Unfortunately with all the steempower locked up in bidbots the chances of getting  a big vote without paying for it is pretty slim. When I joined there was more possibilities of getting a visit from a whale to spur me on now, I think new users don't see any success in their posts and leave. 
I hope that we are ready for the next rising tide but if new members are not nurtured and not given the chance of success then they will quickly loose interest again.

Yeah steem has not really moved and SBD seem totally overstated and no where to really get rid of them! All this talk about SMT yet I really have not seen anything come of it and honestly kind of expected something by now?

I still think it will get better once SMT's are launched, but the STEEM price is also really dependent on the Bitcoin price. Fact is that the STEEM blockchain is still the most used, can't argue with that.

One thing I have to explain to many newbies who came in Dec-Jan is that the steemit system isn't as easy as they think it is.

Very true..

This is what we should be focusing and not celebrating hitting the one million account. 

How many people are active out of the one million created accounts that we are celebrating.  We should be value conscious and not number conscious. 

Thank you for this great insight, you did a lot of editing, so no error detected... Smile

For me, it's a great site that's inspired me to write more, and I find more value in that than in the Steem that I get.  The Steem is a nice thing to get, but it's not my motivating factor for loving steemit.com.  I plan to be here a long time.

Truly the plan behind Steemit is a really brilliant one, paying people to do the things they do on other social media platforms. Like you pointed out the boom attracted many people to Steemit but then, those were the guys who came in late. Most of the people who rushed in in December did that as a result of the boom of the Steem Backed Dollar.

The SBD  really attracted several people to the platform. When the price of SBD was at $1, people were coming in but the influx wasn't as much as that seen in december. SBD at $12 gave people a reason to join the platform and stay. In certain countries where most of the people lived on less than $5 daily and were grateful if they could find a wage of $10, Steemit.com was a life saver. Spending 4 hours making a post with the hopes that upon payout, it can get even 0.5 SBD was worth it.

And then, there was the big dip which cut across every cryptocurrency and the crypto world is presently struggling as a result of that. About the reduced influx of people into Steemit and the way some accounts are being left for good, it's only by people who came in during the boom. while the crypto market isn't what it was in december or january, the ongoing process to peg the SBD back to a dollar per SBD isn't helping things either. To the newbie on Steemit, SBD is god of the steemit eco system. The steem power earned is just some money locked up in a fixed deposit account, while they require money now. To them, Steem can stay at $1 for all they care, as long as SBD fetches a good price on the market. I've had to explain to too many people about how steem favours the platform. Despite all the processes to push steem higher at the expense of the SBD, Steem hasn't exactly grown appreciably. Instead, the rise and fall of the market has been affecting it also. 

However, when the price of SBD falls the content creators who are paid in SBD seven days after making a post are not compensated as much as they used to be. I have met certain users and requested their reason for not blogging on Steemit again and their reply has been the decline in SBD's price. Even when SBD was at $5, people were still okay with it but that isn't the case now.

In my own opinion, I think the price of SBD should be allowed to float  and when it attains a certain position, we can expect the influx of more people into steemit. Afterall, people flooded in when the Steem was at $1.5 and SBD was at $9.

I'm not the most knowledgeable man in this matters and I would be open to corrections.

I agree with you, seems there have been a decline in the activities on many steemit account. They'll probably come again when they here the price goes up.

It's <i>come for the rewards, stay for the community,</i> what if a person comes and there is no rewards? He'll probably leave. It's the crypto world things could turn within the blink of an eye. Nice data analysis BTW.

Steemit dropping below 1000 on Alexa means nearly nothing. Such volatility is to be expected in the first years. I think in the next five years it'll be top ten (either Steemit or another site built on the Steemit blockchain.

It might be cool to have some of the bigger players here host a month long referral contest. We could compete to bring new (quality) writers and contributors to the platform in exchange for a large delegation or number of shares of @steembasicincome. Of course we'd have to put certain safeguards in place to make sure that people don't cheat the system (like vetting who the "referrals" are to make sure they're real accounts).

Everything is indeed attached to price and value, someone in Europe said Steemit is a waste of time, the coin has no value compared to their currency.

Thanks for sharing@destinysaid

You see we are living the high life as you’ve said, but so many are discouraged by the fall in the prize of steem, I came in January when the pay was sweet and sbd was at 7. It got really discouraging but I see steemit as the future and I embrace it . I’ve set my goals and those goals keeps me going 

As for the mistake, well my eyes caught only one 
>If I made any errors in the write up, or statistical mistake, please point it out, thatnks!

thank you for the shout out.  I was not aware there was also a drop on our rankings.  That is very interesting.  have resteemed for extra visibility

Steemit's retention rate is dismal. Token price won't help that 13% number too much.

There are larger systemic problems that need to be addressed. If there is another rally, all it will do is make it more obvious.

It could change, but I'm not holding my breath.

I also joined Steemit in December because of the craze and didn't drop out because I am mostly sharing my YT content from year ago. I also made a deal to exchange my SBD for USD at 1:10 with someone who hopes it gets back to 11$ or more by next December. So yeah, we both have the incentive to stick around, unlike most other newbies.