Well detailed post, i think you can start using the ecency app yourself without your onboarder presence, you could just download the app or log in through the site on your browser, all you need is your username and posting key.
All hive dApp are quite interesting to use, you would like the ecency dAppp too.
Thanks for your words, it's a relief to me knowing Ecency wasn't as hard as I thought, I will take it up one of this days, thanks for stopping by, do have a sound sleep