I have only been here about 2 and a half months. My first month included the HF20, so one of those weeks barely counts. I do not depend on the money as I have a regular job, so I come here in the evenings or weekends.

I was lucky that I knew 2 people that were here before I got here and that meant that I automatically had a couple of followers. Some of their friends/contacts have also been gracious to interact with me as well.

I come and spend time looking around to find people who post things I might enjoy reading and following. I understand it is up to me to find them and in general I don't mind spending some time on that.

I have been fairly neutral about my opinion on bots. I understand some of the reasoning on using them, but on the ones that are set up to auto vote every post someone else creates without the bot owner ever reading the content seems a bit empty and to me may contribute to the hollow quietness of this place.

I have read many posts that had a high number of votes with possibly only 2 real time comments. Although the votes caused the post to pay out several dollars, there is a good chance that the 2 commenting people are the only ones that actually read it. If the poster is only posting to gather the few dollars here and there, then I guess it was a success. If they actually posted wanting to share, be read and gather new friends, then not too successful.

It also goes a little further in keeping the flow going. A lot of times when I have read a post, I may read some of the comments other people have made. Sometimes their comments have been really involved or insightful.... or funny and that has caused me to go check out their pages and scroll through a few of their posts to see if they may also be someone I might like to follow. That comes to my point, that if people don't come do real comments, it further limits their exposure and gives less opportunity for other new users to find them.

I don't mean this offensive to anyone, but to be honest, if you have everything automated and you do not come and put real time effort into the community, you may also be part of what is causing the atmosphere to become stagnant. To help keep the community alive, even when you are not new, still requires a certain amount of time commitment.