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Oh my, ANOTHER platform? I'm so confused! :) I really appreciate all your input and encouragement - I just can't seem to get myself on here to get going. I have 400 other projects and a website and other SM already, and can't decide if this warrants attention/priority, or not... I'm going looking for your comment about a similar platform that will be launching soon-ish, I think, can't remember when... THANK YOU for everything, though, Mr. Mercury!!

Well, I would hate to see you go... I'll share my blunt observations, if I may: in the beginning your wheels will spin here on Steemit. It takes a while to get traction. I've been active about 2 months. Didn't do anything the first 2 weeks after I signed up. Had other stuff going on. Here is the formula for success: 1. have good content in your posts. 2. interact/comment just as you have here 3. Get engaged in various "communities" of like minded folks and when you have done those things, then #4. get involved with various projects, like helping newbies. A good person to follow and get engaged with is @davemccoy. He has some great projects going. So, yeah, this is a rather slow build here on Steemit. If you have technical aptitude that will help. Anyway, many blessing to you whatever path you choose. Oh, and you may want to go check out my daughters blog @littlescribe. She is posting some great stuff to help "newbies". Blessings.

I'll be honest - the whole whale/levels thing and buying of more 'steem power' (influence - I get the terms confused) thing and the voting bots and all the ways things can be manipulated feel icky. How is buying influence any different than buying ads on FB? If we're all just here to support the new crypto that is steem (supposedly the whole purpose, no?) , why do the old timers have more influence? Isn't that a 'middle man' of some sort? Isn't the whole point of crypto to avoid that sort of interaction? I'm no expert on crypto by any stretch so if there is a significant difference I'm missing (quite possible) I've missed it in my research (and I HAVE read up on it a lot, I think, maybe too much or I might have started posting already... and maybe I still will - but this is why I hesitate, my conflicts about the ways it seems to work)....and I'm quite sure I'm not the first or only to wonder these things - and fully aware my public comment may get me blacklisted or something but ... the game feels as rigged as anywhere else. I'm already other places so - why here? If the community doesn't want the motivation to be to earn $$ (in any form) with our posts, then what is our motivation to create fresh content on a new platform that can manipulate our outcomes as much or more than the algorithms of google or FB or or Fiverr or .... etc.?
BUT..... I might stay JUST for your encouragement, Mr. Mercury. Really, you're awesome & much much appreciated! <3

You bring up some points I have not considered. Indeed, why should my, or your post be any less valued than that of another when the content is of equal or greater quality? And, is not the disgusting underbelly of capitalism (which in essence is a decent system I think...if not abused) apparent here when the wealthy have dominion over the masses? I am going to ponder the questions you have posed. Perhaps this creature we call Steemit is, once more, an expression of human greed, not the hoped for Cooperative Abundance I so long for. Perhaps this is a step in the right direction. Perhaps from this other paths will be taken leading to a new paradigm? And Perhaps, I am just a fool. I think fools like us, if I may be so bold as to include you, are what is necessary for change. Many blessings.

Yes, cooperative, mutually beneficial abundance for all - based on some fair merit, of course, quality and consensus being that. But it's not mere consensus, 1 vote, 1 user... it's like a version of Citizens United of sorts - the corporations/whales have a MUCH bigger vote... I'm sure the analogy isn't perfect at all but you obviously understand. I have to assume the folks that created this and are at the helm of this steem-boat have thought through the whys in ways I haven't even attempted. I'm just wondering, well, why should I buy a ticket to ride when I have to be work crew to get anywhere, too? Convince me, oh Steem Captain (whoever that is)?Maybe I'll go looking for the explanation/rationalization for the system that exists. Maybe it's in the Steem white paper? Or a post here somewhere? But seriously? Why does this seem like a fair system in the crypto world? My impression of the bit I know is that crypto is meant to be a great equalizer (no?), in it's own sea, away from the circling, and feeding frenzies, of the sharks that control the oceans of the world financial markets.... so...

Crazy on a ship of fools, we may be, mate! :) Maybe I'll be made to walk the plank! And yes, if I hadn't earned being included in that crew before (and surely you guessed right regardless), I just spent an hour trying to find my blasted password for this thing to add a profile photo (an old, but fun one) so I guess I'm in, or I couldda/wouldda taken it as a sign to jump ship before I lost sight of the shore?

And on an astro note.. my Chiron is in Aries ... in the 10th... I'm not experienced enough to know exactly what that will mean for me for the next 7 years but... it surely means something is my slightly educated guess. I haven't gone looking to see if you posted any astro info lately but I will. Or tell me if you're posting that somewhere else? I'm interested! I'm all Gemini air (Sun/Moon/Mercury/Saturn & POF) & Cancer (Venus/Mars/ASC+Pisces MC water - I over-analyze, and, even still, don't act until it FEELS right. So I've been vacillating. Or decided 'outing' myself as a questioner/skeptic right up front was the voyage I would embark upon...Oh, boy...hang on, it may be rough seas ahead with me :)

I finally got my #namechallenge posted the other day.. not sure if these things are time sensitive or not but I posted it anyway. Thanks for nominating me and all the input <3