I was lucky 44 days ago when I finally jumped after looking at Steemit from the cheap seats and whether or not I should. I can say as a plankton, all you said is so true. @lucylin a good intelligent steemer from Thailand (Brit x-pat) was the first to pass on some advice and he followed (I think out of pity). The early days were just engage others blogs, avoid being trite and be yourself but if you had nothing to add..don't and vote + even its worth so little if you felt moved by the post's content. The author takes note and appreciates it. It is common decency/good manners. Then you evolve meet new people - purely by happenstance. @everittdmickey is another I am quite fond of. Because of him I read something by richq11.. that led to something I could not have imagined would have occurred in any other SM medium. Great guy! Separate the wheat and caff and they are some extraordinary people/content on Steemit. Yes I noticed some gambits, whining and the ever-rising amount of new accounts inbound, my bandwidth is throttled in prime-time of late and such - BUT I GET IT. I hope to earn my place here not by silliness or fraud but by consistent engagement and I don't expect anything for nothing... only for value as viewed by others.
I feel fortunate to have entered here wish I months ago [but trusting is earned over time]..and not stayed outside looking in thru the peep hole. It is a wonderful thing. I plan to stick around and push on, one comment, one post, at a time (and plan to invest to the 500 level so I can reward better as well). Thank you. (got my rep 40 tonight...so a small good feeling). :)
Great comment. Sounds like you "get it" and you have good, reasonable and realistic goals. Glad that you're here and you did well to do some due diligence first.