Falling In Love With Steem All Over Again...And this time...It's Personal!
I love engagement and I love community!
Recently I took a blockchain sabbatical and went AWOL for a short while although in real life time measurement it was a short while in blockchain time measurement it seemed like an age...Seriously, time here is like frickin' dog years
Don't misconstrue my following comments I don't eat, smoke or ingest FUD in any way shape or form...My decisions are all based on reasoning, rational thought, facts, stats and in short, my opinions are all formed deliberately. But boy oh boy, has it been a bit miserable around these parts of late!
I read a lot of posts that suggest somehow that as a community, blockchain and decentralised entity we are dying! Upon my return I noticed that engagement on some pretty amazing posts had dropped significantly...Hmmm...Ponders if the price may have any correlation to this dismal development?
I myself started to feel a little despondent...As I said above not because I buy into it all, but because of the lack of engagement...You see the rewards are great...Writing is cathartic and often-times fun...Sometimes I feel as though a weight has been lifted when I write about some burning issue that has been bugging me and cluttering up valuable head-space, BUT...
Without comments, true engagement and a narrative/discourse about that which we have written...It can all feel a little underwhelming...Almost as though community-members are just going through the motions and clicking that up-vote button without actually consuming our posts, pondering them...I would rather be told in the comment section that I was wrong, misguided or indeed a terrible writer than feel invisible!
I am becoming a walking cliche with my overly-excessive use of the words community and toiling in obscurity of late BUT Come-on...I'm right...I know I am, I feel it with every fibre of my being...True, critical, heartfelt engagement is the way to become a far stronger community, right?
Without being a far stronger community, how can we ever even get close to mass adoption?
If I am wrong, please tell me...No really...Pleeease take a moment to comment.
What do I propose to be the solution? Simple, conduct yourself on the blockchain like Steem is at $10...If Steem was at $10 you can bet your bottom Steem backed dollar that engagement and posting would be at all time highs and the lofty days of the giddy blockchain highs would return...BUT...
If we act like it, maybe it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy!
I do not claim to have all the answers, not by a long way, but what I DO know is that if we all operated here with optimism, heart and integrity and hold ourselves to a far higher standard than many currently do we would have a stronger more resilient community and can you envisage any instance when that would be anything but a massive win???
Take note before the following paragraphs that my break from the platform was never about crypto price, or drop-off in engagement or blockchain disillusionment in any way shape or form, it was very much real life induced and involved the culmination of some family matters that came to a head.
When I returned after about 2 months, ((which felt like being lost in the desert for 7 years)) as I mentioned earlier the change here was palpable, as though there was a tangible cloud hanging over the platform...
I hopped into my favourite Discord/Steemit servers to chat with the friends I had not spoken to in a while and they confirmed my worst fears...Well established communities and niches had become extremely quiet like some of the heart had disappeared. One close friend of mine actually told me he was sitting it out until the price and the people came back and started to rock the blockchain again. We talked about it and I asked if he did not think it was our job to help that process along and keep things rolling and thankfully he agreed and a great guy is still kicking it on the platform.
What is the point of all this incessant rambling you ask dear reader?
Oh that's easy to answer...I choose optimism and love for the community...I choose engagement and rewarding the work of others, financially the reward would be pathetic...But what i can do is help others feel as though they do not toil in obscurity they will know that someone read their post and took some value from it and they will get a stevenwood-style-kickass-comment ((oops...I'm referring to myself in that cringey third person style again. 😁))
Please don't think I am missing the obvious here...Silently seething as you read my words that awaken the venom within you Of-course I know there are many who keep this flame burning brightly everyday, the custodians of the platform, without whom all really would be dust! Those that never stopped believing, those who see that blockchains will soon be to the internet, what the internet was to those who visited the library to garner information.
You are the people! Kudos to each and every one of you from the platform as a whole and from the future community that will reap the rewards from the principles that you have set out for others to aspire to.
My plan moving forward is to comment like a lunatic and create discourse and dialogue everywhere I see a glimmer of life within this wonderful community. To those who do believe that the platform is dead and cannot see true engagement anywhere, seek it out, there are wonderful, vibrant sub-communities within the Steem community and if it's not vibrant in your particular niche then go out and start it, that is my challenge to you.
Rather than wait for mass engagement to come back when the price of Steem rises again, go start it and maybe play a part in raising the price through activity. Become a self fulfilling prophecy of community spirited awesomeness.
There may be some newer people here who don't know where the action is on Steemit, so I would ask you to comment and tell them about wonderful communities here that they can get involved with.
I'm gonna start the ball rolling on this one...
If you are new and have a desire to start your journey in the right way or established but looking for vibrant lively communities to engage with, then check out some of the following:
@Yougotsnekked This is manual curation project that is run by the beautiful soul that is @poeticsnake and her merry band of curators...In the interests of transparency I should mention that I am one...Manual curation is amazing and brings some exposure to those who might otherwise be overlooked. This is a community that I will forever be involved with as I love EVERYTHING that it stands for...It doesn't even have a self-promotion link-drop channel instead it has a share the love channel where you can promote another's work...To those of you familiar with Discord you will realise just how beautiful and revolutionary this is.
Check out the most recent edition here
@asapers This is a community run by @insideoutlet and @shai-hulud but they have an awesome team behind them including the oh-so-fabulous lovely writer-Lady @viking-ventures they too run a periodical curation project featuring some fabulous posts that want nothing from life than a little more love, and who doesn't? Check out the brand new edition and show a little community-love to some posts that should not be allowed to slip under the radar.
If you are not familiar with @curie...You should be!!! You will learn quickly that withing the community it is one of the most aspired to ways to be curated...An @curie vote is an esteemed curation project that rewards users with a sizable upvote but more importantly @curie curated posts you will find the interaction and engagement you need to become an active and highly engaged Steemian...Right now @curie have a comment contest running which I really think you should check out...here This could be the missing piece that will propel your journey forward at an exponential rate!
Fancy a delegation for a while, maybe a steem prize too??? Who wouldn't?...Just imagine how that could move you forward to the Steem-Hall of awesomesauce? The easiest way I know of is to enter the comment contest run by @danielsaori check out the latest one here There is a contest just ended and the post I linked is actually the winners announcement post, but take a look at the details and the prizes and follow this awesometastical community-Legend and make sure that you are in on the next one!
Have you heard of or stumbled across @simplymike? If the answer is no, I seriously gotta ask if you are living under a rock 😯 I am talking about a 100% bona fide community minded power-house...If there is a contest going on to promote a newbie, a new way for plankton, minnows and redfish to grow this is where you will find out about it anybody who is on Discord will know that this lovely Lady is involved with so, so many things all at once sheesh I have no idea where she gets the energy from and if ya really wanna take things to the next level check out https://mysteemworld.com/ Here you will find out just what you didn't know you didn't know about what is really available to help you pilot your very own Steem-Rocket to the moon!
Meet @abh12345. So I cannot possibly help you to understand just how to increase engagement and have a vibrant, energetic time on the blockchain without introducing you to The curation and engagement league What's that you ask, Dear reader...Oh yes my friend, there IS a league! This cool guy with help from a thriving community quite literally ROCK THE BLOCKCHAIN! The linked post is an old one as there was a 1 week break for Steemfest, but it contains all the details that you need to know, follow Ash and look for his posts on the league and it is super-easy to become involved, you just need to leave 1 single, solitary comment on his post to be included ((If you find the idea of writing a comment daunting, the league may not be for you 😁 ))
I am conscious that, as ever I have droned on for far too long and yes...I do see those matchsticks propping your eyes open. So I shall leave it to you in the comments to share the links for many other thriving areas of the blockchain where people really understand, engagement and community. If you are here because you have been finding it a struggle or some guy on a forum told you Steem is dead, you will see that is simply not the case. Use the links to the communities above if you genuinely want to get engaged ((no not like that...This isn't a bloody dating site! 😁 ))
There are many, many more amazing curation initiatives out there...Empowering communities, under-entered contests, contests with some surprisingly awesome prizes and a mountain of Discord servers that can help you move forward and find your area to get active in. Obviously I cannot sit here and write forever and ever sharing link after link although I have been contemplating making this post twice as long, but what is the chance of going so far that nobody could ever finish reading it? So please as I said, do share those links to the cool-peeps on the platform, those who actually care. For without those people we would all be doomed.
