endless reward pool and bid bot abuse.

Your experience is different than mine, @namiks. I've been lucky enough to see a lot of people thrive after getting my help. They power up, they SPUD and will SPUD again on Sept 1. They are content creators who find their niche here. Often they see this as a way to supplement other income they make online even while growing sp. This is why I am passionate to do what I do because I see the potential of STEEM even through the difficulties.

Somehow the masses have to get in here. Retaining those who make it to 45+ rep is key and many of them will thrive. The question is how to help them be competent here.

We used to have about 10K "people who matter" posting here about one year ago. Now that number is 8K. So now what? Get more people to kill or help the people here now succeed?

I've spoken to countless people that have decided to sign up here and soon after decided to leave.

I work with the ones trying to stay.

We used to have about 10K "people who matter" posting here about one year ago. Now that number is 8K. So now what? Get more people to kill or help the people here now succeed?

We saw a massive bull market, so of course a lot of people entered and a lot of people left. There could have been more to entice them into sticking around, sure.

or help the people here now succeed?

That's what the last HF was for. People now have a bigger incentive to curate and support each other.

wow. One of the best comments I've read today @namiks

Pretty good comment @namiks

I think that what @fitinfun and many others are confusing is that the new Steem is not taking from those who produce, but giving to those who invest.

Content producers that rely solely on content creation as their 'income' are failing to realise that they are only working for the money, when they should find ways to make money work for them; it's a complete misunderstanding of how the economy on the Steem chain works.

Now... there's the huge conflict of interest, where on one side we need more producers to curate and make our vested Steem grow through curation/delegation, but also where more producers equals more selling pressure. How to solve?

I think the only way is by educating people that on the Steem the growing proccess is a hella slow and if they think that by only posting they'll generate an income, they will fail. It takes time and months of accumulation in vested SP to grow; once invested it can be used to add to the rewards gained by posting and make it bigger and bigger, then maybe they'll be rewarded with the right to cash out a bit.

It's a long run investment and not a quick buck scheme

And I say that from a producer's perspective that had to realise, adapt and plan ahead!

It was something I noticed from the start, really. I came to Steem with the intention of creating a plethora of content, which I did. Often two to three posts a day for the most part of a year. Even then, I understood that the blockchain, like all others, rewarded those who contribute the most. That doesn't just mean through posting, so I would often power up as much as I could. Even when Bitcoin boomed up to 20k I invested 1k~ into Steem to boost that power that my vote had.

Understandably some rely on the earnings to survive. I truly feel for those in places such as Venezuela where a post or two on here can drastically improve their monthly living situation. I find it incredible, really. I try to support that as much as I can. But even then, I've seen some that still try their best to improve their SP and look at the long-run of Steem's potential.

The selling pressure we exerience will never go away, of course, but with changes like this 50/50 reward split, it does help slightly. People are now essentially forced to grow their accounts and become more vital members of the blockchain and fairly distribute the power. The truth is: nobody came to Steem to spend money, just make. That's why so few saw the potential in increasing their SP. If we add on useful features that contribute to reducing inflation via Steem burning, we'd relieve that selling pressure even more.

It's a long run investment and not a quick buck scheme

It's honestly both. It just depends on how smart you're being. With the new split, you could easily buy a stash of Steem at these low prices and then curate like crazy, generating some pretty generous rewards. Then power down, sell a portion of it for profit and let the rest grow. Kinda like a little dividend.

If we add on useful features that contribute to reducing inflation via Steem burning, we'd relieve that selling pressure even more.

The problem I'm seeing is that the price of Steem is not clearly represented in fiat money value and, unfortunately, we still rely on fiat to live. With that said, how can we cope with the inflation/depreciation of an asset that is printed and distributed in a daily basis. I'll try to explain myself.

From the protocol point of view, at least for me, Steem is one of the best blockchains out there, with proven real use cases (projects running on it) and an imense potential for developers to create on.

From the invertor's point of view there is the potential to stash and collect dividends from it, either by curating or delegating. However, is it worth the risk/reward? The risk exposure is huge to put on fiat, and keep it locked for 12 weeks, in case the markets go down badly. That can be seen on the huge amounts of Steem being held in exchanges and not in SP.

So, now we can go back to my first paragraph, when it comes to having a link between Steem and fiat money. I believe the biggest representative of the Steem chain is Steemit Inc., but even themselves have been dumping Steem simply because they don't have an input (as far as I know, apart from the adsense). Many other project out there rely on Steem to pay the bills. And many user also milk it to pay the bills. The selling pressure comes from all ends.

Steem needs input in fiat money to be sustainable and the projects running on it also need that, there's no output without input, or else it's just printing money. Burning and incentivise powering up are valid ways. I don't see the input coming from external investors, as it's too risky for the reward, there needs to be another benefit.

Creation of SMTs? Totaly valid, but those SMTs also need some sort of input in fiat money, or else it just transfers the problem to them.

So how can we solve the paradox and the conflict of interest we are currently in?

You publish a few posts a month about your own interests, @mrprofessor, as does @namiks.

I publish 40+ posts per week on 3 blogs and 300+ comments with the vast majority aimed at helping little fish grow here. Minnow tips, dApp reviews and testing dApps are my specialties. I have grown my SP close to 1000 points in a year while also living off additional money I earn here during 18 hour days.

I also promote STEEM on Twitter and FB many times per week and help in Discord for people who are too afraid to ask questions in public.

STEEM has a 95% kill rate for noobs and most are out the door in the first two weeks of trying. I focus on those over 45 rep and 100 sp who post frequently. I give them strategies to grow their blogs and succeed here.

We are in different paradigms on this platform. No minnow how is here for for 3-6 months is making a quick buck or expects to. But if I and a handful of others were not helping, they would not even try to make it work.

Your work is beautiful @fitinfun and I've never questioned that, but what's your clear view of success on the platform?

How many of the users who give up on the platform were here because they really like to write? How many of them were here because they thought it could be a form to earn money, and soon got disapointed?

Users need to set their priorities straight and no one will be able to tell them what to do, neither you, nor me, nor anyone.

  • If their intention is to write and interact, then your work is of great help and they'll stick to you.

  • If their intention is to earn some quick bucks, then they are part of the conflic of interest and unfortunately they'll realise it's not worth the time in a few weeks.

It took me time to realise my priorities and understand the macro economy on the Steem blockchain, that's why I barely post anymore; now I'm on the business side of it helping with the creation of a dApp that will add fun for those who like to write, but will also add a sustainable and realistic form of reward.

We will be successful when we have more investors and more content creators. MANY more. We have only about 6000-8000 active here now. This is not sustainable over time.

We have many initiatives that could be successful in drawing those people. I cannot predict which of those WILL succeed. I can only push those most promising to me. But if the few that are here now cannot make it work, we will never get there.

Now people are promised to make money to get them in the door and then told they need to "invest" instead. This happens when they plainly see others who do make money here. The place is too complicated to make them understand easily.

This is why I rarely recruit now and help those that are trying and somewhat succeeding over rep 45 and with 100+ sp. I have a much better success rate in this manner. Many people I help or have helped are doing much better than me since they are not dumb enough to work here more than full time writing minnow tips. So this is why some of those end up helping me financially on steem and off of steem.

There are only a handful of people trying to help the little people grow. I'm hoping the recent fork changes that and see some good progress.

We get about 1000 people in the door each week now. 950 are gone in a month. Maybe 10 of the remainder can succeed long-term with our current paradigm. We need to do better.

I still don't get what's your vision of success.

We will be successful when we have more investors and more content creators. MANY more.

Investors, also known as 'smart money', want return in order to invest in something and, as long as the world doesn't suffer some sort of catastroph, the current buying power is still fiat money (usd/eur/gbp).

Yes, it's possible to make returns on the Steem blockchain through dividends, either curating or delegating. Let's move on to the second subject.

Investors also work with something called risk exposure and risk/reward ratio. It's possible to make returns with Steem, but from the investor's perspective, is it worth the risk? Is it worth putting hundreds of thousands of fiat money (buying power) on Steem, where the money will be vulnerable to a gigantic selling pressure + the money stays locked for 12 weeks, so you won't be able to cash out in case of a big dump, or in something where the main company behind the system sells Steem to cover expenses. It doesn't sound very attractive for investors.

For me it's a huge problem, more users = more people dreaming with cashing out for some juicy dolars = more selling pressure = not good for real investors. Even if we had millions of users it would only make the rewards smaller for everyone and lesser the chances for those who are new. Plus the coin willcontinue to depreciate via inflation due to its nature.

I believe my last two repplies explain better my point of view about the conflict of interest and how a inflacionary/depreciating invironment works.

Now again, ***users who are giving up may be getting a deluded idea of ​​what they really want from the platform. ***

Am I being negative about Steem and rooting for its failure? Of course not, but that doesn't mean I can't be realistic.

Honestly, at this point it's nothing short of delusion. This "95% kill rate" is ignoring the sheer number of people that come here with the intentions of making money, then realising it isn't promised and that they may not even have anything they care to post in the first place; that, as well as the fact that the earnings they do make just aren't worth their time and effort when they have jobs, student life, etc.

I, myself, used to post about three times a day for what I remember being almost a year. I never expected earnings, I never expected followers, or even comments. Skipping to now, I've received a 40k SP delegation to encourage, and support smaller users on the platform. The ones that do know what they're posting but need the boost, but that's genuinely the majority here that are struggling and likely to leave as a result of the lack of motivation and rewards.

I recently gave 500 Steem to one user, alongside, from what I remember, another 500 Steem in delegations to 5 other users. All minnows that I felt had potential in their chosen areas on here.

Having read the replies, I can't help but get a strong sense of entitlement. If you believe you deserve to be paid for educating users, fair enough, but you can't expect to be paid a living wage. As someone capable of providing a larger reward: I'd rather hand it to those minnows that need supporting and not those attempting to educate them.

What you can do is to make use the SCOTs for your advantage especially you have the flare of writing for healthy things.
I think it is call natural token and you can technically still earn something, or write really good real life reviews using realityhubs.com (RHB) where I am creating a new string of curation support for really good reviewers that uses that platform.

(but you got to really write it well enough)

Steem has come to a point that this round it is for curator's advantage.

Have you check out the proposal platform from Steem peak? That could be something you can truly think about.

It's a little like "fundition" but you got to fish for real voters in the entire blockchain.

We are all survivors, and survivors are creative.

As long as you do not lose your creativity, you can work things around.

After all, Malaysia is still quite free enterprise, and even though some said it is skewed after HF21 at the moment, but it is time to make use of what you have and let God bless the talents that has already bestowed upon you. ☺️

@littlenewthings via DSES

Thank you for all this good advice, @littlenewthings @dses. I have not heard of most of this and will look into it all. I have 50+ tokens on the three blogs now and they seem to be worth $30-50 usd depending on where I look. I do not have much clue about how to make use of this. I'll be doing a post on this soon.

All of this comment is copies, and I will get back to you about the many pieces. Thank you so much for the info and support.

Enjoy the vote, hope that helps. Take part of our PoB Bounty creating awesome content about our game, you will earn some epic EPC which can directly exchanged to STEEM. Stay tough and have a great day ahead.