Dustsweeper - An introduction for Newbies

This piece is an entry into @malloryblythe's AWESOME contest (click here for all the details).

My selected topic is to tell you about a project that I believe every newbie should know about....

When I first read this topic option, there were a few that sprang immediately to mind

@steembasicincome is one, certainly worth a look at something that will help ensure you are always getting some kind of recognition on your posts.

The second, is the The Curation and Engagement Leagues run by @abh12345 - Asher does an amazing job at highlighting the value of interacting with others here on Steemit - Check it out here if you're interested.

The third is the @newbiegames initiative. If you're new here, and want to get a foothold, check out the #newbiegames tag and have some fun. There will be opportunities to win in a huge range of contests, and as well as that, you'll have a chance to interact with fellow Steemians. You may even find a few that you think are worth following.

But the one I want to talk to you about today, is the @dustsweeper initiative which is the brainchild of two brilliant and selfless individuals, @davemccoy and @danielsaori (who is worthy of your witness vote too in my humble opinion).

Before we get into too much detail about how Dustsweeper works, it's worth understanding a little bit of the background behind it. As it stands currently, when you make a post, or a comment that gets upvoted you get a small reward. The value of this reward is based around the voting power of the person or persons giving the upvotes, but if the total value of the votes comes in at $0.019, however, the system determines that it's too much work for the blockchain, so those votes get turned to "dust".

What the Dustsweeper initiative does, is trawls through member's posts to find posts and comments which have been upvoted, but where the value is below the dust threshold. It will give that post or comment a little nudge to get you above the dust mark to make sure you can collect your due rewards. One small caveat here though, it will ignore any self votes (where you've upvoted your own content) if it's the only vote received - this is reduce the chance people gaming the system. What does it cost to join? Well it's not a fee per-se, but you send a contribution to @dustsweeper - the recommended amount is 1 SBD which will give you a balance equal to double the amount of your contribution. Each time you receive an upvote from @dustsweeper, $0.014 is deducted from your balance, and you'll get an upvote value of $0.028.

I'd suggest having a look at the original Dustsweeper post which goes into more detail

https://steemit.com/community/@dustsweeper/ann-introducing-dustsweeper-a-new-service-to-turn-dust-into-profit

So there you go, have a look at these awesome initiatives, and get involved.

Cheers,
Sparkesy