Burning the Midnight Oil Reading about the Drama on Steemit: A n00bs Perspective

Somehow, I stayed up half the night reading posts by the heavy hitters on the platform.  I just couldn't stop.  There was much flagging.  And much cursing.  And much debate.  And I'm not any closer to reaching any sort of conclusion about what the heck it all means to me.  So join me while I attempt to get my crazy thoughts down on paper for the purposes of this post.

Initial Advice:  Don't do what I did.  Some things cannot be unseen

No good came out of it.  If anything, it only gave me doubts about the platform.  That sucks.  I get it though.  Anywhere there is money involved, people will engage in nefarious activity.  The blockchain is not immune to this.  And it's there for everyone to see.  So what did I see exactly?  Honestly, I don't have enough evidence to say either way.  I still want to be here.  I'm writing this mainly to myself to hash out my thoughts.  And this type of personal journal type therapy helped me tremendously during my days of early recovery.  Hopefully, by the end of this post, I will have more of a concrete idea moving forward with Steemit.  And please, feel free to give me some advice if you have any experience with issues like this.  

Some things that disturbed me:

1. Massive flagging of posts en masse
2. Creating fake accounts to upvote your own content
3. Creating a fake whale account to trick people to sending SBD (I think that's what happened)
4. Name calling and cussing galore
5. Groups basically using their power to push people from the platform 

Now look guys, I have no historical context to go on here.  Some of these activities could have been warranted.  The person who created fake accounts or an account with the intention to scam people does not need to be here.  The way the system is designed, it's only natural that the whales would group together and "like each other"  . . . Steemit is a microcosm just like anywhere else.  From the looks of it though, it looks like they came together for the betterment of the community and there were some that bucked the system.  Safeguards are put in place to some degree, but we have a way of exploiting things for our own benefit and gain.  I don't really know . . 

I believe that ALL of our voices mean something

My feelings right now are mixed, but from what I see, great content is rewarded

That's a huge deal to me.  It appears that only a very, very small fraction of the community is involved in this type of behavior.  This is good.  And some of the more active members who were lashing out against this one particular person have large followings.  I am going to place my faith in the Steemit community as a whole.  A couple people who hold a lot of Steem power are not going to effect my feelings about this platform.  I will still look to begin creating relationships with like minded people:  recovery oriented, crypto oriented, positive, and great content creators of the community - - and for that I am very grateful.

Have any of you had any experience with this, and what did you do about it?

I'm still very new here, and I'm sure that this isn't the first time this has happened.  We're human beings.  Prone to mistakes, outbursts, greed, and a host of defects of character.  What are some of the things that you guys have done to continue being positive about being here?  Yea, yea, I can here some of you now:

"Quit being a wuss.  Just don't look at that.  Continue doing what you're doing."

And you guys would be absolutely right.  For myself though, I have learned that when I feel a certain way, or something is going on that bothers me, it's best to get it out in the open instead of dwelling on it and letting it fester.  I put a decent chunk of my crypto portfolio into here, and I was having some second thoughts late last night.  Half falling asleep but telling myself, "just one more post man, just read one more post . . . ok, just go down to the bottom of the comments"

And that's another thing:  I was wholeheartedly impressed by the comments section of many of those articles.  Sure, there were a few people who, in my opinion, were assholes, but the majority were still very positive.  So that's it!!  Thanks for helping me get through this guys.  I will go with the consensus of the community!  

I hope no one found this as cheesy as I do . . . but this is just how my mind works.  I hope you all have a great day.

Sources: 1, 2