Somehow, @papa-pepper reached 100 followers on Saturday morning. Exactly what that means, or what that may be a sign of, I have no idea. All I can tell you is what they means to me.

CONSITENCY

For some time now, I’ve been trying to make sure to get out four posts on a daily basis. I’m not one to sacrifice quality for quantity, so it has been a lot of work. I think that I finally slept more than six hours on Friday night, which was a welcome change. I’ve been called a “mad man” by @jed78 and a “content mill… rolling out more content than anybody else” by @ubg, when they commented on how many posts I make. To have 100 followers looking in their “feed” to see what I (and others) have been up, to only encourages me all the more to be frequent and consistent. I know that some of my posts can be lengthy and filled with info, so they may take a while to check out anyway, but I want to be sure that I’m giving my followers something new on a daily basis.

INTEGRITY

Back when the reputation scores first came out I thought it was an exciting and beneficial step forward. As with all things on steemit, it is a rapidly progressing work in progress, but a welcome addition to the steemit community. Now, with the number of followers being displayed for all to see, there is additional incentive to be honest and genuine. Spamming or plagiarism can not only lead to a lower reputation, but also could cost you followers. Also, if all that you are producing is “whale-bait” and “click-bait”, who’s going to follow you for long. As I shared in my post about being Authentic and Transparent, being genuine in what you post and doing your own work is key. The followers take what the reputation number did to another level, as far as accountability for the content and origin of your work is concerned.

CONTENT VARIETY

Knowing about the number of followers also encourages me in the variety of my content. Some things that I share about are the plants and animals in the world that we live in. Perhaps this is part of why people are following me. I have a few series started including papa-peppers guide to plant propagation (I’ll make my 5th post in this series tomorrow), THE EDIBLE OUTDOORS which just had its 15th post earlier today, papa-peppers FOOD FIGHT & Helpful Herbs & Plants With a Purpose, each of which has only had one post so far. The interest in these subjects and the followers encourage me to continue each of these series and make sure not to leave steemit hanging. The recipes and photos seem to be well received too. I'll continue to post about whatever I feel like, but I'll continue as well to share more information on what has been enjoyed by the followers.

Basically, those who are following me encourage me to keep up with what I’ve been up to; homesteading, eating, animals, bugs, plants, weeds, and life. That’s great, because steemit is an excellent way to document the adventure that we on in this life.

PROFESSIONALISM

This may sound sort of offensive to some of you, but up until recently, the computer was basically like a glorified typewriter to me. I had a tiny bit of experience online and ZERO experience in social media and cryptocurrency. I had to be taught how to link a picture and how to upload to Youtube so that I could link a video. I’d never done any of that before (thanks @noganoo). I didn’t know how to create a hyperlink or markdown text. All of this is new to me; very new to me. Also, writing is easy, proofreading is hard. Especially with four little ones all six and under running around making noise while I’m trying to proofread. I’ve missed some stuff, so thanks for your patience with me. Having such a large volume of followers makes me strive to put out the best material possible in the best way that I'm capable of, and to get more capable if need be. Not only am I concerned about proper grammar and content, but the presentation now has also become important. Somehow, I’ve picked up this many followers, I sure don’t want to lose them now.

INCOME?

At almost three weeks in the steemit community, I’d say that so far I’ve done pretty well for myself, thanks to you. Without the upvotes and seeing some sort of increase to what my posts are worth, I would have given up. There is no doubt in my mind about it. I’ve got a lot to do anyway and plenty of other relationships to interact in, so my time is precious. My goal is to be able to eventually work from home, so my wife and I can raise our children together, and the family can actually spend these precious years together. This is the only chance that I have to be a father. Right now, I’m trying to cross expenses off of our list. We’ve got money to buy the land we are purchasing, but I need money to build a house. I’m working hard all day laying hardwood flooring to try to meet that goal. Now, steemit has allowed me to be able to have a second source of income. Once the land is paid for and the house is built, our expenses will be drastically decreased; especially with all the food that we can provide for ourselves. Now I’m not sure how much I would be able to make per post if every follower upvoted every post every time, but my goal is to be able to make something on steemit. I consider it a second job, and would love it if it could become the only job that I needed. We will see, but having over 100 followers certainly makes that possibility a little more realistic.

INTERACTION

I know that I have already made some real friends in the steemit community, and friends that I already knew are even joining steemit. The fact that the people upvoting and commenting on the posts are actually following me as well adds another level to the interaction. When I posted For The Love of steemit a week ago, I only was aware of three or four followers, because they had commented informing me that they were following. Then, on Wednesday or so, the number of followers was added to my screen. I was completely amazed that it said 52. Wow! Fifty-two followers? Really? Then earlier today, it went over 100. Now, it’s even a few more. To me, that means that at least 100 people are willing to interact with me on a viewer basis. They can watch my every post, and see what I’ve been up to. Some of them even comment. The fact that I know they might be following me increases the desire to interact. Did they ask a question, then I should probably give them an answer. Did I thank them for their compliment? Did they ask me to check out one of their posts? If so, perhaps I ought to. Did they private message me a shipping address on https://steemit.chat so that I could send them some free seeds? If so, I’d better get that package in the mail. Simply knowing that I have followers, and even more so knowing how many, encourages me to interact with them. Even if they are only reading the posts, we are still interacting.

EXPLORATION

There is also an element of exploration that this community offers. I’m not sure if I would really be checking out as many wild edibles as I have been lately. However, since people want to read more about that subject, it encourages me to go explore a new weed or tree. The contests also play a role in this, as I would not be taking the photos that I have without the outlet for that material which steemit provides. As a man thinks and writes, there is a deeper understanding of one’s self that he becomes aware of when he thinks and writes more about himself. Much of who I am is and who I have become is being documented for all to see, and in the process of documentation, it makes me all the more aware of it.

COMMITMENT

In this life we have a lot of commitments and a lot of relationships. They may be rated at different levels and prioritized accordingly, but they all exist. For many of us, there is a commitment already established between the steemit community and ourselves. After all, it is where we spend some of our time, meet and interact with others, and we even use the currency of that community as well. Indeed, a level of commitment exists. Now that we can know how many followers we have, who they are, and if we are losing any followers, I think that our level of commitment has been increased.

ORIGINALITY

The encouragement that the followers add to be yourself is also great. In the oceans of the internet and the sea of steemit, there are a lot of fish swimming around. It is easy to blend in and even easier to miss getting noticed. I've appreciated being real with the community and am glad that I can just be myself; original, just like everybody else. The content that I provide is based upon thoughts, experiences, and adventures that I have had. If I want to do a post about the pond, I head down to the pond and start taking pictures. Perhaps it is a lack of online skills, but it is actually easier for me to go take a new picture for a post than to look one up online. Also, with the proof of my credibility included in almost every post, people know that I am being original in my presentation.