I’ve been slacking on writing this week. Not sure why. I have been busy enough, just not real focused on doing any writing. As a result, I have a line up of writing that I need to get through. That is my challenge for today — get my damn writing done!

Steemit Ramble Discord Changes

So, during one of @sircork’s Steemizens of Steemit shows a couple of weeks ago, he made one of his offhanded remarks that the Steemit Ramble was about post promotion.

I know this will shock you, as I never do this (rolled eyes), I took him to task about it. The Steemit Ramble is about networking and people getting to know each other and supporting each other I asserted to him.

He latched onto the fact that people can drop links, especially in the promote-any-post channel and just take off without interaction with others. Even though I have allowed that as a sure, drop and bugger off and I’ll never look there sort of thing. He had a point, that catch all channel does allow people to just mindlessly drop and go.

Cleaning Up the Members List

The Ramble was getting up to almost 800 members at that point, yet other than those who attend Pimp Your Post Thursdays, there wasn’t much in the way of interaction on the server.

So, I sat down one morning and went through every single user who had the most basic role and checked if they were registered on @banjo.

Over 250 received the boot. I’ve had it setup that everyone was supposed to register on @banjo for over a month.

The exception is for those who participate during PYPT. I change their role to PYPT Attendee so they don’t need to worry about registering. They are verified as members of the platform and active in the Ramble. The new role lets them access more of the channels in the server and post their post in a channel just for those who attend PYPT.

I was also delighted to learn that almost 200 people have taken part in Pimp Your Post Thursday. No wonder we have a blast every session.

Figuring Out Who’s Active

Having cleaned up the membership list, I then needed a way to know who was active in order to keep it clean. I found a bot which monitors activity on the server. From now on, if you’ve not been active in 20 days, your role is change by the bot to Inactive and I’ll know to kick.

Changing How People Leave Links

In most of the link drop channels, I’ve implemented a rule that the poster must introduce the post they are leaving the link to. Someone asked if the title and the first few words doesn’t intro the post. Well, in a perfect world, it likely would. In our world, the fact is, it is rare the title and the first few words are enough to want to get a click through.

I encourage everyone to take the time to scan through the intros and take a look at posts which catch your eye. Some people have put some real thought into their intros and really tells us why they think the post deserves a read. Great work.

That work will have an influence on my review of posts for the Steemit Ramble. The links left in the Ramble are a primary source for my attention for curation. Links dropped carelessly or not introduced without any conviction, don’t get much attention.

Implementation Has Been Interesting

People don’t always respond well to change. It takes them time to first notice there is a change and to then decide if they are going to accept that change. I’ve spent the last week or so scanning through the post channels deleting posts without introductions and letting the posters know to read the rules.

I’ve learned many people don’t read beyond the first line. That was a bit of a surprise. Many people have been really great and adjusted their posting habit to include an intro for their posts. Some choose to do the bare minimum which doesn’t communicate much enthusiasm for their work.

Others have chose to repeatedly ignore my notices to to them. Not a problem, repeated ignores earns them revoked access to the channel in question.

I’d rather have an engaged discord of 200 than a disengaged drop zone of 1000.

So, What is This Treasure Hunt?

@dreemsteem has been a regular attendee at PYPT and has become very interested in having increased engagement between users on the platform.

She has created a treasure hunt which will take place during the evening session of Pimp Your Post Thursday tomorrow evening. The evening session starts at 7pm EST or midnight UTC.

It’s a trial run for her to test out the process and promises to be a lot of fun. Who knows what possibilities can come out of this eh?

To get more details on how to take part visit her post here.

If you’ve not participated in Pimp Your Post Thursday, feel free to drop into the Steemit Ramble and get your mic setup to work. Check the pinned messages in the voice-chat-text channel for information how to setup your Push To Talk on discord.

Until Next Time — Just Steem on

If you like this, please follow me and upvote the post.

If you’d like to see the other days I’ve posted, just visit my profile