Thanks @greencross - loved your post and as you can see it was still on my mind today ;-) So there's a bit of proof you're adding value to this place as well ;-) In the end we're all engaging here and talking to each other all the time so if one adds value then surely it makes someone else adds value after which someone else might perceive to receive value and so on and so on...
I'm sorry we didn't get to talk at SteemFest but maybe we have a chance this year? I was still a Minnow at SteemFest myself and never felt excluded either. That's an amazing thing, once you get offline and not perceive the Steemians just as a range of numbers (SP, REP, VP) it's just that... a bunch of people loving and engaging with the same thing.
Cheers and thanks for your post and for all the nice words above!