RE: I Have A Little Secret To Share With Everyone!

But YOU
Yes. YOU.
You're still here! Right?!?!?
Right?

Nope. :) I was actually just bored, so decided to quickly check the trending page and your post caught my eye. I check art content to get inspired and I haven't been getting that from blogs anymore. I experienced a family tragedy and I realized how precious time is and that I don't want to waste it blogging. I actually made a post for what happened but don't feel like sharing it and I doubt I will ever feel comfortable enough. My point is, I realized I have bigger goals and that I want to work on bigger projects and writing about every step is simply a distraction to make me feel like I'm accomplishing something. It has been 2 years since I joined here and a year since Whaleshares, there hasn't been any significant progress that affects me. Blogging is just a hobby and like with every hobby, you have limited time and sometimes you simply get bored and move on to a new hobby or even old one :)
Don't get me wrong tho, I don't regret blogging at all, it has helped me in some ways like socializing, motivation to try new art mediums, and I tend to make my best art when I feel challenged like by contests. So I got my value's worth for time even if it isn't in terms of money. However, by now I feel like I've reached the end level for what I can do with blogging, just like in a game. I've considered making smaller and shorter posts just for the sake of staying active, like a lot of others have, but that's just not fun. In the long run I'd probably earn more if I invested that time elsewhere. As for friends, I'm pretty terrible with staying in touch but I believe that there are 2 or 3 people who I can message on discord and have a nice conversation with anytime, even a year from now. That's good enough for me, but I understand how some people are not so antisocial like me.

Quick summary: You have to be the top blogger to make a living and most crypto is essentially gambling. Steemit is just a hobby and it stopped being fun because a lot of us get stuck on a certain "level" regardless of the quality of posts. I do wish best of luck to those actually putting the effort into their posts, I hope Steemit improves their browsing quality so that we can more easily find the posts that we personally find interesting. I don't feel like anymore scrolling more than couple of minutes to find a good post.

Yeah, it certainly isn't for everyone. When it comes to content and content discovery, I find it's much easier to look for those interesting people, rather than interesting posts. Usually the interesting people will deliver interesting content. They're still hard to find though when mixed in with all that spam on Steemit. This tribe helps organize things a bit. I've met most of the interesting types through my blog, when they come and visit my posts.

stopped being fun because a lot of us get stuck on a certain "level" regardless of the quality of posts.

There once was a ladder one could climb. They'd earn, and then every now again someone would notice something special and it would make it up to the trending page organically. Then the author would gain certain benefits like more money and a more followers, organically, because they were in the spotlight. Then, after a few days, the party was over but the author still had a chance to do it all again.

The moment they started selling votes, that all went away, a long with thousands of people. I promise you, I tried to explain that to people, for years. A lot of those vote seller types would tell me I'm just whining. The one purchasing votes and pushing the talent aside had no sense of community either. I tried to tell them as well. That was my biggest waste of time here. They just kept selling votes and buying votes, being blind to the chaos it was causing all around them, and now look. Steemit is a disaster and many, like you, have left, and see no reason to come back.

When it comes to making money here, there's a business side to things many miss, but I don't want to bore you to death with a long response.