What is the value of Steem to the Internet? While a I think many of us were drawn to the financial prospects of earning cryptocurrency, that is just a payment method. What is value-add we get from Steem that makes the crypto worth it?
Having had some good interactions this week. I have a few micro-minnow thoughts on the idea. :)
Make Unlikely New Friends
How did I find Steem? How did you find Steem?
For me it was following 
Being a libertarian, it was an easy hop-skip-jump into looking around at various anarchists here. So I'm also learning a bit more in that direction. So people on that list I like are 
Finally, other communities I'm familiar with are Prepping, Homesteading and Gardening. I'm sure eventually, I'll find new folks here that weren't part of YouTube or are part of the YT Exodus.
I'd like to pose the great Sesame Street question "Who are the people in your neighborhood?" I'd like to get to at least look at the feeds of folks who follow me are interested in most.
Encourage Discussion
One thing I've found in several online communities is the encouragement of discussion. There seems to often be two polar types that are of little value. "You're a god," and "You suck" comments. Everything else is often a good starting point to refine the original ideas of a post. To that end, Steemit allows us to value by way of upvote, those replies and their replies, too.
The idea is to really engage not just upvote replies you like but upvote the challenging replies and interact with them at least a bit. It seems that many times authors who take time to interact with their audience often develop bigger and more loyal audiences. The guide I just found, linked below has very similar advice.
What are the most challenging or interesting ideas that have come from comments to your root posts? What ideas did you reply to other posts that received comments and upvotes from authors?
Minimize Trolls & Spam
It seems as one gets to near dolphin status in Steemit, people start to flag the generic bot or bot-like "Great post. Upvote my posts too." However, as minnow or micro-minnow that seems to be overly costly and either humanly ignoring or clicking Mute seems to be a more cost effective way.
I know there are sometimes occasional steam power battles. However, it seems that quick-buck artists are unlikely to be willing to invest that much to keep going. From 
What other tools have you found for minimizing troll/spam activity? Also, at what scale/size user are the tools best for?
Encourage Community Building
If one has developed an interactive following on their posts, it seems like the next most logical step to follow and interact with those who've done the same, but only in a genuine or authentic way. Not "Follow for Follow" silliness that some people try to encourage.
The one extension here is that encouraging friendly discourse, even if it isn't in agreement, is probably worth the upvote.
How far out of alignment to your idea have you still given an upvote for?
Acknowledge the Value of Others
So the other part of Steem that is of value is even if you don't have much Steem Power, upvote the posts you like and don't "hoard" your upvotes. Find people who post enough that you value to keep your upvote value well under 100% most of the time.
Who are the most valuable and new finds in Steemit for you? Even if they aren't a regular blogger but just good consistent commenters?