That is really sad to hear! I dont think you failed at all! The dynamics on Steemit changed quite a bit since last month or two. It is very difficult to get some organic readers here. It is extremely difficult to built something, like a sub-community. However persistence is the key. To be honest, also I was playing with the idea to stop (temporary) Steemit, it cost a lot of time for me, while it seems only a few people actually read my posts. But, I still believe for the (near) future, Steemit can be an interesting platform. Your charity project is a great one; Like you danceweekend; Like your weekday themes. I can only say, take a little rest from Steemit, and then come back with renewed energy. I'm still trying to figure out the best ways to continue, to get some relevant sub-community going. I know it is all about liking each other and that requires a lot of time and building. What I noticed, this networking shall not be on Steemit only, but also through other channels. So, please tell me you leaving Steemit will just be a kinda Steemit sabbatical. Enjoy your break! (still pushing to get you back) :)
Bingo - the community aspect is spot on @edje - thanks for the lovely feedback. Agree on persistency is key for success in theory - not 100% sure if that is the case for all currently. Especially the lack of people really viewing and reading your stuff is encouraging bad content or decline of quality content. That is the case for many people, me included. It should not become a mixture of all the other platforms out there but stay unique.
Networking and liking each other is another good point, what is written in comments is not always what people think, reality and politics are happening in chats and other exchanges - that is human.
Quality of content is degrading indeed. That is not good at all. I actually think we need the community feature with the moderation features to create clean and good quality content for specific topics. For some reason STINC is not seeing this, is not delivering on their plans. Ok, I think the plan was Q3 anyway, and we still have a couple of weeks to go. When these features are there, consider to come back and we shall try 1 or 2 projects with moderated channels.