It’s been about a month since my revived passion for Steem hit, or should I say, my newfound passion for steem, and NOT steemit.

I’ve changed a lot about how I use the platform now that I realized how much better steempeak.com is.  For anyone who doesn’t know already (I was late to the game myself), steempeak is a way to access the steem blockchain including all posts from steemit.com but with a much better, more integrated interface.  

Here is how I use steem differently these days:

### I post using community tags and get rewarded tokens
I’m staking at least 50%-70% of the tokens I earn because I want these communities to succeed. I use #naturalmedicine the most and for anything related to spirituality or health, #creativecoin for anything creative #steemleo for anything crypto related, and #palnet or #neoxian when I want to interact more with those users.

### I use community front-ends
I use the community front ends as a kind of curated front page in order to find new people in specific communities mentioned above.  Naturalmedicine.io creativecoin.xyz palnet.io  etc.  An alternative way to do the same thing is to use the “tribe function” on steempeak.com. This is really useful for when I want to read articles on a certain topic and not worry about scrolling through lots of other stuff.  It also allows me to split my interaction into different circles that are easier to keep track of so I can get to know and remember more people that I like.  steempeak is my default.  I only use steemit.com to access my wallet for keys.

### I Try to onboard new users
Now that we have fewer bidbots, less spam, and a better distribution of wealth because of the high number of curation groups, plus communities for easier interaction, I feel compelled to finally introduce steem to my friends.  I feel there is more that could keep them around.  I don’t even mention money when I tell them unless they already show interest in the platform.  I find focusing on the community aspect may get fewer new users, but they are much more likely to stay and that is what we need.  The money will come once we have more devoted users. 

### Bring Back your favorite Steemians
I started a hashtag that no one is using yet, #bbyfs which I think is a great idea if we want to make this place richer and more dynamic.  If we want a bigger user base, why not start with the people who already understand and have some experience here.  I believe almost half of everyone who left did so because of bidbots while the other half left because no payout.  A few may have left because it was just a mess.  Most problems have been solved so Why don’t we try to bring back a good chunk of people who left.  We could easily double our user base without explaining too much about blockchain and payout and other complicated things.  I’ve already got back in touch with @churtzu from @paradiseparadox, @debbietiyan and @rasamuel to see if I can bring them back. I’ll continue with this and I think you should too.

### I use list to organize my friends and it's so much easier to browse now.
This is one of my favorite features of steempeak.  I can organize users into lists of people who I want to stay connected with.  I have a "Be Awesome" list with users from our chat room, an "Old Friends" list with people who I want to get back in touch with, a "Famous" list with my favorite of the big names whose posts I read and check the comment section to engage on steem topics, and a "New Friends" list with users who I am excited to get to know better.  I can decide which list I'm in the mood to check out...usually if there is one I haven't checked in a while I will start with that.  This is so damn useful.

### I am cleaning up my followed users
I also love how I can see the last time a user has accessed the steem blockchain in my follows and follower lists.  I went through them the other day and cleared out all the names I didn't recognize who hadn't posted in the last year and a half.  I cut about 100 people at least 95 of which were inactive.  I may cut another 100 whose names I don't recognize if I don't feel interested in their content.  But now that it's easy to organize friends lists here, I feel comfortable to add a lot more new people to my feed!

### I have two communities I don't know what to do with :-D 
I started a Be Awesome community before I realized all of steempeaks features and now I don't really know what to do with it.  I started a Deadpost Initiative community as well but I find I don't have the passion or energy for it anymore.  I'd rather focus on writing, meeting new friends, helping these communities grow and bringing back old users to steem.

### I'm still challenging myself
@VincentNijman and I have started our podcast "Untangled Knots" which is out of my comfort zone.  We will be posting on steem platforms as well as traditional social media in an effort to bridge the two.  We are taking our sweet old time with podcast #3 because both of us felt under the weather last week but we shall get back to it soon.  [Take a listen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfsXqmejZo8)

## How are you using Steem these days?
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