I don't understand people's motivations, much of the time... sometimes to such a degree I sincerely believe I must be from another planet.
Of course, my more rational side recognizes that when folks spout off things that seem to make no sense whatsoever, they tend to be in a place of reactivity, and generally trapped in one of their psychological complexes.
How Dramatic!
Grand Declarations of Nonsense!
If you have been part of this community for a while, you have probably seen statements similar to the one I used in the title of this post.
"It's just not worth my effort to post here! The rewards are just too insignificant and hard to earn! I'm LEAVING!"
I see. What are you going to do instead?
"I'm DONE with this place... I'm just going to go back to posting on Facebook and Reddit and a few message boards!"
I see. So you're going back to spending 3-4 hours a day on Facebook and twitter engaged in intellectual masturbation for absolutely nothing?
Makes me want to give them one of 
The weeds are blooming! It must be spring!
Welcome to Our Little Identity Crisis
If you've dealt with friends, family and other "objectors" and their feelings about Steem, you probably relate to the above "conversation."
It would be easy to dismiss all this as needless drama, but there's more there than immediately meets the eye.
As I see it, the issue here isn't about comparing social content platforms, but about the fact that many people see Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Reddit and others as "social content venues," but they see Steem as "a place to make money," but NOT a social content platform.
And certainly — in fairness to them — Steem may not be worthwhile as a place to make money."
And so, what we have is an identity crisis, more than anything else.
View of the Grand Canyon
It's All in the Sales Pitch: You GET What You ASK For!
For as long as I have been here, I have been wasting my breath telling people that pitching this as a place to make money is the wrong approach because it brings in people who have (A) no interest in creating content, except as a means to make money and (B) no interest in building community, just an interest in filling their pockets.
Here we are, soon to be three years later, trying to dig ourselves back out of the consequences of that particular approach.
You might wonder why I still give a damn...
Because I still see the potential here, IF the "opportunity" we have here is presented properly, to an appropriate audience... and we continue to put effort into building, rather than just filling our pockets...
Thanks for reading!
Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190412 16:03 PST
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