Answers to Ten Snooky Questions

Snook likes to ask questions, and she chooses good ones, too! If you don't believe me, feel free to get a second opinion on the matter from ShadowsPub. And, people respond when @snook asks questions, because she is well-loved.

She recently has asked another round of questions and @tagged a few people to answer, including me. However, it is not necessary to be tagged in order to participate! So, if you feel so motivated, especially if you have not yet chosen a topic for your next post, consider yourself @tagged, too!

I came to the blockchain in September 2017. So, in a little over a week, I will have been here for four years and three months!

Other than having heard of Bitcoin on the news and read a little about it online, I didn't know anything else about cryptocurrency. I had no first-hand experience with it. I thought it would be cool to have some Bitcoin for the novelty of it, but had no clue where to get it and had no real "use case" for it at the time. I did not realize the potential for it as an investment.

Over the years, I've done some writing in a variety of situations. I edited and published a monthly newsletter for a hobby club back in the 1980s, writing many of the articles, myself, when there weren't enough contributions from the members. I also wrote technical documentation for a previous employer, and was a copy-editor for another employer. I have blogged online in some form since 2005, although not with the intensity that I blog here.

I came to the blockchain from a site called Ello, one of the first (if not the first) social media sites promising to never sell users' data for profit and to safeguard their privacy. I followed @pixelfan here, and @traciyork heeded the call about the same time. About a week later, @bluefinstudios followed us, too! There were a few others, but most of the ones I knew from Ello are no longer active here. Other than that group, I knew no one else on the blockchain at the time.

Having been in "online social situations" since 1984 in the days of dial-up BBS, then progressing on to CompuServe, Prodigy, AOL, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Tribe (defunct), MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Ello, et al., I was well-versed in the paradigm of networking by reaching out to others. So, I did the same here, by commenting on others' posts.

Within my first month on the blockchain, I kept hearing about Discord, an app with which I was unfamiliar. With a little research, I learned that it is similar to Internet Relay Chat (IRC) which I used heavily in the late-1990s and early 2000s and provides forums where people can talk to others in real-time. Discord was originally created for gamers, but also became a place where many blockchain users congregate to communicate with others.

I started by visiting the Discord website and ran their app in my browser. It lacked some of the features and stability of their standalone desktop-app, so it wasn't long before I downloaded the desktop-app and have been very happy with it. For mobile-users, they also have a mobile-app that is very stable and easy to use. Joining two or three "servers" on Discord connected me to several communities and projects run by those on the blockchain. It was on Discord that meeting people and learning about the blockchain accelerated at a dizzying, but fulfilling, pace!

One of the first people I followed was @carolynstahl, whose posts were always delightful, fun, and full of adventure. She remains one of my favorite bloggers on-chain to this day, as her blogging is always of consistent quality, interest, and she seems so genuine and down-to-earth.

Early on, I also discovered @jaynie, whose posts usually contained inspirational and uplifting content. In fact, it was from her that I learned of Discord and her community was the first I joined. I then joined a women-only Discord server where I met @shadowspub and joined her community which hosts the longest-running "live" curation show for posts on the blockchain. I really admire ShadowsPub, then and now, for being so friendly, helpful, and competent in everything she does.

In that women-only community, I also met @crimsonclad and stalked followed her to the PALnet server, run by the @minnowsupport project. I have great admiration for her and all she does for the blockchain, from being one of the few women on a witness team to tirelessly answering questions people ask to hosting shows that talk about the blockchain.

My first three months on the blockchain were akin to being magically transported to a foreign country. I only knew a couple of people who had traveled with me. There was no tour guide, only a brief pamphlet about fun facts about our country (the FAQ). I had to learn the language, I had to learn my way around, I had to learn the etiquette, I had to look for a job where I could contribute to the ecosystem as a whole. It was all kinds of mystifying and fascinating and scary all rolled into one. Yet, tons of fun!

Oh, most definitely! For one thing, it has made me a better blogger. Even though I have been blogging since 2005, it was never at this level where hours upon hours go into every single blog I write. Even this post, which is more personal viewpoints and not scientific facts that must be documented, is taking hours to write, rethink, reword, edit, and resume writing. I try to be careful with the images I use in posts, and frequently spend time editing my own photos. Giving proper credit to graphics is important to me, too. All of this takes time, but it is worth it since it has my mark on it. I already have about three hours invested in this post so far, maybe more, and I am only on question number eight.

And even though I was in my sixties when I joined the blockchain, I have matured some and grown as a person, as I think most of us do throughout our lives. Heck, if we get to a point that we are not learning, growing, and improving ourselves, then we're doing nothing but becoming stagnant like a slimy-green pond with no water flowing and no fish, but tons of mosquitos. The trick is to surround oneself with smart people who challenge you to learn and grow more, and there are plenty of folks like that on the blockchain!

There are many memories that are lovely, such as winning my first contest, participating in my first live-curation show in Discord, the earning of 'Minnow' status, purchasing my first cryptocurrency to supplement my blockchain earnings, being accepted for membership into TheAlliance (which is now open to everyone), reaching 'Dolphin' status, and so many other things!

But, I think the one thing that stands out from them all is when I helped launch a really big and successful project: TheTerminal. I had already been assisting many other people with their projects on the blockchain and Discord, but this was my first opportunity to participate in a big project from the very beginning and to have my input to be valued as much as it was. The day we 'opened for business' was so exciting. We are thrilled to have recently celebrated our Third Anniversary of helping people on the blockchain!

• Be genuine. Be yourself. Don't hide behind a fake mask of a personality. No one likes posers and fakers. The world is more fun when we can just be ourselves. It becomes tiresome dealing with people who are not trustworthy and genuine.


• Be honest. Don't steal other people's work or other people's thunder. Plagiarizers and scammers are hurting the reputation of the blockchain as well as themselves. If you want Hive to succeed, then you won't be a bad-actor here.


• Be courteous. Even though you can't always see faces, there is a real-life, breathing human being behind every name and avatar you see here. Treat people as you wish others would treat you. Show kindness and compassion.


• Be friendly. There are so many good people on the blockchain! Get to know them! Make some friends! Have a real conversation in comments on posts, or in Discord, wherever is best for you! But don't miss connecting with the great people here!


• Have fun. Earning crypto is an exciting thing, whether one does it by blogging, playing games, gambling, or investing — all of which we have here!  But don't get so wound-up about it that you fail to have fun here while doing it.


• Safeguard your keys! Unlike the big, centralized sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, we do not have a "Forgot Password?" link to quickly retrieve your password. We have complicated "Keys" to protect our transactions on the blockchain. Don't lose them, or you might lose your account and your funds! Save them to thumb-drives, print them on paper, whatever you need to do to keep them safe!


• Join TheTerminal. We can help with learning the etiquette & workings of the blockchain. We can give guidance on how to write a good post, how to source images & info in your posts, what might be good hashtags to use, which Communities or Tribes might appreciate your posts, and how to format posts. More advanced users can learn to deal with beneficiaries, exchanging tokens/coins, witness proxies, block explorers, managing engagement, liquidity pools, and other fascinating topics. To join TheTerminal's Discord server, click the banner below:

So, yes, join the fun if you feel so inclined and give us your answers to the questions! It would make @snook very happy! And feel free to use the tag: