I recently read an article by Hive account@barrycooper and something happened that you never see anywhere else on social media, especially FB.

An argument was started and settled, with everybody laughing and getting along. The discussion was between Hive account@barrycooper and Hive account@ntomaino in the comments section. I commend both parties for staying patient and discussing the issues

This was a genuine discussion with genuine reasonings between both sides. The results are simply perfect.

In the FB world, this argument would have carried on and on with friends taking friends sides, removal from ones "friends list" and etc. 

I bring this up, because on Steemit, people seem to generally care what's happening, and that's a good thing! We don't want another Facebook. We don't want high school cliques, we want genuine people, genuine content, and genuine discussion to make our platform better and lives richer.

At the end of the page is a link to Hive account@barrycooper's article that started the discussion. The argument takes place in the comment section.

5 Reasons Steemit is Genuine.

1. The content providers make themselves vulnerable.

Hive account@lauralemons is a great example. She created a coloring book for adults to help themselves work through all sorts of trauma, from depression to rape. She did this because of her own issues she's lived through, and had a desire to help others. We all have different ways of handling issues, and she found one that I thought was superb and original.

She made herself vulnerable putting her life story and issues out there for us to read. Her Steemit followers welcomed it with open arms, encouraging her to create more and help more people. 

When we put our vulnerability out for everybody to read, we don't know what the results will be, we hope its acceptance. I can tell you from experience on Facebook, acceptance would have been the last thing I expected, ridicule would have been more likely.

2. The content provided instigates deep conversation.

Right now on steemit, the popular articles tend to trend towards Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin. Two things that are way above my head. However I do my best to read every single comment and ask as many questions as I can. This way I can learn as much as I can.

The comments carry so much information, quite often more than the article! Be sure to read what you can. Steemit is a group of people that genuinely want to see everybody succeed. It's a pool of creators that work together to help one another become better.

I have learned so much from reading comments because ideas turn into more ideas, connections are made. This is why curating and your input is so vital to the platform! 

3. Open sharing of compliments and constructive criticism.

Don't be bashful, if there's something in the article you don't like, or find wrong, talk about it! This is what Hive account@ntomaino did in Barry coopers article. He saw something that was wrong, and brought it to attention. There's a solution for every problem, attacking the author isn't it. Unless you're in FB land, then trolling and offensiveness is the answer. So bring up your issue, kindly, and resolve the problem. We've seen how fast a troll gets destroyed on here. Helps keep this place genuine!

Compliments on the other hand, are a little easier to give. I like giving compliments, but I only give them where necessary. I always try to back up my comment with a point that I learned from the article, it helps show that I have genuine compliments about the work that author put Into his/her work.

We all want to get noticed, and we all can tell who actually read the article by the types of comments left. A little more than "nice job" is always appreciated. 

4. Effort put into content.

This speaks for itself, you can see the work put into so many of the stories in here. The ones that have taken hours as opposed to the quick links to share a story. 

I carry very little voting power, so after an Upvote from me, I try and leave a good solid comment about the article, it carries weight to other people who read it. It's my way of acknowledging the amount of work I could tell somebody put in. I do my best to make sure they could tell I noticed their effort. 

I've put tons of effort into some of my posts, and little effort in others. But that's who i am, sometimes the rewards seem a little lopsided, but it is what it is. 

5. Steemit places value on your work.

The almighty steem dollar. You get rewarded by a pool of curators for the quality of your work. You make yourself vulnerable, posting your content, and hope to reap rewards. But the rewards can be subjective. It's how you interpret them that makes your Steemit career. 

Being a novice to both crypto and blogging, I had to take a big step back after some disappointment. I had to look at the big picture of what I was doing, and set my goals to improve my Steemit experience. What I use has helped me tremendously in staying ambitious in my writing.

Steem currently, is worth a little more than $1 USD about what I average per post. So why put so much effort into my work? Well there's a couple reasons. What if steem goes to $200? All of a sudden, each post I made that earned a dollar is now worth $200!  As long as I didn't cash anything out! This is my goal. The long haul.

My other goal is to get people to interact and follow me. I've had more fun building a community online with Steemit than I ever did with FB. I've gained approvals and a small following which just pushes my ambition more. The fact that people want to here what I have to say, is reward enough in itself to keep me motivated. Hopefully it's enough to keep your motivated! 

Another goal I have is 100 followers, I'm 1/3 the way there! If you found this article totally rad and awesome! Please follow me! Thanks for reading and stay genuine.

Link to the article

https://steemit.com/barrycooper/@barrycooper/i-feel-like-steemit-is-my-home-is-it#@rem870man/re-barrycooper-i-feel-like-steemit-is-my-home-is-it-20160822t045427752z

All pictures from freedigitalphotos.net