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I noticed a couple of things this week that left me with some questions. I'm going to list them in random order to involve you in my quandary. Maybe you can shed some light for me.

Background

I am not an early adopter type. My instinct is to be careful and to stand back to check things out before jumping in. The more sure people are of their opinion or product and the more absolute they are in how they express themselves, the more I doubt and hold back.

As a result, I came to cryptocurrency late and may still be a spectator if it had not been for Steemit. Steemit made it possible for me to enter this new world as it also opened a way for me to start blogging. This last was a skill I had long contemplated acquiring.

In a recent post, @sydesjokes showed me how much money I would have now if I had spent $5 on Bitcoin when it started. This motivates me to be a faster adopter of new things. @joanstewart often advises me (and others) to properly research any new currency or programme. I have tried to do this.

There is an old story of an experienced preacher well-known for raising his voice during his sermons. His wife saw this notation next to one of the points in his sermon notes: 'Weak point. Shout like hell!'

Many of the white papers I have read, sounds a little like this preacher. Too sure, too confident, too absolute. Research in a new world is not an easy thing. There is not a lot of historical data available, is there? No one can say, 'The last time we did this...'

Here is the random list of things that brought about my questions.

1. The way it used to be on Steemit

@giantbear is one of my favourite authors on Steemit. In a recent post that she claims is not a rant, she gently rants about followers on Steemit not following anymore. She describes a time on Steemit where people would very actively support one another. Then things changed a couple of times. She now has 3500 followers and less than 200 votes on a post. Where are the rest, she laments.

In my time here, I have never paid any attention to my feed. Engaging with people on a regular basis has been challenging and the names keep changing. Getting to know people well, as @giantbear describes, is a foreign concept to me here. I have used @kryptonia with great success and joining #steemitbloggers and #teamsouthafrica on discord has been very rewarding. However, I cannot picture regular engagement on Steemit without the help of such services.

Questions

How many people have left @Steemit or become inactive? Are there still new people signing up? How far will the price of Steem drop? Will Steemit become better if the price was to go up?

2. Velocity

More changes are coming on 25 September. It is called a Hardfork and my spellchecking software is unaware that there is such a word. I am not too worried about how this will affect Witnesses and whales and such. They all seem well-equipped and informed. I am unable to determine whether these changes will be good for regular users like you and me. For all the talk about the power and fairness of decentralization, Steemit seems not that different from the regular world...

Questions

Will the impending changes be good for us? Who will benefit the most?

3. Everyone on the bandwagon

I'm very interested in steempress.io that enables me to have a Wordpress blog that will automatically publish on Steemit. I post once and two worlds open up. I have not taken the plunge but my impressions are good and the steempress guys support their bloggers significantly on Steemit with strong upvotes. (I suppose by the time I do take the plunge, the support will be weaker as many more will have signed up... Story of my life.)

Then I discovered Weku. They are basically a clone of Steemit. The strong, nearly precise similarity unnerved me and I did not sign up. They are in beta and my instinct is to wait for a bit. You may not want to wait as long as you can earn Weku dollars...

And then I discovered Kblog! These guys I know better as they are from @kryptonia and I signed up. But here is the thing. It is just another version of Steemit. Here you earn Superior Coin and I find that attractive. I'm also already engaged with many of the users because of my use of @kryptonia.

Questions

Why is everyone starting their own version of Steemit? Do they know something about Steemit that I do not? How do you balance posting on so many different platforms? Do you just copy and paste content from one to the other? Are these new platforms attractive because they do not yet have voting bots and whales sitting in a circle? Is joining them early adoption or falling for copycats with no real original ideas?

What is going on?

I do not expect you to answer all or any of my questions. You are not my research assistant... But if you have opinions or links to opinions, please share them with us. Or tell me that my questions are nonsensical and I should just carry on posting. Just don't sound too sure of yourself... :-)

@reonlouw

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