Let's Celebrate! My Two Years in Steem

Hello steemians!

I was actually drafting a post for my 2nd year anniversary here on Steem. I made a promise to myself that I should post this on Sunday because I thought September 29 is my anniversary. To my surprise, Hive account@steemitboard commented on my lastest post with this:

I ended up being surprised by my own anniversary! What a fool! I panicked and immediately try to continue with my draft. Anyway, let's celebrate! Celebrate with me, not because of my anniversary, but because we have gone far as a community. Celebrate with me because finally, it seems that the good intentions of the platform has triumphed, for now.

I wasn't able to post my first anniversary last year because there's a lot going on back then. I made a draft somewhere, but didn't have the drive to post it. That time, I felt that I didn't have the right to question or whine or point a finger to anyone because I have been part of the problem. I felt that I haven't contributed anything that would make Steem better for everyone.

_{Don't mind that. It's just me enjoying while being cooked alive at Calawag Mountain Resort in Tibiao, Antique. Stay tuned for that travel post.}

Do I have to introduce myself again? Maybe I have to especially with #newsteem that's going on. Okay. I'm Kim T. Ybanez and I'm from the Philippines. I joined Steem exactly 2 years ago today when I was introduced to Steemit (which was synonymous to Steem at that time, I guess) by Hive account@legendarryll.

The way it was introduced was that there's this blogging platform where you can potentially earn by posting 'anything'. I was immediately hooked by the idea itself. I didn't mind the mechanism on how you will earn because I believed I should learn on how it works after I have proven that it's actually true. I signed up immediately, but I didn't post until second week of October.

History/Back in Memory Lane

It was very different back then. I finally had something to be proud of. Ever since college, I always dreamed of having my own blog site, but the set up is really costly for me. I can't even afford some of the basic necessities, how much more owning and maintaining a blog site. I didn't mind about quality or the lack thereof. I just want to post something. But then I wondered why my posts have not gained any considerable upvotes. That's when I heard about Hive account@curie and its curation initiative. At first I struggle with maintaining a level of quality that's worthy of a curie upvote. Eventually I got it and made a promise to myself that I should strive to maintain the quality of my posts.

_{Cebu's Street Art and Where to Find Them. This is my post with the highest upvote value. I'm planning to have a photowalk around the city to have another post like this.}

Then came the peak of the price of Steem. I guess it was December 6 or 7, 2017 when the price of SBD jumped and severed its $1 peg. Steem followed not long after together with almost all of the altcoins. Early 2018 was the height of anyone's Steem experience. I was earning more than double my salary for a month in one post due to my curied posts. Also, meet ups were common. Almost every weekends, there were meet ups organized by the 'seniors' here in Cebu. And they appointed themselves as de facto leaders of the local community. They were looked up by the members.

_{Steem Summit Organizers' Perspective. The only event that I had a direct influence. One of the proudest moments of my life.}

Then I got involved, together with Hive account@thegaillery and Hive account@legendarryll, in organizing Steem Summit here in Cebu. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. It was a very successful event where a lot of Steemians here in Cebu got to share their talents for the first time. It was the peak of all meet ups. Even Hive account@surpassinggoogle made a last minute appearance which shocked all of us.

But then came the slow and agonizing decline of both Steem and SBD. It was not immediate. Together with the decline of value is the decline of active steemians in Cebu. One by one, they have left until it became very quiet. Those who were deemed to be leaders were abusing their power and started to game the system.

But I stayed. Or did I? I also had my fair share of inactivity here. There were months when I didn't post anything or post only on appics. I felt that it would be useless to post something out of effort if no one will appreciate it. But I persevered. I didn't leave completely. I was just lurking in the shadows. I was still aware of all the happenings and of all the drama. I just chose to stay quiet.

_{My Curie Story: One of the Reasons Why I Decided to Stay. I have been upvoted and featured by Hive account@curie and I'm grateful for that. It made me believe that there's still good in the platform amidst all the bidbots and circle jerking.}

I didn't want to involve myself with the politics because I really find it unnecessary. I just want to share my travels, reviews, and everything that comes to my mind that I deemed worthy to be shared.

Fast-forward to Where We Are

To be honest, I didn't believe anything could drastically change in people's behavior when HF21 was rolled out. Although I still believe in Steem's capacity to be disruptive, I think back then that it would need a complete overhaul of everything that's been set. I was not completely convinced that HF21 (and HF22 in this case) would bring back manual curation.

What I thought would be the infinite downvote wars which would eventually lead to Steem's demise. But it didn't happen. It turned out to be what the optimistic people have envisioned. This I find to be both bizarre and interesting. It renewed my belief in Steem again.

Today, I felt that the meritocratic way of distributing rewards that Hive account@curie has been doing ever since is slowly coming into reality. I never thought of this to happen so soon. I felt that my posts are now of equal footing to anyone with whale supporters. I felt compelled to continue what I have been doing and continue to be better. I felt that there should be no room for mediocrity in my posts.

This is a great time for me, regardless of Steem's value. I felt that I should continue posting because I know I can get support in my posts. Upvotes and encouraging comments goes a long way in boosting anyone's morale. We have to admit that photo editing, writing, editing, and uploading your posts takes a lot of effort. Much more if you're not satisfied with what's good. If you want your posts to be great, one week would not be enough to get everything done. Factor in the procrastination, discouragement, and other activities, posting something great seemed to take a lot of time.

Today, I felt that those who posts quality contents, regardless of whose metric we are using to define quality, will really thrive. I haven't used my downvote yet, but I won't hesitate to use it when needed. For now, I haven't used it yet because it has no value. Also, I feel that those who gamed the system are already gone. I know someone from Cebu who tend to recycle posts and post garbage just to earn upvotes. Good thing he's gone now.

Cheers to where we are now! To more travels, reviews, and musings! I decided to stay regardless of Steem's value. To more years ahead of us!

Hoping for the best!

Kim