Time for a Steem Springclean - part 1 - Follows, Discords and Witnesses

Spring has arrived here in the UK, and I am approaching the end of the first quarter of 2018.

I will be posting a review of the first quarter against my 2018 targets shortly.

This past week though I have been doing some steem spring cleaning.

The steem universe is ever expanding. Every day there is a new DApp to try out, a new Discord server to join or a new project to get involved in.

As @freedompoint mentioned in his recent post it is easy to spread yourself too thinly.

I have realised recently that I need to focus my time, my energy, my creative thought and my steempower to be a more effective participant on the steem blockchain.

For the first phase of my steem springclean I have identified three areas to get into better shape :

1. People I follow

2. Discord servers I am member of

3. Witnesses I vote for

In the second phase of my spring cleaning I will be looking at the wider issues of projects I am involved in and the types of posts I make.

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People I follow

One of the most important parts of steem is the interaction with other people. That is what make steem special and it is what may be the last hope for humanity to keep the bots at bay.

The act of following is one part of that interaction. But I have come to realise that while following someone is 'nice' it is really just an empty symbolic gesture unless I can follow through by reading that person's posts, vote on them as appropriate and comment on them if at all possible.

With the 750+ people I was following before my springclean that was clearly impossible without 50 hours in the day.

So I have been unfollowing people. I chose a somewhat arbitrary limit of 100 people to follow. That may go up, or even down further, as I learn how many people I can have a more meaningful level of interaction with.

To cut the numbers I started by unfollowing all the people who are not currently active. That was a worryingly high number (maybe a subject for another post) and cut my follows down to around 250.

Then I looked at random people and projects I was following that I really couldn't remember why I was following them.

After dropping them I was down to around 160.

There it began to get more difficult. I had to apply some harsher 'rules' - were they following me, did they ever interact with me by voting or commenting, were they someone I wanted to support.

The numbers edged towards 100.

I could have stuck there at around 115 but I like round numbers so I continued my quest for 100.

Now it was getting very tricky. I had to unfollow some people who followed me. That felt awkward and unfriendly, but if I am not able to interact with them...

I have now reached 100.

If I have unfollowed you, you might feel offended. I understand. But it doesn't mean I dislike what you post. And it doesn't mean I won't vote for you.

As well as trying to look at every post that the remaining 100 people post, I am following more closely the curation posts of people like @goldendawne, @the-hearth, @llfarms (for @helpie), @preppersonline, @kiaraantonoviche, @carpedimus and @sotall. I am attempting as far as possible to upvote every single post featured by these curators.

I am also scanning posts in the promotion channels in key Discord servers I am still in.

And if you have a post that you think is important for me to see please feel free to direct message me on Discord @Pennsif#9921. I try to answer every single message I receive with a valid message.

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Discord servers I am member of

Where would steemit be without Discord?

Steemit is a curious social media platform that doesn't have its own inbuilt messaging system. If it wasn't for 'SteemCord' I think steemit might struggle to fulfil its social function.

Discord is great. I use it all the time. I participate and I communicate. I broadcast radio shows through it.

In fact I probably spend over 90% of my SteemTime on Discord.

But it is a big, big time eater.

And there are soooo many interesting Discord servers popping up almost by the hour.

But I cannot effectively participate in more than a few.

I was previously signed up to about 30 - but I only regularly visited about a third of them.

I have dropped out of about two thirds now.

I am exploring how much I can usefully contribute to the ones that I am still in.

This will be an ongoing process and I may post again soon on this topic.

Aside from the actual servers by far the most useful part of Discord for me is the direct messaging (DM) and voice chat. I am using that all day long.

One-to-one and small group chats are far more useful than open channel chats which are generally difficult to follow and usually less fruitful.

I also DM to arrange and coordinate guests for my radio shows.

I might have half a dozen chats going on simultaneously with people all round the world. I learn so much from DMs on Discord.

Discord I salute you!

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Witnesses I vote for

This one is becoming more of an issue in present times on steem.

It is not quite burning, but definitely smouldering at the moment. And I think I have spotted a can of petrol lurking just round the corner.

One of the big problems for steem in my view is the total lack of leadership and governance. Many diehards and purists will despise me for saying this and probably won't to poke me in the eye with a sharp stick. But that's my view and I am sticking with it until you convince me otherwise.

It shouldn't be an issue if steemit inc stepped up to the mark, but they seem to be AWOL. And probably won't wake up until @dan comes along and kicks them in the nutz with steemeos 2.0.

So without steemit inc on the field, the ball surely has to drop through to the witnesses.

And by witnesses the finger really has to point firmly towards the 'Top 20'. They are the Man (and one woman) in this game.

They might shake their heads and say "Don't look at us, we just check blocks".

That doesn't cut it for me the T20 vote the hardforks and pocket $100K+ per year for their trouble.

So the witnesses are important. Full stop.

I already vote for nearly my full complement of 30 witnesses but by and large I have largely stumbled into voting for most of them.

There are very few that I really know the views of on important issues for the steem blockchain.

Are they pro or anti bot for example? Are the time-limited file storage policies of the DApps okay? Is the 7 day limit on payouts correct?

I really want to know more about what my 'elected representatives' views are?

So I am undertaking my own review of the witnesses I vote for currently and those I might vote for in future.

Alongside that I will be taking an active interest in the current debates about the wider witness issues.

One of those will be the forum that @shadowspub is organising on 21 April. I hope all witnesses from the T20 down do their best to participate in that.

So for my witness springclean, more follows...

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If you have made it this far thank you for listening.

This is just a long self-indulgent ramble, but sometimes it helps to right it down.

And it makes a change from just posting about radio shows.

Stay tuned 😉

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You might also be interested in some of my other posts :

• SteemCampUK - Saturday 7 April 2018 - Birmingham - looking forward to meeting more UK steemians

• Pennsif's Alternative Lifestyle Show - Guest List for Friday 30 March - @ura-soul, @thewizard.life, @nairadaddy, @goldendawne, @furius

• SteemRadio - schedule of all the steemit radio shows - week beginning 26 March 2018

• MSP The Alternative Lifestyle Show - Friday 23 March 2018 - 'A View from the Ozarks' with @papa-pepper, @awesomehomestead, @armadillocreek, @borrowedearth, @freedompoint, @rockybrookfarm and HomesteadCrossing [recording]

• MSP Waves Radio - My Life in 8 Songs - Guest list for Thursday 22 March - @princessmewmew, @techslut, @simgirl

• We received a beautiful gift of Koki handmade cosmetics from @kokibyivana

• I Still Believe in Steem - I Still Buy Steem - Let's Bypass the Exchanges & Help Me Give Out More Delegations

• Introducing The Little League of True Steemians - free delegations up to 500 SP

• MSP Waves Radio - Pennsif's Alternative Lifestyle Show - Friday 16 March 2018 - @wwf and the Stewards of Terra Mater [recording]

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[ daffodil photo kindly provided by @cryptocariad ]