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The Curation And Engagement Leagues

A few weeks ago, I posted about my first year anniversary as a member of the Curation and Engagement Leagues hosted by @abh12345. I talked about how the engagement league in particular was largely responsible for my still being around on STEEM. Part of that is due to the incentives (STEEM prizes), but more than that, it gave me a cold, hard look at not only what it took to be a top engager, but also what it took to actually start earning some decent rewards on my work.

In this post, I want to talk a little bit more about the engagement league, because I feel it's a worthy subject to bring up again. Also, something has happened personally which, whether it's noteworthy or not, I find to be kind of cool.

To The Way Back Machine!

This first image is the Top 25 placers from the engagement league list which was tallied on April 7, 2018. You will note that yours truly appears at the top. That was the first time for me at No. 1, and I feel fortunate to report that it wasn't the last. I ended up No. 1 four weeks in a row, before being knocked off the top spot for two weeks, then took it again for the fifth and final time.

From that point on, which stretched from June through the second week of August, I had top five finishes each week, but for most of it, I declined rewards. I was spending all day, six days a week on STEEM, and I knew most everyone else wasn't, and didn't think it was fair that I keep on dominating due to what I felt was a time advantage.

However, then a certain member who's username starts with a "j", ends with an "n", and has "anto" in the middle came along, and except for a time or two when someone else put forth an amazing effort, or he took himself out of the running, he has been at the top of the list ever since. He's currently in another self-imposed hiatus.

Fast forward to this past Sunday, April 7, when the latest list came out. You will note that once again, yours truly sits at the top—nearly a year to the day it happened previously. Aside from it being a small piece of trivia I can tell my grandkids when STEEM is a household name (along with the engagement league), I don't know that it means anything. You will be seeing another post, though, if I end up winning four straight—and losing the fifth.

Okay. On to the central message.

Not Enough Engagement On STEEM

Over the last few weeks and months, I've ran across many reoccurring themes, one being there's not a lot of engagement on STEEM. I even asked in a post why that was so, and was told that many times people don't comment because they don't feel they're a good writer, or because they can't think of anything to say. I always thought it was due to, again, not having time and wanting to maximize and prioritize what they did on STEEM.

Regardless, I bring this up, because you see what the top engagers are doing week in and week out to stay on the list. It requires at least a few hundred comments, if not over a thousand. However, more than that, it takes specific kinds of comments. When you look at the second list, you'll see a P for posts, followed by a C for total comments. The next three columns, PS (for people spoken to), CR, which deals with lower level replies, and CL, total number of characters written, make up the bulk of the work.

In other words, in order to make it to the top of the engagement list, you need to talk to a bunch of different people, have them reply back so you can also reply, and you need to say something while you're at it.

So, those who find themselves on this list aren't just talking amongst themselves. They need to find several dozens of others to engage with, too.

People Only Vote In Their Own Circles

If you keep going to the right, you will find columns that start with a V, and then UV. V is for the total vote count, while UV is essentially vote spread, or the total number of users upvoted. With most of the top 10 (in green), above 200 in UV, I'd say there's lots more people being voted for than just some voting circle. Folks here are constantly reaching out to new users, to not only comment on their posts, or reply to their comments, but to upvote them as well.

People Only Self-Upvote

Some people on STEEM definitely do. However, if you take a look at the engagement list, you will note that very few who make the Top 25 list have more than one self-upvote (and some of those were accidental, or because they were part of a curation trail that happened to upvote them that week). The vast majority have zero self-upvotes. That's because there are points taken off for self-upvoting on this list, and also, because many of us just don't want to self-upvote.

People Only Comment To Comment

Believe me, I've felt like I've fallen into this trap myself. Am I commenting to end up higher up in the leagues, or am I commenting because I feel like I have something to say that will add value to the post, and provide relevant commentary? I've struggled with it quite a bit. In fact, I've fallen off of the engagement league list more than once because of that and other reasons. It's hard to keep straight the motivation.

However, I've decided that if I have nothing to say, that I would only end up with something like, "Nice post. Keep up the good work. I really liked this," then I'm not going to leave a comment. There has to be something more to it for me than that. Which means, I could lose out on a lot of comments for the sake of commenting. So be it. I'm trying to add value, and I believe that the people on this list week in and week out are trying to do the same.

I Don't Have Time To Engage

Maybe you don't. Life outside of STEEM is, in many cases, a higher priority, especially when it comes to family and providing for their needs. You will notice that many of those who were in the Top 25 last year are not on the list now, and in some cases, it's because life pulled them away, or they had to curb their time on STEEM.

However, there are plenty who are also involved in other initiatives in some capacity, where they're running the show, or helping to judge the best posts, or any of a number of other things. They spend as much time on Discord as they do on chain. There are also many who find themselves splitting time between STEEM Monsters, Drugwars or some other game, and yet still muster enough to get on the list. Some, in fact, have started to limit their time with those games, not because of any lack of earnings or quarrels with the games, but because they truly miss the level of engagement they're used to having, and when they see where they've sunk to on the list, they want to improve.

So, What's Your Point?

It was sometime toward the end of February, beginning of March last year when I first was introduced to the leagues. I was already in a bad place, ready to quit, because I was getting much traction and I didn't see where this was going. The leagues sounded like a good idea, but I'd had been presented with plenty of those, plus my own, and nothing was panning out. No one was looking at my posts, no one was upvoting, and I felt like I was running as fast as I could.

Then, for some reason, I decided to give the leagues a try. I discovered immediately that I wasn't doing nearly as much as I thought I was doing. I found out that my lack of progress and success was less to do with everyone else, than it was to do with what I wasn't doing. My running was more like a brisk walk. My working my tail off was like binging on Netflix while munching on potato chips in my pajamas. And the problem is, from having ran a business before this, and knowing what it took to get that going, I should have known better.

But I didn't have anything to compare it to. Not until the leagues.

If You're Not A Part Of The Solution...

I'm not going to say there's not a lot of worthy initiatives, communities, councils or forums to be a part of. There's plenty. In fact, to be frank, we could probably do with some consolidation. Whatever. Where I'm going with is, if any of you out there feel like you're doing a lot to no avail, that you're putting your heart and soul into it and you're just being ignored, or that it's someone else's fault, I ask you, are you sure about that? Maybe it's true. But maybe I'm not the only one who was fooling myself.

Join The Leagues

There's one way to find out. You can see how you're doing relative to others. You don't have to be super competitive (in fact, in some ways, it's better that you're not), but it helps to have an open mind and a desire to improve. Head on over to last week's list by clicking on this link. There are no requirements to meet, other than wanting to see how you're doing. You can compete only against yourself if you like, improve incrementally, find ways to better organize your time on STEEM. It's certainly not at all about just incentives. That's a part of the overall benefit to be had as a member of the leagues.

All you have to do is politely ask @abh12345 to add you to the list. That's it. There's no fee, and it's a life membership unless you ask him to remove you.

Looking For A Worthwhile STEEM project?

For those with STEEM to burn who may be looking for some project to help sponsor, look no further. I offer you without hesitation or reservation the opportunity to check out and help support the Curation and Engagement Leagues. When it comes to supporting the original and ongoing intent of the STEEM social media platform—posting, commenting and curating—the leagues promote those activities effortlessly and to the tee. If you're looking for a way to overcome STEEM's so called societal ills, you guessed it, there's the leagues.

If you want to make the biggest impact you can, while fostering community, not just through one dApp or interest, but to all corners of the STEEM blockchain, help the leagues. While they are already in good standing, more incentives or larger prizes aren't going to hurt. If nothing else, it will attract more people to it and you will be a part of making something good better.

_{Images source—@abh12345 Curation and Engagement League posts.}