Information Finding Championship - Season 1 : Round 8 Looking for Assistance/Sponsors

Background

          Outside the box thinking is what brought steem and steemit into existence. Currently there is an individual (@apolymask) that is thinking outside the box to grow the participation/retention levels of steemit. When an individual first joins steemit, it can be a little bit intimidating. there are a lot of unwritten rules and some of those unwritten rules can get a new user in a lot of trouble real quick. After navigating and being around steemit for a couple of months people start to wonder what now, where do I go from here, how do I do this, where do I turn for help or for ideas? For those of you that have been on steemit since 2016, you may not remember those feelings, some of you do, because I have seen very early adopters also asking some of those same questions.

          I still remember those question very clearly. I am still struggling to reach minnow level and obtain the much coveted official vote slider. I know there are ways around it, I know that delegation can be rented, and after a few weeks on steemit new user understand that also. Yet I also understand that there are a lot of new steemians that will not use vote-bots, will not use SP rental services, that will want to raise through the levels under their own efforts. Through the use of contest/challenges that individual use on steemit, new users find reasons to post quality content, and find ideas for that content posting, and also reasons to engage with each other.

          @apolymask has a lengthy contest that he is currently running, "Information Finding Championship", you can take a look at some of the entries via this tag - #informationfinding - . As you can see he has made it quite challenging. He challenges the participants to look outside of their own box, and push themselves beyond their boundaries. Example for me it was meme creations. Meme creations you say, yes, it is something I am not comfortable doing, was not comfortable doing, but that I did anyways. I still am not comfortable doing them, but if the need arises in the future, I now have a little bit of experience in creating one.

Here is the meme I created for his contest:

That was not easy for me to do.

          In a contest environment, people seem to be less intimidated to ask questions. Most contest are put on after all by individuals that have an idea of how steemit works. So questions can be asked without fear of reprisal, they give a new user a chance and an opportunity to ask questions, and get answers without fear of their reputations being ground into the dirt.

Request for help

          So now for the reason of the title "Looking for Assistance/Sponsors" @apolymask is looking to grow his contest. Here is the link to round 8, to boil it down he is looking for some assistance. He would like to be able to offer a fixed price amount for each round somewhere between 10-20 Steem each round. Currently Prize amount is based on round votes and payout, currently 1-2 Steem.

          There are multiple reason for activity on steemit, as I mentioned above there is the social aspect and an individual's growth in that respect, but there is also the reward aspect, a lot of people are here not just for the social aspect or the quality content of the postings, and steemit is about more than the social aspect. Stemmit advertises itself as a place to meet great and Earn. For a new user 1-2 steem is a somewhat attractive reward. That being said, this contest is also for all levels of steemians. There is room for whales, redfish, and all levels in between, however to attract interest above the redfish, or minnow level, the rewards for the work need to be increased. A dolphin has no real incentive to participate when he can just upvote one of his own comments and earn the reward amount being offered.

A few Methods

          There are a couple of ways a Philanthropic large Dolphin or Whale could help:

1. Create a curation bot to upvote an Entry round post, or stop by and manually vote the round up.
   a. This can then be used to advertise receiving a guaranteed set amount for winning the round. Example @ blahblah has agreed to vote all rounds of the contest to a value of $25.00, at current steem/sbd values this would equate to 9.735 steem. This statement would be included in each contest round if the individual wanted it to be, and that would drive more users to look at and review your content.
2. A one time steem donation that @apolymask could put in savings and withdraw as needed to pay a set amount for each round.
   a. I know this is a lot to ask, but if 5 whales or dolphins, donated 50 steem each that would give a prize pool for rounds of 250 steem, and with that he would really have no problems setting a fixed amount for the rewards. Also as above you would receive recognition as a sponsor, driving users to your content.
3. A resteem of the contest entry rounds.
   a. This would be the least expensive way to help with the contest. Most of you large dolphins and whales have large followings, a resteem would potentially reach more users, and it would show your followers that you are thinking of more than just your pocket book, that yes you do on a rare occasion resteem things you think your followers may be interested in and providing them the opportunity to enter a contest that has a significant end game reward.

          I know what I am asking is a lot, but at the end of the day the contest is fun and enjoyable, and just because you donate does not mean you can not participate. Come help the contest grow, and maybe have a little fun yourself, or just sit back and have some nice content to look at and feel maybe a little bit of pride that at the end when there are 35 or more participants you can, sit back, and shake your head in wonder, and say to yourself, I helped with that, it was fun to watch it grow.

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Conclusion

          To conclude, if you have the means or time or the wherewithal to help grow this contest into a trendsetter it would very much be appreciated by all the participants, judges, and the contest creator. When you have a contest where there are 50 winners is that really a contest? When you have a contest where the contest creator does not payout is that a contest? As a recipient of winning two rounds, I can vouch for the payout part. As for the everyone's a winner, no that is not happening, there are currently two tie-breakers going on. This is a real contest. For me and the participants, it is a fun contest. It is by no means an easy pick a number contest, this is a thinking contest, an out of the box thinking contest.

          If you can not help but know someone that may be able or willing please forward them this or any of the other round 8 help request to them. Because it does not matter if it is my request or another participants request that draws in some support, because we will all end up winners.

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Rules

Can be found here :
Information Finding Championship - Season 1 : Round 8
Contest by @apolymask
Sponsored by: Your name could be here