RE: @Blocktrades + @Openmic: Steem Fest Giveaway - PART 2
@raj808 - I listened to your vlog with great interest. I have been fortunate to have had a few, no, a couple of @curie votes and while I don't consider myself to be a creative writer per se, I like writing and have written a lot - in different contexts. I've been on @steemit for just over a year and am in a little bit of the doldrums at the moment, which means that I'm not very prolific at the right now.
That said, I am so interested in what people consider to be quality. I have written posts that I've considered "up there" as my best and they've had little if no traction. Others I've dashed out and they've been really popular (lucrative), and one even got "curied". It confounds me.
I also see work on Steemit that should not get into a "published" space - not from a content point of view - from the perspective of plain poor grammar and spelling. I know that I tread on dangerous ground with second language writers and I am prepared (and do) forgive a lot when there is clear effort put into the writing and getting it right. What I can't forgive is where it's so bad as to be totally incoherent and incomprehensible. Then the writer does him/herself and readers a disservice. Better to build an audience in one's mother tongue and which would be more meaningful all round. Similarly, I have no time for "spammy" posts that are just to "get stuff out there" rather like a Gattling gun spraying all over the show. They clog up feeds and waste time.
This is not to say that every post interests me, or that every post that my blogpals write interest me. I mean no disrespect when I say that there are topics in which I have no interest and similarly, if I write about something, like cooking, about which I am quite passionate, am I going to follow every food blogger. So boring just to be reading and writing about cooking (or my cats!) - for me and my followers. I have other interests - like gardening and current affairs and will read about these, comment quite verbosely (like now!) but not always, sometimes nver write on those topics.
So, I think that this is a really important debate - not just about what is quality, but also how prolific good writers - not just creative in the broader sense, of fiction and poetry, are recognised and rewarded.
@quillfire has also had something to say on these issues and put forward some proposals. I think it would be enormously valuable to have likeminded folk who are grappling with these challenges and spending time thinking them through, sit in a room and not just discuss them, but come up with something that is mutually beneficial.
So, it's about engagement and yes, it's equally about the reward. like you and many Steemians, I need to be generating an income. If I spend time here, which I enjoy, but I'm not seeing material benefit, I have to spend my productive time elsewhere. This is partly why I've not posted for nearly 2 weeks - I've simply been caught up with stuff of life and some of it to do with my currently very currently "unlucrative" day job. Another story (or two) for another time!
I do hope that you get to Steemfest and I look forward to the outcome of the deliberations and your sharing of them.
Kind regards from @fionasfavourites
McGregor, South Africa
Some very interesting points you raise @fionasfavourites and many of them lead to much wider concerns for steemit which need addressing before this platform has any chance of providing an appealing (easily understandable) user experience, especially as a new-comer.
In regards to curie, the curators have to follow a very stringent set of criteria that focuses on rewarding undervalued authors. It is not perfect but works as well as can be expected in the context. So, often a post that you may consider better than one you've previously received a curie for may not get a vote due to the fact that it is extremely risky for a curator to submit a post for review that is not older than 2-4 weeks. This can cause a lot of confusion for people when they first arrive at steemit, or if they don't learn the criteria curators have to abide by. If a curie curator recieves too many rejections by submitting posts that don't follow the guidelines, they loose their place as a curator. I honestly think steemit.inc should list various nuances of how curation guilds work on the landing page for new users so that they can understand from the start what to expect.
In regards to some posts doing better than others, with no seeming recourse to quality in why they haven't done so well, this has happened to me many times also. I find that the underlying factor often is due to me not being able to network on discord at that time. My experience of steemit has been that if you don't network, you don't get anywhere and even, as you've pointed out, when something entirely out of your control stops you from putting the time in, the engagement can fall off very quickly. I have experienced this recently as well.
I get where you're coming from completely, and I am only focusing on creative writing, as it is what I know I'm good at and I have some contacts in mainstream publishing that might be able to help me explore this idea beyond just a steemit community. But I honestly believe/hope that the SMT mechanism could help all writing interests on steemit take back the platform to reward quality content within their discipline. Whether it be, blogging, subject specific writing, creative writing, film making etc. Of course communities already do this to an extent but the whales (and delegated SP going out to bidbots) have huge amounts of their Steem Power tied up. The community minded among them delegate to communities focused on content they value but that system is essentially an oligarchy dictating what has value on steemit. If an SMT can create a bubble where a big amount of steem power can be locked up to reward content based on quality, while bringing more outside investment/interest to the platform, we the small fry, can possibly level the playing field. An SMT ICO could possibly achieve this. Ha ha, this is the type of thing I want to explore with devs at steemfest.
I think that this is a key and will/can destroy this platform if it is not addressed. Quality content creators, in all disciplines, will leave if they don't see reasonable growth based on a fair factor. Ha ha, I think my video shows clearly that I believe that factor should be quality. I'm hopeful that this idea could increase this dynamic in the creative writing fields. I hope also, that others do the same for other subject areas.
Thanks for your insightful and thought provoking comment @fionasfavourites. It is these types of comments which help an idea evolve :-)
Glad to have made even a small contribution @raj808. I do hope that you get there. Good luck!