2017 was awesome!

I discovered Steemit back in May, and about a month later, my second son was born! Raising both have each had their own set of challenges and hardships, but both have had their own set of rewards, too. I've built an organic following of over 900 people, never begging people to follow or vote for me. I've learned a lot this year, and plan to really bring my skill set to the table, and add long-term value to the Steem Blockchain. I have three #steemitresolution's, one of which is a philosophy, the other two are projects that will bridge Steemit to other communities, spreading crytpocurrencies into people's lives, and bringing fresh professionals and enthusiasts to the platform.

# 1) Promote the ethical and selfless use of upvote bots.

Bots are everywhere, and "the powers that be" either have their hands in the pot, or they just don't care about how buying votes makes Steemit look to the "regular" world. Had I seen that sort of behavior in my week or so of research while waiting for my account to approve, I'm not sure I would have spent as much time getting started. As many of you know, Steemit can hurt your feelings in the beginning. You work really hard on a post that no one sees or upvotes, and if you knew before coming in that people can earn by buying votes, would that have changed the way you saw Steemit's "fairness"?

Upvote bots aren't inherently a bad thing, though. If used in a selfless manner, they can be one of the single best ways of showing extra support to an author. My personal 100% upvote isn't worth very much, but if I've got an extra bit of SBD sitting in my wallet, and come across a post that really resonates with me, I'll send that SBD to an upvote bot so that post earns a bit more than I can currently give with an upvote. Sure, placing a vote is free, while placing a bid with a bot obviously costs money, but which would YOU rather get from me? I live my life by the Golden Rule, and truly believe that if I start paying some love forward, I will start seeing bot votes randomly pop up on my posts as well. The next time you have some extra change, go bid on a post you see in your feed, and tell me it doesn't feel great to do it. We should be supporting each other, instead of seeing how much we can pay to get a nice fat ROI.

I have thought a lot about starting my own upvote bot. One that will simply refuse to vote on a post if the author places the bid. It would require planning, and probably a small team, as we would need to monitor votes and determine if they are being placed by an author's alt-account, and the bot will have a blacklist for known offenders. This is something I would need extra time to work on and fund, but those two things are fairly tight currently, so the bot idea sits on the back burner, for now.

# 2) In 2018, I'm taking it upon myself to put Steemit freelancers in the spotlight!

Very shortly after joining, I saw the @steemgigs initiative come to life and provide a marketplace where people could offer their services and products for Steem and SBD. I've written many curation posts about services offered on the (#steemgigs) tag, and am a moderator on the SteemGigs Discord. The tag has come under fire by a fairly ridiculous amount of spam the last couple months, and it's becoming incredibly hard to find freelancing posts, so I can imagine how hard it is for freelancers to get seen in this environment. This is where I intend to help, with the creation of The Steem Freelancer's Guild!

The SFG will be a consortium of freelancers who want to get serious about their freelancing businesses. It will create an opportunity for freelancers to get clients and contracts. It will also give anyone with money to spend, the ability to find exactly what they're looking for without the hassle of sifting through the Steemit feeds to find it, saving time, and in the long run, money.

This consortium will by no means be "in competition with" or "a replacement for" @steemgigs. Quite the contrary. @surpassinggoogle created the "body" of the Steemit freelancing community. The Steemit Freelancer's Guild will be the "armor" that will keep this community as strong as it can be. I have created the @steemfreelancers account to manage the project, and purchased the domain name www.steemfreelancers.com. The Steemit account will be used for curation and promotion of freelancers, and will hold the project funds. I'll be writing an introduction post for the account soon that will detail how these funds will be used, and give much more detail than this post about how it will operate. The website will have listings of members and the services or products they offer, essentially creating a visual classifieds that Steemians can shop through.
If you're interested in this project, becoming a member, or even joining the SFG Team, and help bring this project to life, I have set up a Discord, and would love to hear from you!

# 3) Last but certainly not least, this is the year my steem-based survival mmorpg goes online!

Many of my long-time followers, and a few of my new ones, know that I have a game up my sleeve. A game that will incorporate the Steem currency, and bring a whole new way to have fun on the Blockchain. It will also build a bridge between this community, and one of indie game developers and players.

@thriveordie is/will be a sandbox survival mmorpg. Set in a medieval fantasy world that I've spent more than two decades imagining, planning, and writing, and building. I think the only person on Steemit who could truly attest to the breadth of this world is my little brother, @kingkinslow. The game will have a marketplace where players can easily arrange the trade of items or services in game for Steem or SBD. It will likely also reward players when reaching milestones or achievements. The details on all of that have yet to be worked out, but I know it will use the currency.

If you would like to support this project, you can send donations or delegations of any amount to @thriveordie.

As you can tell, I've got a busy year ahead of me,

and I won't dislike a moment of it. Steemit has become a huge part of my life, and will likely be how I retire. 2018 is going to be the year my Steem Train picks up the traction I need to really change not only my own life, but the lives of as many people as I possibly can. Thank you for your time, and Happy New Year!

This is my own entry into my 2018 #steemitresolution Challenge where I'm asking everyone how they plan to help make Steemit a better place this year. What do you have planned for the next year of blogging, earning, and engaging?

Read the Original Challenge Post HERE