RE: Want to Put the Social Back Into the STEEM Social Media Platform?
All your points are valid, I am sure. But, you forgot one thing - not all on here are @glenalbrethsen. :-)
I guess it all boils down to why people are here on Steemit, and how much effort they are willing to put into accomplishing what they had in mind.
There are people who post a question and get tens of dollars for it. Surely these people do not have engagement on their minds.
There are people who are shy and don't feel confident enough to engage.
Sometimes, people tried, but they don't get a response. These would put them off engaging.
Maybe there is lack of similar interest, or finding the right posts to engage.
But for people like me - and I am sure for a lot of others, it is due to weak Voting Powers. My Voting Power is usually between the 65% to 75% level. And that is after much restraint from over voting and commenting on posts. Under such circumstances, there is not much one can do.
So, we have to depend on people like you to keep the engagement going.
Congratulations on being top engager. I can imagine how much time and effort that cost you.
So as far as the upvoting goes, it is the lesser part of the engagement equation. The more important part is to be actively engaging with as large a pool of people as possible.
I guess the message I'm trying to convey here is this—for those who feel they're not getting any traction, it might not just be that everyone else is ignoring them or doing this or that. There might be a certain level of activity required to just get to a traction point, and the engagement league can help to see/obtain that.
The other thing is, people complain that people only engage/upvote their friends, and so on—well, not everyone just does that, and I believe the leagues are helping the members to break out of the tighter circles and go engage with others.
So, if there are people thinking that STEEM isn't all that social, and they want it to be, joining the leagues is a great way to help that happen, because that's pretty much what's trying to be achieved.
However, if there's different reasons for people to be here, then no, the engagement league isn't going to be for them.
There is definitely a time factor involved, too. You can only do so much. The point of the leagues, though, isn't so much to get to the top of the list (though that is a goal), it's to engage to whatever extent you can, while also helping to grow your own stake. And as I said in the post, there are plenty of people who have other things they're doing that end up on that list somewhere.
re: congratulations
Thank you. I spent about 5.5 days, basically—roughly 12-14 hour days. I don't keep track of the hours, I just know when I started in the morning and when I close up shop at night, but there's always going to be breaks in between, and some are longer than others.
Admittedly, though, I'm a slower typer, and I'm not the fastest of readers, and inevitably towards the end of the week I'm hunting around for posts more than anything. So, those who have a routine established and have faster eyes and fingers can do more in less time. :)
Glen, you knew what you have to do, how to do and you discipline yourself to accomplish it. Now, how many people on here can do that. Very few, I dare say. :-)
Yes, I do understand what you are saying about engagement. For me, I feel bad if I comment on a post, but do not upvote it. But my voting power is not enough even for me to reciprocate those who voted for me.
Take your comment here for example. Social etiquette would dictate that I upvote your comment too. But I am going to be very rude and not do that because I have to save on my VP, plus I know that my vote of 0.003 cents meant nothing to you. :-)
Anyway, all is good. I am not complaining. The rules of the game are clear and you play the game or you don't.
Vincent:
It's all good. And it's true. There is a game here being played, and there are rules of engagement, and we can choose to participate or not. I didn't think you were complaining, so no worries there. I didn't need to press it, either. I just thought I wasn't explaining myself, but I can see I wasn't quite getting the point you were making. And that's all on me, and I'm sorry I was pushing it. :)
re: social etiquette
No worries, there ever, as far as I'm concerned. So many people don't even give a second thought to commenting without upvoting, regardless if they could do it or not. I do it because I want to and because I can. After that, no expectations. Earlier when I couldn't, I didn't. End of story.
I think most people here want to have more fun than they want to worry about all the ways they can build stake or the time it will take to do so. If that's what they want, than that's what they should do. Some people don't have a whole lot of time. They do what they can.
Me, I'm probably on an ever shortening leash as to how long I can continue to put into this without cutting way back on my hours. If STEEM takes off, i might get a reprieve. Until then, I'm feeling an ever increasing urgency to do as much as I can, that I'm sure many do, and others do not. Even so, I'm human and I'm not nearly as disciplined as I really could be. I'd rather that, though, then burn out completely, a place I've been right at the edge more than once.
Hi Glen,
Yes, that's it. At the end of the day, everyone has their reasons for being on here. What they do, or didn't do, it is all up to them. Of course, it would be great if everyone is as hard-working and committed as you, but that is quite impossible. :-)
Have a great weekend. Cheers! :-)