For the month of August I was lucky enough to take a turn at Curating as a Guest on Ecency and a few days ago I formally finished up my responsibilities. I thought it was worth writing about my experience because I learned a few things about the Ecency Project and I am very grateful for the opportunity they gave me to have a peek behind the curtain so I could see how the curation team works. In short, I was impressed - but please allow me to embellish a little...
One of the things I was initially frustrated with when I first started Posting and Boosting my content through Ecency was the fact that some of my content would be Boosted and other content would be Refunded. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing right or wrong. Having now talked to a few people about things I came to realise that this can be a common frustration. Now that I understand the way the curation team works a bit better I think the best way that I can help alleviate some of that frustration that others might face is to try and explain what is going on.
The main voting account of @ecency has over 1.2 million HIVE Power and while that seems like it’s a LOT, there are a LOT of people on Ecency requesting Boosts and that massive HIVE Power can only go so far. I did some analysis early in August and realised that only about half of the Boost Requests are successful. The curation team tries to keep the Voting Power of the @ecency account at, or above, the 80% mark and so with the HIVE Price where it is and the minimum Boost sitting at $1 USD there just isn’t enough power to go around. There is a team of around 10 curators that work through a constant stream of Boost requests and they effectively try to ration the voting power a bit to be fair and curate the best content but sometimes there is just too much. There are a number of things that curators look at that can help your chances if you are requesting a Boost for yourself, or another.
1. Produce Original Content – This goes without saying, but I’ve deliberately used the term Original instead of Quality here because it’s really about effort. Short posts with a few random pictures or Contests with lots of regurgitated text tend to miss out. But if you’re making a genuine effort, regardless of the topic, style or even language of your post, you’ve got a good chance of getting Boosted.
2. Post Age – The way curation rewards work on HIVE it’s best to get your votes in the first 24 hours to maximise those curation rewards and this is one of the important sources of funding for Ecency. That means it’s best to Boost posts that are very fresh. Sometimes the curation team can lag by 12 or 18 hours behind the Boost requests so if the post is more than 24 hours old by the time they get to it then you are probably going to miss out. The early bird gets the worm so always Boost early!
3. Points Used – Especially if the Voting Power on the @ecency account is around that 80% mark it is best to only use 150 points to Boost your posts. The team is trying to spread the love as far as it can and if a Boost has 300 or 500 points on it that means supporting it will result in 2 or 3 others missing out. So even if you’re producing a masterpiece, its best not to be too greedy and just Boost with 150 if the Voting Power is around that 80% mark.
4. Artificial Intelligence – This also should go without saying. Don’t use AI to write your post because Ecency has some automatic AI detection in place. It can sometimes pick up translated language too so it’s wise to be careful with translaters. The curation team is aware of this but I think it’s best to post in your native language and put a translation in below if you want to post in another language so that the curation team can clearly see it’s a bi-lingual post.
5. Use Ecency to Post – One of the things that I think is great about Ecency (because it shows their integrity) is that they will Boost content that wasn’t originated from the Ecency front end website. However, when the Voting Power gets tight around that 80% mark and a curator is hovering over your post trying to decide….having your post created through Ecency can just tip the scales slightly in your favour and get an otherwise borderline Boost request approved. Ecency is such a great project and the front end is pretty damned good, so I don’t think it’s a big ask to be using ecency.com to post. Give it a try if you haven’t already.
So, in conclusion. I am finished up as a Curator with Ecency but I am still going to be using Ecency to post and Boost my own and others content. Ecency has won me over and so I have no shame shilling for them if and whenever it’s appropriate. I think Ecency is a great project with a great team behind it. Good luck if you’re requesting a Boost and please remember to be patient, persistent and kind if you miss out from time to time.