On June 6th, 2022 I celebrated one year on the Hive Blockchain. The day went by with little fanfare.... although I did receive a @hivebuzz notification late afternoon which announced the occasion and made me smile... I could not believe where the time had gone! For a split second, I considered writing a post about it... but then I figured that those who knew me on the blockchain already knew my story and how blessed I felt to be writing, engaging, and connecting in this wonderful space.

When I first registered in the early summer of 2021, my primary aim was to write regularly... for myself. I figured if I had a space where I could write, somewhere to come where I could lay my thoughts down, let my ideas out, and allow creativity to flow unabated, I might get back into the habit of a passion that has driven me on and off throughout my life, and allow me the opportunity to get back to my long form writing that I had started the year before.

Connecting with Cal and WOTW

3 weeks into my Hive journey, on June 29th, 2021, I connected quite randomly and fortuitously with Cal @calumam. I was exploring Hive, as one does... reading across a wide range of communities and posts, when I came across this post by @calumam which was a couple of years old (hehe I like to go digging...)

!

GRAPHICal | 002

Reading this post and then engaging with it's author changed the course of my journey on Hive... I found someone whose writing spoke to me philosophically, intellectually, and spiritually... it spoke to me also of mindfulness and creativity, and meaningful engagement. Cal's post sparked some inspiration and I wrote a short poem that is close to my heart, albeit that it earned absolutely zero rewards on the platform 🤣

The Lake of Imagination

It changed the way I approached Hive and allowed me simply to let go and write... about the things that had meaning for me and the things that brought me joy. I was able to connect inwards in order to express myself outwards.

One week later on July 6th, 2021 I entered my first POB-WOTW contest (a contest created by @calumam) with another poem: Forever 1942

... and the rest as they say... is history❣️

I have taken part in 20 WOTW contests since I joined the blockchain, missing very few as I adore this contest, the WOTW community, and the team who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to keep it alive namely @caluman, @scholaris, and @nonsowrites. Felix has been an inspiration in the way in which he stepped up this past year to drive the contest forward and ensure its survival, and I think the whole community are incredibly thankful for his generous efforts in this regard.

The development and implementation of the WOTW merit system grading model, together with reading from some quality writers each week, had a positive impact on the quality and development of my own writing, and for that I am grateful.

Sanctuary

In WOTW, I found my first home and family on Hive - a community of like-minded individuals, a sanctuary for my writing, my mind, my heart, my soul. Of course, I have branched out into other communities and writing projects on Hive since then but WOTW will always occupy a special place in my heart, as I enjoy being challenged week in and week out to write at my very best alongside this wonderful community. The word sanctuary will be the first word prompt of the new iteration of dreem-wotw if the community gives us the thumbs up to take this forward.

WOTW on the Precipice

When I heard from Felix a couple of weeks ago that the contest was at serious risk of falling off the cliff into an abyss, due to the overwhelming personal commitments of the current grading team, I determined there and then that

the contest would not die on my watch!

I still wasn't sure how I was going to make that happen... But I trusted that a way would be found.

And so... I have spent a good portion of the last 10 days speaking to various people about how we can take the contest forward from here, and to that end, I now have a proposal for the WOTW community.

I have tagged everyone who has entered the contest in the past 6 months, as well as a few others who entered previously and may still have a vested interest in its future. I would very much appreciate your thoughts on the matter and an indication as to whether you would support this proposal for the continuation of the contest.

Please do make your voice heard in the comments to this post. We need to see your interest in the continuation of this contest and your support for us, in order to progress the proposal 💗

These ideas are a blend of those put forward by myself, @dreemsteem, @scholaris, @wrestlingdesires, and @alekst7, and we are all on the same page as regards the final proposals. I have the support and blessing of both Cal and Felix to take over the contest under the new proposed format, which will be described below.

To be clear from the outset, there is agreement between us that WOTW is just not sustainable or scalable under the existing format as it is too labour-intensive for a small grading team and some changes are required to ensure its continuity.

The Proposal

Grading team

The proposed new grading team who have all expressed a keen interest in being involved, include:

@alekst7 @wrestlingdesires @iskafan @juliamulcahy @samsmith1971

If anyone else is interested in one day becoming part of the grading team, they can simply drop me a message in discord at: SA_Sam1971#1299 to let me know and to be considered, as future needs arise.

The thought is that this team will continue to come up with exceptional words befitting of WOTW and will run the contest initially on a monthly basis, with the possibility of making it a twice-monthly event, if the interest and participation levels warrant it. The grading team would like to see this develop back into a more regularly held contest, to maintain interest and momentum.

Entry requirements

The Dreemport phase

As previously mentioned, the current format is simply not sustainable, especially if the contest were to experience any upward scaling in numbers (which we would love to see!) A small team is not capable of doing all the necessary checks as well as attending to any meaningful grading of all the posts.

As a result, it was felt that it would be best for the contest to fall under the auspices of the Dreemport project and for Dreemport to handle the backend administration of the contest, and to provide the grading team with a shortlist of entries to grade instead.

All WOTW posts would therefore need to be shared in Dreemport on a specific day each month so that they can be short-listed by public voting the following day.

At the end of the 24-hour cycle, the system will provide an official top 5 reader's favourites.

The Grading Phase

The top 5 will then be graded by the WOTW team in line with the current WOTW Merit grading system devised by @caluman and @scholaris. The top 3 graded posts (excluding staff) would become the official winning entries in WOTW and would earn additional prizes. DreemPort staff are able to enter, but will not be ranked along with the public. If they are found to be in the top 5, a special mention prize will be granted.

Where must I post?

Contestants will be allowed to enter WOTW posts created on any platform and within any community (eg; Hive, read.cash, publishOx) - this promotes greater inclusivity and engagement opportunities BUT they will be required to share the URL for their WOTW entry in Dreemport in order to be considered for any of the WOTW placings and prizes. They will therefore need to register on Dreemport, which is a quick and easy process... and the following two articles give a clear idea of the benefits and ease of use of the platform.

How do I use Dreemport? - it's easy!

Building a better name with Dreemport

Which tag should I use?
The new tag to be used for the contest will be dreem-wotw as the token associated with the contest going forward will be the dreem token, and the contest will sit under the Dreemport family umbrella. Other layer 1 and layer 2 tokens may be on offer as prizes to contestants.

The proposal is to run the contest for 3 months, then take the temperature of the community and request some feedback, and then if the community is happy with the way in which the contest is running and wants it to continue, we will continue forward from there.

Previous contestants:
@zyzymena @mrenglish @lightpen @repayme4568 @dwixer @iyimoga @shemzy @nurudeen081
@mcluz @kemmyb @amberkashif @iskafan @alekst7 @wrestlingdesires @juliamulcahy @ayesha-malik @b0s @abdul-qudus @mineopoly @doziekash @marinast @iamchuks @doubleworld @ajorundon @cool08 @jesustiano @davidbright @funshee @filipz @chidubem26 @ghost.queen @kenechukwu97 @erh.germany @carlynn @joygiver @firstborn.pob @joseph23 @corporateay @abigail04 @oscarpower55 @ajanaku @liftslikealady @ladytitan @aimee.tariq @diebitch @kevinnag58 @chincoculbert @bobthebuilder2 @fragozar01 @savagetobi @flexyg @vikbuddy @timmypat @huang-hsin @sam108 @psalm111 @iamhafix @maoyagi @famimora @morenow @trucklife-family @flamistan @cristina-zac @johnbenn @popmanj @lordemmy @princessbusayo @sugandhaseth @wiseagent @adetuyinks @pthker2010 @brigdee @minahar @houseofdavid @mmykel @hranhuk @melbourneswest @lagosfirstborn @blezyn @weesleytv @young-boss-karin @ijohnsen @actioncats @teknon @sofs-su @d-pend @wongi @akinwumi294 @memeisfun @kuze6051 @edystringz @katerinhernandez @josediccus @thomashnblum

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Header image created using image by D-Keine from Canva pro library

Lake of IMagination by Calumam - NFT owned by me.

Photo banner used with permission of @dreemsteem and @dreemport

Dreemport banner used with permission of @dreemsteem and @dreemport and designed by @jimramones