I can see clearly now....the problem lies within all of us! we are a bunch of whingers!

I was chatting with around 10 women I met in a Facebook group who are all eager and excited to jump into blogging.

As the group discussed blogging options like WordPress and Blogger, I chimed in and asked if anyone had ever heard of option of blogging for small amounts of steem cypto and also mentioned the fact if you weren't a writer but enjoyed reading blogs and sharing your thoughts, you could also be rewarded in curation rewards too.

None had heard such a thing even existed and they expressed their interest in finding more.

Marketing.... not really as complex as it is being made out to be! Speak to the people. Some will listen some won't. Some will act, some don't.

Anyone who has tried to explain steem, steemit and now the new communities to anyone else know that it is not a quick and easy explanation. It isn't straight forwarded and can be quite complicated to explain.

Even though I have been using the platform for around a year, I had still been trying to work my head around everything here, regularly spending my Saturdays tuning into Steemwaves with Crimsonclad in a bid to try to gain more understanding to the workings of our community and gain knowledge on the ecosystem and how to grow my own account. (after all, that's what we are all here for right?)

I took down the ladies names in the facebook chat and told them all I would compile and forward more information full of videos, article links, and resources to look at in a group PM in the next few days.

That same afternoon, as a began to source and collect resources, five more women in the group asked to be added to the list. I had only mentioned the platform in a group chat and had potentially onboarded 15 people all eager to find out more and join.

Some won't even bother looking at the sites after I respond. Some will join and never use the account again. Some will begin creating authentic amazing content and liven my feed. Some will join and curate users posts. But wait for it, this will blow your socks off......some will invest their fiat into the platform after this being their first taste of the crypto world.

I like to call it the Steem effect! Steem is like the gateway drug....and it leads to everything crypto and many other users agree that it all started here for them too.

Steem prices are so low isn't this the greatest time to onboard new members?

Low prices give people the opportunity for tremendous growth in their new accounts in the future. In time this could be life-changing for many users.

Sadly, instead of promoting the wonderful opportunity available to us we continue to drag our beloved platforms name through the mud.

As I began collecting resources I have found there are more articles written by our community about the platform in a negative light than information on the platform itself or posts containing information about the tools available or instructional how to's.

Not such great reads for a potential new investor looking at the different projects is it?

But it's Stinc's fault everything is shit here! I'll write a post all about it.

We sit around with other members of the community complaining about the failures of our leaders and their marketing and onboarding when we could have been effortlessly marketing this community they love and fight for so much themselves.

Imagine if we all spent half of that time we spend complaining about what's failing us and spent that time just dropping a mention of what you do and love doing here on the other social media platforms used.

Could that assist with onboarding more new users of people from your own circles grow your account greater? I think so!

It's not difficult talking about the things we love right? This is effortless marketing for the platform we love and want to grow to enrich our investments and if you're not loving what you are doing here, why the fuck are you wasting your time doing it...move on!

I've read countless comments and listened to countless arguments in Discord and on the platform how Stinc has let us all down and is robbing us all, creating a rich get richer and the little man stays little scheme, which just might be the case and that doesn't deter us all from hanging around!

There have been many communities and frontends and the like that have been added to the chain to give us more power and more opportunities for rewards. Stop the bitching and moaning and do some of your own homework and make your own steemiverse great for you!

Imagine if we all spent half of that time we spend complaining about what's failing us and spent that time just dropping a mention of what you do and love doing here on the other social media platforms used.

Could that assist with onboarding more new users of people from your own circles grow your account greater? I think so!

I then caught in a flagging war and those flags got me all butthurt and made me change the way I look at things.

Yep, it's true. when I saw those notifications begin popping across my account my little heart broke. I had written a light-hearted, funny steem Illuminati post.

When I had pushed publish on the post a wave of fear suddenly crept over me. What if the people tagged in my fictional piece didn't find it funny or taken my post in the wrong way and been offended. It wasn't and it was actually received well.

Some bigger guys even commented on it and reshared it but because of that, my account began to get flagged in different places and some of my comments were even being too. My pretty little blog began to look spammy and trashy and I worried other users wouldn't want to engage with me because of fears their own account would be flagged too.

Unable to shake my frustration in the situation I fell into the rabbit hole of account digging and after reading hours of different posts and comments I decided to reach out to the person who was flagging my account.

Their response was simple... it was nothing personal sometimes people just get flagged who are caught in the middle and not to take it personally.

How the fuck was I going to continue to promote the platform when shit like that goes on?

"So ladies, at times you may be flagged and that may have an impact on your potential rewards. Not because you broke any rules or did anything wrong. But because of you just interacting with a person involved in a flag war".

Not exactly an upselling point, right!?!

I was too scared to dare post or comment in fear of more flagging and only did little things here and there to test the waters. A few flags continued. I didn't want them splattered all over my account before my new friends arrived. I began to feel discouraged.

Then finally the penny dropped!

Why the hell are you so butthurt, Monique? Why have these little downvote notifications got you so down? What's the big deal anyway?

Of course in a perfect steemiverse everyone would like and upvote your content and only leave beautiful comments all over your posts. But in reality sometimes people won't like your writing or people may not find it appropriate for that community you have decided to use as a tag, so of course, this will not be the first or last time I will be downvoted.

Not everyone is going to LOVE my content or my thoughts expressed through comments on other peoples work. This is a reality.

Sure, in this instancethe downvoting was uncalled for but I give thanks for the experience because I now see downvoting in a completely different light.

If you can't beat em...join em!

Does this mean I am going to go on a huge downvote flagging spree and play tit for tatt?? Of course not!

From what I have observed fighting fire with fire and flag wars hasn't elevated anything and just because someone has downvoted my post doesn't mean the posts of their weed crop need be downvoted by me in retaliation. Although it's not really the content I am into, i is still a post that has value for others in the community and like I say to my kids...two wrongs don't make a right.

But I will be using my downvote button more freely without fear of repercussion because I know I am using it responsibly only when I think it is needed. Because I have learned first hand the effect a downvote has.

One thing I have learned from being downvoted was it made me stop and made me take time to reflect. and think about my activity and if what I did was right or wrong and how I could improve and have better results.

What a wonderful tool we have right in front of us if we take the taboo out of the usage of it and use it properly.

I believe downvotes should only be done on a post by post case and done manually and not by bots or and flag lists. We don't need people policing our feeds for us when we all have the ability to do so ourselves.

Although I respect some of the users and people behind the creations of these downvote bots, I don't believe they are the answer to any of our problems. Nor do I think keeping people on a shit list forever is fair.

But I do believe downvotes if used properly, could really make a change in things around here, but only if we are all not afraid to use them and use them fairly.

But we will never get ahead because of the circle jerkers!

Maybe, but just like in my real life what other people do with their accounts means nothing to me!

Aren't we all forming our own little clicks in the community also? Or is it only defined as circle jerking when there is a higher stake involved?

Some people may say this is naive and of course the actions of others will ultimately have an effect on our accounts and potential rewards. This is true. But if you found your little click you are in now with the ability to prosper together on a higher level with greater rewards would you stop supporting each other? I think not!

The thing about this magical ecosystem we receive rewards but the until payment those rewards are not guaranteed and can go up or down for many reasons.

Often we look at the post pending rewards and then judge if it's worth the payment value and if we deem it a fair amount for effort or whatnot instead of looking at the post for what it is.

If you were unable to see the pending payout of posts on front ends and only be able to see upvotes, downvotes, and percentage of the votes would it make you interact with posts differently on the platform? I think so!

The larger the stakeholder the less they care about the community.

Be it those huge accounts with huge stakes or smaller accounts like mine...the little people who live month to month slowly adding and more stake by posting and curating and when they have a little extra money left over to have a play with adding what fiat they can afford. We all fucking care!

That is money that seems so little to many of the larger accounts round here may be very valuable to it holder.

As I find myself now struggling this month to make ends meet from a cluster of events my measly $150 account value would make a change to my circumstances right now as I wonder if we can make it until next week when I get paid.

My little shit account stake, that money I hold in steem that I powered up means has just as much value to me as a giant whales account means to them and we both have a common goal in sight. We want steem to be successful so we can both level up in life.

Stop throwing stones from your fucking glass houses!

As we stumble through our steemiverse we are going to be given choices to make as a user. Whether to follow auto voting trails, use bid bots, selling votes, and delegations to name a few and no real guidelines as new users of what is and is not allowed it sometimes feels like you walking here surrounded by landmines which could blow up your account at any time. It stops you from interacting with the platform naturally out of fear of saying or doing something wrong.

It all gets even more confusing when the "steem police" like Transisto open accounts and create shit posts titled "blacklists" in the name of strengthening the community and highlighting organic posts.

Sadly in Transisto's instance, his bot he created made an error and named and shamed many users that were not even selling votes and after a little digging many users found he had himself been delegating to a bid bot service. Pot kettle black!

But that's not my story to tell, even though I was named and had never sold a vote before, I will not play police to how @transisto spends his time on the chain.

If writing shitposts about people using services that have not been deemed breaching any steemiverse rules is giving him the rewards he is looking for, good for him. Keep on doing you and what works for you! I don't find it adds any value and so I am not going to reward it posts like these.

Do we really want the chain flooded with shitposts complaining about people who shitpost? Does it add value? I don't.....so I downvoted the post. Not because I was named in the posts but because I didn't think the post offered anything valuable to the chain. Simple as that! You may think otherwise. You can also vote accordingly.

Wouldn't a post naming and sharing and rewarding the fantastic content to lead us to some of the great content we could have missed be more beneficial to us? I do, that is why I regularly choose to upvote posts from @OCD who share great content with the community.

I don't want to have my feed policed by anyone. I want to hear what everyone has to say and if I don't like it and it affects me so much I have another wonderful tool right at my fingertips.....the mute button.

But those bastards with their huge stakes raping the reward pool!

I'm not going to begrudge a big whale a self vote because their self vote is larger than mine or them using bid bots to blow their earnings out of the water. I don't know your circumstances and reasonings behind each action you make on the blockchain and I am not going to waste my time trying to work it out.

Instead, I choose to congratulate users for their efforts and endeavors to succeed and hope, and wish them all the best on their journey. I hope to learn and take away knowledge from their actions in the ecosystem to help me pave my own path to success.

In reality, there is no right or wrong way to do it. You have an abundance of ways to potentially grow your account and rewards. People will always hold their opinions and yes sometimes that follows with consequences. Some people will like to join you in how you are growing your account and some people will frown upon your decisions of how you are doing it. You will never please everyone and yes, the system is flawed. Everyone has their own idea of what the steemiverse would look like in a perfect world.

The way I see it is we are all handed choices and opportunities in life that opens new doors for us, whether you take them is your own decision. You do you and make sure it's the best decision for you with the cards laid out on the table before you.

If you made your stake in the early days from taking the time to get into mining, or make your stake through daily creation or curating on the platform, your investing your hard earnt cash...or even the users spending the time each day to post and curate from several sock puppet accounts each day, good for you! I appreciate you all!

Keep on growing those accounts and doing what you do and tell all your friends all about it too! I thank you all for keeping the chain alive. Because this chain gives me the opportunity to pick up rewards for doing things I was already doing online. Things I enjoy doing and for this I am grateful.

How lucky are we really when you think about it! I know my parents never had the opportunity to pick up some spare change (that potentially could become something life-changing in the future) easily from the palm of their hands.

So that's it kids.

I have finished my whinge about all the whingers and wish you all an abundance of success as we stumble through the steemiverse together, no matter how you do it. I thank you all for keeping the chain alive and letting me be rewarded for sitting in my underpants learning new things, making new connections and forming relationships.

I cannot wait to tell my new friends all about this place and amazing opportunity they can have too!

Want to check out some of my usual posts and adventures?

https://steemit.com/@mumma-monza

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