Hey, @erikah.
In my case, it's not only about the hard fork, though, that didn't help my positivity when I was actually on Steemit. It might seem like I was alluding to the hard fork, but the negativity generated by it didn't really take hold until the latter part of the month, anyway.
My wife had surgery the third week of August, and so I was helping her while she recuperated. Therefore, I wasn't on STEEM as much as I might, so fewer comments means fewer opportunities to be positive. :)
Not that the hard fork aided in anyway once I came back to my regular schedule.
As for the HF 20 problems, they're still ongoing for quite a few people, and I think they will continue to be an issue for new accounts. We have a reprieve right now thanks to the 10 x booster implemented with the last patch (HF 0.20.5), but when that is repealed or even slowly rolled back, we'll see more and more people feeling it again. :)