So little time…so many responsibilities
Being a Steemian is not an easy task I tell you. Upon entering, one is thrown into a world that adheres completely different rules than any other previous online platform. Everyone has the same rights and the same opportunity to shine. It all comes down to how well one can contribute to the whole ecosystem. The biggest difference from all the other platforms are all the fields where it’s actually possible to contribute. Those areas are so vast, that it’s actually impossible to engage in all of them.
Choose you have to
So let’s sum up all the fields that you can engage in on Steemit. First most obvious field is content creation. One can either try to produce high quality posts frequently, or engage on other blogs in order to be recognized.
All the users also have their wallets here. By hodling the tokens they are also stake holders. Every conscious stakeholder should try to do the best with their stake. Here one can either vote for what one deems as high quality content, or just sit on the stake (or lend it), thus making the vote of other stakeholders stronger.
But there are also fields that are not directly connected to the Blockchain. Other truly important field is the programmers’ one. Creation of all the helpful tools, upgrades of the “windows into the Blockchain” and stuff like that. Last but not least is creation of any physical project based on Steem.
I’m pretty sure that if we could engage in all the fields where we actually could contribute, we would do so. Our stakes would increase in value for that and we would all be happy, while watching our “children” grow to see its full potential. Unfortunately existential problems, other hobbies and social life kinda disrupts this utopic vision. We all will at one point reach that situation where we have to ask ourselves, “What will I do for Steem?” And there, choose we have to.
The most frequent struggle
Most of the Steemit’s users (including me) struggle in between content creation and its curation. I don’t know how about you, but when I try to create a good article, it usually takes me around 4-5 hours. By the end, I have no energy whatsoever to read through other posts (replying with mindful comment is like totally out of question).
Actually my priorities have changed. When I was a younger Steemian, I sacrificed a lot of potential articles for the time to go through other posts and engage with the users there.
When I joined the platform, I wanted to be both. I though had a long lasting holiday and had all the time I needed for that. Then real life happened again and I realized that there is no way how I could be both right now. The choice was easy – I couldn’t have increased my stake because I lacked the capital to do so. Not like I couldn’t be a curator even with low stake, but I wouldn’t be able to reward the content appropriately.
I still do want to be both. In fact I hope that when I finish my studies I will already have stake high enough to become one. That is though future far far away.
Moral story of the day
It’s important to know that it doesn’t matter how big reputation/stake/income one has here. If we want to prosper as a community, we need to do everything we can to increase Steem’s value. Steem’s value will not increase if the majority of the users will reach certain reputation, when we all will earn lot throughout the pay-outs, or when we all have high stakes (ok this one might not be so true. Powering up does increase the value of Steem in long run – DO POWER UP!)
We do not need to do it all. In fact, we need more people that will specialize on certain aspects. Every single one of us has to decide what it is he wants to do for Steem and follow the designed path. Every community needs to work on its flaws and YOU are the one who’s going to help ours. Are you unable to find good content? Start creating one! Do you feel like the curators are not doing what they should? Power up and show them how it should be done! Do you lack a tool, or do you think that the interface sucks? Try to improve it! Or do you lack physical crypto projects at your place? Create them!
WE are the community and it’s up to us to decide what its future will be. It’s every single user’s responsibility to do their best for the Steem’s ecosystem. I’m pretty sure that if you will really be doing good job continuously, a curator will find you and reward you for the effort :). Be patient.
