I joined back in november as i was researching the same thing. Having found this whole new world of awesome behind steem i was immediately sucked in. Having no money to invest (fiat) i went to blogging to earn. Then a few days later we all went to the moon. Never thought i would get this opportunity again and this time i do have fiat to invest so ive been taking advantage. Will be powering up for sure!
I couldnt help but notice that 8,500 minnow statistic. I didnt fully realize there was "plankton" under minnows either. A few weeks ago steemitboard commented on a post if mine saying congrats, youre a minnow! So I reached a milestone i didnt realize was there.
Once you reach 500SP, you are 'officially' a minnow. Before that, you are plankton or redfish - that depends on whether you use Busy or SteemIt.
But what's in a name, right? A small fish is a small fish, lol.
I must admit I was shocked by the low number of minnows too. For some reason, I always assumed that number would be a lot bigger...
I thought there would be more minnows too, but it also makes me feel good to be among such few!