Oh my gosh, I can't begin to tell you how much I like your comment. I agree that there are way too many insincere people in this world and sadly, often this makes them way too successful. It is something many people don't see or care about, so I'm always happy to find people who do notice and feel the same about it. Thank you very much for your comment and welcome to Steemit! I hope you'll do well here!
This, my friends, is how you get followers and friends!
Aww thank you, looking forward to seeing you around. This is the first real communication I've had since I got here!
Well we've got some pretty nice people around here, so I'm sure you'll find many more to chat with :D
What does the number next to peoples names mean?
It is your reputation. New people start at 25 and then it can grow by gaining upvotes from people with higher reputation (if I remember this correctly). It can also go down if you get flagged by people with higher reputation. At the lower numbers, it'll grow faster. The higher you get, the slower your progress becomes. I've come to the point where it feels like it is not growing at all anymore :-)
Aaah thanks, that's making sense now, not sure if I was 37 or 47 before, but I'm 40 now, hopefully it's only gone up and not down. :o
As long as you don't get flagged (which is basically a downvote), you're safe. Just stick to original content (no plagiarizing) and don't be insulting without good reason, that way you won't attract a flag! I'm sure you were 37 before. Can't imagine you lost any :D