What is a "QUALITY" post? - My interpretation
My interpretation of a "quality" post omits subjectivity and can be used across topic genres, interest, and preferences. I also believe this perspective will enhance our blogging skills and influence our way of curating responsibly.
As I meander through Steemit posts, I have noticed quite a bit of talk about the quality of posts. Most argue that it's a tough subject to tackle because "quality" is subjective. Everyone is on a different playing level, so how does one determine what is or is not "quality" without having a pissing contest?
Let's first understand the definition of quality.
According to Merriam-Webster - Definition of quality (plural qualities)
- a. peculiar and essential character : nature
b. an inherent feature : property
c. capacity, role- a. degree of excellence : grade
b. superiority in kind- a. social status : rank
b. aristocracy- a. a distinguishing attribute : characteristic
b. archaic : an acquired skill : accomplishment
My mind turns to @kevinwong's Honesty Post where he addresses three main issues in Steemit: accountability, complaints about earning, and assessing posts objectively when, as he mentioned, the common saying in Steemit is 'Value is subjective.'
The latter is the point I wish to address in this post - my interpretation of a quality post.
Follow me on my thinking path for a moment. Have you ever been house hunting or searched for an apartment?
Most houses do well with the "WOW factor" - that first impression when you walk in the door. It's why cleaning and staging a house is so important to the selling potential of a house.
But a smart consumer will look deeper than the cosmetics to investigate the structure itself. Are the bones of the house strong? Is the wiring and plumbing sound?
If the structure is sound but you outright reject a house solely because you didn't like the color of the walls, then perhaps you're not really looking for a QUALITY house, but rather a pretty house. Do you see the distinction?
What does this have to do with the quality of a post?
CONTENT of one's post is dependent on the creator and subjective to their audience. Members of Steemit have a variety of interests. We don't all follow all topics, genres, art forms. Your tech geeks may not follow the art tag, and vice versa. That's because our interests vary. What we, as individuals, consider as quality content is purely subjective.
FORMATTING one's post is NOT subjective. It is either quality or crap.
- Do you have a proper title?
- Is the first sentence of your post a short synopsis?
- Are you using headers to organize your thoughts for a decent reader's journey?
- Are your tags appropriate?
- Do you have a proper signature?
Notice this has nothing to do with CONTENT, but rather its presentation. FORMATTING is the BONES of your Steemit house.
Let me put it to you this way:
If you don't care what your post looks like,
why should I care to read it?
If you don't care what your post looks like,
why should I care to read it?
You can post a picture of your art and photographs. It's very creative. You've got a magnificent eye for things. It's pretty. But are there any other redeeming qualities to your post if the photos disappeared?
Let me add this:
If you are not implementing the fundamental techniques of formatting your posts, you are also missing out on an opportunity to showcase yourself in the mainstream. I'm talking Google searches!
This is basic SEO stuff, guys!
Wouldn't it be nice to be an authority on a subject with millions of potential eyeballs on your content?
Do you realize that your Steemit content is on a permanent blockchain for future generations to see?
Don't you want those people to look back and be impressed with your body of work?
Final Thoughts
CONTENT will always be subjective and vulnerable to the opinions of many. FORMATTING your content requires attention and care. It filters out the quality from crap regardless of your topic, genre, or proclivities.
I challenge you to look deeper into the bones of a post. Consider keeping an open mind about the content which you follow. Do your part to create quality posts. And finally, I hypothesize that this will also help you curate responsibly.
Think about it
and share your thoughts below!
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quality is a spirit of excellence that pervades everything you post. I'm new to steemit but it's not my first trip to the prom. I have a sizeable Twitter following that is loyal and real. One day I discovered an app that measures how many of your followers are real. I found out many 'famous' writers had bought half their followers. A writer friend had bought 250, 000 of his. What's the point? Consistently posting good quality work is the path to success--the rest is only smoke and mirrors and in the long run will not sustain you. Curate quality content and find loyal friends like mere :)
Nods head. In addition to some of my author friends, I also rub elbows with social media "influencers" who buy their numbers too. I wrote about organically growing one's following to the tenth power. It might actually be a cool Steemit experiment. Maybe a January project?
JOHN! Where's your Steemit profile pic?!
You have a great Twitter photo! Use it ;)
you know what? I'd rather disappear and just be a voice...or use my Gmail avatar (read my comment re your Great Purge post :)
My friends tell me I play the victim role very well...
Um friends. who am I kidding? ha ha
I agree. The formatting and presentation is important - vital.
Good post :)
Thank you @michelle.gent!
I try very hard to stress to new people (and even some who have been here a while), that your personal effort isn't always in what you create. It's how you present it - especially in writing! I do believe that people will follow you because they like you, but if you want to retain their attention, you have to care about your posts too.
I think you have the right aspect for this platform right there!
Presentation in writing often includes spelling and grammar - on SteemIt that's not strictly adhered to as there are a lot of people with English as their second and third language and (for me) it's relatively easy to overlook the slight mistakes.
I have been unable to find a kind of word processor in steemit that allows for using subtitles, bold italic or underlined characters. How do you do this? Do you need to use codes like [b] and [/b]? Without such tools formatting remains impossible for me.
Hi @technovedanta! Here's a cheat sheet for markdown.
http://assemble.io/docs/Cheatsheet-Markdown.html
To this day I am still learning how to best format my posts. Steemit does support some HTML but not all of it - and I have yet to find a way to underline text, though I've managed to learn how to do subscript, superscript, and strikethroughs...but I never use them!
Headers are probably the easiest thing you can implement now. It does support the < h > tags but all you need to do is put a # at the beginning of your paragraph/sentence.
One # is equivalent to the h1 tag.
Two # is equivalent to the h2 tag...and so on.
Use a * before and after your text that you wish to italicize
Use two * before after after text to bold
Use three * before and after text to italicize and bold
I'd be happy to help you along if you have more questions. And if I can't answer them, I'll find someone who can
All best & Good luck :)
This is very helpful. Thank you so much!
Excellent post my great friend @ merej99. I really like his way of thinking and saying things.
In this aspect I can not express an opinion, in terms of quality I consider myself a vulnerable person, I have learned a lot, I have improved a lot, but I will never reach the level of writing that you have.
As always, it is a pleasure to visit and read your notes. Many thanks for sharing.
You are really too sweet @jlufer
They KEY for you, my friend, is that you are learning and improving every day! The fact that you post in English and Spanish is quite amazing to me and I believe your value is in your stories of beautiful Argentina, and sharing the love of your family across multiple languages. Remember, my point is not about what you write or how you write it. My point is QUALITY comes with the effort to make your post presentable. It is purely about the mechanics of the post. If you want your posts to have a greater reach outside of Steemit then you should become familiar with SEO.
Once you have a working format I believe filling in the gaps with your content will definitely improve.
Eres realmente demasiado dulce @jlufer
Ellos clave para usted, amigo mío, es que usted está aprendiendo y mejorando cada día! El hecho de que publiquen en inglés y español es bastante asombroso para mí y creo que su valor está en sus historias de la hermosa Argentina, y compartiendo el amor de su familia a través de múltiples idiomas. Recuerde, mi punto no es acerca de lo que escribes o cómo lo escribes. Mi punto es la calidad viene con el esfuerzo de hacer su post presentable. Es puramente acerca de la mecánica del puesto. Si desea que sus mensajes tengan un mayor alcance fuera de Steemit, entonces debe familiarizarse con SEO.
Una vez que tenga un formato de trabajo creo que el llenado de las lagunas con su contenido definitivamente mejorará.
Beautiful return, I appreciate these valuable tips
Many thanks my great friend @ merej99
I couldn't agree more, and it's why I haven't been posting very much lately. I have a lot going on, and I'm in one of my need to learn as much as I can phases, so I'm too burnt out after it all to write a post let alone sit and format it.
I'd rather come in read a few posts and comment than panic post with the down time I have at the moment.
'Tis the season, Sarah! Frankly, I think the only reason why I've been able to keep up with staying active here and keep writing is because I don't have little ones anymore. What are you learning this week/month?
yeah not having little ones leaves a lot more free time :D I'm trying to learn more crypto/blockchain stuff, looking into that avatar trial/results some more and trying to get to grips with SEO a little.
How has your thanksgiving been?
I'm thankful that I did not have to cook at all today! We had Chinese food followed by a nap. LOL
But now the boys want cookies and banana bread so I guess I'm baking now. The turkey gets cooked on Sunday :)
Great post, I agree with almost everything, I am not entirely sold on the need for a signature but that's just me!
Yeah, the signature is kind of low on the totem pole but I mention it because if you are trying to build an online presence then people need to know where else they can find you. I used to include that information but replaced it with my verification badge. It may be time to tweak that too. :)
I always enjoy your honesty and ability to make me spit out my tea.
FORMATTING one's post is NOT subjective. It is either quality or crap
Have you spent your day trawling through content? Did you find any new gems?
No Steem crawls yet. LOL
Since I haven't celebrated holidays on the actual holiDAY in a while, I'm getting some baking done. The boys are craving cookies and pie. We had Chinese food for Thanksgiving dinner. LOL My turkey goes in the oven on Sunday when Pat's off work.
Sounds yummy- I'm happy for Chinese food any day.
This post has been ranked within the top 50 most undervalued posts in the second half of Nov 24. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $7.34 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Nov 24 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
One day our posts will be most valued and you'll have to change your algorithms @screenname. Wouldn't that be a wonderful day?
I think my response to your post should be rooted in @screenname s bot reply. You have well written rhetoric that's been responded to intelligently and have received over 100 votes. @screenname likes to put a dollar value to our work, rather a hypothetical dollar value and inform us as to a fictitious scenario along with it.
I voted for and re-steemed your post, followed you and added to your discussion, like others have as well. Would you rather have the phantom $7 or everything else that has resulted for your good writing?
That's a great question. If you look through my history of posts and comments, I always advocate community building with no expectations of earnings. By keeping that mindset, I've remained very happy with Steemit because if I was only chasing the dollar, I may have quit a long time ago. :)
But I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't love to earn more per post on a consistent basis! A girl's got to eat...and buy more art supplies! lol
I do believe @screenname's post serves a great purpose though. It gives several quality posts a second chance for a little traffic.
Then why not do the same thing without the "you could've earned this, but didn't routine?"
In regards to @screenname's most undervalued posts? Hm... Would you believe that I don't actually pay attention to those numbers at all? I can't speak to WHY they're posting a fantasy number - it's not my program - but I believe having our posts listed a second time outweighs the extra fluff. It's a great tool for me for the posts I may have missed on my curation rounds.
I may have mentioned it, but in the spirit of transparency, I also use Steemvoter but only have a choice few people that I auto-upvote because 9 times out of 10, they've had a history of quality content. But I also double check what was upvoted (if time permits) and do my best to follow up with a comment. I'm slacking today because I had to be out in the real world and I've still got about 20K words to write for my WriMo novel, but I do my best with it.
Great post @merej99! I think everything you do is quality though ;)
Thanks, Tim! You're quality too, love. ;)
For me, steemvoter includes the people I support and want to ensure I vote for what they contribute. Some of them are people I've known from day one. Many are people I follow and some aren't. I also vote from my feed and the new page.