Well the potential rewards are one reason to be here, but I also really like the idea of being on a platform which isn't owned by some corporate and is instead effectively community owned and managed. Maybe I am in the minority with that attitude though.
I always make a point of trying to reply and upvote to everyone who comments on my posts and sometimes it isn't obvious which ones are spam when complements can be so generic, I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. But yes, I do wonder sometimes if people are attracted to my SP or if they genuinely like my material. It's one of the things I've always had an issue with in Real Life is avoiding gold diggers and thieves by dressing like a bum. I can't do that here though because there are no secrets on the steem blockchain.
"I also really like the idea of being on a platform which isn't owned by some corporate and is instead effectively community owned and managed. Maybe I am in the minority with that attitude though."
Not at all. I used to write more about all the cool advantages of Steemit, for example, the applications to future historical study.
However, the rewards are by far the most obvious and widely-appealing factor. The vast majority of people on Facebook legitimately do not care they are censored and tracked.
"I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt."
That's been working fine for me, too. You start to get good at picking out the fake bot comments, and the rest are obvious.
Sounds like I should have a dig through some of your older material. I'll add that to my TODO list for the week :)
Here is a link to my "Wow, Steem is awesome for history post".
Someday, it will make a great indie band name: "Babylonian Blockchain"
https://steemit.com/steemit/@lexiconical/mining-the-babylonian-blockchain
Also, a special thanks again to @thecryptofiend, who resteemed this one for me and really helped me out early on.