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RE: @Blocktrades + @Openmic: Steem Fest Giveaway - PART 2
Here is my entry for the final round of the @blocktrades sponsored open mic steemfest giveaway. Thanks to anyone who chooses to support me from the many communities I have been involved with and good luck to the rest of the contestants 🙂
Link to post discussed in the vlog: WritCoin, Creative Proof of Brain
Lovely Vlog @raj808! I love all your ideas for a real 'Write' SMT, it's important, as I do see posts that are undervalued a lot even though a lot of hours have been put in the work. The way you talk about poems is the way I experience it with photography: a single photo without text won't be rewarded on Steem - even though I've spend 1 hour researching, 1 hour driving to the location, 1 hour finding the right spot, settings, or waiting for the perfect light, 1 hour driving back home, another hour going through the files and selecting the one to edit... Oh, and I don't even talk about the thousands of euros I spend on the gear or traveling to locations :P But still I'm expected to add a few sentences to that picture right? Like any artist in a museum also writes a text with his artworks?
Just an example of course, I actually don't (always) mind writing a few sentences, but I do believe SMT's will create a different set of rules for many artforms like photography and poetry that will get them more rewards and visibility. I'd love to see it happen sooner rather than later :-)
I already cast my vote but damn would I love to be able to cast 2 or 3 for this contest. I'd love everyone to be able to come! Money is such a burden isn't it :-( I'll cast my huge 10 cent upvote on your post :-/
See you soon!
This is so true what you are saying here and the comparison is very apt between photography and poetry! I am one of the few curie curators who submits poetry and I have got nearly all of them accepted, but this is only because I'm able to point out the obvious indicators of exceptional talent in those works as that is what I strive for myself.
This made me chuckle as it is exactly how I feel about some perceptions around poetry. There is an unfortunate (generalized) attitude that a poem is a 10-20 minute post, and some are, but high quality poetry is far from that. It usually takes me between 1-2 hours to write/research a first draft with a lot of stopping and starting to allow for thoughts/images to develop and not force it. First draft is rarely up to standard. I spend on average 4 hours I'd say editing and re-writing a poem over a few days as the feeling and understanding of where it has sprung from, subconsciously, deepens over time. Ha ha, I published a poem on steemit about 6 months ago that I had abandoned in disgust over ten years before. I saw it in my folder and re-read it, completely re-wrote it and edited it a few times and it ended up something I was proud of when before it had honestly been very sentimental & cliche. All in all around 10 hours went into creating that poem.
I've just realized that this may sound very high handed 😂, but I'm only relating these experiences as example of what I know happens on steemit to many other creative writers. I feel like WritCoin could help in rewarding through a kind of specialized curation. Sure it would be a little mad for a poem written in 5 minutes to get a $10 upvote, but one that is exceptional and took 4-5 hours or more over two days? I personally think that $10 is cheap. Same applies to other disciplines like photography which you mention.
Thanks you for this thought provoking comment @soyrosa and thank you for your support. Hopefully see you soon at SF3 :-)
Community engagement is, indeed, crucial for success on the platform! Bravo! 💚
Thanks @thekittygirl. You are right, community is the backbone of steemit and crucial for success of the platform. I appreciate your support for my quest to make it to Steemfest 3 and all of your lovely comments on past posts.
Thanks #steemitbloggers family 🙂
Got my vote sir! Keep improving steemit.
I really appreciate your support @dynamicrypto. It's one of the great things about this platform, like-minded people support each other in their endeavors to work toward something better for all. Thanks again for your comment :-)
Sounds like a great idea to me @raj808
I'm right behind you buddy. Best of luck.
Gaz
Thanks Gaz. I appreciate the support for my quest to make it to Steemfest 3 and as well as all your comments on past posts. I think you might have been one of the first fellow Brits I met here on steemit. Hope all is well with you and your family mate.
Cheers and much love to the #steemitbloggers family
No problem mate. I hope it goes well.
I guess there aren't an awful lot of Brits on here, full stop, so we have got to stick together! 😁
Super cool, @raj808! Good luck in the contest!
Thank you @cecicastor. I really appreciate the support for my quest to make it to Steemfest 3 :-)
Community involvement is where you excel! You are an amazing steemian who encourages so many of us. Good luck!
Thanks you @byn I really appreciate your support and always look forward to reading your amazing ongoing stories. Thanks again for your comment and the luck 🍀😉
I enjoy your writing Raj and I think Writcoin idea is an excellent one as well. Best of luck friend in your quest.
Thanks for your support @sultnpapper and the luck is needed, ha ha, the amount of comments on this post thread now, means that my steemit page is lagging.
Cheers for your comment, the quest to SF3 continues ;-)
You are most welcome Raj.
@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!
I think Steemit needs to be packed with people like you, @raj808.
Your dedication is very strong in a lot of different fields: creative writing/poetry, charity, and a nice idea to reward quality, that if it catches on, it can act as a flywheel to fill this platform with truly meaningful contents, for both the writer and the reader.
For this, I strongly wish you can be rewarded with the steemfest ticket. Your voice and your ideas need to reach for the widest possible attendance!
I really appreciate your support @marcoriccardi. It's one of the great things about this platform, like-minded people support each other to work toward something better for all.
I hope so and also help reward people who are here consitently making steemit what it is!
It has been great getting to know you and reading your stories, many thanks for your comment :-)
I've gotta say, I have known @raj808 since this last summer - but that's more than enough to warrant my praises for him. This dude is a great community person and has laboured to earn his bread - even apologizing for being late or not showing up when it isn't expected. He has a sense for community, which Steemit needs more of. The more we can promote communities and less vicious or conniving people, the less we'll have to worry about small accounts never getting represented and bigger accounts getting the good deals when they don't deserve them. I know @raj808 in the #finishthestory area than anywhere else - but I see talent, creativity and care for his stories. I never see one entry where he slacks behind or is late to publish within the contest restrictions - he always is on the mark and shoots to exceed well regardless. Which I say are very important in this stage of Steemit's future if Steemit wants to warrant a long shelf-life. Including the fact he isn't secluded to that area (duh) and can be almost a renaissance man if he so put the time to doing so, which I don't doubt he's going to become such one day. @raj808, get that ticket!
Thank you for these kind words @theironfelix and your support in my quest to get to steemfest 3 :-)
I think you have hit the mark in your comment about one of the issues I want to address with this whole WritCoin idea.
I most definitely want the WritCoin voting mechanism to be designed so that it rewards only on one criteria - quality! Not to say that only the best would get rewarded, but it would be proportional and most definitely.... not allowed to become something that people with big SP can minipulate and buy. There are ways to ensure this but they just take a little more time and effort, ha ha and a shed load of administration. But as I said in my first post (linked below the vlog) the staking mechanism and vetting of community members can go a long way to stop this manipulation.
Anyway, I'm working on a presentation at the moment which should hopefully cast an even clearer light and dispel a few more of the shadows of uncertainty ;-)