This story began as my introduction post to the Steemit community, but over the course of 9 months, and many lessons learned, it has become much more than that. This is the story of how a simple upvote feature almost kept me from ever enjoying Steemit.
First, we should start at the beginning. Before I had ever heard of Steemit, I was already taking notice of other blockchain technologies. Then in September of 2016, I came across a friend sharing his Steemit article on Facebook. He described a revolutionary new social media platform based on the blockchain with its own cryptocurrency, and asked for others to upvote his post (at no charge) so he could earn some coin. I happily obliged his request, seeing the value in this for my own purposes, and went straight to Steemit to make an account. Upon making the account, I immediately went about upvoting his post, and quickly discovered that my voting weight was too small.
I searched the error and found several articles on how to get steem power. Perhaps because of my tendency for frugality, I decided I would write an introduction post and possibly subsequent ones to try and gain the necessary steem power for voting. Having taken basic html classes in high school, I began crafting a well formatted and engaging post that told others the goals and aspirations I had planned for this account. I couldn't tell you now what I had wrote, because upon completing the post, I found that I was getting the familiar "voting weight too small" message when I would hit the "POST" button. I had seen a number of Steemit users commenting on the Facebook post the original article was shared from, so I asked them how they were able to make their first post without steem power. Apparently this was an extremely confusing question, as nobody else experienced this problem, so I got no help there. My next step was Google, and after a number of unsuccessful queries, I decided that if it was this hard to make a post on this site, it wasn't worth the effort. So I put it aside, and completely forgot about it.
That is, until about a week ago. While attempting to make a post on Facebook that summarized about 3 (somewhat) outdated how-to torrent guides, I ran into formatting restrictions which handicapped my ability to relay this information. Posting a wall of text and links wasn't going to achieve the impact on the people I wanted to teach, and that's when I remembered I had this Steemit account. I copied the info I had typed in my FB post, pasted it on Steemit, added pics and videos where needed, and finally had a sufficiently understandable torrent guide for my target audience. My happiness was short lived though, because againonce I hit the POST button, the forgotten above-mentioned frustration came back in a flash upon seeing the "voting weight too small" message. This time, however, I happened to notice a very discrete option that I had previously glanced over.
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That's when I realized this little check-box was my problem this whole time. I was finally able to publish my first Steemit article. Had I taken the time to look slightly to the right when making my initial introduction post, I presumably would have been enjoying Steemit for much longer. Why this is checked by default when brand new users can't employ it is beyond me. Most people rely on default settings when using a service they're unfamiliar with, and the fact that a default setting prevents new users from posting is a big problem. How the community addresses this problem will be interesting to see, but unchecking it by default, at least for users without enough steem power to vote, would definitely help this site grow at a faster pace.
Finally, we get to my introduction. I have many hobbies and interests that are constantly evolving over time. Right now, woodworking, computer technology, small electronics, and home improvement seem to be at the forefront. Basically, I enjoy building things. If you follow this page, you may catch a peak of how I build certain things, like a screen porch, or you may hear about politics and current events from my Hoppean anarcho-capitalist perspective. You may also catch random how-tos or memes and videos I find amusing from time to time. I really don't have a set plan for this account as of yet, but I do plan on being active from here on out.
Welcome to Steem @r0nd0n I have sent you a tip
Welcome. Hope to read about/see those creations of yours xD
Thanks. My next project will be a simple swing set restoration, but hopefully I'll be doing some major remodeling that I can chronicle later this summer.
Nice. I'm sure it will come out great :-) I am too lazy to get projects done. Maybe I need something like this to kick me into doing something hahaha
Welcome to Steemit :)
I follow u, follow me back if u want lot of fun and amazing picture every day.
Welcome back! Looking forward to your next posts :)
Thanks!
Welcome to Steemit !
Copy the mindset of successful people to gain leverage in life: Posting 42 inspirational articles everyone can relate to. Following all steemians interested in the project:
Blog: Above average - The 42 Millionaire Shortcuts
Welcome to Steemit!
Thanks @daveks. I like your pics.
Thanks for looking @r0nd0n!
Hi @r0nd0n - do you still get this error if you try to vote with your current amount of SP?
No, that was the original error back in September. I got a slightly different error this past week, but I don't know how to upload in this reply. EDIT: here is a pic of the current error
You might have been low on voting power. You can check your percentage here: https://steemdb.com/@r0nd0n. If it happens again, let me know and I'll take a look.
Yeah, low SP was the problem. I brought the problem up in General Chat and @cryptohustlin threw me some out of nowhere, and I don't have that problem anymore.
Very interesting story. Thanks for posting your experience, and your suggestions.
I'm a web developer; I plan to contribute to the steemit site, so please let me know your input about the user interface, any feature you don't believe is easy to use, anything broken, things you believe should be changed.
As of right now, I'm still discovering steemit and getting acclimated. So far the only problems I have found is what I described in my introduction above, but I'll be sure to let you know of anything else I discover.
Perhaps adding an option to upload images in the comments like the one in the "Submit a Story" would be helpful.
i expect many many more ideas in the weeks to come!
B creative
I'd love to check out some of your DIY projects and I'd love to hear more about your anarcho-capitalist perspective! I go to a very liberal university and it's hard to find people that I can talk to about libertarian policy.
I hope you find some value in it and implement some of the principles to grow your own account!Welcome to Steemit (officially) @r0nd0n :) I'm actually new to Steemit and just joined last week! I gained more than 100 followers in that time! Check out this post if you wanna learn exactly how I did it https://steemit.com/steemit/@blaisep/how-to-gain-over-100-followers-in-less-than-1-week-on-steemit
I'll have plenty of my DIY projects to come, and perhaps even some how-tos if I think they're needed. There's really not much I can say about the ancap philosophy that hasn't already been said. I can link you to some resources if you're interested, but I only made a point to mention it so people can compensate my bias when I discuss politics. I take an extreme position on private property rights, and it's helpful for people to understand that in the context of my future posts. I tend to trust sources more when they admit to their bias, rather than when they infer that they are an unbiased source.
You are welcome to steemit! You will definitely enjoy it here!
Please feel free to check out
Cheers @GLOBALFOODBOOK
Welcome back! Follow me at https://steemit.com/@bitgeek