Hi Mike!
I didn't even realise there were 3rd party upvote services! I'm such a noob! I still think we'd be considered early adopters though as the platform is still relatively new and I'm sure lots of change and improvement will come!
I know what you mean about a true following! I mean, I've got about 240ish followers but I wonder they're actually "real" followers since about 99% of them don't engage with my content!
Anyway, I'm following you now and you'll have an engaged reader of your content in me!
I didn’t know about the upvote sites either until one of my friends on here told me about them. I agree we could still be considered early adopters in the sense that Steemit (and crypto in general) is still not mainstream. I’ve got over 350 followers but many of them are resteem/bot services or people who are following like 100,000 people. Thanks for the follow and I’ll follow your content as well.