I was going to write this post on Sunday and things got a bit busy for me. Then again yesterday. Sunday evening
Seems I was assuming
Snook edited the recording to get some cool outtakes of the fun:
Thank you to everyone who took part. It was unexpected and great fun.
So, now, I’ll write what I had planned.
It was two years ago on August 5th when I fell into a rabbit hole some where on the web and landed on the Steemit website. I remember looking around rather sceptically at the posts and the amounts displayed on them. I had heard of bitcoin, hadn’t heard of other cryptocurrencies at the time. I was about to enter a whole new world.
The timing was interesting for me. I’d recently decided that I was going to spend more time writing and working toward developing myself as a writer. It was something I had wanted to do for a long time. Now, here was this new site that I could write what I wanted on it and earn. I wasn’t actually sure the ‘money’ was real but what the hell, I could write and see if people liked what I wrote.
The Early Posts
I wrote an introduction post. That was likely the worst idea I ever had, even though it is the usual way to come onto the platform. I don’t usually want to talk about myself. So, writing an introduction post is really tough to do. Says the woman who is currently writing about herself two years later.
The post earned about 50 cents. In what was then a sea of $5 and up posts, that was not a very strong start. Next I wrote a post about a local man who was a WW1 recipient of the three highest military decorations. I put the post up and for the first few hours there was nothing. Then I rewrote the first paragraph. I led off with the fact that I had known this man.
Within minutes of hitting post again, the votes started coming in. Among them was a very healthy vote from . In those days the voting weight was different and the payout period was 24 hours with a secondary period after 30 days. The bulk of earnings took place in those 24 hours. That post earned $112.
The Early Rise and Fall of Steem
By then I’d learned more about cryptocurrency. I was willing to continue producing content and treat the platform like an investment. Small income then for larger returns later on. It was a great place for me to work toward developing as a writer.
The Birth of the Steemit Ramble Curation Project
In order to be a writer that readers engage with I needed to bring some of myself to the table. That was really moving out of my comfort zone. I found that by being willing to put some of my own ideas and opinions into the commentary I did for the posts, I was gradually nudging myself out into the open.
Finding Community
Steemit was being promoted as a social media. It tended to lack the social outlets. You could chat in comments on posts but there wasn’t a way to shoot he breeze with people to get to know them either publicly or privately.
I found steemit.chat where there were some rooms where chat took place. A lot of rooms were more about post promotion, which was okay but didn’t really provide any connection to each other. Not really sure how, but I eventually found a server on Teamspeak where had a voice chat for Steemians. Now, there I started to get to know members of the community.
I really can’t remember when someone suggested we try Discord. along with
and
were doing a podcast on Discord called the Steem Talk Podcast. Was invited into their audience and not long after someone opened the Steemspeak discord. Teamspeak was quickly abandoned.
The ability to have multiple channels, both voice and text, opened up so much potential for building communities. For a long time I was only in Steemspeak. Then I started finding other discord servers springing up and started visiting them.
Steemit Ramble Discord
In early October I decided to try something different. I’d invite people to join me in a voice chat where they could put their posts links into the text chat and tell us about their post on voice. Pimp your Post Thursday was born.
By then I’d met
From discussions about Witnesses on PYPT sprang the now monthly Witness Chats to which any witness and community members are invited to attend to get to know who the witnesses are and to talk about the state of the platform. The next chat is August 18th at 11am EDT in the Ramble.
PYPT is popular. Many people look forward to Thursdays and attending the shows. Since then
My Thoughts on the Platform
Had anyone told me two years ago I’d be meeting people from all over the world, be doing content curation, be dabbling in crypto, running radio shows or writing fiction people actually found worth reading — I’d have told them they were having a pipe dream. Yet, here I am, two years later, doing all those things and having a ball.
There is more I want to and will do as both this platform and I develop. It will develop.
Many will laugh at that statement. I believe as I watch these various parts of the ecosystem develop and then compare that to where things were two years ago — the time is coming. We’re at the early stages of development. It isn’t Steemit Inc that is going to drive the full development of the ecosystem, it is and will be people like us.
The People You Meet
I’m going to name a few, and will apologize in advance for those I will inevitably miss.
There is my sister
There is my weekly ‘meetup’ with
Wednesdays when all is well I hear
Friday there is
Saturday and Sunday there is
Finally, I’m not going to close this out without a shoutout to
Thanks for being you everyone because it is all about community.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://idesofmay.com/2018/08/07/ulog-4-two-years-on-steem-we-had-a-party-on-discord/