Obviously, I couldn't have done this without you!
To end up with over 10K followers already after previously never really being online is huge for @papa-pepper. Recently, on my trip to Texas to hook up with @xtrodinarypilot, I hit 10,000 followers. This puts @papa-pepper in the top 20 for all of steemit, which is insane.
First off, I wanted to thank all of you, as it truly means a lot to me. When I first started, I never thought that somehow I would be catapulted into the forefront of this community, or that I would be able to meet so many wonderful people from all around the world, not only online, but in real life too!
However, it is not without difficulty or concern that I reach such milestones as this...
SUSTAINABILITY?
According to this source, here is a definition of "substainability:"
the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.
I use that word in reference to our steemit blogs these days. Many of our blogs have grown rather nicely, even to the point that they seem almost unmanageable at times. How in the world can 10,000 steemians follow @papa-pepper, and how can he possibly interact with and support them all? That is exactly the question with which I am frequently faced.
It is the purpose of this post to share a few of my recent thoughts on the subject. Hopefully, some of what I share will bless you, and maybe you may even have some good insight for me on the matter.
VOLUNTARY INTERACTION - NOT OBLIGATORY
So many times, especially recently, I have been receiving "complaint comments." Though they vary slightly, the basic story is the same, and goes something like this: "I upvote and resteem your posts, but you do not upvote and resteem mine."
Trust me, I realized early on in my steemit interaction that there would never be a way that I could support everyone who supported me. Truth be told, most of my post preparation and other activities are done offline, and my actual time online each is not all that much. Often it is spent trying to post, reply to comments, curate, and encourage others. Still, there is no way that I can upvote everyone or even reply to every comment that I receive.
There are certainly some longtime steemians like @kus-knee, @gringalicious, @rigaronib and others that I would like to support by upvoting every post that they make. Their posts are always professional, original, and quite frankly I want to support the person behind the account, and not just their specific posts. However, as they can testify, I rarely make my way over these days.
Also, there are tons of newer users joining our community every day, and I would like to meet and support many of them too, but my time is limited. I still have to get work done, raise my family, sleep, work on building my homestead, and other tasks. Now, more than ever, I admit that I cannot get around, curate, comment, and interact as much as I would like to .
For this reason I must remind people that activities like following, upvoting, and resteeming are voluntary and not obligatory. No one is required to follow you back if you follow them, or resteem your posts if you resteem theirs, or upvote you if you upvote them. If the sole purpose of you following, upvoting, or resteeming the @papa-pepper account is so that I will do the same to you, you will most likely be very disappointed. That is the truth of the matter.
If you choose to follow, upvote or resteem me, I thank you. If not, you are free to choose to do so as well.
REAL FOLLOWERS - WHAT WOULD YOU SUGGEST?
Of the over 10,000 accounts following @papa-pepper, 4591 of those are "dead followers" according to http://steemit.deadfollowers.info/, a handy tool created by @mynameisbrian. That means that although 10,000 is a great, big, milestone number, only 5475 of those accounts have posted in the last month. I realize that just because they have not posted doesn't mean that they are still not "active" in the community on some level, but I wanted to compare voting for a moment.
Many accounts post more than once a day, and many others far less than once a day. However, let's imagine that each of my "active followers" posted once per day on average. While I could vote on each of over 5000 posts on a daily basis, I guarantee that I could not actually read them or make a comment on them. Simply put, there is just not enough of me to go around.
If I used an autovoter bot, I could just upvote each person that I follow with a tiny %, but I curate manually. How then should I even try to support others and encourage them?
MY SOLUTION
My solution now is the same that it has been for months. In an attempt to bless, support, encourage, inspire, and interact with as many steemians as possible I try to give back in many ways.
Many of the gifts that I have sent to others are just that. Whether it is T-shirts, peppers, garden seeds, or even the STEEM "COMMUNITY" Silver Rounds, I am always hard at work shipping things out to other steemians all around the world. I still have some shirts and Silver rounds to get out too. Obviously, I cannot ship a free present to everyone in the world, but I certainly do a lot of it anyway.
The other main way that I try to bless others is by running contests. As @quinneaker noticed, my contests are a bit different from a lot of other contests. You never need to follow me, upvote the post, or resteem the post to enter. You don't even need to like me. All you need to do is follow the rules and you could win.
I have literally given away thousands of dollars worth of prizes in my time on steemit, all because I wanted to. For me, it was just a small token of my appreciation for this community and platform. Though I may not make it over to your post and upvote it, you are still free to try to win as much STEEM and SBD as you want from my own personal wallet.
THE LEARNING CURVE
While every steemian is free to choose how to use their upvotes, they are also free to choose how to use their down votes, AKA flags. Personally, I have never flagged another steemian.
Though I certainly have seen some things that are "flag-worthy" I have chosen to not personally downvote others. Many of the same comments that you see being made on my posts are often flagged on other posts, and sometimes others even flag the ones of my posts "for me." However, because of cultural differences and the "learning curve" that comes with online interaction here, I have not done so as of yet.
Like many others users, I'd rather not see a long line of replies on my posts that range between "upvote me" and "nice post." However, this seems to be what we are stuck with at the moment. For the record, if you tell me to "upvote you" chances are that I will not. If you tell me "nice post" I may not believe that you even looked at it.
On the contrary, when I see real comments made by other steemians who obviously read my post, often it encourages me to use my freedom to check out their recent posts. I do not have to, but I can choose to. If they would have chose not to leave a real comment, I would have chosen otherwise.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
In closing, I want to end on a happy note. You guys are amazing, and I could not have this many followers without you choosing to support me. For this I am forever grateful and thankful. It seriously means a lot to me.
I know that many choose to look up to @papa-pepper, and I just wanted to be honest at this time to share some of my thoughts and struggles with you. I wish us all the utmost success, but also want us to consider how we should proceed as our follower base continues to grow.
If you have any helpful suggestions for me, please let me know. At times I feel overwhelmed by the cries of others about my lack of support for them. I know that I truly do not owe them anything, and that I cannot possibly "support" everyone with upvotes, so how should I proceed? What would you do in my situation?
Thanks again everyone!
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-10K-followers
Until next time…
Don’t waste your time online, invest it with steemit.com
Man there is no way you can keep up with 5000, or even 500 Active and engaged followers. You have to pick and choose. And no matter what you chose to do, people will holler at you that you aren't doing enough.
There is a sense of entitlement to Steem that should not be allowed to succeed. Work should be what is rewarded. Proof of Brain. There is nothing at all wrong with the way you are doing it. Keep on Manually curating.
So a couple of the options....
Do nothing, don't vote, don't curate, just sit on your SP. Plenty of people do this, and it doesn't accomplish much for anyone. I don't think this is the option for you.
Manually Curate, as you do. But maybe spend more time considering the person you are voting for and what your upvote means to them. Someone who has been active for a year and already has a lot of success, your upvote might not mean as much as it does to someone who has been here a short time and has had little success, but is trying really hard. So maybe adjust percentages. Still upvote the guy who has been here forever, but upvote him 20% and save 80% for newer users.
Delegate SP to someone you trust to Curate on your behalf. I've seen more and more whales with smaller and smaller personal upvotes because they are delegating to OCD, or Curie, or a friend who curates on their behalf. It keeps the SP working, however does not benefit you with curation rewards.
I'll tell you one thing I would love. When you have an active and involved following like you do, if you see someone who is really trying, and whose blog reaches out to you, a resteem is worth more than an upvote. Having those extra eyes that might end up following the newer user because you resteemed their post, that's a huge reward. Obviously this is more of a time investment than just giving an upvote, so might not be feasible for you. But maybe you pick a couple of people a week who really strike you in your comments, take a bit to visit their blog, and pick a post to resteem if it impresses you.
As you said, you give a lot more rewards in the gifts you send out and the efforts you make. No one should ever be questioning how you use your vote. But they will. And you asked for thoughts, so there you go.
Bottom line, do the best you can with the time you can give it, and don't sweat the small stuff like whiny followers. :-)
Thank you for all of that! You are right, it is exactly what I asked for. Thanks for the honest evaluation of the situation.
you are doing very well in steemit congrats brother and thank you for helping me I appreciate it much.
some very good points here, and I love the one about resteeming
this was so interesting to read and I think your spot on
I am one of those followers (and, I hope, friends) who benefitted from @papa-pepper’s generousity. As witnessed on these photos of the gifts I got by mail from papa a few weeks ago:
I never got to thank you properly for these wonderful gifts, @papa-pepper. I want to correct this lapse of good manner on my part by expressing my gratitude here and now.
I’ve been wearing the
steemit.comfriendship bracelet since the day I received the package and I was rocking the T-shirt you sent on the Night of Steem in Lisbon.If everyone had a spirit as generous as yours, this world would be a Kingdom of Heaven already.
Wow! So glad to hear that they made it! Very cool! Did you ever post about it? If so, I must have missed it! So glad that they made it all the way to Sweden!
Yep – and it looks like you just have found my (newly published) post about it too! ;) Once again: many thanks from the bottom of my heart! You are my role model on Steemit and in life.
I like your explanation of your behavior on Steemit in relation to commenting and upvoting. I still don't know why people keep on begging others for votes or such. For myself, I can relate to what you are saying about sometimes voting on the person behind the post instead of voting for the post itself. I think everyone on Steemit just needs to have a nice time writing nice things and let the community organically vote, comment or blog. Also, I think it is just a nice gesture of you to send free gifts across the globe. Just keep on living life! Cheers
Thank you.
UPVOTED and FOLLOWED!
Wow that's a huge amount of followers :)! Keep up the good work!
When I began on Steemit, I would resteem and upvote posts that were doing well.
As I matured on here, I stopped looking at the trending page altogether- except to see important Steemit info. I started upvoting and resteeming content which fit the following criteria: unique, informative, & thought provoking, and it had to be from someone who was working hard. I realized I was growing quickly here and many people looked up to me and my upvote and resteem has helped them so much!
I came across an article by @ethandsmith that was very well done. He had worked extremely hard on it and it had great info I knew many of us could use. It was at the 6 day mark at less than $5. I upvoted it as I found it useful, then I resteemed it to my followers. Of course my full upvote is only 14 cents, but it deserved my full appreciation.
The next morning I woke up to see it was at $65. I was so happy that I had resteemed it, it was llike a natural high! It made me feel so good to have been able to do this for him- and it cost me nothing but a few seconds of time.
An upvote or resteem from someone who is looked up to, as you are, means a great deal to someone who is struggling each day with whether or not to quit Steemit. Steemit is hard work, and it may not seem like it but a little thing like that will refresh the spirit similar to those starry eyed days when you first registered ;)
What may seem a small gesture from you could mean the world to them.
With great power comes great responsibility ~ you are there now, Papa.
People look up to you on many levels. You are the epitome of success from scratch.
You are proof that with hard work you will get rewards.
I noticed you a few weeks after I joined and you were "only" at 5k followers, and even then I was like wow after reading your story. You are an icon now, like it or not, and you set the stage for all the newcomers :)
Thank you so much for that, and for your wonderful interview! That was a gem to see how it well it did.
You make some good points there, and share some good advice! Thanks for everything, always!
Anytime, Grande' Pepper!
Oh my, where is my head?
I was so focused on answering your question I totally forgot...
Congratulations on 10K! I know it must be surreal!
I know what is going through your head, and my response to that is: Papa? You earned this. You deserve it, and much more <3
I remember the morning I woke up to find that post had made $60 almost overnight. I wondered how it happened, and I realized that it was because of that resteem.
I'm still grateful for that, so now I'm always looking for ways to support other users who could use a boost.
I also remember the day that @papa-pepper replied to one of my comments on your interview post with him. He sent me over to his YouTube channel to watch some of his videos and listen to his background and testimony.
I do my best to support both of your accounts now, @arbitrarykitten and @papa-pepper, because your attitudes toward the community are extremely honorable and evident in whatever you do.
I recently decided to use small portions of my voting power to trail the voting records of some accounts that I believe to be excellent up and coming curators. They are @qurator, @muxxybot, and the brand new @r-bot. I trust them to vote up great posts, and I hope I'll be able to find more accounts to support.
Keep up the good work! I enjoy every single one of your high value posts and comments. Thank you both for sharing.
congrats and cheers to more ;)
Thank you so very much!
Tis always awesome reading your posts when I get the chance. Not only did I make a friend and brother here on Steemit when I met you but I met someone whom I look up to and admire for the life they live and the family they raise.
Heck, most of the times when I catch your posts they make me laugh and smile and that is much needed in ones life.
Thanks for being here Papa-pepper and congratulations on 10,000 followers!!!
~ @Timbo
Big respect @papa-pepper. For those of us who are talking about and actively promoting steemit as a platform which can do great good, you are a HUGE inspiration. Keep on supporting those minnows, as I know you will, and demonstrating excellent behaviour in the community. Peace, my peppery brother from across the pond.
Thank you for the encouragement.
"Nice post", LOL
Congratulation on your achievement sir I see that you have quite the following and it is very nice to have such a wide variety of people to follow you. I have had many followers on other social networks like Instagram and Twitter and things like that but I'm mostly developing here and hopefully I will get to you as many as you one day we'll see what happens thanks for your inspiration, be well.
Thank you @krazypoet.
@papa-pepper,
First of all, thank you for visiting my post recently. I really appreciate.
Reading this post I realized that you have been a great writer here to have been followed by 10000 accounts. That's a milestone as far as am concerned. I am going to get there.
Yes, you are right that you cannot reply or upvote everyone. Sometimes, I get such messages and I begin to wonder where is it coming from. The idea of telling me to come to your post because you came to my post don't just appeal to me. I follow some people just as you follow me. If I have to upvote everybody then my voting power would be seriously tampered.
I like the fact that steemit is not a get rich quickly platform because anyone who ask for upvote is in this category.
That is my opinion.
@stevenmosoes
Signing out.........
Thank you for sharing your opinion, I appreciate it.
My pleasure.
WOW ! Congratulations @papa-pepper !!! And I thought 2500 followers I hit was a lot ! LOL! Well deserved my friend , and great post !! Keep up the great work , im so glad to be one of your followers right from the start , and I thank you for all the help and support , your Awesomeness !!!👌✌💕👍😍
I'd to pretend like I played the biggest part because it happened at my house lol. Can't wait to see how big you can make that number grow. You won't have a problem with sustainability because you homestead. Homesteading is based on the principles of sustainability.
Lol, thanks my friend!
Congratulations! That really is a great, well-deserved achievement! At least in my mind, 54.75% of your followers posting in the last month is a really high percentage for such a large sampling of users. I hope Steemit contributions only continue to grow!
Anyone who is as successful as you on a social media platform is not going to have the time to interact with and acknowledge everyone. In a way it is a good problem to have. The lack of time to interact with and support everyone bothering you means you are a genuinely good person and care about this community.
Don't let it get to you. You are doing a great job and most of us understand having multiple commitments and obligations. Thanks for all you do and congratulations on 10000 followers!
Thanks man. I appreciate the encouragement!
You're welcome ☺️
I feel slightly better knowing you are not superhuman. Of course you can't follow 10,000 plus people around. (Hello? Congratulations! Well done!) What you say makes perfect sense and I have never come over for a follow me, follow you anyway.
I have a little over 1,000 followers and it is a challenge to keep up with that, so I cannot even imagine how anyone would hope for a mere mortal to keep up with that.
I am appreciative of the blogs/posts that you put out and that is the joy in knowing you. Would I love a huge upvote or a sprinkle of Papa magic on my post? Well, duh!!? Am I disappointed? Not a chance. Just happy that you interact and that you give very real info and responses.
You rock it. You wouldn't be where you are if you weren't doing something right, ;) Congratulations again! To the next 10,000!!
Have a wonderful Sunday!
Thanks!
Thank you, truly. How can anybody not adore you?
@papa-pepper you are a BRAND and everyone likes your BRAND. Congrats on 10,000
I've heard that before.
@papa-pepper we have had our battles and we lived to be here right now. It's a Blessing my Brother. Thank You for helping me stay SOBER for One more Day.......
Wow congradulations on 10,000 followers big guy!
It was amazing! Thanks!
Congratulations @papa-pepper!
You are just amazing. I didn't ask @raybrockman's permission but I think this worth sharing. Just to let you know, we appreciate you. And that advice you've given to @raybrockman I don't know what it is but that man surely thankful for it. We are people talking behind your back.😅
Oh Jyoce this is so funny - Explaining Papa Pepper to my inlaws may be one of the funniest conversations of my life!
It started like this;
Mumbling: 'I dont understand why they are taking pictures of each other in the shower'
My husband don't understand what I'm doing when I stay up till 3am then suddenly run and take picture. And Im no good in explaining really so sometimes I just give him a dirty look. 😂
Oh poor fellow! Im sure he'd love to help! 😇
Hopefully you can pocket a few hundred $$$$. Then he will understand!
😂😂😂 I bet they would't understand and think you two are crazy lol!
Luckily its true! We are a very special type of crazy ✌😂✌
Don't blame me, you guys chose the shower, there is plenty of water elsewhere!
✋😂👌
I am sure you will have much more followers here on Steemit. I come here just read your posts and I like your works here. I use yours posts for makes my english better. Usualy I understand all what you write, some words I need to check, but I can't comment your posts like I would like to do. I am working realy hard on my English, I would like to be native in English in few months and than I could more interact with your posts. It's sure that you cant reply all comments and watch all other posts and upvote all! I have only 120 followers, I follow 133 on Steemit and it's hard to see and read all posts. On your profile I come every day to see direct what's new. Here some peppers for you, not my photo but CCO licence so you can use it if you like.
Thank you for the wonderful comment, and the peppers!
Of the over 10,000 accounts following @papa-pepper, 4591 of those are "dead followers"
for me it's 2646 Total followers, 1071 Dead followers.....
huh...isn't that ROUGHLY the same ratio?
(math is hard)
Math is hard! I think a lot of people fet discouraged even though earning 1 cent is more than they ever could on facebook. Better than farming dust from faucets as well!
that's also a misconception.
They're NOT earning 1 cent.
They are earning .01 SteemPower or SteemChain Backed Dollar (depending on how they have their rewards selection set)
not the same thing.
the value of SP and SBD changed dramatically. Once it was worth .05 USD...once it was worth $4.00 USD... so that one cent would suddenly be worth a LOT more.
BitCoin is a perfect example...at one time one bitcoin was free...now it's worth $7500.
Steem On.
That is part of why I love it! Suddenly it can exponentially increase in value!
Very good point! Its good to keep reminding ourselves of these small distinctions, (like the difference between steem and steempower), since it is so new it can be easy to fall back into old thpught patterns!
The distinctions aren't so small.
Back in june the value of my account went from $300 to $30,000 in ten hours...
same number of SP...just worth more..
Yeah in that case it really becomes clear. Thanks for the illuminating anecdote Mr Mickey!
👈😊👉
enjoy your followers,you have achieved a good target,,keep it up,,
Good job Papa-pepper, Congratulations on your well earned achievement.
Also, the manner in which you have accomplished it is impressive.
Your character stands out in all that you do.
thank you
10k followers on steemit is better than millions of followers of facebook ,twitter, instagram etc.
Big achevment @papa-pepper congrats
Well said!
Its true @papa-pepper
Keeping up with followers is an integral part of Steemit, however, I agree with you, there is only one me and so much time to devote to responding, upvoting and resteeming. No matter how many followers, we can only do the best we can to encourage others. Congrats on your milestone @papapepper we love you and your posts.
We can only do the best we can do being the best we's we can bees 😇
when did you discover it? lol you did not just notice this did you? CONGRATULATIONS XXX
I suspect Papa Pepper has a backlog, especially with all the contests.
LOL, it happened Wednesday, I post about it on Sunday.
Many entire days ago! Hahaha
I read it sunday in a blog from someone else, such ashame that there is no private message, your box would have been full congratulations !! And still really what an achievement!
Congratulations @papa-pepper
You've been a great blessing to the steemit community.
Although I've never won any of your contest or giveaways, but km always happy to participate and see the happiness expressed by the winners.
Steemit is a better place to be and 2018 is going to be greater.
Congrats on your milestone!
And great post thanks for sharing and steem on :)
Thank you!
Well done man!
Congratulations to you, I hope I reach half.
Wow, congrats @papa-pepper! Your blog posts are always entertaining! Thank you for sharing your interesting life with us on Steemit!
Wow... It amazing..!
For now I'm only having 97..lol.. Not even 1 % on yours... Congratulations!!!!
A big shout of congratulations to you, Papa, good job...
I wish you a long and prosperous career here, and many tens of thousands more followers as well...
😄😇😄
Congrats @papa-pepper :)
Vote your heart and most true followers will understand! It isn't personal but eventually you run outta your daily allotment of votes...I know I do and I have very few followers and following compared to you. I'm still very new and still learning : ) That being said I can see where some may abuse the flagging or downvoting but I believe there are lots more good people here than bad.
I feel way better about up than down. Sometimes I do give tiny 1% downvotes to send a message though, but it has to be particularly heinous. A 'nice post'
Agreed! If I don't like something, I just don't vote. Sometimes I have to get off to stop upvoting cause I keep getting pretty dang low on steem = ( ecoinstant, I thought I was following you? I think that may have been the week steemit was acting up..sorry.
You also seem familiar!
I hustled to get the slider bar because I like to upvote too much! Now with the esteem app I can just leave it at 1 or 2 percent and just keep commenting and liking 😀
I got a lot more learning to do that's for sure..lol ~ I'm gonna look up this slider bar. Yeah cause I thought I upvoted and followed when you were in the contest (Wild and Strange). I recognized the photo on your post which I just upvoted but I could have sworn I had already done it?
Oh sweet wild and strange - it still amazes me how awesome the concept is. 5 different types of art in the same challenge
Seemed like a good idea to me!
Oh! I want to add congratulations!! = )
Congrats for the first 10,000 followers! I have only 2300, but it seems to be too much compared with the number of people I follow. :)))
You know what you are doing. Don't look back.
Frankly I'm surprised you keep up as much as you do. One suggestion would be to keep your voting power higher but we all struggle with that so just keep up the great work.
I certainly try to keep it higher, but it's rarely over 33% these days. Thanks Alex.
👍😇✌
You earned it man! There aren't many people on steem who can post the long, high-effort kind of posts that you do with so much consistency and variety.
Right now being above 10,000 is super rare... I look forward to 1-2 years from now when more and more steemians are hitting that "superstar" status.
I look forward to that future too, after seeing all that steemit has already accomplished I cannot wait to see what happens in the future. Thank you.
to have 10000 followers is like to ride onto the moon,,@papa-pepper enjoy your followers,God bless you always,
Thank you very much!
you are welcome @papa-pepper
Congratulations on the 1ok followers. Even as small as I am I have what is called dead followers. When I see that I wonder if there is other things they are dealing with and can't get on steemit.
You have been blessed with a large following and it is a huge responsiblity in it's self. Just keep doing what you are doing. People will be grateful for what you are doing for steemit as it is. Family and home always come first. A true follower will be here for you no matter what.
Well said, and thank you my friend!
Congrats! I think you said all that needs to be said. No one is obligated to vote,follow, or resteem. When someone expects that, then they are setting themselves up for disappointment.
Keep on keeping on! :)
You are right about that! Thanks.
Massive congratulations brother, I have only been here two months odd and really notice your help and contribution the community myself personally included on levels you won't know or imagine, just know that you are a good soul with pure intentions and you are blessed because you bless others. I actually did a post on your 10 k milestone 4 days back. https://steemit.com/steemit/@craigcryptoking/congratulations-papa-pepper-on-reaching-10k-followers-and-thank-you-for-all-your-great-work Bless you @papa-pepper and thanks again. Cheer$;)
You were quicker than I was! I'll check it out! Thanks.
Congratulations @papa-pepper
I say ignore the ones screaming at you. Yes, you have a lot of followers, but each one of those followers is also following a bunch of other people - such, it is not your responsibility to even try to support all, or for that matter, any of them.
You are a role model because you do give that much back to the community. You actually do answer comments - which a lot of other big fish don't necessarily do. I am not saying that they are wrong not to answer. For all we know they are busy supporting the community in other ways.
But one important way, and I think it is the one you have chosen, is to model positive behaviors others can follow. So, instead of screaming at you for not supporting them - they can look at what you are doing and start to do the same.
Anyway, I am just babbling now. But you give a lot to the community and have guided others to do the same. That is more than enough.
I think the best policy is to ignore the spam type comments. Or when you feel really generous and have some time, paste a link to one of your posts where you explain how to be successful. But that might be wasting your time.
CONGRATULATIONS.
I probably do not need to remind you, but somehow I just got the WRONG impression of you at first. After actually following you for a while, thanks to a silly contest, you have earned my honest respect. Your request for guidance is very sweet, but you ARE a trailblazer here... meaning there is no one and nothing for you to follow but your heart.
:)
Thank you for your honesty! I appreciate that.
Congarats papa-p! You deserve it 👏
What you have written here is so true and well thought out. I have, myself, felt like what you wrote here:
"I upvote and resteem your posts, but you do not upvote and resteem mine."
I have never written that and no one has ever written it to me but I'm sure that many of us have had those feelings.
As you said, how could anyone actually upvote or follow or interact with 10,000 people. It's just not possible even with 1,000.
My advice, which you don't really need: Just keep doing what your doing because your doing great! You always take the high road and that's such a great example!
Don't sweat the kiddies begging for your time @papa-pepper. One day they will grow up and realize that to get followed you need to lead.
And that's what you are doing - leading by example, showing the world how it should be done.
So kudos to you, and a huge thanks from the community for enriching our lives with your posts.
Now...... if only I could find a way to eliminate all the other contestants in the selfie competition (which has been a lot more fun than I thought it would be), then you'd be enriching my pocket as well hehe.
LOL, in due time. Plus, I have an upcoming surprise for you!