Learning to Steemit #1: From One Newbie to Another

02-Feb-2018

by STRENUE DIGITAL (38) - red fish

Introduction

Hi Steemit Community! This is the first post in a series that I am creating to share my experiences on Steemit with fellow newbies like myself. I joined Steemit last month in January 2018, purely out of curiosity. I had heard about this new social network that was built on a blockchain. As I am an avid cryptocurrency enthusiast, I thought I better check this social network out for myself to experience a real world use case of how blockchain technology is applicable in our daily lives.

I really did not know what to expect, but my oh my have I been blown away by the ingenuity and innovative thinking that has gone into creating this platform. During this 'Learning to Steemit' series I hope to share with any and everyone who is interested in listening to my journey up the Steemit reputation and influence ladder from 'red fish' -> 'minnow' -> 'dolphin' -> 'orca' -> 'whale'. This may not make much sense to you now, but it will over time. Below is a sneak peak of how the different levels are represented by the https://steemitboard.com/ website.

image source

My Current Reputation and User Level

My Current Reputation

When you first join Steemit you will notice a number in brackets located next to your user name. As a brand new user on the platform, your reputation score is (25). Your reputation, just as in real life, is very important on the Steemit platform and you should do everything you can to build trust and respect within the community as this will help to raise your reputation score. It is also important to note that (25) is not the lowest your reputation score can go. There are members of the Steemit community that currently have reputation scores in negative numbers. Steemit is largely a troll free social network as the community quickly weeds out the users who are not on the platform for the right reasons.

So, getting back to my current reputation score at the time of writing this post. My reputation score is currently at (38), this is not a very high reputation score, but I am happy that I have been able to raise my reputation over a couple weeks which I find rather encouraging. By comparison however, if you visit the https://steemwhales.com website filtered by the reputation column you will see that @steemsports is currently ranked #1 for reputation on the Steemit platform with an impressive score of (78.4), nice work @steemsports.

Here are the current Top 5 Steemians by Reputation Score (as at 02-Feb-2018):

I would strongly recommend visiting each of their blogs and having a look at their content. These Steemians regularly contribute quality content that is valued by the Steemit community and this is duly reflected in their reputation score. I follow each of these users as I see them as the benchmark, they have already attained the respect and appreciation from the community that I strive to attain.

Rank	Name	Reputation
#1	@steemsports	78.4
#2	@knozaki2015	77.7
#3	@gavvet	77.2
#4	@papa-pepper	77.1
#5	@krnel	76.5

My Current User Level

Coming back to the https://steemitboard.com/@strenue website that I mentioned earlier, this is where you can go to see your current user level. If you follow the link you will see that I am still well and truly a 'red fish'. I am not going to get into the details, in this post, as to why I am currently a red fish and not an orca or a whale, but I promise I will cover off user levels in great detail in the upcoming posts.

Conclusion

To conclude my first post in the 'Learning to Steemit' series, I truly want to emphasise to new users that the Steemit platform is first and foremost about community, quality content and respect. When I think of the name of the platform, it reminds me of the word 'esteem'. If you google the definition of the word 'esteem' you will see the following:

esteem
noun

1. respect and admire
   "he was held in high esteem by colleagues"

verb

1. respect and admire
   "many of his qualities are esteemed by the community"
   synonyms: respect, admire, value, regard, hold in (high) regard, think (highly) of, acclaim, approve of, appreciate, like, prize, treasure, favour, recognize, venerate, hold in awe, look up to, revere, reverence, honour, praise, adulate, extol, pay homage to

Origin

When I read these definitions and think of my current experience on Steemit and my engagement with members of the community, I like to believe that when the co-founders of Steemit, Dan Larimer (@dan) and Ned Scott (@ned) named the platform, they had the word esteem in mind. I personally have great respect and admiration for the amazing platform these two have created and I thank the community for focusing so heavily on maintaining the principles of respect and value for others on the platform.

The title of my blog series is 'Learning to Steemit', however the true purpose of this series and my journey on this platform is about 'learning to respect', 'learning to value' and 'learning to esteem' the users of the Steemit community. I will be sharing my experiences, my knowledge, my mistakes and hopefully my successes. I look forward to forming some great friendships along the way and contributing some quality content to the platform for others to enjoy.