Pause for Reflection: What I Learned from Doing the Steemit Community Engagement Challenge

For the past ten days or so, I have been a participant in the Steemit Community Engagement Challenge, an initiative creates and organized by @merej99-- who truly must be one of Steemit's hardest working contributors.

What IS This Challenge?

Well, "Episode I" is over now, but the Challenge will undoubtedly ride again.

In short, the challenge was created as a sort of "antidote" to the recent rash of "copy pasta" posting and "two word comments" we've been seeing in our community. It was an invitation to Steemians to focus on quality, connection and community.

The terms were quite simple: In the course of ten days, create a minimum of seven original "high quality" posts (minimum of 300 words with at least ONE properly sourced image), then engage the greater Steemit community through leaving a minimum of 500 quality comments-- (meaning you actually read and address the content and creator); also meaning you reply (in a similar fashion) to anyone who took the time to comment on your posts... 

Sounds Simple Enough... Right?

I Signed up Because...

... It sounded appealing because community engagement means a lot to me... and the requirements seemed "easy" enough. Most of my posts have 300 words and images anyway... and I post daily. I am also an active curator. How hard could this be?

42 ambitious and hopeful Steemians set out to find out. Experience wise, they ranged from newcomers to a few of Steemit's "heavy hitters."

OK, so the "Original Posts" part wasn't that hard. 

It was the "engagement and meaningful comments" part that almost derailed me... made just one notch harder by the recent "bandwidth issues" that have been popping up on Steemit, for many users.

500+ comments is a lot when you're writing more than just one short sentence, every single time.

Because we have had some issues with "randomly lost posts" in the past few weeks, I was already in the habit of copying everything before posting... so I decided to make a single document of all my comments.

And right there was large part of why I almost didn't make it to the finish line-- my 523 comments within the 10-day window amounted to 38,300 words, or 73.2 words per comment, on average. 

So What Did I Learn?

I'm not quite as "active" as I thought I was... this was a lot of work, at times. Far more than just "my daily Steemit activity." 

Because I was busy engaging with the 42 other challenge participants, I found it more difficult to also "do my regular rounds." Sorry about that... to anyone who's been wondering if I just stopped posting!

There was tremendous mutual support and encouragement among participants... we were basically all competing with ourselves, not with each other.

The Challenge was a good exercise in "expanding my horizons," and reaching out to Steemians-- often new members-- I hadn't previously had contact with.

I gained 110(!) new followers in just 10 days!

The event confirmed for me something I already "know:" that I am "here for the interaction." Of COURSE "the rewards are nice," but if there weren't as much community and engagement here as there is, I doubt I'd be trying nearly as hard.

There are a lot of really excellent content creators here!

I never thought this would happen... but because the focus of the Challenge was on quality and engagement, I actually found myself flagging some of the most blatant copy-pasta comment spam I came across. I won't belabor the point, but I think it's really time for Steemit's finest to step up and let it be known that plagiarism is THEFT and SPAM is not appreciated!

Conversely, I became better and more mindful about upvoting really good interactive comments. Which is something I recommend to everyone... if someone left a really worthy comment somewhere, toss a little something in their tip jar!

Some people must live, eat and breathe Steemit 24/7... if a person can finish a tough 10-day challenge in half that time... that says something!

On a personal level, ten days of pretty hectic activity did help me squeeze into the top 100 Steemit posters, according to Steemwhales. That was kind of cool, although a pretty minor fringe benefit.

Would I do it Again?

Absolutely-- 100%, no hesitation!

In retrospect, the experience reminds me a bit of a distant past when I used to go to week-long spiritual and self-growth retreats. At the end everyone would have "retreat brain" after so much intense focus and connection around common objectives.

The rest of the world (in this case, the rest of Steemit) seems slightly "different" somehow... not because "it" changed, but because we changed, as a result of the experience.

The Community Engagement Challenge came along at a perfect time for me... right as a little of the "shine" was coming off the Steemit "bloom," for me. I felt myself slowing down a bit in the face of rapidly declining rewards, extensive "copy pasta," follow-for-follow and upvote-for-upvote begging, a proliferation of "purchased upvotes" and a general slowing in the type of authentic community connection that-- for me-- sets Steemit apart from other social platforms.

Yes, the Community Engagement Challenge is Scheduled to become a return event-- possibly quarterly. 

Next one might (tentatively) happen in October... so stay tuned-- I highly recommend it, if you'd like to really experience the best of what Steemit-- and building community-- is about!

What do YOU think? If you were part of the Challenge, feel free to share your thoughts! If you were NOT part of the Challenge, does this sound like something you'd like to participate in? Do you consider yourself an "active" community member? Is "quality and engagement" important to you, as a Steemit member? Leave a comment-- share your experiences and feedback-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Published 20170719 15:50 PDT