I've been on the blockchain for three years today. Its been one hell of a journey when I decided to go all in back on Steemit. Thanks to all of you in advance with the congrats. For the more motivated members, I'll be accepting donations to my Lambo fund, lol! "I'd like to thank The Academy and all of the little people for their undying support along the way."
Now let's do lunch! (Who do I think I am, @stackin?) :)
It Begins
This one actually snuck up on me, as I was dealing with an internet outage, planning my next post idea (this one, it turns out) and just lazing around. Yep, three years ago after spending a month lurking and watching videos by @samstonehill to prep, I pulled the trigger and joined Steemit. I'd actually heard about the site in Spring/early Summer 2016, on Facebook, but thought it was a scam. Some crypto-dude popped up on my wall saying he'd made $100 or was it $1000? on a post and I'm like "right!" and clicked away.
I didn't even check out the site...
This cost me an important year when I could have joined in with the likes of @exyle, @acidyo, @meesterboom (who digs plump Victorian chicks, sporting whalebone corsets) and @ausbitbank in getting the word out. These guys wisely built their stake and are now esteemed members of the community. Even "Boom." :)
But hey, better late than never, right?
The important thing to remember is that a lot of the people who are successful today, sacrificed in order to help get things started. They invested their time and treasure, to "stake their claim" as I like to say, on the blockchain.
Thank You @samstonehill
Thinking back, was it a news report? or the dogged persistence of that friend who first told me about Steemit? Either way, I was led to some YouTube videos by Jerry, Trevon and Craig (I know, I know...) but it was Sam Stonehill (which my brain still refers to as "Samstone Hill" for some reason), who had the biggest impact. He was in Bali, with a French guy I think and was hosting meetups to teach new people about Steemit. That is where I decided to park myself and learn instead of just jumping right in.
The following video was just one of those which helped me to get started properly. After work, I'd come home and watch tutorials on how the platform worked. that's all I did for the month before my first post.
Creating original content, formatting posts correctly, while engaging and interacting with the community was just the beginning of my online education. I learned about sourcing photos the right way and even now, you'll see me credit photos and videos at the bottom of each post. I think it's a mistake to credit underneath each pic as your post will lead with the source at the beginning of the post description, which is horrible for SEO. So thankfully, I started out the right way.
What I didn't have at the time was a lot of money to begin my stake. Starting out small, I kept plugging away until one day an Australian? Whale gave me a big upvote on a comment I made which really supercharged me when I was ready to quit. It only happened that once, but was a real morale booster. If you're a Whale, trust me - your vote matters and can help keep new people on the platform. What this told me was that somebody was finally seeing my work. That I was not just blogging into the void and maybe this thing might actually work.
Some Of The Very Best
Looking back, If I had to point out some of the posts I'm most proud of, it would be the following:
- Life is Precious #8 - The Night I Almost Died, Yet Learned To Live...
The true story of what almost became the last night of my life while serving in the United States Navy. Hardly anyone saw this post, but it took so much out of me to relive that frightening event, that after all that work, I'm not sure I want to finish it. It's scary to think of just how close I came to not being here at all. Life really is precious.
- Life is Precious #6 - The Station Nightclub Fire The deadly setting of The Station nightclub fire is the subject of this post. The focus is on fire safety and the hope that nothing like this will ever happen again.
- DEATH IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – Sex, Lies and Pesticides... This is the account of the many tourists who died while on vacation in the Dominican Republic. The mystery of what exactly killed them centered on toxic substances that may have been ingested during their stay.
- Staying Positive when Life "Flips" you the BIRD... Here, I share how seemingly bad things in my life have a habit of "flipping" into something good. Karma works!
- A Little Eye Contact Can Save Your Life... This was about the time when I was almost run over by a lady in her car, but ended up being saved by making timely eye contact...
- A REAL Man Never Hits A Woman - Do You Agree? This is the account of my neighbors who were always fighting. The husband would beat the wife and she'd ask us in the building to call the police. But every time they came, she felt sorry for him and said that everything was ok. Until it wasn't...
- Are You Dating A Psychopath? - Narcissists and the Women who Love Them Here I tell the story about "Jay" a friend who I came to realize was a psychopath. I got to learn first-hand just how devious and completely devoid of empathy these dangerous people are. He's still around and loving every minute of hurting people. Women, beware.
- The Best of Steemit #1 - @meesterboom (and his amazing room) of Delightful Daily Doings and Daring Dastardly Deeds!
@meesterboom is a "national" treasure on Hive and should be coated in Lucite and put on display at Madame Tussauds. Not nude of course, unless you pickle him in beer first. He's from "Glass-Cow" near "Mos-Cow" which is somewhere east of "Whales" (Trumps spelling, don't blame me) and his posts have me laughing my ass (not arse) off! This funny Englishman (notice how I keep getting the countries wrong? Doesn't England own all of that "over there" anyway?) had me laughing in Burger King so I just had tosnogblog him. Keep this up "Boomy" and you'll be a Kardashian in no time! :)
So that's just a little snapshot of some of the bytes I spewed all over the blockchain during the past three trips around the Sun. Hopefully I made you laugh, cry or at least let out a good ol' healthy fart once in awhile! :)
The Future Of Hive
The introduction of new tokens really helped bring value to the entire ecosystem. LEO, WEED, BEER and the new SIM tokens from dCity made the platform "stickier" for new users. Communities like Ecotrain, Leo Finance Natural Medicine and Tribesteemup/ (Abundance tribe I'm not sure which name they're going by now?) create even more compelling reasons to join. The ability to support new communities, highlights areas of shared interests which keep members coming back for more.
My advice to those just joining is to share your own content, interact with the community, think long-term and invest in yourself. If everyone comes here only to take, there will eventually be nothing left to give. That's why in the Fall of 2017, I made my first substantial investment in increasing my stake.
Purchase some HIVE and power up.
When you have skin in the game, it provides a deeper meaning to what you're doing. Most important of all, HAVE FUN! I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here and all of the amazing people I've met along the way. The future is bright and I look forward to the next year on Hive!
THANK YOU FOR AN AMAZING 3 YEARS!
Please follow me on:
👍Twitter: https://twitter.com/EverNoticeThat
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photo credit: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
video credit: 1