Well @paulag, you, Asher and the @steemcommunity account did a fine job of reaching out and offering support.

Even though I was a little outside the target group, I still found myself in the thick of things, with some help from @hitmeasap and the #minnowasap project.

1. Community is about reciprocity. The interesting thing about this place is that even though we have been promised "Communities/Hivemind" without much to show for it... there is a lot of self-organizing into communities here. And there's a lesson in that: In a decentralized structure, we can't count on a "they" to do things; WE are the "they" that need to take action.

2. We Need to re-brand what "this" is. Part of the problem we have of people wanting to "cash out" is directly tied to this being marketed and shared as a "make money" venue, rather than a "censorship resistant content platform." A lot of folks seem to believe that the only card that draws is to promise money, in order to get people to come to this site. And so, we have a whole bunch of people looking to this as a giant cash dispenser, rather than an opportunity to build a social media presence, accompanied by what I might call a long term savings account. That's basically how I see my SP balance.

3. I am still a very small fish, helping very small fishes. We, indeed, have too many spenders and not enough savers. Stated a little differently; we have too many people with a short term horizon, rather than a long term one. I try to find and help those who want to build something here (rather than just try to "make pizza money") but there's a limit to what I can achieve with my (currently) 1.7c upvote. And so, my strategy continues to be to power up... and frankly? I wouldn't recommend to anyone to power down/take money out until they hit at least 1,000SP.

=^..^=