What is Engagement with regards to Steem?

A post scoring system, and from it, one method to find a list of my most engaged followers....

_{Pixabay source}

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Born out of the many User Authority discussions taking place, the Engagement leagues, pies, (!)pancakes, and just a general desire to have a crack at some data.... at 6 am Monday morning.

What is Engagement?

Merriam-Webster says it is something that engages : pledge.

With a focus on online engagement, these are some of the definitions from the above link with a touch of editing:

• to offer something as backing to a cause or aim
• to hold the attention of
• to enter into contest or battle with engage the enemy
• to bring together or interlock (weapons)

So you could define engagement as, the ability to hold the attention of someone or to induce the individual to participate in some sort of activity. Online engagement could be defined similiary, probably just need to but the word 'website' in there somewhere.

One a definition is in place, it's simply a case of defining some useful metrics, gathering them up, and processing them into a pretty chart. And as the @steem-ua team know, this is a big fat lie.

Choosing the right metrics is one thing, giving each of them a weight is another. And then gathering this information across the whole 'network', a potentially a huge load on resources such as time and CPU.

Not easy at all, I can have a go from a single persons perspective and data though...

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Steem metrics for online engagement?

The possibilities are endless, and the gamification is real. Not so much with follow/followers though, according to the @steem-ua team who started off with this metric/matrices. I would also like 'follow' to be one of the metrics I use in the example below.

The idea in this example is provide a Steem related scenario that shows 'holding the attention of' and 'offering something', as taken from the Merriam-Webster definitions above.

First off, someone visits your lovely Post. The view counter is no more (and didn't work anyway) so a 'hit' cannot be used at a metric.

This kind soul comments on your post - a score is given. If they have commented, and choose to up-vote the post, points are added to the score. IF you reply to the comment (because it made sense, engaged you, asked a reasonable question, etc), more points are added to the score.

Your comment is upvoted (you provided an answer to a question or some useful information), and more points are added. Your comment is replied to (perhaps with a 'thank you'), and more points are added.

There is potentially a loop developing within the comment thread, points for votes and depth of comment/reply could be added, perhaps to a certain level (gamification reducer?)

Then some potential bonus points:

Is user following you (now) - Yes (points!), No (no points).
Did you get a resteem - Yes / No

The resteem is an interesting one I think. Clearly the value or points given for the resteem relate to the user hitting the button. Something for another day :)

So I've decided that I want to score:

• Following?
• 1st Level Comment (question?) (Top L C)
• Post Upvote (V1)
• Receive reply (information from the post owner)
• Up-vote reply (V2)
• Comment (with thanks?) (3rd L C)
• Resteem (RS)

And so, the number of times this happens, or some of this happens, on a post builds the individual post score.

This is then added to all the other individual (and potentially ever changing) post scores, and forms part of an overall score for an account.

Also, some of the interactions on the post should boost the score of the post visitor, should they not?

Messy!

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My most engaged followers 2018

Based on the above criteria, I decided to build a query that would tell me who scored best for 2018.

Similar to the Engagement League, the criteria has been weighted. I'm only choosing to get the data from the accounts that are actually following me, this is to save the query running forever and a day.

Name	RS	Top L C	3rd L C	V1	V2	SCORE
@davemccoy	48	66	63	272	123	5980
@glenalbrethsen	20	78	79	297	116	5030
@beeyou	28	68	59	249	89	4655
@lynncoyle1	0	95	111	201	65	3945
@gillianpearce	2	80	77	231	54	3480
@simplymike	11	60	49	192	58	3135
@revisesociology	2	41	30	288	43	2615
@maverickinvictus	1	71	41	204	32	2555
@hitmeasap	1	47	37	256	34	2525
@goldendawne	23	48	22	96	15	2515

Thanks to the people on this list. The criteria / weights might not be agreed on by many, you guys are very important in my Steem world :)

What is Engagement with regards to Steem?

It's a tough one, with plenty of possible criteria, and different opinions on it's importance - the weight it should hold.

@paulag is looking at a Steem Contribution Score and of course, we have the @steem-ua team seemingly working around the clock with their algorithms.

I think these are interesting times, and we should support everyone looking into ways to develop solutions in this area.

My brain hurts a little now, I shall go to the pool.

Have a nice day!

Asher