Delegating To Newcomers Is Giving SteemIt A Future

Finally, I've chosen my new Redfish Rockets, newcomers who receive a small SP delegation from me, so they have a chance to explore the platform and to become a part of this amazing community.

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Not So Easy

23 days ago, I published the 4th edition of my Redfish Rockets contest. The contest is all about finding newcomers with a low amount of SP who are limited by the Resource Credits-system and send them a delegation so they can grow their account without having to worry about running out of RC all the time.

Although the first three editions had been quite a success, this time I didn't get a single entry.

A week later, I published another post:
[DELEGATION GIVEAWAY] Are There Still Motivated Newcomers To Support?

In this post, I expressed my concern about the small number of newcomers who have the courage - or are stubborn enough - to stick around, even though they are limited in the amount of posts and comments they can make.

I had visited so many new accounts that had been abandoned by its user after writing only 1 or 2 posts, I really got worried about the future of this platform.

The Resource Credits-system

After Hard Fork 20 and the first introduction of the RC credits - system, I had expected a quick fix for it, since I don't see how you can attract - and keep - new users if they can only publish 1 post and a handful or comments a day.

Today, 4 months later, I have given up hope: the RC system is here to stay, and IMO, will eventually be the death of this platform.

I've come across new users who had no more 2.5SP in their account. How are they supposed to become a part of the community and grow their account, if they don't have any chance to interact?

Some of you will say that with the low price of Steem, all they should do is invest a little money to get started. And I agree it is easier to buy yourself in now Steem is only worth $0.3 than it was when it was worth $4, or $7.
And I've seen quite some newcomers who have actually taken this opportunity and spent $20 or $30 to kick-start their accounts.

A lot of them haven't, and I can completely understand this.

1. Having to pay in order to be able to check out a platform of which you don't know whether you'll like it or not, is a big risk.

2. To be able to buy Steem, you need at least a basic knowledge about cryptocurrency, since in most countries it is not possible to buy Steem directly with fiat money. That means you first need to figure out how to buy some BTC or ETH, or any other currency and then exchange it and send it to your wallet. For you and me, this may be piece of cake. But for someone who is new to the world of crypto, this is a huge hurdle to take.

3. Loads of people on here simply can't afford to spend money on Steem.

Ever since HF20, the platform has become an opportunity for those who have money, and are willing to take the gamble to invest it in Steem.

Opportunties

I have been lucky enough to be able to grow my account without the limitations of RC. We had bandwidth, but that allowed you to do a lot more before you ran out of it.
Also, I know my way around the world of crypto and I have the financial means to buy Steem every now and then and power it up.

I realize, I'm one of the fortunate few.

Joining Steemt and becoming a part of the community has literally changed my life. I could never have imagined how much I would learn here, how many awesome people I would meet, and how this place would become my second home - in spite of all its flaws.

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And that's the exact reason why I created the Redfish Rockets. I want to give others a chance to experience what it's like to become a part of this community - even though a lot has changed during the past year.

Redfish Rockets

But let's get back to the point, to the reason I started writing this post: the Redfish Rockets.

The original plan was to find 5 people who had less than 60SP and help them out by bringing their SP up to 100, so they wouldn't have to worry about RC again.

Like I said, my first post wasn't a big success. Still, I found 1 candidate by going through the applications for the delegation contest ran by @thedarkhorse.

That's how @nurseanne84 became the first Redfish Rocket of this round.

My second post brought in one application and a couple of nominations. Thanks to the nominations by @curatorcat, @macoolette and @trincowski I was able to find 3 more motivated newcomers. A spontaneous application brought the number up to 5.

This means the 'official' Redfish Rockets have been chosen.

@nurseanne84	@krazzytrukker
@vision20twenty	@sosadraws
@tusiko

They all received a delegation that brought their total SP up to 100, so they will have some more freedom to go around and explore the community. I will also upvote 1 of their posts each day.

It would be greatly appreciated if you paid them a visit to check out their blogs, upvote posts if you like them, but mainly just to say 'hi', welcome them to the community and make them feel at home.

It's too bad @mirrors ain't around anymore, because she would be able to tell you how much a warm welcome can mean to someone.

The Delegation

I want to congratulate all 5 of you, and I hope you will make the most out of the delegation.

Officially, the delegation will last for 6 weeks. But I have no problem with prolonging it when I notice you are working hard on growing your account. I'm still delegating to some of the Redfish Rockets of the previous round, because they still need the extra support.

I guess there is no need to mention I will be following up regularly. After all, to keep the delegation, you need to meet a few requirements:

• You post regularly - at least 1 or 2 times a week should be doable.

• You actively engage with other people in the community through voting, commenting and replying to comments.

• You power up at least half of what you earn.

• You don't power down.

Looking at your blogs, I don't think it will be that difficult to meet those requirements :0)

I won't retract the delegation without contacting you first, to find out what might be going on.
I’m the first to understand that life can get in the way sometimes.

In case you need to be absent for a while, or you can’t live up to the agreement, please notify me, so we can work out a deal. It would be a shame to let this opportunity go to waste, right?!

The best way to contact me would be via a DM on Discord. My username there is simplymike#5957. Simply drop me a note and explain the situation. I’m sure we’ll be able to figure something out. :0)

(I'll explain about Discord further on in this post.)

More Than Just SP

I also want you to know that I'm willing to help out in other ways than just the delegation. If anyone of you have any questions, need help or advice - about anything - feel free to contact me and I will try to help you out as good as I can.

I'll be adding some information that can be useful to find your way around and make the most out of the delegation at the bottom of this post.

More

Although I have found my new Redfish Rockets, the story doesn't end there.
Somehow, it felt unfair to see that 6000SP sitting in my wallet, while there are so many motivated and valuable newcomers out there that are struggling to survive. If nothing is done to help them out, it will just be a matter of time before they will give up and go try their luck somewhere else.

So once again, I returned to the posts of the @heyhaveyamet initiative, and went through the posts with the #introducyourself tag to find people that had the potential of adding value to the blockchain, and of which it would be a shame to lose them because they got tired of the limitations.

I found quite a couple of them, and upped their SP to 50. This won't make them completely immune to running out of RC, but at least it will give them a chance to survive. I will keep an eye on their accounts, and will adapt the delegation according to how they are doing. If they are serious about growing their account, I will probably add some SP, if they're not, I will lower the amount accordingly.

After all, it is always a risk to decide whether to delegate or not to people who have just arrived.

Again, I would really appreciate it if you dropped by their blogs to show them some support.

@translogicalguy	@josietrueblood	@neonihilist	@eliasgerald
@helen-derwent	@pepijin	@mr-science	@steemaddiction
@hotflash	@znkd	@pieceofeightcoin

Time will tell if I made the right choices or not.

Finding Your Way

I know I promised you all to shine some light on the dark path that every SteemIt beginner is following.
But this post has already turned out a lot longer than expected, and I'm expecting my girlfriend to return after spending a week in France pretty soon.

So I will need to cut it short for today.

I will leave you with a couple of links that will redirect you to some resources that can help you to find your way around here.

I will write a couple of posts with tips myself, starting on Monday.

Here it goes:

Discord

Discord is a chat app that you can consider to be the 'behind-the-scenes' of SteemIt. Many communities have a server there, and it is the best place to meet new people and build your network. If you want to succeed here on SteemIt, you can't go without Discord.

A couple of weeks ago, I set up a Discord server especially for my Redfish Rockets. Once you've created your Discord account, click the following invitation link to join the channel: https://discord.gg/mk5NTem

Once you've accepted the invitation, you will land in the server. It will look something like this:

^{Click to enlarge}

On the left, you see a sidebar with lots of different channels. Start by clicking the '#Read-this-first' channel. You'll find some tips on how to find your way inside the server, and some tips on interesting sites and initiatives that can help you out.

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You will also find a section with info and tips on different topics, like how to use Discord, which channels to join, how to format your posts on SteemIt and more. The information inside is still limited, but I will be adding some more resources as soon as I can.

If you have a specific question, you can post it in the #redfish-questions channel, and I'll get back to you.

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Steem-Savvy

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SteemSavvy is website that is set up to help new Steemians find their way around the Steem blockchain and to grow their accounts.

They provide users with easy to follow, short training videos that explain all the basics.

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Some More Quick Tips

 

• Low on RC? Go Steemhunting. Creating a post through SteemHunt requires little RC. You can find new products, tools and services on sites like Producthunt, Launching Next, Beta Page, Beta List and PreApps.

• If you want to build your network, it is important to go out and comment on other people's posts. Try to avoid to only reply to the comments you get on your blog.

• Use your voting power wisely. Don't let it drop below 80%. There are ways to spread your votes, so you don't have to vote at 100% every time - even if you don't have the official slider yet.

 

• Read '4 Ways To Be Able To Use The Voting Slider, Even If You Have Only 1SP' for more info. (I'm not sure the last method still works, but the first three do. You can also scale your voting weight when using SteamPeak. You can adjust your voting weight by clicking your username in the top right corner and selecting 'Settings'.)

• Join as many contests and games as you can. Most pay out liquid SBD/Steem, or give away upvotes. Check the 'Contest' tag regularly.

 

Once you've gone through the video course and the information provided in the Discord channel, I'll be back with more tips.

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