My Reputation …After Two Years on Steemit ...73 ‽‽‽

Your reputation is in the hands of others. That's what the reputation is.
You can't control that. The only thing you can control is your character.
—Dr. Wayne Dyer

When I first came on Steemit I was concerned about two things: my reputation and my steam power.

I wasn’t worried about my writing so much—I was only concerned that people wouldn’t notice me and my writing wouldn't be rewarded.

Some of my peers aspired to be dolphins and whales, and some managed to do that, but most dropped out and fell by the wayside.

Some of these people were talented and worked hard on their posts delivering good, original content, but others were simply ambitious and eager to make a quick buck.

I must confess I was somewhere in between those two extremes. I hedged my bets. I wasn’t sure Steemit was for real or would last, so I wasn’t about to gamble the farm on another bright shiny toy.

I opted for a 50/50 split on rewards and soldiered on through some bleak times when my best work received pennies in reward because my reputation was low and I didn’t know how to promote myself.

Just when I was beginning to experience some success, I had to weather through some horrendous hard forks and other times stifle my bitterness when I made 50 cents for a post and someone else posted a rah rah post—you know the type—keep on steering etc. and made a hundred dollars because they were upped by a whale.

The system wasn’t perfect and at times didn’t even seem fair. A fellow steemian who was fast approaching dolphin status and regularly upvoted by whales was deserted by his deep-pocketed supporters for no apparent reason.

Yep, there were all kinds of posts being written about what constituted a good post, but in truth, it was mostly a crap shoot—and to tell the truth, that’s the way it is on the Internet generally. Nobody really knows why some posts go viral, although people still pretend they do.

Yet looking back over two years of Steemit posting, I can honestly say I’m generally satisfied with my experience. The community as a whole is more compassionate and caring than I experienced on other sites.

I have a huge Twitter following but I’ve largely abandoned that platform and I’m back to where I began—mostly hoping to earn enough to pay for my on-line expenses and basically giving away my work for free.

Well, other people have profited off my quotes on Goodreads and other sites by selling posters, tee shirts and mugs with my words on them—good for them—I just can’t bring myself to go the Hallmark route so someone should make a buck. I even saw some perfume manufacturers and Walmart using my quotes—that’s the on-line world we live in.

As for the future, many high-profile steemians are over on a certain other site and have encouraged me to post there too. I haven’t done that yet, although I do have my keys and a new handle, but I can’t quite get there…yet.

I want to see if Steemit can come back to its former glory. I think many changes were mistakes but hindsight is twenty-twenty. I’m no techno wizard, I just know that a few years ago Steemit was an involved and involving community where people actually wrote thoughtful comments and voted for posts rather than just commenting, but hell, I don’t even get comments much lately, so we’ll just see where this ends up.

I’d be happy to make fifty bucks a week, but right now that’s dreaming in technicolour. Do I have a minimum to stay? Sure. Right now I’m powering down reluctantly but I have expenses and I’ve been writing real good for free, so I’m hoping things turn around before I power down right off the grid. I’m not leaving voluntarily, just finding it hard to justify the time and expense posting.

But the damn thing is, I like this place.

If you're anything like me,
You bite your nails,
And laugh when you're nervous.
You promise people the world,
because that's what they want from you.
You like giving them what they want...
But Man, you need to stop.
― Taylor Swift

© 2019, John J Geddes. All rights reserved

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