Number one reason I joined steemit instead of inferior blogging platforms
I just wanted to blog. You know. But for some reason, to have a simple blog without getting hassled seemed too much to ask. I like WordPress. Yes, a lot of geeks scoff at it for various reasons, some of them I understand. But I still like it and it is getting better. However, what's not getting better is the environment on wordpress.com (the hosting service.)
Advertising all over the place. Too intrusive. Yes, I know, there is no free lunch, I get that. I also happily pay for services. Specially when they are a bargain. The packs on Wordpress start with 5$ US, which is a very fine deal. But before you sign up and pay, during that time frame, the advertising is too much. It's not some adverts. I don't had ads. They can be good. But on a big network you get all kinds of ads for immoral products from people I don't like. So, this was too much.
Then, why not just pay and be happy? Because, you know, the way several businesses conducted themselves lately, when it comes to content of political nature, well, less than optimal to say the least. The thought alone, that I could find myself in a situation, where I would be completely censored as a paying customer, just because a freedom-hating NPC decided to have another bad day was too nightmarish to me. The mental image to have to deal with that sort of idiocy drove me away.
Now, some people seem to think "free speech" means you can say anything regardless of consequences. That's not what I was thinking about. But these days one can easily loose access to ones work just because of race, gender, or religion, because haters in Silicon Valley are acting out like little brats. Can't have that.
Not even so much a lot of what is happening, but even to have to think about all that is annoying. I still can't say what annoyed me more, the ads or the censoring, but I wanted neither.
So I looked around…
Why I couldn't resist once I started
Of course I had heard of alt-tech and the like and all that. I also pondered hosting my own. I also tried out various platforms and the decided to give steemit a shot. I liked the nice and clean layout. No ads, no fillers, no crap. Seemed good. Once I was in however, the nicest surprise I didn't even count on was given to me: I could write in Markdown! Yes!
So, that's a pretty big one. Not easy to get me away from that.
Of course, the main problem with Markdown prevails: every displaying engine renders it a tiny bit different. Or maybe this has something to do with the general steemit design. I don't know.
First reactions and a little internet history flash
When I then started to write, I expected nothing much. All I wanted was a blog on a page that was not too jumbled in order to occasionally show a post to a friend or two. Plus, no fear of being censored and no adverts from unethical businesses, which would reflect badly on me. Bonus: I could write in Markdown.
But two hours later, after I had published my first tiny blog, I also had the first "upvote" or however internet-points is called around here. I hadn't expected any readers for the first five posts or so, let alone internet-points! I tried to look who it was.
This gave me a flash. My first reader on steemit was a guy named @fyrstikken and I remembered him from YouTube! I had to laugh out loud, wow! I checked his page briefly, co-founder of steemit. Color me impressed.
I remember @fyrstikken as a YouTuber from during the early years of internet video. Back then, when YouTube used to be cutting edge, cool, and not Google-owned, he had a channel where he talked the wildest stuff. I remember a video about Mount Arabia or something, a historiographical topic. In that video he also talked about him being an serial entrepreneur, back then before it was cool to do so. I liked him, but didn't care so much about his videos, left and soon forgot him. And now suddenly he is there again, as my host! Wow.
Good vibes and a gold digging community
One aspect of the whole steemit experience I didn't even realize so much, many try to gain a living out of it. The blockchain and making money, two very interesting topics, but not the reason I am here at all. Somewhere, during my very first visit to steemit I read over a blog who talked about some people giving up on it on steemit to fast. Ah, ok, I thought, blockchain, so maybe this is a place where I can write without risking my career.
But this came back to me on my second post. A very helpful steemit colleague @funbobby51 explained a few steemit concepts to me. Very nice! This speaks well about steemit seen as a community. I feel a spirit of camaraderie like between diggers in Alaska during the gold rush era. It seems to be a given that you are in it for the money.
I must think about this aspect further. Internet money as a way to promote worthwhile political work. There is much more in this than I can touch upon now. I probably will come back to this in later posts.