I'm a frequent user of social media since late 2006. My first profile and blog was on MySpace, then come my YouTube account which become in Google, and then Blogger, WordPress, FaceBook, Twitter... Even I had an account in HiFive. However there was always some kind of cycles in which I tended to be obsessed, just close or simply appart of these sites.

There was this time near 2012 in which all the whispers were speaking about the end of the world and the many conspiracies involved around those numbers. On youtube I get paranoid with some of the announcements for the new era. Nothing happened but later there was another End of the World in 2015, even there was some comets pasing nearby and four lunar eclipses in a row that were called the Blood Moons.

Anyway, apparently nothing happened but in the meanwhile our World was tearing appart in the every day increasing wars all around the globe, most of them in the Middle East. Somehow I discovered the propaganda and information war on social media. I discovered some good channels in the youtube sphere as a good counter for all the mainstream media. I found We Are Change with Luke Rudowsky and The Corbett Report with James Corbett to be, in each one's style, the most balanced in their reports. Both of them were also talking about Bitcoin and the new economy since I remember.

So, after the 2016 election in the USA and the changes in the freedom of speech pact on the internet and open censure and demonetization, these and other video bloggers and journalists were talking about new social media that changes the way that the profits are distributed between authors and public. So they were talking about Steemit, and its alternative in that moment to share video on the Steem blockchain thas is DTube.

I visited often @lukewearechange and @corbettreport and some of the comments in there but it was some time later when I decided to signup, that was a different experience to any other social media, because of the "fee or wait". As I was practicing in that time with animation, my first "test post" was through DTube, which I was thinking on delete afterwards, it was simply the model of a car running through the road. Of course my first surprise was that this post was impossible to delete.

My initial challenges & how I overcame them

My initial challenges were to deal with all the information about the same platform I was entering. Even when my first interest was the world news, I was learning a lot about the cryptocurrency world and all the blockchain technology involved. There were many sites around Steemit that you must know to a better management of your account, and many numbers in the way everything works. My first though was that this transparency was so difficult but the only way to get rid of the social media corporations and a new way of economy and cooperation.

The way to overcome this moments in which I doubted what I can or I can't do was to ask to others or simply search for it. I find always someone willing to teach what they know about the platform. And then I discovered the communities, most of all the spanish speaking on which I've always found support and good advice.

For someone with my levels of anxiety it was difficult but worthy to separate those numbers involved within the account on one side and the great opportunity of exploring with the creativity, the learning of every aspect of world's culture and the construction of good relations in this great platform on the other side.

My Steemblockchain knowledge

I only know that I know nothing

This is an always expanding universe of possibilities, even now we are learning some things with the new owner of Steemit Inc. and the Soft Forks and the certainty that Steemit is not Steem.

The point is that you need a basic core knowledge about the platform and stay always attending to new developments, projects and major changes in the system.

I've learned a lot with the projects steemnow.com and steemblockexplorer.com by @Penguinpablo and of course with steemworld.org by @Steemchiller. In some point I learned that an account is some kind of independent organism part of a great ecosystem, this I discovered when I was out of publishing for some months, but the account still was supporting and producing little earnings for others and also for me, there are many ways to do this but a site that is a great tool for the better performance of an account is steemauto.com by @Mahdiyari, with fanbase, curation and downvote trails, vote on comments, scheduled posts and more.

A long, long time ago I was some kind of good in reading the steembottracker by @Yabapmatt, but that is an ancient and useless knowledge right now. ;)

I've lived some wars here too, some between witnesses, some against scammers, some of them just regular trolls. Very impressive for me those battles against @Zeartul and of course recently that about @Haejin.

My Steem favourites

My main activity is blogging, the principal subject is literature and theater, but some times I explore with some posts on politics or events of actuality, life reflections and contests.

I think Steempeak.com and @eSteemapp are the best frontends so far.

My golden nugget advice

Of course after learning step by step the main information about the Steem blockchain, just enjoy in the first place to create and to express those matters that are really important for you, value the own work and in the same scale value the work of others, and this is not always with votes but rather with encouragement and good vibes.

My Steem hood & its peeps

The first community I meet and which I've always been supported is that around the Witness @Cervantes, a community with a large story and strength in the platform. I discovered thanks to them all that's neccesary in this great journey, in their Discord channel they have all the resources, information and support for the large spanish speaking community in Steem.

Other communities, with which I've received support (confessing that not being so much of Discord, I need to visit more in there) are @RadioSteemit with @Avellana, @CelfMagazine, @La-Colmena, @ElArca, @SteemitasClub with @Ritch, @Team-Mexico, @Club12, @Autovoters with @Salvao and many others.

Many good friends I've made in here, some of them are gone, others have been walking this path with me for over three years. @Marpa was my first admired steemian and friend, also @Avellana, @Mllg and @SLwzL, @Belkisa758, @MBallesteros and @Josemalavem, all of them are great encouragers of my work. @Madlenfox, from Russia, was my first international friend, always supporting and encouraging my journey here. I've recently meet @Roleerob, a great steemian that has shown me a lot not only on opportunities and potential of growth "in here", but about our great human spirit and soul and the ways of this life.

I miss a lot @SoyJoseLuis one of the greatest artist in the platform, @Fanisk, a digital artist from Colombia, @JoseGilberto, an engineer from Venezuela, @Pawos a great friend and blogger from Germany and the regular posts from @Firesteem a fireman and his team from Poland.

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It's been awesome to reflect in this great journey and I invite to participate to this wonderful initiative by @Jaynie and the Power House Creatives Community to my friends @Marpa, @MadlenFox, @Avellana, @Josemalavem and @Roleerob

HOW TO JOIN IN:

GENERAL INSTRUCTION:

1. Create a post titled: “My Steem Story – By @your.user.name”

2. The first three tags in order are to be as follows:
   #hive-114105
   #powerhousecreatives
   #mysteemstory

3. ONLY make use of the cover image provided in this post.

4. Keep the same formatting and placement (intro, footer
   instructions etc.)

5. Replace the personal photo with one of your own.

6. Tag 5 people to join in on the initiative.

7. Share your post to twitter.

8. Share your twitter link and Steem post link in the comments of @jaynie’s “Steem Story” post.

POST INSTRUCTION:

Write a post which shares and gives adequate response to the following headings:

• Where my Steem Journey began
_{(How you first discovered Steem and your very first thoughts and impressions “as you landed”.)}

• My initial challenges & how I overcame them
_{(Share a bit about the difficulties you faced at the beginning, whether it was navigation, post creation, engagement – whatever – how you resolved them and how differently you feel about it now)}

• My Steem blockchain knowledge
_{(Give a little bit of background on your blockchain knowledge when you began your Steem journey versus now.)}

• My Steem favourites
_{(What are the things you do mostly on the blockchain – is it blogging, vlogging? What front ends do you like to make use of and what content genre’s do you generally focus on?)}

• My golden nugget advice
_{(What advice would you offer to those that are unfamiliar or new to this space)}

• My Steem hood & its peeps
_{(Share a little about the communities you belong to, discord servers you frequent and perhaps a handful of the awesome people you follow)}

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^@LeVeuf