I am a lonewolf, I have always been. I do not understand or appreciate relationships, that much I must confess, especially when it has to do with a set of rules I do not subscribe to. I feel, to a certain degree, life is all about exchange. You give and you take. Whatever happens within or between those boundaries are unnecessary. And this I feel applies to human engagement. Well except in cases where you genuinely bond with people, then the relationship is built, not out of necessity but through genuine interest.

I joined this platform some months back, and what I was told and believed that to actually grow here you needed to be part of a community. This is not true. Although steem promotes this community mindset and the need to cooperate and collaborate with different individuals, this for me has proven counterproductive. I say this because I have been part of a few and I cannot say it has impacted so much on my growth.

I'm still part of certain communities, although not so active because I feel I can put my time in building relationships through engagement with other people rather than follow this herd-mentality most communities promote. I have a problem with following things or people blindly, especially when it comes to communities that accept every and any person. It doesn't matter to me if this promotes a community or not. And sorry but I have to say this: most communities measure growth in terms of the number of stakes one has or can possess. It's just about earning coins for most and that's why many are obsolete or are becoming obsolete, because, as I said earlier, it's all about the coins. Once another community comes up with better prospects, they have their herd of coin-grabbing members migrate. Loyalty, dedication and hard work are not promoted. That's why most communities are becoming hubs for bad actors--people who just want misuse the opportunities and resources of the community.

So Nonso if communities are so bad why do you use community tags?

Well, I'm a writer seeking an audience (not a community). So using those tags are a way of promoting my content. And I'm still promoting the said community by using their tag, so it's a win-win. Moreover using a community's tag doesn't mandate the said community to support me. Everything we try to do here is to promote good content and if I was doing anything contrary to that I don't think I will be where I am today.

So this whole article was prompted by an event that happened yesterday. So on one of the servers I joined on discord, I was called out for selecting the posts I upvoted. I found it strange that someone would even have the time to notice. Well, the group mandates that you upvotes three posts before sharing your own link, which I did. But according to what I was told later, I was supposed to upvote the three previous posts before mine. So I quitted. I quitted because I was not going to comply with such a rule. This is against everything I'm trying to do with my stake, which is to promote contents I like (not the contents the community wants me to like). The community's goals do not seem to align with mine, so it's best we go our separate ways. And I am thankful to God that I do not depend on any community's upvote because that would have signaled the end of my journey.

So if you're a newbie, my advise to you is that you build relationships. And relationships are not centered around communities. You can build relationships with individuals. I have a few friends here. They don't like my post because I'm part of their community but for the simple fact that they enjoy reading the things I write, or they pretend to. This kind of relationship is sustainable. It's not dependent on a set of rules that favor both the good or bad, or one that promotes the selfish interest of a few.

©nonsowrites

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