I like this comment and am curious how it compares if you were a brand new person today.

Does joining 15 months ago, like you did, confer an additional advantage by:

1. Steem may have been much cheaper then, so a post that paid out $50 in July 2016
2. Voters had 20 votes a day at 100% power vs 10 votes per day now
3. It MAY have been easier to get upvotes on meh content because people had more votes to give, so why not throw a couple around.

But, I'm new, so I'm guessing at some past activity.

Some of the bigger challenges, though, are that we follow people and not topics. To follow topics, as I understand it, I need to click on them. I would much rather follow topics, so when Papa or Stella write on a topic that I'm following I'd be more inclined to read, comment, and (maybe) upvote. It's what I like about Reddit.com, even though Karma there isn't worth anything. I focus more on topics rather than authors.

However, I may be more interested in trying to earn curation rewards, and I know that Papa and Stella (and Jerry B, Stan, Fuzzy, etc.) will have a solid following, so I may just upvote without reading or commenting because the possible payout is worth the risk.

With Stan and Fuzzy (and you too, Intellguy), what they post is usually on topic with my interests, so I'll purposefully look at their home page each morning to ensure I'd didn't miss anything they've posted. I'm also looking at using a bot (like Steemvoter.com) to upvote them automatically to get in early on curation because I know I'm always going to read their stuff and likely throw in a comment, too.

The push to make some $$ when I'm putting in time on steemit makes me want to help maximize both what I'm learning and what I'm earning.