Knock knock, who's there?
At the time of writing, I would probably have manually casted 10,000+ votes and gone through 100,000+ posts for the past 5 months. Admittedly, my process is a mix of speed reading and generalization. My first filter - accounts should display at least some sliver of humanity. There are accounts with posts that just don't attempt to connect with any readers, and these are the ones that I'll skip.
After all, if you're investing your time and effort into a system, your votes should go towards those that will improve the community over a long period of time. I have a very general prerequisite for posts and accounts that I decide to vote on. Here are some of my thoughts:-
All accounts fall into the spectrum of give and take. Some people give all the time, some people take all the time, and most will give and take, most of the time. If an account seems to only take all the time without giving back, then such an account will be prioritised lower on the ladder, quite obviously. Which brings me to the second point..
Communication is important and should be part of every account's activity, especially those that are putting their posts out there for rewards. Let people know why you're around, what are your motivations, what you're working on, and why it would matter for the network? I mean, why should anyone support your work if there are no efforts made to reach out? Admittedly some accounts do plenty of stuff in the background without ever expressing it on Steemit, but I still think it's the number 1 thing to do for any Steemian - communicate!
If you're spending a lot of time on Steemit trying to score rewards, why not spend the time to pursue and represent what you really are, instead of trying to game the system for quick bucks? Use Steemit as a self-development blog of sorts, and a place to build communities with others. That said, I can never understand plagiarists and scammers. It could be some dire life situat I'd choose self-improvement over quick easy money..
Comments are one of the ways I start following people. If they can spend a good portion of their time interacting with me or others - I think it's a good signal, way better than a silent (or spammy) account.
Overall, accounts which are operated by good actors will be followed. That's the most simplified way of putting it. I don't care much if an account is a celebrity or not. If anything, I think motivated "non-celebs" should be supported more than celebrities. But it depends. Some celebrities are just too high maintenance, especially for continued loyalty.
Knock knock, who's there?
Now that I've finally hit 100k SP and ~1250 followers, it's time to update my follow list. It doesn't matter who you are, minnow or whale. Keeping up with my 2:1 followers / followed ratio, I will be culling and adding accounts. I hope you'll leave a comment or link for me to get to know you better. Those looking out for new accounts to follow and support, feel free to communicate here and scope out in the comment section for potential accounts to follow.
Here's my recent re-introduction post, two months ago: https://steemit.com/steemit/@kevinwong/past-present-and-future-a-personal-roadmap-56k-steem-power-1000-followers-90-blogposts-and-5-pounds-later
Update note 1: @liberosist is the most active curator on @curie. Which is why he doesn't post that much. Please give him a follow and check out his stuff!
Update note 2: the numbers are high because of my added activities in @curie. But those numbers may be half of what it is. I was only roughly estimating the numbers.
I've been on Steemit since August now, and I feel guilty every time I see a post like this, talking about comment-to-posting ratios. I am a pretty silent participant. I definitely would like to be more involved in the community, but my time is quite limited, and up until now, the thrill of Steemit, for me, has been producing content. I have been very fortunate in that I have consistently been rewarded for the content I have produced, but even if I weren't, riding the wave of motivation that Steemit has given me as been very rewarding personally. I'm still trying to figure out how to be more involved in the community with the time that I have. If anybody is familiar with my work and would like to collaborate. Please don't hesitate to contact me.
Good to know its been doing well for you. Admittedly not everything invites participation and not everyone is free enough to dabble in activities going on in the network. All im saying is the situation can be improved. Personally i dont talk that much but I always try to engage in whatever little ways i can.
I agree that things can always be better. I said posts like this make me feel guilty, but they also make me think that I can be more involved in different ways than I currently am, which motivates me to try new things. The more I see posts about this topic, the more I reflect about my presence on this platform and what I can do while I'm here. Commenting isn't always easy for me to do, often I get interrupted for an hour or more while I'm in the middle of writing a comment, but I recognize its importance and I want to dedicate more time to it. Thanks for the kick in the butt!
I am the same way -- I have only a limited supply of time. I would love to get more involved in contests and fun activities, but just can't do them all. I really do enjoy losing some sleep and getting up extra early to see what is posted on Steemit.
There definitely isn't time for everything. I also feel like taking the time to be involved in one area takes time from another, so if I am spending time chatting, I can't be reading or posting or commenting. If I'm commenting, I can't be writing, posting, reading, or chatting. My approach to Steemit is evolving, though. I hope to get more involved as I can.
It is an exercise that requires a good balance of time, attention, and effort.
I write mostly about foraging, gardening, nature, and simple living close to the land. I believe that we can all have lives that are richer, more secure, more grounded, and more interesting by getting to know the plants and the land around us – in our yards, our parks, and our wilderness. Steemit can be the premier site for Foraging on the Internet. I curate for the @foraging-trail and the @gardening-trail to build communities about those topics. Commenting is a big part of building communities and keeping people engaged and motivated. So even though I have fewer than 50 blog posts, I have nearly 2300 total posts.
Yup I've been following your account off and on, like the format on foraging / gardening. I think it's going to be one of the bigger sub communities around Steemit. In fact I think anything to do with sustainability will make it good here :) Keep it up.
Thanks! The Steemit foraging and gardening communities are special, I think, because they have so much international participation. We're getting posts from Asia, Europe, South America, Australia, and North America. It shows we all have a lot in common and traditional ways have not all been lost. Thanks for the encouragement.
@kevinwong Thanks!
I resonate with these thoughts .. specially about who to follow and upvote. I for one am not a fan of plagiarized posts - upvoting that is a slap to people who bother going to places, taking their own pics and writing their a**es off - I just don't get why plagiarize when it's too easy to cite sources.
I've been thinking of giving up something I started weeks ago
for reasons I'd rather not divulge out here. I have offered a few people that thing and none has said yes to me yet, if no one takes it - I might as well bare what am going through since I would only be left with "assisting" as my give back to the community.
Consider this resteemed not necessarily cause i want to get noticed but for all the values you mentioned up there.
The onboarding tutorial needs to make it clear, maybe some people who joined in dont really know what's the platform about and just proceed to just to put stuff from others without attribution.. well its hard to say really what are the different perceptions surrounding Steemit.
Here's hoping I make the cut!
I actually did a follower purge a couple weeks ago. It felt GREAT and it's purpose was to rediscover old friends and find new ones. I've had great results doing that and highly recommend the practice!
Did you notice the little eye next to the comment count? It's a clear indication who's actually clicked on your post. Compare that to the number of votes and you should have a good idea how many people are following a curation trail or bot voting.
Anyway, I'm trying to sign out and go to sleep and I keep getting sucked back in!
For realz - I'm going to bed now. LOL
It depends. I've asked some people who are a bit more familiar with Steemit dev stuff, and mentioned that the number of views only come from those who are using Steemit.com. If people using stuff like eSteem to view your posts, that doesn't go through Steemit, and wouldn't be counted as a view.. well I'm not sure on the details but I've seen some posts with more unique commenters vs number of views.
Go to bed! :)
Hey @kevinwong :)
You are one of the people I hoped to meet when we attended SteemFest. The above post is an example of the reason I wanted to meet you. You really have the best interests of Steemit and the community at heart and it's good to see.
We didn't get too much time to speak, but I'm so glad I managed to catch you for a chat.
You put SO much effort into this platform, it's heartening to see you're ejoying it! STEEM ON! <3
I'd admit I stuck on in the beginning because of the dollar signs (and for what I like to write!), it just unfolded later that this platform might be something special in the making. I've been losing plenty of sleep over this juggling with being out of the safety nets of a dayjob lol. But it's a very interesting time :) Thanks for the encouraging words, and I think there are many more putting more time into making the platform work.. !
Yes, there are lots of people putting time and effort into making this work - and that's another reason I'm so happy to be here.
:)
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for this very clear look at how you approach curation. I really appreciate your support and encouragement. I've really been trying to engage with people here on Steemit and to develop an audience that actually reads what I write. I've also been trying to read more widely, and I have been excited at the range of ideas I find here. I truly believe that there is likely to be something that I can learn from almost anyone who is here with good intentions, even if we may be worlds apart in our ideology.
In case you haven't yet read it, perhaps the most representative, short post I might share with you so that you can "get to know me better" is this one:
You're NOT Going To Like This Short Post...
Thanks for all you do! ;)
I do a daily collection of contests and giveaways, and reward supporters with Steem Power and a newly created Bitshares UIA backed by all taskmanager profits.
Branching into other areas of steemit soon. Likely bitshares oriented guides to get my followers used to cashing in their various UIAs that will become available on steemit over time. Other things to come but they are classified.
I find what you're doing super interesting. It's like a community board in a village where people check out what they can do. Would like to see how you evolve / develop the account over time :) are u on steemit chat?
Yes I am taskmanager on steemit.chat, my chrome is crashing a lot because of a lack of resources on my PC so I don't keep the window open all the time. Gotta buy some more ram
Congrats @kevinwong. Hope someday we can also reach that SP :) By the way, I am from Philippines and most of post nowadays are all about Filipinos culture, values and traditions. I am also posting Filipino creative literature.
Thanks @juvyjabian . Yup, seems like you're pioneering that info on Filipino culture in Steemit :) May I ask what you think is most interesting on Steemit and its development as a community?
Steemit is one of its kind, although there those who try to copy it but it cant be hidden that steemit is the first. The freedom of expression is outstanding, no censorship, I just hope there are no kids around.
I felt that every voice in the community were given a chance to be evaluated and verified and if found useful for the greater gain, it will be implemented.
One thing that makes me happy is that, everybody are helping each other making the community a much better place to stay.
Well done kevinwong, you set a fine example
Just steeming away @benjojo :)
I do really love this gif. It never fails to bring a smile to my face :)
Congratulations to these great achievements on the steemit platform (100K SP and 1250 Followers). I am on steemit since August and write more in the past 3.5 month than I have in the last 3 .5 years. The platform is very inspiring because of the rewards and great community.
Same, this is my most industrious year in terms of writing lol! Thanks for dropping by, and Steem on :)