howdy there today @glenalbrethsen! you said y'all. you did man I seen it. So there IS a chance that there's some redneck in your system ain't there? lol.
I've been teasing manwithnoname about that because on the bottom of every one of my posts I put a "you might be a redneck if" joke and telling him that sooner or later it's going to be something that he does or has done. lol.
sir, you definitely have earned your way here and are doing really really great for just joining ..I forget when you joined but it wasn't that long ago and look at ya! and how in the world did you get that much sp in a short time? jeez louis dude. you're awesome.
No Name can stand to be razzed every now and then. I'll be on the look out for it. :)
I wrote y'all all proper and purty so you would see it. :) There's probably redneck somewhere in my family tree. Most of our folks who were here during the 1800s living in the middle of nowhere would qualify. As for being in my system, y'all is a convenient way of distinguishing between you, the individual reader, and you, as in all of you people. I've also been known to proudly, unabashedly and without regrets use the word ain't. And yes, it is a word. :)
I don't know if I consider it earning my way yet, but little by little, I'm getting there. I joined the last week of December, between Christmas and New Year's Day. It took a couple of days to get in, so I think officially it was Dec. 30. I didn't start to do anything until January 1, and my first post was January 4.
So, I've been here just over six months.
I posted my monthly report yesterday. Can't remember now if you commented on it or not, but there I outlined what happened last month and then I gave some highlights of the last six months. The short of it is, most of my SP, over two-thirds of it comes from investments I made in STEEM over three separate months. I started earlier than I really should have because I was tired of dropping dust votes. Had I waited, I might have close to double the SP I have now. Live and learn.
I've earned 420 SP through posting, commenting and curating during that period of time, so 70 SP per month. That does include, I guess 1.5 STEEM from my engagement winnings that I accidentally included. :) Otherwise, it's all from upvotes. Oh, I did get some SBD from a friend early on, too. Forgot about that. Wasn't a whole lot but the conversion rate was better then so I'm sure it added something to it.
how did you find out about Steemit?
and do you let your voting power get low, like to 50-60% ?
I have a friend—@bbrewer—who actually mentioned Steemit back in July of 2016. He joined then, and told me about it, thinking it would be something I would want to do. At this point, I can't remember if I even looked up the site, but I don't believe so. I was just coming back from college, and I was working on a Facebook page and trying to make that work, and I basically just let the opportunity slip to get in then.
This last December, after working for about four months on a comic book project I was developing, and getting no traction on Patreon, I remembered about the site and asked him what it was called, and if it was still around. He told me the name and told me yes, it was still around. I went to read some of the posts to see if it would be something I was interested in, and after seeing a few, I decided to open up an account.
I believe it took a few more days to do that, so most of December was gone by the time I signed up and the account was opened.
re: voting power
It depends. Mostly no, but when STEEM goes down, and I don't adust my voting habits, it can get pretty low. Mostly, though, it's whatever it is to get through the evening without getting back to 100%. I watch the time it's supposed to go back to 100% and try not to go much past the next day in the morning when I'll be back at it again from the night before when I shut down.
It's tough at the lower SP to keep the voting meter up, though, when you're trying to reward all that you would want to reward.
howdy today @glenalbrethsen! wow just think of what would have happened if you'd joined in 2016..however you ARE about to catch up with your friend aren't you?
so what do you see as the main reason for keeping your voting power high? i just can't do it. I can't expect people to vote for me and then not vote for them.
He's still 1100 SP ahead of me. He may have bought more, too, so I don't think I'll be catching up to him any time soon. He has a lot going between work and family, so his time on STEEM is limited, plus he's created a hunting and fishing community account, which he puts a lot of his time in on.
Well, really the only reason for keeping it higher is so you can leave higher votes at lower percentages. Getting things over the dust threshold so they actually pay the creator as well as you the curator. If the threshold isn't met, then your vote goes to dust and doesn't help out the person you intended to help out.
I understand the voting for others. I do that with comments, though I might not reward a comment that is only a small sentence. Otherwise, it feels like I should leave something.
It's hard. The lower the SP, the harder it is.
howdy back Glen, it's so good to be able to get good advice, wisdom and education from you, I'm a lifelong fan...well, as long as we're both on here, as long as our wives will let us! lol.
I tried and tried to save my vote power because people tell me that I have to but then I just have to vote for those voting for me so it drops way down everyday. lol when I explain the situation to people they say that it's the encouragement and sign of support that matters most, not the vote power. so I'm usually scratching my head not knowing what to do.
We all have to figure out that comfort zone. When I first started, I wanted to reward everyone for talking to me. I still do, and I still do it. But because I'm trying to also leave enough for them to get paid, I can't really reward as many people that way. Just now I had to adjust my percentage of vote upward just to leave my $0.03 because the price of STEEM is going back down.
So, it's a little frustrating to say the least to try to strike that balance. Personally, I'd rather know I left something that won't be just a token gesture, but that's me. Others could be subsidized by dustsweeper so they're paying for others to upvote them over the threshold. In those cases, votes can be spread farther.
So, anyway, you do what you feel you should do. And then don't be surprised if you change it up a time or two either, as you stumble upon new information, or get tired of your voting power at 50%, or any of a number of other things that can happen when you're here. It's kind of the path I've been taking, and I don't think it's exclusive to me.