I’ve spent the past couple of weeks observing the platform and learning from it. A lot of the time I've stumbled across numerous complaints from several users. Hopefully you will learn something from this and the importance of keeping your calm and head on your shoulders around here. Without further ado:
Stop Complaining!
Inevitably this is the first on this list.
The 80/20 rule applies here. For the uninitiated, allow me to explain: “80% of the time no one cares about your problems and 20% of the time they wish that you had them in the first place!”
Ask yourselves , "Am I part of this statistic?" and “Do I need to breed negativity here?”—Isn’t there enough of this crap already on other social networks?
Here’s a different perspective
For every minute you've spent ranting about whales or lack of big votes on your posts you remain ignorant of the fact that despite being large stakeholders of the company they also working for your benefit!
Some of these large stakeholders are unrelated to the Steemit team and have invested their personal money which has taken years to accumulate.
Contrary to popular belief many vote after they check your content, read it and evaluate it before upvoting.
Some have even engaged curators to help find new legitimate steemers everyday! This will help many in the long run.
In the past some have openly said that you could get in touch if you are capable of delivering consistently good quality of posts.
They’ve made it possible for everyone to take benefit of this platform in different ways.
Prove the community and the Whales that you are a valuable asset because of your creative capabilities!
Misguided angst?
Whales are just like you and me and have to deal with spam and abusers of this platform. They are also better equipped to deal with some of these issues. But remember, they have the same 24 hrs as you and I do.
They are human beings just as anyone else here behind a computer screen. If you have forgotten to treat them as such, then who’s at fault here?
Unfounded envy?
Everyone wants to be a whale. PERIOD! That’s all that matters.
But please understand that your false sense of entitlement over somebody’s wealth/votes etc has no place anywhere. Please earn a couple of million dollars, purchase Steem and power up into a whale. No one will stop you from doing it!
Distribution of wealth is a fallacy resulting from false sense of entitlement
If you feel their wealth needs to be distributed equally or think Steemit is only about getting free magic internet money you are grossly mistaken! If you think have a right over someone's wealth or votes just because Krills and Minnows outnumber Whales then your logic is beyond flawed and ergo you better leave!
It may sound harsh but these flawed attempts at baiting whales have set off a site wide knee jerk reactions to get everyone's attention and win a bunch of misguided followers.
In reality you are actually demoralizing hundreds of new users coming daily to this platform. This has resulted in a growing number of people who feel dejected as they wrongly feel they stand ZERO chance of gaining sufficient visibility or earnings here!
That's not true!
No promises have been made that you will earn truck loads of money here. However, there is the possibility that on some days you could earn some money here. The sum would vary! This is the fact, so kindly deal with it!
Let’s be honest and introspect
If you became a millionaire tonight, how much of this new money are you willing to risk back into the platform? Will you also protect your investment while benefiting others? As is the case right now!
If you were to actually do this you would see that you cannot turn all your Minnow friends into Whales overnight! You will face the same challenges that the whales face today!
They use their wealth and voting powers across several accounts to vote for you because 40-50 votes a day from a single account isn’t enough to cover hundreds of great articles that are discovered everyday!
Instead of understanding the facts and minding your own business you even try to bribe them for votes!
Surely there have been issues about unworthy authors/scammers reaping great rewards. But in all honestly it doesn’t matter who they voted in the past. They are also learning from it. It isn’t your concern anymore because you need to focus on your work instead!
The community is learning to take care of its valuable members. Make an effort to be part of this instead of screaming injustice at every opportunity you get!
Things are changing for the better. You need to give it more time.
A lot of people are already working together to ensure new authors reap rewards more often. Join them in your own way!
Curious case of disappearing Dolphins
In the past few weeks I’ve observed a popular bunch who grew their accounts exponentially overnight. They seem to be simply content with withdrawing their balances and posting new content to repeat the cycle.
Please understand that this community works effectively when more Krills turn into Dolphins give back to the community through active curation, spam prevention, detection and helping other minnows succeed.
Unfortunately many don’t bother and those who stick around to help, are unable to do it alone!
Are we being ungrateful?
Whales have turned several Krills into rich Dolphins overnight expecting them in-turn to make other Krills into Big Fishes. But if these Dolphins don’t have the time to assist the community or the necessary frame of mind what can anyone do? There will be a chain reaction!
Are we here to make a quick buck and run away? This holds true for Krills and Minnows who give up easily.
We scream Ethics but apply it arbitrarily based on our whim and fancy.
Participate in giving back to the community!
Voting powers are there for a reason and it's FREE—Use it wisely but don't hoard it!
Don’t abuse ‘Introduce Yourself’
Frankly it’s already too late as this category is unlikely to reap the high rewards forever as it did earlier.
I recommend you to post here and verify yourself, get a warm welcome and then get down to business.
This section has been scammed so badly that moving forward whales are likely to ignore most of the posts here altogether as it's getting harder to verify.
Unpaid members of the community are spending hours from their lives to ensure scammers are caught with help from Whales in nuking these posts.
Keep your calm and show some humility when you don’t get the desired attention in terms of $$$ you rake from your first and sometimes your only post in days!
Scammers note that the community is collectively smarter than you!
No place for Bullies
No one likes bullies and the whales pack so much ‘firepower’ that if they to come after you, your days here are numbered!
But, the fact remains that they have also largely ignored the enraged engaged in 'whale hunting' and have simply moved on to let the blockchain’s freedom of speech and uncensored nature drive this platform forward.
So who’s the real bully here? I hope you guessed it correctly!
Reputation is everything!
Reputation, goodwill, trust and respect are hard to earn!
They are easily lost, and it’s gone forever!
But you will notice on this platform that forgiveness isn’t hard to come by from the same people you went berserk against a moment ago! Don't push it!
Don’t spam Steem.chat
This one is for complete newbies hoping to get big votes, bait whales, attract scores of followers and in the worst case troll people; Simply don’t bother going on Steem.chat.
But in case you do then play cool and keep your post promotions to select channels.
There is a dedicated ‘Post Promotions’ channel where you are free to post multiple times.
In other channels keep it relevant and post during non-busy hours if you are feeling desperate! —Admittedly it happens to all of us!
Remember some trends stick and it would be a nightmare when there are a million of us!
This isn’t a rat race, don’t turn it into one!
Don’t be in a mad rush to spam. Steemit isn’t going anywhere.
You and I both have the same incredible opportunity to grow together at Steemit!
Let’s try not to trample each other in the process.
This isn’t a Black Friday discount sale that comes once in a year and lasts a few hours! Steemit is here to stay!
This isn’t a war either!
Don’t pretend go on a war with someone here gathering a bunch of followers. It will only result in the destruction of this platform and your peace of mind trying to win comebacks. Please try not to burn this place to the ground! Our world has enough of it already!
I find myself repeating this often:
‘When two elephants fight, it’s grass that suffers!’
I leave it you to comprehend the depth of its meaning in regard to Steemit!
Who’s our real enemy?
Scammers and trolls who are blatantly abusing the system. But the world is filled with such people. Why shouldnt the blockchain and internet be any different?
True! But you can make a difference here. There is strength in our unity. We can fight them together and stop them in their tracks! We will kick them out of this community as they come.
Hating bots and it's creators is not a fad!
There are many bots that spam the system in order to make easy money for their developers.
There are also bots and creators of these bots that oppose spammers and protect the site against plagiarism, identity theft and other issues.
They deserve a fair chance even if they rub you off accidentally.
They may make some mistakes but give them the opportunity to learn and improve their algorithms. Exercise some restraint and engage only in constructive criticism. Better yet help them out!
You don’t have to sugar coat anything, call spade a spade but don’t get personal or abusive in your methods!
Give them a reason to continue doing their work unless you can better them.
Can chaos breed positivity?
Chaos results in constant change. We need to accept this constant change.
We need things to change for the platform to thrive. Ergo keep pushing the Steemit development team to improve the site and they will do it! It won’t happen in a day but as the days go by many positive outcomes will change the way things work now. The power to enforce positive changes are with all of us.
The large stakeholders who are not part of Steem Team are actively ensuring the community's voices are heard!
Steemit is complex and difficult to understand
It has taken me a while to understand Steemit and I’m still learning. If you don’t understand how everything works here, please use the search functionality or ask someone here. Everyone is eager to help you. That has been my experience here.
People here can go to great lengths to help you, give you an unexpected gift, watch out for you if you behaved nicely and showed gratitude where it was due.
But don’t misuse their trust and I can’t stress enough, ‘don’t scam people!’ Unless you want to turn this amazing place into an overly suspecting hostile environment!
If someone helps you feel free to thank them with an upvote on their post or comment! It will do everyone some good! But don’t expect an upvote just because you offered your help either.
Don’t quit your day job
Being self employed isn’t easy. If you are on Steemit hoping for a big hit day after day so you can quit your job and move to Bahamas then you are mistaken.
Keep your expectations realistic!
When I came here I wanted to make an extra $100 in a month so it could help me add to my savings but I made a lot more! This was extra money that I wasn’t expecting to earn in this month! Not a bad figure at all in my opinion!
Steemit now pays you in 12 hours and the rest of the payout trickles after 30 days. It’s not a terrible deal now is it?
Steemit could be a great source of passive income one day if you learn to use it wisely. But don’t ignore your daily responsibilities along the way. Learn to breathe easy and relax a little.
Wordpress blogging isn’t dead
Invest in learning and creating multiple sources of online income.
Traditional methods of blogging and monetizing content haven’t disappeared. They are certainly not dead and won't be for a long time to come!
If you feel your work on Steemit is a hit and miss then learn to build a website that can generate you passive income.
Don't put all your eggs in the Steemit basket. Diversify your risks and source of earnings.
What about language barriers?
English isn’t my first language. I've learnt 5 languages including English and understand almost twice the number at different levels! However, I’ll admit that I’ve been learning English for the past 24 years.
Over these years I’ve made it a point to constantly improve the way I read, write and speak English. If you want to improve your articles and make money then you need to put in the effort!
But why should I learn English?
Steemit is essentially an American company and the vast majority of users on this platform are comfortable with English.
However, there is no restriction on blogging in any other language and fortunately Steemers are not like this:
Adaptability is key on Steemit
If you want to earn money today then it would help you to write in a language that is understood by most!
It will take a lot of time for people from different countries to have substantial Steem Power to vote non-English posts to an amount you deem reasonable—which is different for everyone.
Many times I’ve translated articles to read them because I felt it would be interesting and upvoted them afterwards and shared on Slack.
Write in English and/or use a translator to read until there are enough number of people speaking your tongue.
Either wait for it to happen or simply adapt to the current environment and see how you can work with it!
Does race play a vital role here?
Some of you maybe worried if people from emerging countries stand a fair chance here. Personally I don't care about anybody's racial or religious bias and neither should you. Steemit is a bit different, and it will continue to be different! While I cannot guarantee that everyone will keep their prejudices and bias away from here. We can all try!
Going forward fewer people will really care where you are from and what faith you belong to if you are witnessed providing substantial value to the Steemit community. The rest who raise and create issues will learn first hand that the community does not reward this behavior and those problems will die down as they arise. Let's not make a FB out of Steemit.
Because talk is cheap it is also upto you to prove that you are worthy of this community’s respect through your actions.
Nothing else matters!
Disconnect and Rest
Get a minimum of 6-8 hrs of sleep everyday if you plan to be effective in your daily lives. Switch off from everything and engage in your social life regularly . Otherwise, you will burn out due to various reasons including but not limited to frustration, disappointment, exhaustion and even depression.
Just log off after posting and curating for a while! You don’t need to be here 24/7 watching $$$ trickle into your wallet. It will happen eventually if you put in a little effort everyday!
Make Steemit your passion
In my personal life I’m passionate about motorcycling and automobiles in general. The lessons I’ve learnt along the way has led me to some success in my professional life as well. Over the past 15 years I’ve faced several setbacks but I haven’t given up. I've maintained the same attitude here.
If you have a passion that you’ve followed for years then you are aware of facing ups and downs head-on and you know that giving up results in nothing.
Stick around for the long haul!
Perseverance is the key to winning. Victories on Steemit are not capped to a high-payout single introduction post.
Keep an ear to the ground and accept this platform for what it is not what you perceive it to be!
You will then quickly learn how to create and curate content that adds value to the platform. You will also add value to your life as a direct result of your ‘useful participation.’ Everything else is ultimately irrelevant and wasteful of your precious time.
What is the way forward?
Use your time wisely on Steemit. Don't treat it as another social network where you end up few times in the day to waste your time! Steemit actually pays you to be useful and a value creator—ergo make the most of it everyday to be a valuable addition to the community at large!
Please don't give up quickly and decide to leave!
Limitless platform for creative expression
Use Steemit as a platform for creative expression.
You are free to explore your thoughts and ideas here. You can do anything you want.
Engage with the community, brush up your old skills or learn entirely new ones.
Set the latest trends for people to follow.
The possibilities are endless. It’s entirely upto you!
Happiness is everything
Many people find the internet as a place to get away from their lives or find like minded people. Collaborate with others to find solutions to your problems. You can spread happiness and joy to several members of your own communities wherever you may be if you learn to use this platform effectively!
Your potential on Steemit is unlimited! The possibilities for networking here are incredible.
Don’t forget that and also the fact that we're still in Beta!
Spread the word
Remember to bring more people onboard everyday.
Let them invest their time, knowledge and/or money into this platform and reap the rewards.
Don’t keep Steemit to yourselves. Share it with the world and help the platform grow!
Do it now!
This is one of the most dynamic internet platforms today. The trends here change everyday. Go with the flow and you may find it to be your new internet home; one that excites and rewards everyday, and probably for a long time to come!
This is the beginning of awesome! Do what I do and Steem on!
Thanks to 
#steemit
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