Been almost 3 weeks since I joined. A group of us joined at the same time and we still do a lot of reading and giving links to each other. Those are the good times. I was excited about the aspects of discussion without censorship and getting paid for it. I was expecting something like reddit but without the moderation. Turned out it's not like that at all. Very few threads have any actual discussion which is kind of a letdown. News and stuff I am looking to read and discuss seems to get buried quickly. It's more of a tell us about yourself and what you like kind of site. It's more about having talents in writing, photography, video and being popular. Those are the kind of threads that make the money. Well I'm good at none of those things so that's a big letdown. I like to read, comment, and help people by answering questions. That doesn't seem to be what this site is about though. Threads with good topics and questions get quickly buried with very few replies or votes. Another letdown. Next are the bots. These are the bad times. Just when you think you made a decent post you realize that most of the votes and replies come from bots or even worse you post gets flagged and buried by one. Granted they are trying to do something about it now but I don't think it will do much good.
So what is exciting about the site? Well posting is (or was). Having you or one of your friends make a post then watching it get replies and votes. Really exciting. I don't know how many times I refreshed the https://steemd.com/ page or a particular thread looking for the latest votes and replies. Thankfully 
Posts made: 23 (not counting this one)
Replies to my posts: 120
Upvotes for my posts: 314
Comments made: 195
Author rewards: 1.374SBD and .454 SP
Votes for others: Doesn't seem to be available
Curation rewards: .023 SP
Interest made: 1.009 SP
Grand total 1.374SBD and 1.486 SP
Not going to get anywhere with figures like that. For someone like me you have to buy steem power if you want to get off the ground and make any difference and I just can't afford to do that. That's the biggest letdown of this whole thing. You either hit the popular jackpot or buy your way there. Even mining seems to be a buy your way in game. You need multiple accounts to mine with multiple computers and apparently the extra accounts cost steem to get. Looks like I will be stuck with no power and that is not only a letdown but down right depressing.