Read/Upvote Part 1 Here

Part 2 Introduction (repeated in all 4 parts)

I recently took the leap of joining Steemit.com yesterday by signing up for a free account after taking a good look at blockchain technology and the various decentralized applications springing up around it like cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, STEEM etc), blogging (Steemit), smart contracts (Ethereum, Namecoin, Steem Power), cross border financial bank transactions (Ripple), data storage (Siacoin, Storj, Steemit) and so on.

I then proceeded to post my first article through my browser based Steemit account and, to my great surprise, got immediately welcomed, curated, rewarded and encouraged by fellow Steemers in a number of cryptic ways!

Inspired to know more about the platform and decrypt what was given to me (and why), I used Steemit's integrated Google search tool to find the answers within Steemit's trove of articles and what I found was very promising (keep in mind that these are my preliminary impressions not necessarily up-to-date facts - so feel free to clarify anything I missed by commenting)...

Sociology of Steemit

There is a somewhat opaque, at first, social order based on your relative Steemit power/profit standing that becomes more and more apparent as you interact with the system. Initially it just looks like a bunch of authors and readers writing, liking and commenting on social media content, but as you browse articles, click on profiles and become familiar with the system, you come to realize what causes the financial numbers to skyrocket on some posts (that can amazingly generate thousands of dollars in profits in just a few hours!) and remain grounded on others that can earn nothing during the seven day article earning window.

The hierarchy is divided as follows: 1) Founders 2) Witnesses 3) Whales 4) Dolphins and 5) Minnows who tend to swim in political/profit groups to leverage their collective strength in various strategic ways.

Founders

Founders have a lot of Steem Power by virtue of gifting it to themselves, one must assume, but they seem content to silently observe, for the most part (likely operating under alias account names I have yet to discover). The @Steemit Founder account has only posted 1 article at inception thus keeping his reputation score at 25 (the initial score everyone starts with). Contrast that to my first day reputation score of 41 after posting just two articles and a few comments, and you can see the value of posting and commenting.

Reputation (side note)

Reputation helps you to get upvotes by giving users more confidence in you and your content. I equate it to your outward "dress for success". It is the first number people see on the top of your profile. One can easily assume that a higher reputation score means you are a dolphin or whale, even though you may be a minnow. Superficial as virtual dress may be, it can garner you upvotes, so staying active pays.

Witnesses

Witnesses have a lot of power, reminiscent of the powers delegated in the US Constitution to the US Congress, over the system's code (legislation) and currency by virtue of being able to:

1. Refuse implementing new code (hardforks)
2. Set the inflation rate of the fiat internal currency - the Steem Dollar (SBD), and
3. Set the interest rate paid for saving the Steem Dollar.

Witnesses have exercised all these powers over the past 16 months Steemit has been operating, for example:

1. They collectively prevented a hardfork from getting implemented and sent it back to the developers to rework.
2. They implemented reducing the annual inflation rate from 100% to 9.5% per annum decreasing 0.5% annually, and
3. They collectively change the interest rate at will (currently my .001 SBD is in my Steem savings account earning 0% APR).

Whales and Dolphins

The whales, in terms of Steem Power, can basically come into an article and suck up the lion's share of the upvote profits, but can also positively increase the potential pool of profits by upvoting an article; dolphins less so. Just being rich in STEEM and Steem Dollars doesn't count, it is all about having Steem Power, which is the blubber whales and dolphins are made of.

Steem Power (side note)

The first guidance I got was "Power up 100%", which means to select the 100% power up option for post payouts - as opposed to the default 50%/50% setting that pays you 50% in Steem Power and 50% in Steem Dollars. The trick is that it takes 13 weeks (used to be 2 years!) to liquidate Steem Power at the rate of 1/13th of your balance per week. Apparently that serves to stabilize the market price of the STEEM cryptocurrency by dissuading users from impulsively cashing out when STEEM takes a hit in the currency exchange market (tied like most other cryptocoins to Bitcoin fluctuations).

Minnows

There seems to be a lot of support for newbie minnows to educate and empower them to come up in the ranks and further the Steemit ecosystem. I looked into the Minnow Support Project @minnowsupport and linked to their chat room on the Discord app (here https://discord.gg/HYj4yvw). I quickly got all my technical newbie questions readily answered with little fuss by a group of around 15 experienced users. It was a friendly and fairly mature group.

I conducted an anonymous survey inside the Minnow Support chat and asked them "To what degree, on a scale of 0 to 10, does a 'law of the fishes' culture exist on Steemit where 'the big fish eat the small'?" Surprisingly, the answers all came back "0".

To be honest, I have not seen evidence on Steemit of the big Whales or Founders preying on the small yet, but I am keeping my guppy eyes wide open as I gobble up SP and SBD in little bites, just a little less nervously after my survey!

Seeking Help (side note)

Every new Steem member should just connect to the Minnow Support Project right away before getting frustrated and going away in confusion. I am technical and experienced with a developer and crypto economy background and I had a tough time finding answers to a number of questions through the Steemit.com web portal, which doesn't readily lend itself to member interaction the way the Discord App chat room does. Trust me, this is where you can get clarification on anything Steem… https://discord.gg/HYj4yvw

See Part 1 Ideology of Steemit here

Coming next in Part 3…

Economics of Steemit

To make sure you don't miss the next installment follow @cyberspace and help us by upvoting, resteeming, and consider delegating us some Steem Power!

I am trying to raise some "VC" Steem Power and invite you to:

1. See my Introduceyourself post here and then
2. Invest in @Cyberspace by delegating any amount of Steem Power you see fit.
   Thanks in advance for your support in any form be that SP, STEEM, SBD or some good pointers/links!

@Cyberspace