From one "Skeptical and jaded" honcho to another: Congratulations on your 6 months of blogging.
Coming from bitshares, and being a backer of Dan Larimer projects since before there were any, I knew about Steem before it launched. But I didn't get an account until April 2016 because I was not a miner or technical person. So I was unable to take advantage of the heads up Dan gave me.
Missed out on the earliest gravy train, the one where accounts were mined into existence. And whales were made.
My feelings about steemit are that it completely changed my life in one way.
I was an extremely private person, had never been on a social media, and carefully guarded my online identity. I would have been shocked at the very thought of posting a photo of myself online.
Well, that doesn't work on steemit. Something had to change.
Me.
And I did.
Thanks @onceuponatime, for sharing your experience here.
It gives me a measure of comfort when I see someone like yourself who "follows Dan" staying here and being an active part of the community. I see a lot of wrangling and infighting among some of the early adopters... and it can be hard to "read between the lines" of what's really going on. But it also seems to me that the "quite followers" would have abandoned ship if there really were something to be concerned about...
Steemit has definitely changed my life, as well... I abandoned "social blogging" and keeping a "general interest" blog like this when Facebook (and to a lesser degree MySpace) stripped the "social" from blogging. Sure, I continued with niche blogs... but they lacked the engagement we used to have back on Xanga (and a few other social blogging platforms during the "golden years" of 2002-06) so my enthusiasm was lackluster, at best.
Now I am writing regularly-- and having fun-- for the first time in 12 years!
Here's a slightly "funny" thing: In the six months I have been here, I have had to "unlearn" writing like a cold academic, to become more "personal and engaging" again. So that's a change, as well.
Anyway, thanks for your ongoing support... I really do appreciate those who "mostly curate," and it's not always easy to reciprocate... but I appreciate it.