If you are a new Steemian and you follow me, do not be surprised if I do not follow you back, even if you put a generic comment on one of my posts asking me to do so. I already follow about 400 people and that's enough to keep my feed pretty busy. I do scan it each day, but it's still hard to keep up and I will miss posts by friends.
It's just not viable or useful for me to follow thousands of people. This is not some competition to get the biggest numbers. Steemit is about engagement and thoughtful curation. I value the comments I get on my posts and will vote them up (which pays a few cents), but if I see a comment saying 'Great post, please follow me', then I will ignore it as it adds no value. I know others are following everyone in sight, but they may find it doesn't scale.
I'm getting close to 1000 followers, but I realise only a fraction are actually looking at my posts. There will be some out to try and game the system, but I don't think they will thrive here. If you spam comments you are likely to be flagged, so please don't do it. We may see more of this as many more people join up.
I hope we will gain features on the site to make it easier to manage our feeds. Other services allow you to group people into lists/circles/whatever. Steemit really needs something like that.
I make some good money here, but it's by doing what is fun for me, so I don't consider it to be work. I hope Steemit will continue to be fun.
Steem on!
Join my Streemian voting trail.
Mine cryptocurrency in the cloud at Eobot. You can earn as you chat using WowApp. If you use these links I get a small reward. You can recruit others to do the same.