Steemit: How to help "minnows" and keep the content flowing....?

in #steemit7 years ago

I just read an interesting post by @cryptoeater Creating a New Curation System to Incentivise Upvoting Minnows and Creating Long Lasting Content

I'm a total nube at this and new on Steemit and to be perfectly frank, most of this stuff about "Curation" and "Reputation" goes completely over my head. So I am certainly not going to flex my ignorance by commenting either for or against anything that Cryptoeater outlined in this proposal. I want to focus on the macro, instead of dissecting the micro- taking a good look at the problem itself without getting lost in the nitty gritty.

When I joined Steemit (properly, about 4 weeks ago), I was lucky to get a boost up by my friend @aggroed. When I came over, I brought more than 60 #unfuckers with me. I've been trying to help them all out, to resteem and upvote them to help them get views and get their Steem legs firmly planted... and yet my own posts get very few views, so my own "power" to help others is hugely limited.

This is a major problem, and in my opinion, a major stumbling block to KEEPING good content going, and feeding into Steemit. It's very easy for the "minnows" to get downtrodden and disappointed when they cant' get more that 2 or 3 views on any of their posts- regardless of the topic/content, and they can't get enough power behind them to be able to contribute more to #Steem. My group of #unfuckers has huge content/value to add to the Steem community, yet already I'm watching some of them turn away from Steem because they see it as Mission Impossible to get anywhere themselves, or to be able to help other UnFuckers and Newbies on Steemit.

And this isn't just about my own group. I've been trying to help a lot of minnows that are climbing into Steemit from Nations like #Nigeria, and #Venezuela because these people absolutely NEED our help- not just to be seen, but to be able to live and EAT. THIS is what Steemit is about to me:

__ A community working together to help itself grow, and to help those who NEED help to get a leg up and to be able to prosper.__

Herein lays the conundrum: If the only people who keep battling away at this, are the ones solely interested in making money for themselves.... then the content will absolutely reflect that, and the upvotes and membership will dwindle away. Most of the best content to be found on ANY social media/platform is the content that is from the heart and driven by passion and will power. When the passionate ones get beaten down and disheartened because they cannot get their message across to anyone.... then they will leave. Period. They will return to Facebook, and twitter and instagram or a myriad of other social media platforms, where it's EASIER to be heard and seen.... even if that means walking away from the "money", because that is what drives people to write from the heart and to share their knowledge and passion: the ability to SHARE IT. The ability to exchange ideas and to discuss perspectives.

WE ALL NEED MONEY- yep I get that. I've been a "starving" independent journalist for years and years... and yea, it's one of the reasons I jumped onto Steemit, 'cause hell yea, I'd like to make a buck or two doing what I love!! But that's not the "driving" reason for being here.....

The bottom line is that any platform is only as strong as its weakest bit. And right now, it seems like the weakest bits are floundering.

...Just sayin'

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Yeah. When I started to look more deeply in how steempower, upvoting etc. works. It has kinda danger to turn into ass kissing platform where people try to please whales for higher upvotes, but this is still young system so there is time to do fixes and adjustments.

And Diaspora like tagsystem would be nice where you can choose your favorite tags and everything withing those tag appear your homefeed.

hi d,your right on the "money" lol.it is so disheartening when you ve put your all in to a post and get 3 views.I think as a group or whole you have to get as much back as your giving,if that makes sense.Use say, the #unfucker and everyone excepted in the group and participate well,gets looked after by each other.Im sure you will grow on here.It does take time for soom to get really noticed but you seem to be doing really well.

thanx darlin :D
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It's really hard in the beginning as you... don't have any voting power, you don't have any followers, you haven't gained community's trust yet, you don't really know how it all works,you can see others making ridiculous amounts of steem by posting few pics taken from the web or copying news from the big outlets while you're being torn between jumping on the bandwagon or contributing quality content... and last but not least 95% of trending articles are by whales or wealthy dolphins, who've been here for a while, and getting upvotes for them is as easy as brushing your teeth is for you.

But I have to say that I really love this platform! However, it's not that easy to work your way up from the bottom, is it? Still I believe that if you have something valuable to add, you're gonna come through sooner or later. You have to help yourself though, no doubt about it!

Thank you for sharing this! you are describing exactly what happened here today. i did shoot a very nice picture this morning and shared it on facebook - my boyfriend said "hey you shared it on the wrong platform" and i answered " but that's the platform where somebody sees it" .....
I'm very new here and i understand that one have to build up a tribe and make friends and i'm not seeing clearly how to do it but i'm on my way to understand more and more about steemit and this community and i will see in the future if i'm getting through or if i still post on facebook ;)

exactly!! you shared it where you KNEW it would be seen an appreciated. I completely comprehend that!

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I'm lucky I always find my tribe... no problem at all LOL But for someone who comes here with generic ideas it might pose a serious obstacle. If I were you I'd find that strong point first... purely content-wise. And then you're gonna have to test it. If it works, great! If it doesn't, then back to the square one :) Good luck!

Thank you for your advice . That's what i thought - you nailed it with "the strong point" but until i find it, i'll test around and post some stuff without wondering the missing feedback ;)

Nice post!

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by daniRTS from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.

If you buy some delegation (It doesn't cost much SBD) your vote will count more and help more.

Consider staring your own chat group where they can hang out and support each other with upvotes and success and fail stories

Can you help this minnow by answering my questions about curation?
Maybe you learned it in the past 2 days
https://steemit.com/contest/@crypto-econom1st/contest-answer-curation-questions-2-0-1-sbd-reward