I stumbled upon Steemit when I first began looking for decentralized blockchain-based media alternatives. I've spent the majority of my career covering press freedom and freedom of expression issues, and I got completely freaked out by the wave of censorship that I've been seeing by the big tech giants. I believe free speech protections exist to protect unpopular views just as much as they do popular views, and the very companies who have convinced the world to trust them with their personal lives are no longer trustworthy. So I began looking in earnest for alternatives and I discovered Steemit, among a few others. At first, the idea seemed to good to be true, and so I researched it pretty heavily before signing up. There were a good number of Steemians that I credited in my intro post whose writings and videos helped me to take the leap: https://steemit.com/introducemyself/@joshpeterson/my-first-steemit-post-introducing-myself-and-some-initial-thoughts
I'm still learning, but I'm really glad I'm here.
Thanks for posting this, @acidyo - it's been really neat to read everyone's stories.