1000 Followers. How steem completely changed my life... NOT. Better: How steem changed itself.
Every once in a while...
...we are allowed to exploit the reward pool with completely unnecessary content ("milestone posts", MPs) and everyone is happy about it. Normally, such opportunities must not be missed. Say what you want, 5$ is 5$, is 1$ after one week with current price developments. But 1$ is 1$, say what you want. Unless you bind it to the blockchain, then it's something between 0.01 and 100$, depending on whose blog you're reading.
But the unimaginable happened! Since 3 weeks, my follower count is above 1000, and I haven't said a word! Shame on me.
So now, this:
Steem changed my life...
... NOT. Don't be ridiculous.
I changed steem...
... marginally. Every single voice of reason counts, so I guess I am a little grey stone in the mosaic of making steem a (in my opinion) better place. But since a "better place" is highly subjective... meh.
What I really want to write about is:
How Steem changed.
Since I joined in November 17, much has happened on the blockchain. My initial exitement is long gone, but I am still here. And as many of you know, steem is constantly evolving. Much of it is giving me a headache, I confess, but some thing also changed for the better. A Recap:
Steem price.
Bring sally up
and bring sally down
lift and squat
gotta tear the ground
Moby is right, it is random. Once you acknowledge this, you can forget about the price and enjoy the experience.
Communities
Steemstem (and later de-stem) are the real reason why I stick around. I love the people (even if I quarrel with one or the other every once in the while), I love science, and I love learning stuff that I didn't even think about before.
The STEM community itself has grown a lot over the last 3/4 year, both in quality and quantity, and I'm looking forward to meeting some guys in Italy in September a lot.
Also the german-speaking community has grown a lot, thanks to different efforts and initiatives. I've been less successful in really integrating myself here, but ain't nobody got time for this... sorry. I will stick around and peak my head into some conversations every once in a while, of course, I promise.
Steemit and other apps
The flagship platform hasn't changed, and this is exactly the problem. It is as user-hostile, confusing and counter-intuitive as it always was. Sadly, many of the other platforms are taking Steemit's non-evolvement as an example. Look at Dtube. Just look at them. OMFG.
Busy is the one major exeption from that rule. They do a great job, and have in many ways developed to be the better Steemit.
And of course, there are some very interesting new projects on the blockchain that have seperated theirselves from the idea of blogging. 
spammers, plagiarists, etc.
I'm not really sure if there was less abuse back when I joined or if I just didn't see it, but it sure feels like it. On the other hand, the low STEEM price could handle that problem.
vote buying
This is one thing that has gone rampant while I was watching. Back in November, the trendings were a little fishy, but still ok-ish. Today, you can completely forget them. A picture of you meal for 300$... Sure, why not?
I see this as the most dangerous problem for our blockchain, that is built on the idea of getting the best content the highest rewards. It has to be solved. There are many suggestions out there how to change both the rewards and the reputation system to get
- vote buying and selling less attractive
- manual curation more profitable
- challenging the problematic distribution of SP
Sadly, steemit inc seems to spend more time on postponing SMTs than with the actual problems of their product.
Don't get me wrong: I'm looking forward to SMTs and Hivemind. I just think they shouldn't be prioritary given the obvisous dysfunctionality of the blockchain in fulfilling its visions from the whitepaper.
Newbie help
Thanks to initiatives like 
Conclusion
Taken together, I have no idea which direction Steem will take. Could be either the deserved graveyard of internet scams, the heaven of social media, or something in between. I know which things and people to support, I will stay around even if I should I make next to nothing in monetary terms, and I will continue to spread my pragmatic and logic-based views. And to give you a free toxicology class, of course.
Cya guys around.
Ah, and of course:
