I am also in it for the long haul. I didn't even use a voting bot until about 3 weeks ago. I was posting, commenting, manually curating, voting, flagging, etc. One whale even noticed that I was doing manual curation and began to follow my voting trail, with one exception. He didn't value what I was doing enough to vote for me. I appreciated his voting strength anyway.
My posts get a lot of activity and my account is too small to make a difference.
Why should I be more concerned about the platform than those who can make a bigger difference?
With Dan and others powering down for EOS, and the level of abuse that everyone is being taught to ignore. I decided that wasn't my best strategy on the platform.
I still vote, post, comment and engage, I've just decided it is my responsibility to ensure I also get to earn.
Look at the trending page, I am hardly abusing the system. I am building my stake.
I'm not attacking you. I just state my opinions, but everyone does what they want. We are just small fish, but I think we have some influence. The whales are people too. I hope enough of them want to help Steemit reach its potential
lol, I don't feel attacked by you. I do think I am trying to make a point to others who might see this as well.
I appreciate you and your contribution and attitudes. Glad you are here.
Happy to hear that. Sometimes it's hard to set the right tone. I'm just happy to see these things discussed.