Boy, this was refreshing to read. I'll be honest, I wasn't a fan of yours after your "I'm Taking an Extended Break from This Shithole" post early in the year; especially being that the 'extended break' lasted like 8 hours before continuing to post again, getting like $40 payouts. There was a terrible diaper rash of shit-talk-on-steemit-and-receive-huge-rewards-for-doing-so going on around that time, and it was a shame to see these 70rep folks doing most of it.

I'm not a steemit nationalist or anything, but fuck, it was driving me nuts. I mean, it was just weird. Why all these people would spend time on Steemit just to bitch about how terrible Steemit is?? Oh, right... because they were getting like $200 per post for it. What you just wrote is the polar opposite of that. It's productive and it actually throws some solutions out onto the table. I agree on just about everything you said.

Based on my own experience here, I feel like mass adoption is what we need to achieve that community and middle-class you speak of. I'm a prime example of an everyday Joe getting on here. I'm not a tech guy, at all. I didn't know a single thing about steemit, twitch, bitcoin or cryptocurrency when I signed up. My brother just told me about this site where you make posts and get paid to do it. Over two years later, I'm still here and have accrued a bit over 10k STEEM power, which I'm still sitting on. I've withdrawn very little; really just early on as a test to see if this was all "real". I like having that small amount of influence on here, meager as it may be. Also, I know this will all go up eventually (look at your bitcoin digression). If I'm not in a hurry to cash out, why not keep in here in my SP where I can use it - both for influence and for earning more money? Like you said, it seems like a shitty business plan to dump it all the time. Again though, coming back to the mass adoption thing, maybe these people are crypto techies who are making a living off of crypto? If it's their job, then I guess I understand. I'm not that though. I have a pretty blue collar, full-time fabrication job; so I don't NEED the STEEM cash. It's been kinda this fun hobby thing that may pay off one day. If tons of other everyday Joe's got on here, they might behave in the same manor... especially if you add some of the incentives that you mentioned.

What are the things, right now, standing between you buying more STEEM? This isn't to finger point or any of that nonsense. It's for research and discussion.

Honestly, I can't think of a good reason. Numbers are down, it seems like a good time to buy. I guess I just never really think about buying. I'll do my part of this theoretical movement and buy some up. I just got paid anyway!

Sorry for that bit of 'real-talk' in the beginning, but it felt good to get that out and vent a bit. It makes a lot more sense now, reading about some of your reasoning and your feelings at the time. I mean, you're right... the sentiment was everywhere. Ironically, THAT'S what nearly drove me away from the platform. I've always just logged on and tried to post neat naturey stuff, but things were getting SO political. Anyway, kudos to you for this.