This post caught my attention very quickly @zekanem and I am glad it did! - For very good reason too :)

In an amongst the blurb of my rather lengthy post earlier this morning - I made a very brief (completely off topic) mention of the community contests and/or initiatives... and though I did not really get into any of my thoughts in that post, because it is not what it was intended for - I did stop for a moment and think to myself "I wonder if this is something I should write about separately".

A couple of hours later whilst curating content from my @steemitbloggers account - I came across this post just after publishing and refreshing the feed - so I actually switched back over to my personal account quickly so that I could respond to you more personally :)

I agree 100% with your thoughts on this matter!!! like 100%!! I think the idea or concept of actively giving people content topics and inspirations to write about is a wonderful idea - BUT - all the rigmarole which is attached to it is not only tiresome but it makes it all seem so utterly monotonous!!!!

To my mind, this sort of thing should be utilised as a content "foundation" for those that are very new to the concept of creative / public writing. It should be used to give them basic guidelines and a little dose of confidence... but most importantly, it should encourage and nurture creative growth!

And that is precisely where the wheels fall off!

It doesn't! It has (probably unintentionally) created an almost "rigid" like approach to something which should be anything but! There are formats - not only for the content layout but for the titles too (which is just utterly ridiculous because it makes them all so damn cumbersome!), there are RULES and "tag" obligations and then Q & A formats which honestly are enough to make ANYONE fall asleep at the sight of them... even if the content IS actually readworthy.

I seldom curate many of these posts - with the exception of a handful from writers who you can clearly see, DO actually use their own initiative along the way.

Basically, I just feel like the communities which use this approach should perhaps consider creating "levels" of some kind in their discord servers or somewhere (wherever they gather) which encourages people to start taking off the training wheels once they reach a certain point of confidence in their writing.

Try creating your own titles - get creative! Stop using the Q & A formats, but rather start learning how to "answer" those questions in a format which is a cohesive and enjoyable piece of reading. Change up the paragraph breaks/section titles... you know, do something of your own on Canva or just leave them out because let's be honest... they are so absolutely tired and they make every single post looks the same!

I could go on - and this probably is worth a post... although this comment is about the length of one already haha!

Anyhoo, I think it is AWESOME that you have decided to spread your own wings and communities should do the same in terms of sensible structure and growth! It would be Wonderful to just see people's natural creativity coming forth, rather than repeatedly telling me what time they brush their teeth every day.