@whatsup @whatsup and he hit the hammer.... Pssssssssssst -(she's a _girl_ !!lolol)
A very, very cool girl, admittedly, but you know, don't wanna offend anyone...lol

oh, back you your post...
Yes, the _energy_ in steem seems to have changed somehow - but I can't put my finger on it,  exactly _how_ it as changed.....

I believe steemit is a unique opportunity for the Latino community, especially for those in developing countries. I see it that way, steemit is changing a lot the life of people in countries like Venezuela (my situation) and also I see this technology as preferred to solve several problems here. Love your post

Didn't bother reading this because of the bidbot situation and the flag wars

Awesome! I am encouraged.

I did not experience the early days but have stuck around in the hope that it will be like that again. In the meantime, I have met very interesting people from all over. When strangers reach out on other social media I am suspicious. On Steemit the agenda is clear and mutual benefit is easily and understandably achieved. As a result, we can get on with the business of getting to know one another and building real friendships.

I do hope to become a successful blogger one day and I hope that I will learn how here on Steemit.

A beautiful share. Thank you for the inspiration. Grateful with Steemit :)

#### Hi @giantbear!

Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your **UA** account score is currently 5.250 which ranks you at **#783** across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has dropped 1 places in the last three days (old rank 782).

In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 219 contributions, your post is ranked at **#19**.
##### Evaluation of your UA score:

* You've built up a nice network.
* The readers appreciate your great work!
* Good user engagement!


**Feel free to join our [@steem-ua Discord server](https://discord.gg/KpBNYGz)**

Personally, Steem changed a lot for me, in particular through the SteemSTEM project. I arrived here as someone who never blogged about anything and I started to write. This somehow opened my eyes in the importance of doing outreach about what scientists work on. From there, things escalated quickly and I am now trying to bring my own stone to the whole science communication business, as one of the managers of SteemSTEM. I still don't know whether this will be a success, but I will do my best. Science communication is vital today and there is a good share for Steem in there. 

On the side, I have fun, I met a lot of people from all over the world and co-organized a small number of really cool meetup events. Steem includes also a social part. ^^

So in short, Steem indeed goes way beyond the blogging paradigm. Steem can be used for much more than that, and it is actually already used for much more than that. The final usage is also what we will decide it to be, and today is still the right moment to build projects on Steem.

I had high hopes when I joined, and have tried to post every day, sometimes 5 quality posts a day, but I've found that quality doesn't do it. Because hardly anyone reads my posts other than to reciprocate my upvotes and comments I just post on automatic now, but there is still a small hope that one day, perhaps in a year or two or three I may have enough of a reputation many will see my posts and perhaps the right ones  will come that will enjoy them...

Holy cow about the uni costs. What a blessing. I have not done that well by any means, but steemit has been a big help to my finances since about Nov 2017. I got in a year after you, so I was not here for the glory days of the first year. But I was here last year for the price rise and took out a lot of money that helped me and my son enormously.  

This is one of many platforms I am posting in. I do not "believe" in steemit to an extent that I would hold wealth here. The shenanigans are too many and too hard for me to understand, and I do not care enough to try. Today alone, I found two new scams going on and I only looked long enough to find out how to protect myself from them.

The fact that less than 40 anonymous and somewhat unscrupulous and mean guys hold 80+ percent of the value here gives me no interest in "investing." The fact that the place is too hard for most content creators to last more than a month tells me the issues are too big to overcome. The 90% kill-rate for people who try here is a dismal stat no one really cares about. 

But I personally am doing well enough to continue and these are the positives for me.

I'm using steemit as a place to:
- get my natural weight loss message out to the world
- make friends online and in person
- make current income; try for more than that
- learn about crypto in general
- learn technical details and skills in blogging and video making. 

All of that makes this place worth my while. One of my goals that I do pretty well with is connecting with my steeming friends in other online places. That way if I wake up one day and the place is gone, I will still be able to find them :)

I was also considering whether it is worthwhile writing on steemit, but reading your post, it gave me hope again.