I've not been blogging an awful lot of late, but reading more and having discussions instead. So today I was stalking 
So he was talking about the chances of a middle class on here which he feels isn't going to happen if people aren't invested for the long run in the form of powering up. There is some interesting data in his post retrieved by 
I can see where his frustrations are coming from. There are plenty of complaints about good work not being rewarded and a middle class could potentially help with that. However, if no-one is powering up rewards that come from that middle or upper class, then they can't be helped to bring them into that middle class.
How many accounts have had
knock on their post,
,
or
tap on their shoulder? How many have had
support them, or random votes from
,
,
or
types over the last 2 years yet... so few powered up and kept it there, so few thought that being part of the future of Steemit meant being able to support others to be part of Steemit.
tarazkp
This is a good point here. So many people complain that we don't get support from the whales, but these mentioned accounts (and more) tirelessly work to give undervalued content that little boost. That's why there is probably a lot of talk about paying it forward and one of the best ways to pay it forward is by powering up that SBD to increase the reward of your own vote.
I wouldn't be past the 500 SBD mark today if it hadn't been for
So why doesn't everyone power up? Could it be that our instant gratification lifestyle means we aren't capable of seeing things long term? Do we come in with the attitude of “what's in it for me?” Maybe its because there are easier ways to earn money?
I've seen people incredibly well rewarded for their good content early on who have gained a higher reputation than I currently have, but their SP hasn't even got past the 500 mark because they've cashed every last bit of liquid Steem out. I saw a lot of people power down when the Steemit site was struggling with DDos attacks or running very slowly. Then when things picked up again they struggled because their account was so low on Steem Power. A lot of the previous support they'd had was gone and they lost interest again.
Here was an approach I found interesting to watch unfolding. The Steemian was approaching Steemit as business, so all their SBD was cashed out and they even powered down as they went, never reaching the 500SP mark. They were generous enough with upvoting others, but the value of their vote was constantly so low that I think after a while supporters started to wonder why they should continue to support them with their own growing SP when that blogger would constantly remove the value of their own votes, effectively saying “thank you for your support, I'll take it!”
To me this business approach was flawed in two ways. Firstly this is a community oriented business, so there needs to be a bit of tit for tat. If your blogs are incredibly valuable and help others to improve their own life or earnings, then you might get away with just posting and being rewarded for that. Really, customers need to feel like they have got a good deal, but that wasn't happening in this case. Secondly, having SP means you can earn more SP via curation and the more you have the more you can earn. So every time they powered down they lost an earning opportunity.
Anyway, this all took me back to thinking of community. Communities have an incentive to support each other. I expect when Steemit was new and the were only a few on here they were probably all supportive of one another. As Steemit has grown it's gotten bigger and more distant, so you can't support everyone and unless you're part of a community other users are rather faceless. There are complaints of circle jerking, but how many of these are communities supporting one another?
I belong to 2 communities (Team Australia and Homesteaders Online) and I don't think I'd still be here without their support. As those communities grow, however, it becomes harder to keep in touch with everyone and support can dwindle off as they break off into smaller more sustainable groups. I probably keep more contact with Team Australia members because my time zone puts me out of contact with most of the chat going on with the homesteaders who are mainly in the US and Europe.
Perhaps the new communities update will be pivotal in developing a middle class. It might be the incentive needed to support one another.
How do you use your Steemit account? Are you community minded? Do you power up or do you take what you can get because Steemit might not last?
○♤○
You can also find The Miniature Smallholding on:
Join us at the Online Homesteading Community