Hi, carlgnash, I'm also new to Steemit even though I registered about two months ago. Still haven't posted my own piece yet, just learning to comment and reply. So I want to reply to your comment about the perceived friendliness of Steemians because of the financial incentive to "play nice." Really, there is a completely different "vibration" here though I don't have very much experience anywhere else. Still haven't learned how to make a YouTube video. But what I've already noticed on Steemit, and I noticed it within the first hour, is a much more positive and encouraging spirit. And I really don't think or sense that the financial or profit motive is at its core (which is quite an ironic thing to say on a cryptocurrency platform). Those who seem to be leaving YouTube and Reddit in droves (or possibly visiting for a while) may not fully grasp cryptocurrency, and even if they do understand it, the likelihood of "making a killing" from the minnow fishbowl to the whale ocean is remote. I wonder if the friendlier feeling among Steemians might not be the generosity of the founding spirit. Does that make sense? For example, when I had trouble opening my account, probably because I did something dumb, I e-mailed Steemit Security and received a very quick reply from Ned Scott himself! I had to pause and think about the fact that the founder and CEO of a venture that I don't even fully understand yet would take the time to show interest in what I now understand to be a "minnow." Could that kindness and responsiveness be the atmosphere that fills the platform? I suspect that it is.
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Terrific comment @sarahspeaks144, and you earned a follow from me. First let me say that I wish there were more folks like yourself out there focusing on reading content here and giving honest thoughtful comments. That being said I think if you can write this comment, you can write a post - in fact, this comment could easily be a post! You have already put more thought into this comment and put more words on screen than the average post has going for it.
To address your point - I am glad you have had positive experiences here and Steemit most definitely was founded with a spirit of generosity - I believe Steemit is at its core a gift economy and this is what makes it so appealing to me. I don't think I would back away from my comment though - there are plenty of people on Steemit who do not have this spirit of generosity, and I think that these people on other platforms are the trolls and source of mean spirited comments / attacks. Here on Steemit the reputation score and its potential impact on future post earnings serves as a deterrent for the worst sort of behavior these types exhibit on other platforms. The exact kind of person that a financial motivation to curb nasty behavior would work on is the same kind of person likely to engage in said nasty behavior.
You might be surprised how many people are on here precisely to make money - in fact, many of the "people" on here are sock accounts controlled by a master of puppets, spewing out spam posts and upvoting themselves all to milk money out of the blockchain. There is an awful lot of this - and I think it is a testament to the effectiveness of the reputation score system as a deterrent to nasty behavior that there are so many spammers/scammers and so few incidents of abusive behavior to other users. Those folks are clearly here - they just aren't acting as terribly here, and there is obviously a reason for that.
Cheers - Carl
carlgnash,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply to my thoughtful reply (and I don't know how to make that smiley-face). I'm using your complete profile name in this response because only seconds ago I discovered steemistry.com (you may already know about it). This web site contains a tool that tracks every mention of your profile. My thought process is still meandering its way towards a grasp of why or how that might be useful, but instinct tells me that mentions-tracking might be very useful indeed.
But back to your comment. Yes, I do think you're quite right about the spectrum of motives for using this platform. Some want to exchange ideas and some want to support a lifestyle.
It probably happens that kindred spirits gravitate and associate. In fact, I tried to reprimand someone's use of an upvoting bot, but I'm so new to Steemit that I wasn't able to find that particular video again.
I love your suggestion that a comment could become a post and I'm going to think about how to do that when I finally "introduce myself." There have been so many ominous warnings about the curtailing of free speech that even armchair observers and congenital introverts
(some people have been forced into introversion by psychopathic trolls) are being coaxed into the social media arena. I'll even raise my hand to that. Here on Steemit, I don't even know how voting works or how reputation scores are derived because I haven't read the user's guide. But I'll get there. Some of us treat life a little bit like walking near the edge of the waves on the beach. First you dip your toes, then the wave chases you, then the wave runs away and you run after it until the wave rushes back and drenches your chinos!
Please give me permission to steal thoughts from your comment (with proper credit) because I know that I'm going to say a little more about the relative weight of ideas and information over Steem $. And I've already learned so much from you. God bless.
Yes of course you have my permission and even my encouragement to "steal" anything I wrote. BTW if you are going to take the time to type out a Steemit users full username, go ahead and put the "@" symbol in front of it like so - @sarahspeaks144. Steemit automatically converts usernames typed like this to links to the account profile.
Wonderful beach analogy, to follow suit I tend to treat life like a frigid mountain lake that I plunge into cannonball style, naked and screaming, for maximum invigorating effect :)
Do me a favor - if (when!) you do get around to making a post, kindly drop me a link to your post in the comments here at my Upvote | Follow | Resteem Service post. You are clearly an intelligent, thoughtful and articulate person and I would hate to miss your post.
Much love - Carl
@carlgnash - I love it! Plunging into an icy lake just to remind yourself that you are fully cognizant, and that you have the power and energy to say to life, "Bring it." That image reminds me of a scene from an Ayn Rand novel, but which one? Was it "The Fountainhead?" Does Howard Roark plunge into an icy lake to avoid his thoughts about Dominique Francon? Now I'll have to re-read (both of) my Ayn Rand favorites. But don't worry about missing my "introduce yourself" post when I finally have the nerve. I only have 6 followers and I'll be sure to remind them. Much love to you too.
Lol I'm following you! Post something! Anything! Minnows to whales.
@ganjafarmer - Hi, ganja! Thanks for the follow. I wonder if you would mind giving me a little help. You see, I'm a bit of a tiptoe-through-the-tulips person. Lately I've been trying to remember a single time in my life that I ever jumped right into anything. Nope. Can't remember it. Not even once. (Could this be why I never learned to swim?) Well anyway, I've been wandering around in Steemit-ville, reading and laughing and being amazed, occasionally commenting and replying. Still don't understand voting power very well except that I apparently have none.
So I'd like to know what made you decide to follow me? I'm almost not quite here yet. Would you mind explaining that? I'm sure that eventually I will really think about how I want to introduce myself (see what I mean? very pre-meditative, pre-reflective, anal-retentive personality). But in the meantime, I would like some insight into what prompts the decision to "follow" or "unfollow" a particular Steemian, especially one who "hasn't been properly introduced." Thank you so much. God bless.
How about you just stop dipping your toe into the water and just jump all the way in. Add a picture and post that entire thought.
Freely follow people. Especially if they follow you add them to!
Easiest way to be successful here is to interact with people around you. But that is true for Life anyway.
Just because somebody hasn't introduced themselves that is just opened an opportunity for you to introduce yourself, and making connections here is greatly rewarded.
I am not the biggest person here but maybe you will take my words to heart and it will start a fire that will broaden your horizons.
Jump in. Just keep swimming! Minnows into whales!
Thank you @ganjafarmer for sharing your upbeat, full-speed-ahead, positive energy with me!