To be fair steemit is still in beta and all the people which are here are early birds imo.
I started my 4 th week now here and bought in as a dolphin. For me it also felt like forever till my account got approved and I kind of got frustrated a bit and since steem was rising I was flirting with the idea of selling it again.
By far I dont understand all now or even a lot how certain things work but I am enjoying my steemit experience for the most part and figuring out which features I want to use and how much I want to throw myself into steemit and therfore if and how active I want to be on steemit.chat or different discord groups.
I also think in the long run it would be better if more happens not behind "closed" curtains since it makes it even harder to get involved.
Anyways good post.
I am curious about your opinion about commenting after the fork.
Before it used to be the tool to earn your first upvotes and followers, since people now dont upvote so many comments anymore.
Also I am totally upvoting my own comment :-)
I think you're going about this platform in exactly the right way: figuring out how involved you want to get while still keeping the experience as enjoyable for yourself as possible. A lot of people are signing up for this platform for all the wrong reasons (money) and therefore get frustrated after a few weeks and a small handful of dollars. Take what you can while giving back as much as possible but at a good balance that you're comfortable with. Steemit.chat or Discord--I've personally found--are not absolute prerequisites to improving your Steemit experience.
Regarding commenting after the hard fork, I honestly don't know too much about this or how HF-19 impacted the commenting process. Although I've spent a lot of time on this platform, I'm still learning more about these technical aspects on a day-by-day basis, so it's difficult for me to give my opinion on these things. But as soon as I know more I'll be sure to fill you in on my thoughts ;)
Btw, I upvoted your comment too & I'm glad you enjoyed my post!
To be honest, money was exactly the reason I signed up here also at first and I am guilty of follow4follow shit also in my first week.
After realizing it didnt bring any upsides and wasnt fun at all. I decided to change this and engage in content and catogieres I enjoyed and tadaaa....it changed my experience 100%. Suddenly I was learning about stuff I was genuine interested in and from time to time I was even able to teach or add some value to their post, which is waaaayy more fun and also earned me more followers and most importantly engaged follower.
I would be lying if I said I dont care about the money at all but if you have fun and engage in an "honest" way money will follow. At least this is my experience for now.
Come for the money, stay for the community