Community Celebration: STEMsocial Community

Alright I hear this thing is pretty popular from @guiltyparties, so I'm giving it a go.

I have to say, my favourite community is pretty obvious: STEMsocial. As one of the two... managers? leaders? I wouldn't have it any other way. But I'm not just saying it for some self-serving promotion, I truly thing this place is a fantastic home for so many like-minded individuals around the world. So, where did it begin, for me?

Amazing video by @gtg... (music by me)

My history in STEMsocial

I'll keep it short. Many years ago now, I was invited I believe by @suesa into SteemSTEM, what later became STEMsocial. I offered to be a humble curator and seemingly did the job well enough that I was promoted to the management team which, at the time consisted of 5 people including @lemouth

5 people for a small community was apparently too cumbersome, as decisions started getting complex and hard to agree on due to differing political ideologies and time constraints among other things, and the others went their separate ways leaving the founder, @lemouth and I steering the wheel.

An appreciation of longevity

It's important for me to confess (though everybody knows) that @lemouth has been the primary driver of this ship, as he is exceptionally skilled in blockchain development, python, html and all that foreign language stuff I only ever have casual knowledge in. He also has an uncomfortable ability to balance innumerable tasks alongside his real life and real career, magically fitting it all into a 24 hour day (though most of us suspect his time at CERN awarded him certain space-time privileges that might explain this ability).

Through Crypto and blockchain's history in general, as well as Steem & Hive's evolution/devolution, STEMsocial has been a consistent existence, whether in high-activity mode where we had a dozen mentors and honor members, curators and sub-communities in 7 or 8 languages, or in cruise-control mode where we only see 1 or 2 posts a day. We never left this chain, and we never shut down.

This can largely be thanks to one of our star curators, @gentleshaid who has never ceased to keep curation up to date through rain and shine, with others such as @iamphysical and @carloserp-2000 holding the fort in Spanish. To be honest there are too many people to give credit for - and that's what makes STEMsocial such a stellar place!

Who is STEMsocial for?

Although we have never been involved in any scandal, and as far as I know we are one of the most respected and rigorous curation groups on this platform, there have in the past been accusations that we are a 'circle-jerk' or an 'elitist' group. Neither of these are even remotely true, and I can prove it:

I'm not a qualified scientist. I teach high school music. I am deeply, deeply curious about the world around me, it is my second passion in life, and that's really the only qualification anybody needs. I guess being a leader of a sort, I am the embodiment of that fact.

We also inspire the artists in the world to do things like this by @porkjelly! And Many more entering the latest LMAC challenge seen here

The claims of elitism and such (tbh I haven't heard any such thing for a few years now) came from the unfortunate fact that we are very rigorous with our curation process. For a time we were by far the most strict when it came to enforcement of copyright violations, plagiarism and so forth. These days I think Hive has matured that most places follow this route too where necessary which is wonderful to see.

This meant that conspiracy theorists, flat-earthers and the like couldn't get our support simply because they couldn't properly back up their claims according to our standards, something that really pissed them off!

But for those who are like me and truly care about the natural world in all its forms: physics, chemistry, biology, history, mathematics, engineering - nobody on this earth is unwelcome, writer or just a socialite wanting to chill out in our Discord!

This means that typically, our authors ARE generally scientists of great stature; physicists, psychologists, botanists, medics, engineers, mathematicians and beyond. But nobody is above or below anybody else; it's the most chill, inclusive place on the internet, as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway I think that's all I have to say. @gentleshaid also wrote a great post giving you some insight to how we work, some cool links, some cool hints on how to do things, and some cool folk to follow in the community!