@reddragonfly Thank you very much and I hope you have an amazing 2018. I don't know if I'm really back, at least, I won't be posting daily as I did before. My efforts on Steemit largely went unnoticed and unappreciated after 14 months, except for the gamers who upvoted and commented primarily to get me to upvote and support them in return. It was discouraging and I finally just stopped posting, powered down to almost nothing and put the proceeds into DASH, which has been a very wise choice indeed. Now I might post here once in awhile if I have something I'd especially like to get out there, but I don't expect much from Steemit any longer.
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Sorry it didn't work out better for you-- although if your investment in Dash was lucrative, maybe your active time here DID serve a purpose.
Heading into 2018, I am going to do my best to continue growing this "gallery account" with an eye towards eventually building enough SP to give artists a "seriously supportive" upvote for their efforts; for now, we're still small fry, but our partnership with @sndbox has helped a lot.
I have no real expectations here, but feel hopeful that art and artists can build a presence here, at least on par with sites like Patreon. For many, even having a $200/week income stream from posting art can make a HUGE difference.
In the early days of Steemit, it was good. It seems to me that the early folks were on here for "pure" reasons. Then the word got out that "hey, free money!" and there was an influx of people wanting a free ride. I got quite a few followers, upvotes, and comments. (Of course, if I was a cute or hot chick that showed my cleavage and legs, I would have gotten yuuuuge support.) Unfortunately, most of this was phony, and my blog never caught on for real. Just a few people out of my thousand plus followers were really interested in my work. And I received almost no whale support. Another discouraging thing about Steemit for me. If they didn't appreciate the quality of my posts, why the hell not? This was discouraging and baffling to me. Ok, so fine. I get it: Steemit isn't for me.
Social media is basically superficial phoniness anyway and people take it way too seriously. Being "social" is meeting people in person, not on the internet, so the word is misleading. To "friend" someone on Facebook is a joke. A friend is someone real, someone you know personally, someone you trust, help, and interact with in real life. Social media is not real life. It's pixels on a computer screen. People forget that and live in some sort of illusion. There's a real person on the other end, but you don't know them. Almost everyone puts up a false front and who knows who they are, what they're really like, and even if their photo is actually them.
The only reason I ever used "social media" was to get my images out on the internet, and hopefully sell art. But that has proved pretty much useless. Selling art is almost impossible anyway but trying to do it on the internet is even more difficult. People want to see it "in the flesh." That means in a gallery or an exhibition. Even then, it's like pulling teeth.
So, yes, Steemit was good for me but only because I got in early and then cashed out. But this platform has changed drastically. It's a question of a good idea but like so many good ideas, stupid people get involved and ruin it.
There are Steemians on here making tons of money, and I'm glad for those who are for real and who offer something of value. If an artist can make enough to keep painting, more power to them. At the same time, if an artist of my professional quality can't make it work, I don't hold out much hope for anyone else to do it. Unless, of course, it's "art" that panders to the common taste.
I will now only post occasionally for my own amusement.
I do want to thank you for being one of the very few intelligent people who supported me on here.
These are my opinions, your mileage may vary.