Hi @darthknight I was also very surprised by the community, like you I recently went into Steemit I am still learning several things.
Among them the use of the apps, for me the interfaces of the page of steemit needs to be updated to be a little more friendly, so I use busy to read and receive the notifications but direct public by steemit.
There are other apps that I have published as @travefeed that is very friendly, but it has some bugs.
Some of these apps charge a commission for publishing in them, I leave you this publication of @bluemist, for me it was useful.
https://steemit.com/steem/@bluemist/all-the-stats-about-commission-charge-of-dapps-communities
This is my small contribution to you at the beginning of this journey.
😁😊