All In a days work.

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Once upon a time,
I know this is not the best way to start a story but this is really not a story so I will take the liberty of starting it in the way I see fit. There is a good reason and I will claim artistic liberty but would like to make a point further into My "story".

My story on Steemit started after a roller coaster ride learning and investing in cyrpto currencies and deciding once and for all I was done with giving my work away on Facelift dot com. Since they were not paying me for years of providing content does that mean it wasn't work? This would also mean since I wasn't getting paid that I can make shit posts all day long and be a troll if that's what my heart desired?

I have posted this photo in hopes to portray my feelings of my first experience on Steemit, I felt like I was in another country. I am not the most high tech person but I am interested and do the best I can, I even push myself to do more than I am able to and the ability to do this on the Steemit platform is possible, filled with endless opportunities to learn something new.

I was living in Russia when I started out on Steemit and invested my life savings into the platform when the price was pretty high compared to now and I still believe in the platform and devote a large amount of my time to learning and working to the best of my ability.

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Each day is a new day and regardless of what the past day on Steemit was like I try and look at the things I can do to move forward helping the platform, the people around me, and myself. If I don't help myself how can I help the platform or anyone else? I don't have any intentions of selling my shares even If it was profitable, at some point it would be nice to actually make $1 but until the day comes where I can do this and still be beneficial to others and the platform as a whole I will continue what it is I do here no matter what. No matter if someone thinks by doing what others are doing here on Steemit that I should be reprimanded I am open to a discussion on how we can all work together better, I am not ok with self appointed Steemit Police.

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Steemit is like the Wild West in my opinion and I like it this way. I have been rewarded and have had rewards taken away or lost due to bad decisions and inexperience. While I was losing and making bad choices I never had someone jump in and try and fix the situation or help me in anyway, and I am ok with that. I spent 5,000 hours researching and learning by trial and error and have gotten a pretty good grasp at this point and am taken back when I'm reprimanded for doing "my thing" now that I have managed to learn a few things. As if I am somehow hurting the system.

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Bot votes have been a major issue from just about the time I started here, I investigated to find what voting was like before bots and I realized things had changed for the worse. This was after I had invested my life savings into SP. I really wanted to start a blog and get a great following of all the cool people I was meeting and I still do, this is the author side of me but the investor side of me is pushing the author to make things happen more quickly. 2:1 split would put me in a position where I would feel more comfortable as an investor and be more patient with the author to let him create.

I have watched whale wars and downvote bots make things even more difficult here than I'd ever imagined all the while having a very difficult time even getting a single vote. I researched and have come up with what I call tactics, a way to move forward to help the platform, those around me and myself. I tell everyone I know about this platform and have encouraged others to come aboard, I have created post promotions on my discord, and have used bots as a means to not fall behind. Not until recently had I even powered an SP down and used any of my initial investment on bots, I had a few hundred in steem I paid for originally that I didn't power up but used to experiment with using bots, trading to SBD in the wallet and other things that peaked my interest.
I could have been using steem the whole time I've been here and abused the bots getting 3,000-4,000 weekly votes but I held back. I was aware that a good portion of people are totally anti bots and I get it, I really do. I have heard talk about solutions that never amounted to much, people seem pretty comfortable with the bots not going away, and if they aren't... they feel pretty comfortable complaining about them.

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I have been told the time I spend on a post is irrelevant, I can't understand this to a point. The value I see in my work is constant, I either like it or I don't in some varying degree. I don't disagree with myself. Some people will enjoy my work and not question the effort I put into it, whether it being too much or too little. Others will not like it regardless of the time I spent. They may even question the use of bots. As an author/investor, making no claim of being particularly good at either one I try my best. The author in me is not bidding on the bots, The investor is.
If I was simply an investor and not an author at all I would not care about votes, I would just see that my shares are a third of what I paid for them, and ask myself, what do I want to do? Buy, Sell, or Hold. Nobody would ever question this and I am allowed and able to trade in the free market in the wallet without ever being questioned at all even though I am having an effect on the market in the same way I would be using votes, selling votes, voting for myself. I don't feel it makes a difference how I choose to use them, My stake in Steemit allows me the use of my votes, I paid for these with my own hard earned money and invested. I could choose to not use them at all. My choice. There have been some high profile whale wars regarding abuse of the system and I have tried to stay out of it the best I can and keep working on what I have control over, it's better for me because there is enough to deal with in this regard.

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I solemnly vow to be a consciousness Steemian and respect the Community through support, kindness, helpfulness, fairness, honesty, and striving to be better everyday. I vow to do research and avoid making mistakes that effect others in a negative way and not abuse the system in a selfish way. I will always try and put in as much as I take out.

I am open to discussion as I know it's impossible to please everyone, I am just speaking my own mind about my own experience here on Steemit. Join my discord for a personal conversation if you desire. I appreciate you reading the the end of the very long post and supporting my journey on Steemit.

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Discord

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@Vladivostok-CA