So I just reached 2500 followers on Steem. Yey! What's more, I'm this close to reaching my final destination of 69 reputation on Steemit, currently at 68.997. Of course, numbers are irrelevant especially here on Steem. As a veteran on the platform, I would like to share some observations I did during my time spent here.

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It's all 'bout the money.

I know, you've heard this many times before, but it's true. Almost all of the userbase is here for the rewards pool. Is it a bad thing? I don't think so. Having a monetary incentive is taking the platform to a whole new level, where we have a living, breathing economy. Back in the day, when there were literally just a couple of hundred authors, money wasn't such a big deal. We did have whales who encouraged us with upvotes. Steem was full of anarchists, freethinkers, radicals, etc. Some of the best posts I read are from that period. An average comment consisted of 100-200 word observation on your post. At first, I didn't know how to respond to that, compared to the Facebook mentality I got used to by default. A few forks later, Steem is completely different, and so are the users and the interaction within the platform. I really miss the old days when you could dive into a conversation with a complete stranger, and learn something new and exiting. Now Steem is starting to become more like Facebook, with people sharing their daily status. I still wonder what happened to the first newcomers.

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Content is king!

Never forget that. It does not matter how many followers you have, or how much Steem Power you hold, the best strategy was and still is great content. If you contribute to the platform with your personal insight, dedication and time, it will pay off in the long run. No matter what is your passion, as long as you are true to yourself and write from the heart, you will be rewarded. Content is king, patience is queen.

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It's not a fair game.

The sooner you realize this the better. It never was and it never will be fair. Yes, one can make money here, but expectations and reality are two completely different things. I know many of you have posted at least one really good article, you've been working on with the hope to get a bigger payout, or maybe you dream of being featured on the Trending page. There are some people who have a head start, there are the people with bags of money who hold huge stake in the platform and there are the abusers who rape the rewards pool. Plus all the average Steeminas competing for the rewards, each with his own strategy, some even pay for votes. Put yourself in the middle of all this and you will start to understand why some authors make more than others. Again, is this a bad thing, should you be discouraged from participating in the platform - absolutely no! Steem is a game, and not a very fair one, but this does not mean you can't reach your goals. Just don't compare yourself to others, try not to copy them and be grateful for what you have. All rewards are donated to you. No one owes you a dime!

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There are no rules.

In a truly decentralized network, there can never ba e perfect consensus between all the players. There are guidelines one can follow to increase his chances but no one is stopping you from doing anything here. If you feel like it, you could flag a whale. There are consequences for that, but nevertheless, no one can stop you from doing it. Most of the "rules" are paved as Steem matures. The platform is learning form its mistakes and all the abuse that is going on is just helping the platform become more resilient to attacks and mischief in the future. With each fork, the rules change a little bit. Adapting to the new environment is essential to survive a Steem fork.

Sometimes you need to spill some blood to get things done.

We need to take things in our hands. As I mentioned, in a decentralized network each player can interact with everybody on the same level. Many times we encounter bad behavior and we are confronted with a choice. Ignoring the abusers is the worst thing we can do. Sure it's nice to upvote but sometimes you need to flag in order to remove the rotten apples. A flag is not always bad when cast accordingly, after all the rewards are put back in the rewards pool for the benefit of the community. It's our shared responsibility to take care of the rewards pool, even if this means to be the bad guy in the eyes of some people.

In conclusion, I would like to say that Steem is a very unique and different social network, that is still making its first steps towards a better online platform for sharing ideas and creating new communities. Try to ignore the monetary perspective as much as possible, although impossible at this point and make the best out of your Steem experience. Today I have 2500 followers but, it's just a meaningless number. The people I met and the interactions I got are really what counts.

Steem on!

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