Today has been one of the most interesting days ever for me on Steemit. I have been waiting for linear rewards for a long time now. My most successful post ever was about Linear Rewards and I explain there that I think it can make Steemit what it was meant to be.

It seems clear to me that if influence is directly proportional to stake, instead of concentrated to the highest stake holders, there is more of a possibility for consensus.

It Depends On Us

Not only do smaller stake holders now have more influence, we have more voting power on each vote. We only have 10 full power votes before we start losing voting power, but if you scale it back to 25% you could still vote on 40 posts.

Personally, I will be paying a lot more attention to the percentage I'm voting on. My vote was worth about 20 cents yesterday and now my full upvote is worth about $8. With more power comes more responsibility. I will not vote for curation rewards.

I will vote on what I find value in and if we all do that, the trending page will change for the better. I will be using different percentages based on how much value I find in the post and I will never vote purely for curation reward. In fact, I will look to give rewards to good posts that are undervalued.

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As happy as I am to see the new hardfork, today is also the day that I realized that the projects that I have been working may not be sustainable for me to carry on into the future. I guess it may be time to let others run with it and go back to the drawing board to see how I can continue to bring value to the platform.

SteemFest Dreams

Today, I noticed the top trending post is to give someone a free trip to SteemFest 2! I have been trying to do that with my @steemfestdreams account since last year. The campaign was able help some people go to SteemFest, but never got the kind of support that I have seen these new contests receive.

The latest @steemfestdreams post was effected very positively by the hard fork and there is still going to be at least one more big payout to someone and I am thankful that the account has done that. But, now that people like @theprophet0, @joseph, and @aggroed are showing people how it's done, I think @steemfestdreams will get phased out.

It is kind of bitter sweet to realize that @steemfestdreams will most likely come to an end because now people with more stake can do it better. It was never a profitable venture for me and took up more time than I ever originally intended it to, anyway. Even though I was only a small part of @everlove's journey last year and @jacobts's this year, I am very happy about those successes!

SteemSpeak

As I have written about in pretty much all of my last several posts, SteemSpeak has been one of my favorite things I have found through Steemit. I have been saying for a while now that the conversations in SteemSpeak are often so entertaining and informational that there should be some kind of post that showcases some of those conversations.

People seemed to like the idea and be ok with SteemSpeak being recorded so @fyrstikken let me make a post. Today, the hardfork would have more than doubled it, but then for some reason it got flagged. It is still worth what it was so it's not that big of a deal I guess, but it does make me wonder what will happen with the future of that project if major stake holders are against it for some reason.

Pity Party

I know I am being a whiny bitch today, but I guess I am using Steemit as a counselor. I guess that's probably a horrible idea, but I have only ever tried to write about what I am thinking and feeling - just sharing as openly and honestly as I can.

I am losing my father to a horrible disease along with dimentia and a lot of things that have been a part of my life are falling apart right now. Steemit has been kind of an escape for me for the past year. Steemit has actually given me more hope for the future than I have had in a long time.

It's funny that just typing all of this out, is bit like a counseling session it self. Just to try to put my feelings into words. Now I'll probably be sitting here trying to decide if I should clear it or post it.

SteemSpeak is Awesome

So after writing all that, I got on SteemSpeak and just let it all out and the friends that I have there made me feel 10x better. I realize, thanks to @seablue, that part of the journey includes good things coming to an end. I am already starting to think about new possible projects and ways to evolve current ones.

As long as I have a goal and something to work on, something to look forward to, I will be happy. There is so much to work on, how could I not be happy. This was more of a stream of consciousness post than I normally do, so I hope it reads ok.